Huang Jianxin Movies
- 2008
- R
Love, politics, and loyalty threaten to tear apart three soldiers in this lavish historical epic from Hong Kong. In 1870, the power of the corrupt Qing Dynasty has been threatened by the rise of a revolutionary army, led by religious fanatics, and civil war is tearing the nation apart. Pang Qingyun (Jet Li), a good man who finds himself fighting for the Qing leadership, is one of the only survivors of a bloody battle in between revolutionaries and Qing troops, and is looking for someplace to go when he's offered shelter by a beautiful peasant woman, Lian (Xu Jinglei). Pang and Lian spend the night in each others arms, and he finds himself falling in love with her. Pang sets out to make his way home when he's befriended by Zhao Erhu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a pair of bandits. When Jiang is attacked in an ambush, Pang helps save his life, and the three men become blood brothers in a gory ritual. Pang convinces Jiang and Zhao to join him in the fight against the revolutionaries, and with their help Pang is able to achieve some impressive victories. However, when Pang allows his own ego and dreams of glory to override his common sense and loyalty, Zhao and Jiang come to distrust their ally, and matters become worse when it is revealed that Lian is Zhao's wife. Tou Ming Zhuang (aka The Warlords) was a major box-office success in China and Eastern Asia before making its way to theaters in Europe and the United States. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
A love grows between two people in a place where compassion is in short supply in this historical drama. Born in Japan, Liu Lang (Kiichi Nakai) has spent most of his life in China, and even though it's his home, he doesn't always feel as if he belongs. One day in 1914, Liu gets in a fight with a man who has spoken ill of his wife; Liu loses control of himself and seriously injures the man, leading to his arrest. Liu is sentenced to life in prison for his crime, and behind bars he strikes up a cautious friendship with Liang (Guo Tao), a strong-tempered criminal who is also serving a life sentence. Liu happens to see a woman named Zhou Hong (Miao Pu) is who serving time in the women's wing of the prison, and he senses a kinship with her. Liu learns that Zhou was found guilty of killing her husband who repeatedly beat her, and while they have little opportunity to speak, through glances and chance meetings the two develop a strong affection for one another. Over the decades, the love between Liu and Zhou helps them survive life in lockup, while the political and social landscape of China changes dramatically outside the walls of the penitentiary. Huangfeng (aka Crossing Over) was the opening night feature at the 2007 Tokyo Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2008
- PG13
- Add The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to QueueAdd The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor to top of Queue
The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen continues the tale set into motion by director Stephen Sommers with this globe-trotting adventure that finds explorer Rick O'Connell and son attempting to thwart a resurrected emperor's (Jet Li) plan to enslave the entire human race. It's been 2,000 years since China's merciless Emperor Han and his formidable army were entombed in terra cotta clay by a double-dealing sorceress (Michelle Yeoh), but now, after centuries in suspended animation, an ancient curse is about to be broken. Thanks to his childhood adventures alongside father Rick (Brendan Fraser) and mother Evelyn (Maria Bello), dashing young archeologist Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) is more than familiar with the power of the supernatural. After he is tricked into awakening the dreaded emperor from his eternal slumber, however, the frightened young adventurer is forced to seek out the wisdom of his parents -- both of whom have had their fair share of experience battling the legions of the undead. Should the fierce monarch prove capable of awakening his powerful terra cotta army, his diabolical plan for world domination will finally be set into motion. Of course, the one factor that this emperor mummy failed to consider while solidifying his power-mad plans was the O'Connells, and before this battle is over, the monstrous monarch will be forced to contend with the one family that isn't frightened by a few rickety reanimated corpses. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, (more)
A lone hero comes to the rescue of a village about to be overrun by a marauding army in this historical epic from Hong Kong. In the year 370 B.C., China has been torn apart by a handful of warring factions, and the Zhao State has set out on a long march to invade and conquer the Yan State. En route, the ten thousand-strong Zhao army will pass through the town of Liang City, home to four thousand souls. Led by Lord Liang (Wang Zhiwen), an ineffectual and alcoholic leader, the people of Liang City fear the worse, and beg the warriors of the Mozi clan to come to their aid in protecting the city. As Zhao general Xiang Yanzhong (Ahn Sung-ki) and his men loom on the horizon, a single Mozi fighter, Ge Li (Andy Lau), arrives in Liang City; while the townspeople are certain the battle is already lost, Li is a brilliant strategist, and convinces the handful of Liang soldiers that they can indeed fend off the Zhao invaders. With the help of Liang cavalry woman Yi Yue (Fan Bingbing) and Zi Tuan (Nicky Wu), a master of the bow and arrow, Li is able to fight the Zhao soldiers to a standstill; however, Lord Liang is humiliated by the success of the interloper, and his right-hand man (Wu Ma) plants seeds of doubt in the villagers' minds about their new champion. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andy Lau, Ahn Sung-ki, (more)
Jackie Chan's son,Jaycee Chan, makes his second big screen appearance, this one opposite neophyte Asian starlet Fiona Sit, in the cross-class romance 2 Young (Cho Suk), authored by Derek Yee. The film -- Yee's sophomore effort -- is a light melodrama charting the emotional textures and ramifications of a love affair between 18-year-old underachiever Fu (Chan) and 16-year-old Nam (Sit). Fu belongs to a lower economic bracket than his paramour, but nothing could matter less to the two lovers, and when her parents head out of town on a Christmas holiday, she becomes expectant. When mom and dad go through the roof, Fu and Nam pull a Paul and Michelle by eloping and setting up house together. Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, and Teresa Mo co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jaycee Fong, Fiona Sit, (more)
The beauty and tragedies of China's history are reflected in the lives of a handful of film fans in this historical drama. Mao Dabing (Xia Yu) is a delivery man working in a small village in rural China during the latter days of the Cultural Revolution. Mao is a movie fan who lives for the periodic outdoor screenings held in the town square, but he meets a bigger buff one day when, after he has an accident on his bicycle, he's assaulted by Ling-Ling (Qi Zhongyang), a cute but overly excitable young woman. After she's arrested, Ling-Ling gives the keys to her apartment to Mao and asks him to look after her fish while she's in jail; though puzzled, he agrees, and discovers her flat is a veritable museum of movie memorabilia. Ling-Ling's favorite star is Zhou Xuan, a singer and actress who was a major screen idol in the 1930s and inspired Ling-Ling to take a stab at acting, and when Mao's curiosity gets the better of him he starts reading Ling-Ling's diary, discovering she grew up believing her father was a major male star of the era. However, the truth is far less glamorous -- Ling-Ling's mother, Jiang Xuehua (Jiang Yihong), was an attractive and talented woman who bore a striking resemblance to Zhou Xuan and had a budding career in radio until she became pregnant and her lover left her rather than marry her. Declared a counter-revolutionary, Jiang's career in radio comes to an end, and she moves to a small rural town where she strikes up a relationship with Pan (Li Haibin), who runs the projector at the local movie house. Jiang and Pan are happy together and eventually marry, but when they have a son, Ling-Ling finds she's no longer the center of attention in the household, and her life begins taking an unexpected turn. Electric Shadows (aka Meng Ying Tong Nian) was the first feature film from director Xiao Jiang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jiang Yihong, Xia Yu, (more)
Sun Zhou's stylized Zhou Yu de Huoche (Zhou Yu's Train) is the story of a woman in love. Zhou Yu (Gong Li) and teacher Chen Ching (Tony Leung Kar-Fai) fall in love. After Ching gives Zhou a poem he wrote for her, she begins taking a train ride twice a week to his home in order to have sex with him. During her time on the train, she strikes up a relationship with a veterinarian (Sun Honglei), but she ends their time together when she learns that he spied on her during one of her visits with Ching. Gong Li has a second role as a another woman obsessed with Chen who is trying to ascertain the nature of his relationship with Zhou. This film was shown out of competition at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gong Li, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
- 2000
Hong Kong director Teddy Chen follows up on his hit Downtown Torpedoes (1997) with this breathless action flick that recalls the South Korean mega hit Swiri (1999). Just as Hong Kong's new airport is set to open, a band of terrorists strike a Korean cargo ship, but they leave behind three encoded computer discs and Todd Nguyen (Daniel Wu), an American-educated Cambodian-Chinese man who has complete amnesia. Anti-terrorist cop Ma Li (Emil Chow) and psychiatrist Shirley Kwan (Joan Chen, whose voice is dubbed into Cantonese) struggle to turn Todd against his comrades and to wrest the secrets from his blanked memory. Meanwhile, Soong (Kam Kwok-leung), the crazed leader of the terrorist group, and his sexy sidekick Guan Ai (Josie Ho), plot to unleash a deadly chemical weapon somewhere in Hong Kong. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Wu, Kwok-Leung Gan, (more)
- 1998
Realistic, low key and gritty, this Chinese police drama follows an honest maverick cop as he embarks on a fruitless quest for honor and justice in the face of massive departmental corruption. Wu Jitang (Sun Min) works hard, has many years of experience, and is scrupulously honest, but due to past mistakes he has become a pariah in his department with no chance of promotion. Still, the dogged Wu continues his work, if for no other reason than to support his much-loved wife and lovely 12-year-old daughter. He does his best to ignore the blatant instances of graft and the misuse of police funds that he daily observes. Life for Wu becomes almost unbearable when during a business trip out of town, a neighboring teen rapes his daughter. Upon his return, Wu's superiors force him to head the investigation. The more information Wu unearths, the greater the pressure he feels. Unable to stand any more, Wu makes a fateful decision that will change his life and that of those around him forever. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sun Min, Lin Fengxu, (more)
- 1997
Hailed by the Chinese government as one of the ten best films of the 1996-97 season, this irony-laced light drama is based on a novel by Fang Fang, and begins with the brutal slaying and robbery of a dock worker's family. The city assigns one of its best detectives, Yan Gao to find "the Wise One," the crime lord behind the murders. To do this, Yan sets up a series of surveillance sights around the city. When port guard Ye learns that he and his supervisor have been chosen to monitor one of the Wise One's main hideouts, he is delighted. It is the most exciting thing to have happened to him in years. But problems come because he must work nights and is sworn to secrecy. His girlfriend Bai Lin misinterprets his absences and this causes trouble. More trouble comes when her old lover shows up. Matters are made worse when a message for Ye and Tian to stop their surveillance does not get through. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Off-beat and comical, this whimsical Chinese tale is set towards the end of the Ching dynasty in a dusty northwestern village comprised of criminals and social outcasts. The government sends the people there to keep them away from prosperous law-abiding citizens. The governor of the area, uses his citizenry for his own gain. The fun begins when two youths head for a neighboring town to pilfer exam papers. While there, they steal two gold nuggets believed to have belonged to the legendary bandit Miao San-shun. Not wanting a row, the governor launches a cover-up. He then begins searching for Miao who is said to still live somewhere in the area. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
This is the final entry in Chinese filmmaker Huang Jian Xin's trilogy of social satires. Like its predecessors Stand Up, Don't Bend Over (1993) and Back to Back, Face to Face (1994), Signal Left, Turn Right offers a gentle (at least, enough to keep the censors at bay) but razor-sharp look at the foibles of those who comprise contemporary Chinese society. The story is set at a Chinese driving school and follows five disparate students and their stern teacher on the road to owning a coveted driver's license. There are few such schools in China and those that do exist are generally run by the military. This school, with "Developing Skilled Drivers for the Nation" as its motto is owned by Li, an army officer and run by staunch Party member Hou, who also works as the school's sole teacher. His class is comprised is the capitalistic and newly wealthy Chai; pretty Cheng Fen, who wants to drive a taxi; long-haired and rebellious and drug addicted young man Mung Bean and finally the class latecomer Yang Wei, an arrogant intellectual from Beijing University. All of the characters and the ways in which they deal with their lessons are deliberately designed (but not unrealistic) stereotypes who represent different factions of contemporary Chinese society. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
After rescuing his bride-to-be (Wang Lan) from bandits in the northwest of China in the 1920s, the groom expires before the wedding. Despite that, the bride is reluctantly accepted as a worthy virgin and is ritually married to the dead boy's wooden effigy. However, her stern and heartless mother-in-law (Wang Yumei) is determined that her son's memory will be honored in the way she thinks best: for the son's fiancee never to know a moment's comfort or intimacy for the rest of her miserable life. The girl does what she can to adapt to the harsh dictates of the household, and briefly finds comfort in the arms of a household worker. Her mother-in-law catches them, and breaks the girl's ankles, crippling her to prevent her from moving about freely and dishonoring her son's memory in any way. The desperate young woman tries to escape, but finds no help anywhere, until the young worker she briefly had a liaison with, (Ching Shih, who had also been her loyal porter when she was captured by the bandits), leads a band bent on independence to her rescue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chang Shi, Ku Paoming, (more)
- 1994
The inner workings of Chinese bureaucracy are sliced open in this cutting Hong Kong satire. Wang is the ambitious assistant director of the Cultural Center in Xi'an. Though an excellent manipulator who is respected and admired by his staff, Wang cannot seem get promoted. Wang and his staff are outraged when the newly vacant director's post is filled by Old Ma, an old-fashioned Communist cadre member. They immediately begin devising plots to get Old Ma out of the office and into a new post. They succeed only to find a new bureaucrat, Yan, has been hired to fill it. Yan is wise to Wang and not easily fooled. Wang's father gets involved and devises a situation that gets Yan humiliated in public. Unfortunately Yan survives the derision with his position intact. He gets revenge on Wang who ends up hospitalized with a nervous breakdown. Wang's staff turns around and gets revenge on Yan. But when Wang returns, he is a changed man. He now knows that there are more important things in life than ambition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Niu Zhenhua, Lei Gesheng, (more)
- 1993
When a writer and his wife (Feng Gong and (Zhang Lu) move into an established apartment block, they are quickly labelled as "the intellectuals" by the other tenants. Gradually, they get to know their neighbors. One fellow is out to try and get rich quick, and is full of shaky schemes for accomplishing this. Another man lives with his daughter; he is a loyal Party member, and is having a hard time keeping up with social changes in China. Another tenant is a policeman, here shown to be quite a nice fellow. In this slice-of-life comedy/drama, the humor comes from real everyday situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Feng Gong, Niu Zhenhua, (more)
- 1987
In this sequel to the mild drama Hei Pau Shi Jian (The Black Cannon Incident), the man whose career was nearly stalled by a misunderstood translation in the earlier film has been promoted to be the head of a large corporation. However, he has discovered not only that it's lonely at the top, it's boring. There are just too doggone many meetings to attend. In this comedy, the resourceful businessman makes a robot which resembles him sufficiently to take his place at the many dull meetings he is forced to attend. All goes well until the robot decides he wants some of life's goodies too and develops some habits that are distinctly unlike those of his creator. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liu Zhifeng
- 1986
Zhao (Liu Zifeng) is a business translator who is demoted when a chess piece referred to as the "black cannon" in his letter is mistaken to be a weapon. He is pulled off an assignment that would send him to Germany, and an incompetent replacement kills the company's multi-million dollar deal. Although he proves the incident was a mistake due to another translator, Zhao becomes the victim of an unflinching bureaucracy and political ideology that hampers his once-promising career. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gao Ming, Gerhard Olschewski, (more)
