Wang Zhiwen Movies

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, Rovi

Fanny (Nina Proll) is training in Vienna when she meets Yunlong (Wang Zhiwen), a Chinese policeman. The two form an instant connection and, against the wishes of everyone else in her life, Fanny moves to China to be with him. Soon afterward, however, the cultural revolution in China forces the two into hiding to escape persecution by the communists. Yunlong is eventually caught and imprisoned, leaving Fanny alone in a foreign land with no idea what it will take for her to survive. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A lavishly produced historical drama from China, Jing Ke Ci Qin Wang/The Emperor and the Assassin tells the complex, multi-facetted story of the man who became the first Emperor of a unified China, another man who has sworn to kill him, and a woman who is loved by both men. Late in the Third Century B.C., when China was comprised of seven rival kingdoms, Ying Zheng (Li Xuejian) was the leader of Qin. Ying Zheng had a dream in which he joined together the seven kingdoms into a single utopian state, and taking this as a mandate from God, he invaded the nearby state of Han as the first step toward this goal. However, not everyone in the neighboring states was happy with Ying Zheng's crusade, which seemed to indicate a lengthy war with many casualties. Lady Zhao (Gong Li), Ying's lover, devised a scheme to help Ying Zheng take over the nearby and uncooperative state of Yan; she fabricated a fake assassination plot against him, and framed the leader of Yan, once Ying Zheng's childhood friend, as the man behind the murderous plot. However, Lady Zhao did not choose the would-be assassin wisely; while Jing Ke (Zhang Fengyi) loved her and was willing to do her bidding, Jing Ke's previous assassination assignment caused the unintended death of an innocent blind girl, which left him full of regret and a bit unstable. When Jing Ke learned a closely guarded secret about Ying Zheng's past, he became blindly determined to kill the would-be emperor, whatever the cost. Produced on a lavish budget by Chinese standards ($15 million), Jing Ke Ci Qin Wang/The Emperor and the Assassin was directed by Chen Kaige, best known to Western audiences for the international success Farewell My Concubine. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The romantic rivalry in this often violent Chinese melodrama is a thinly veiled metaphorical commentary on the sad condition of Shanghai's youth, a wounded generation moving aimlessly towards a bleak future. Though made in 1994, it was not released until the end of the following year. A Xi has just been released from prison and goes looking for his former lover Li Xin, whom he has not seen since he was sentenced to nine years after killing a fellow teen. Unfortunately, Li Xin has fallen in love with La La. Both young men begin competing for her love. That rivalry becomes increasingly tense as the story progresses. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi