Xia Yu Movies
- 2007
When his drinking buddy and long-time co-worker Liu Quanyou (Hong Qiwen) drops dead during a jovial session of imbibing, fifty-something working-class stiff Zhao (Zhao) vows to transport his friend's corpse to its final resting place in director Zhang Yang's gently philosophical road comedy. Though he had planned to simply cart Liu's corpse across the countryside via the local bus route, Zhao's simple plan is quickly thwarted when a gang of bandits hold up the bus. Despite having the calm of mind to talk the gang leader (Guo Degang) out of following through with the robbery, Zhao finds his plan backfiring when his fellow passengers become so unsettled with his cargo that they promptly kick him off of the bus. When a sympathetic truck driver (Hu Jun) spots Zhao carting the unwieldy cadaver on his back, he kindly offers to give the struggling man a lift before suffering an impromptu emotional breakdown. With miles to go before he reaches his destination, Zhao must resort to a series of unconventional methods to ensure that Liu receives a proper sendoff. Along the way Zhao will meet such eccentrics as a wealthy recluse who's planning his own funeral (Wu Ma), a brutish roadside restaurateur (Liu Jinshan), an optimistic cyclist (Xia Yu) traveling to Tibet, and a family of bee-keepers (Chen Ying and Guo Tao) who have turned their backs on modern society. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zhao Benshan, Hong Qiwen, (more)
A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, (more)
Sammo Hung, Michael Biehn, Maggie Q, and Shawn Yue star in this action-packed thriller concerning a disappeared crime lord and the elite team of Interpol agents who set out to recapture him at all costs. A notorious Triad crime boss has disappeared just as his case was about to go before the judge, and now he could be anywhere. Now, on the bustling streets of Hong Kong, a highly skilled team of Interpol agents wage all out war against the underworld in an apocalyptic bid to capture the heavily armed foe and ensure that justice is properly served. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
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)
- 2003
A beloved -- but unlicensed -- family pet is confiscated by Beijing authorities, leaving its owners scrambling as they attempt to recover the critter before it is set free outside the city limits in director Lu Xuechang's 2003 comedy drama Kala shi tiao gou (Cala, My Dog). Working class patriarch Lao Er (Ge You) is left with a large licensing fee as well as a fine after his wife mistakenly walks their unlicensed family dog Cala. The dog is taken away by the police, leaving the family with a deadline of 18 hours to pay the bill before the dog is cast out of town. As the family income cannot support such an exorbitant sum of money, they resort to other means in order to retrieve the canine -- ranging from attempting to coerce family members with connections into aiding them to convincing a neighbor to pulling a scam on the police with the license for Cala's mother. Cala, My Dog had its first official screening as part of the Forum program for the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ge You, Ding Jiali, (more)
- 2000
- PG
- Add Shadow Magic to Queue
Chinese-born, American-based director Ann Hu debuts with this epic historical drama about the introduction of motion pictures to China during the beginning of the 20th century. The film is based on a true story of Liu Jung (Xia Yu), a Peking photographer who struggles to start a film industry in China in spite of the strong anti-Western sentiment of the time. At the film's outset, Liu Jung is scolded by his autocratic boss Master Ren (Liu Peiqi) for his obsession with Western gizmos after he brings home a junked Victrola. During a photo session with China's most famous opera star, Lord Tan (Li Yusheng), Liu Jung runs into Raymond Wallace (Jared Harris), a mysterious Brit who is hell-bent on introducing movies (called "shadow magic") to the Emperor. As soon as Liu Jung sees his first frame, he is hooked on the medium and committed to Wallace's scheme. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jared Harris, Xia Yu, (more)
- 1994
This Chinese film which chronicles the rites-of-passage of a group of adolescent men is based on Wang Shuo's 1991 novella and includes additional autobiographical anecdotes from writer/director Jiang Wen. The film is set in summertime Peking during the early '70s. The boys live in a military school compound. When not skipping their classes, they are getting into fights with rival groups and girl watching. Much of the story focuses upon group leader Liu Yiku and Monkey Ma (who is based on Jiang Wen). Liu Yiku is having a sexual relationship with the free-wheeling Yu Beipei who is interested in Monkey Ma. Monkey Ma is too interested in the older gal, Mi Lan to notice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
