Tao Zeru Movies
In this low-key drama from China, Lai Shuang Yang (Tao Hong) is a single woman in her mid-thirties who runs a small restaurant in Chongqing. Shuang Yang's cool and confident demeanor masks the fact that she's become an emotional wreck. After the death of her mother, Shuang Yang raised her younger brother Jiujiu, only to see him fall into drug addiction. Mei (Yang Yi), Shuang Yang's assistant at the restaurant, has fallen into a deep depression over Jiujiu's addiction, and has attempted suicide. Shuang Yang's sister-in-law, Xiaojin (Pan Yueming), has little interest in her son Duo'er and usually leaves him with Shuang Yang, who developed a close attachment with the boy when she wet-nursed him after he was born. And there's talk that a redevelopment project will close down the market district where Shuang Yang has her restaurant, forcing her to either move or close down. In the midst of all this, Zhuo Xiongzhou (Tao Zeru), a middle-aged businessman who has been quietly dining at Shuang Yang's restaurant for over a year, finally works up the nerve to talk to her, and after going out for a drink with him, she finds herself pondering the prospect of a romantic relationship for the first time in years. As she juggles work and her personal crises with her new love life, Shuang Yang also takes steps toward reclaiming a house that her family lost during the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. Shenghuo Xiu received its North American premier at the 2002 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
When a doctor arrives in 1930's Shanghai to care for an ailing man, he becomes involved in a fierce struggle between the Nationalists and Communists. With romantic entrapments befalling him and a country on the brink of a revolution, the doctor may not be able to hide the past that he is running from. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
This very commercial Chinese action drama is based on a popular novel Storm on the Tong River by Sima Wensen. In the story, set in Fujian province in the 1930s, the area suffers from the chaos brought from three rival gangs as they compete for control of the region. The nationalist government has sent someone from Beijing to sort things out: instead, he has joined one of the gangs, hoping to help it wipe out the others. A communist man returns from a stay overseas, only to find that his father hopelessly addicted to opium, and that his wife has given birth to another man's child. All sorts of intrigues and complex subplots swirl throughout the film, as the battles rage. This film has a sequel titled Yingyang Jie, or Realm Between the Living and the Dead. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1987
The kinds of crimes that, in Europe or America, would earn a perpetrator a modest jail sentence, a fine, or simply a family reprimand, earn the individuals in this Chinese film long terms of incarceration in very remote prison labor-reform camps. One woman is guilty of prostitution, a boy is guilty of not wanting to work hard enough, and so on. In the story, a group of travelers who are on their way to visit their imprisoned relatives join forces on the road. This is a social message film, which drives home the idea that the effects of even minor crimes ripple out to the entire society, striking the families of the malefactors and their victims first. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, Evening Bell is set during World War II. A tiny unit of Chinese soldiers has bottled up a larger group of Japanese fighters. The Chinese have the advantage, and hope to persuade the Japanese to surrender. This is not to be, thus the film becomes a tense nine-reel standoff. Produced by the official studio of the Chinese Army, Evening Bell was originally released as Wa Zhong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tao Zeru, Liu Ruolei, (more)
- 1984
It is 1939, and the Red Army is deeply engaged in the war against the Japanese, which for the communist Chinese has been going on for many years. Though they are ostensibly allies, the Kuomintang armies under Chiang Kai-shek have done very little to oppose the invaders, so the battle is theirs. In this story, nine men are being held prisoner by the army along the front lines. Three of them are ordinary "honest" thieves, one was caught spying, another poisoning, the third was accused of collaborating with the enemy because he alone survived when his unit was wiped out and the remaining three deserted from their units. During a battle, when almost every one of the regular soldiers is killed, it is up to these prisoners to fight to help the army, or die. Led by the accused collaborator, they acquit themselves with great bravery. This was the first film production of the Guanxi Film Studio in Naning, China, pre-dating the (1983) production Yellow Earth by some time; however official objections to portions of the storyline and consequent re-shooting and re-editing resulted in it not being released until 1987. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lu Xiaoyan
