Hsu Li-kong Movies

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee took a break from making Western period dramas to fashion this wild and woolly martial arts spectacular featuring special effects and action sequences courtesy of the choreographer of The Matrix (1999), Yuen Woo Ping. In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. This film was first screened to much acclaim at the 2000 Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals and became a favorite when Academy Awards nominations were announced in 2001: Tiger snagged ten nods and later secured four wins for Best Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, and Foreign Language Film. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Issues of modern romance and personal identity are played for intelligent laughter in this tart comedy from Taiwan. Wu (played by Rene Liu) is a businesswoman in her early 30's whose professional life is going just fine. It's her personal life that's giving her problems. Since she's not meeting the right sort of man in her daily life, she decides to take the bull by the horns and place a personal ad in the newspaper; she gets over 100 responses to her ad, and much of the film is taken up by her meetings with a variety of men who want to know more about her. Her potential suitors range from a restaurant manager with a shoe fetish and a writer who his brings his mother along to a would-be rock star and a lesbian in male drag. Director Chen Kuo-Fu was a leading Taiwanese film critic in the 1980's before moving to filmmaking in the early 1990's. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Separated from her husband, lonely dress-designer Ju-feng (Chen Shiang-chyi) hopes to spend time with her brother Chuen-sheng (Lee Kang-sheng), but when he returns from military service, he chooses instead to steal from their father, play the sax, and hang out with Taipei hookers. Mei-li (Chang Pen-yu) steals Ju-feng's cell phone, with the result that the two know each other only through phone conversations. Coincidentally, Chuen-sheng has sex with Mei-li, telling her in passing how he once slept with his sister. Unaware that Chuen-sheng is Ju-feng's brother, Mei-li uses no name when she relates this anecdote to Ju-feng. Later, Chuen-sheng introduces Mei-li to his father and sister, and Ju-feng is stunned when she finally begins to jigsaw together all the connections. In Mandarin and Hokkien dialogue. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Tsai Ming-Liang's The River, the Taiwanese master's third feature, opens with a chance encounter between Xiao-Kang (Lee Kang-Sheng) and an old friend (Chen Shiang-Chyi), an unexpected meeting that sets this bleak and ultimately disturbing film on its course. Persuaded to accompany his friend to a film set where she works as a production assistant, Xiao-Kang is recruited by the director to play a corpse floating in a polluted river. After the shoot, Xiao-Kang struggles to wash the river's stench off -- and begins to feel a twinge in his neck. Meanwhile, the movie shifts its attention to two other people, a middle-aged woman (Lu Hsiao-Ling) working as an elevator operator in a restaurant, and a man (Miao Tien) who alternates his time at McDonald's and a gay bathhouse. It's eventually revealed that the two are Xiao-Kang's parents, and that the three of them live together in a Taipei apartment building that's as much in need of repair as their relationship. As Xiao-Kang's neck pain lingers, the parents grow increasingly concerned and help him seek relief in both science and superstition, to no avail. A trip to a provincial healer becomes the last resort for the ailing Xiao-Kang and occasions a devastating twist that brings the movie to an unsettling close. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

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

The underlying premise of this subtle character study of a rural Taiwanese family seems to hinge on the lead character's grim notion that fate may be a blind alley and that life may have no higher purpose. Ku-cheng is fully grown and married with a daughter, but still lives on his poor family's farm where they make a meager but consistent living. Ku-cheng is not unhappy until his beloved wife Ah-hsui dies bearing his son Ah-sheng leaving Ku-cheng bitter and uncaring about the future. In this fatalistic mood, he begins working as a laborer and leaves his children for his parents to raise. He meets and begins a fruitless two year affair with the widow Ah-yun, who knows that Ku-cheng will never marry her. Many years pass. Tragedy strikes when Ku-cheng's mother becomes bedridden after a stroke. Ku-cheng's daughter dutifully cares for her, becoming increasingly further behind in school. Her little brother, cares little for the situation. He is lazy, and irresponsible. The grandmother becomes the center on which the rest of the drama turns. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of aimless Taipei residents deal with their personal problems in this Taiwanese drama that does feature brief flashes of black humor. Much of the story centers upon lonely Mrs. Chen who has trouble coping with her philandering husband, and nearly senile mother-in-law. Her daughter frequently sulks and has a desperate crush on one of her teachers. Mrs. Chen's only friend is her co-worker Liu, who has fallen for a new office boy, Chou. Mrs. Chen also finds him attractive. Unfortunately for either woman, Chou is gay and plagued with problems of his own. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit The Wedding Banquet is another look at ethnic and sexual conflicts in a Chinese family, with meals as a centerpiece of the film. Master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) is a long-time widower who lovingly cooks large Sunday dinners for his three daughters, who view the meals as too traditional. Secretly, however, successful airline executive Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) loves traditional cooking and would like to be a chef like her father, if women were permitted to do so. Her older sister Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is unmarried and cynical about men, but she becomes attracted to a volleyball coach and eventually pursues him vigorously. The youngest daughter, Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang), is a college student who becomes pregnant from her frequent sexual escapades. As the film progresses, the personal relationships between the daughters and their significant others change unexpectedly. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee made his directorial debut with this drama, leavened with gentle comedy, about a household turned upside down by a man who could not be much more out of place. Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) is an elderly gentleman who has devoted much of his life to studying and teaching tai chi; growing old and wanting to be closer to his family, he decides to move in with his son. However, Mr. Chu has lived all his life in Beijing, and his son Alex (Bo Z. Wang) lives in New York City. Chu arrives at Alex's doorstep not knowing a single word of English, and he soon finds himself out of sorts in the home of his very Americanized son. Alex's wife Martha (Deb Snyder) is a writer who is dealing with the stress of publishing her first novel, in addition to watching over her six-year-old son. Mr. Chu is very much at odds with American customs and technology, and he even gets lost when he tries to take a walk; Martha soon feels as if she's watching over two children rather than one, while Mr. Chu resents his loss of dignity and independence. Eventually, he tries to strike out on his own and get a job, but the harder he tries to feel at home in New York, the more alien he seems. Ang Lee and Sihung Lung would team up again on Lee's next two films, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this melodramatic romance, three generations of women (a grandmother and her daughter and granddaughter) are set at odds with one another when an old lover of the daughter comes back into the picture accompanied by his twentyish son. The already tense relationship between the three nearly explodes when the son of the old flame seeks to woo the granddaughter. Flashbacks show that the daughter did not have a trouble-free adolescence herself. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide