Zhang Lu Movies
- 1997
This Chinese musical drama is set at a remote village in northwestern China where young Lingfeng (Zhang Lu) loves Liugeng (Chang Rong). However, she follows her father's dying wish and marries doctor Li Yongyi (Li Wei). The newlyweds go into the wine business, but Li dies in an accident. Lingfeng keeps the winery in operation, and although she takes Liugeng on as a partner in the business, she tells him she intends to remain faithful to her deceased husband. Shown at Montreal's 1997 World Film Festival, the film's English title is A Virtuous Widow. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zhang Lu, Chang Rong, (more)
Tian Zhuangzhuang, a charter member of China's politically beleaguered, so-called Fifth Generation of Directors (along with Ju Dou's Zhang Yimou), made this film about the gradual disintegration of an entire family targeted by Mao's political reformation movements of the '50s and '60s. Told in a series of three stories, the audience sees the little boy Tietou and his mother try and try again to rebuild their lives from the ashes left them by the madness of the era. Director Tian works from a palette of primary colors on widescreen images that are often fixed in an icy-white Kubrickian glare of omnipresent paranoia. Yet much of The Blue Kite is resplendent with palpable signs of ordinary life: noisy kids, happy weddings, loud mealtimes. Tian amplifies the human element of these heady days, so that viewers may genuinely feel the humanity ripped from this story as events overtake and shatter all hope. ~ Tom Keogh, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lu Liping, Pu Quanxin, (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)
