Gao Yuanyuan Movies

Within the scope of Asian history, few events carry the ugly and sickening connotations of the Rape of Nanking. Japanese forces invaded that Chinese city on December 9, 1937, and in the six weeks to follow, soldiers raped thousands of women and annihilated hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Director Lu Chuan directs this black-and-white docudrama account of that horrifying six-week period, with the benefit of an ensemble cast that includes Hideo Nakaizumi as a conscience-stricken Japanese soldier, Fan Wei as the aid to a German humanitarian worker, and Gao Yuanyuan as the head of a refugee camp. Lu relays the events directly and straightforwardly, with a careful avoidance of sensationalism and excessive sentimentality, and uses the chronicle to meditate on the insanity of war for all of those involved. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai crafts his pensive study of life in modern China concerning a couple who are confronted with love, responsibility, morality, and loyalty after their relationship fails and their young daughter falls ill. Years ago, Mei Zhu and Xiao Lu were a happily married couple with a beautiful daughter named Hehe. But the marriage ultimately failed, and the pair ultimately parted ways. Years later, Mei Zhu and Xiao Lu have both remarried, and Hehe is the only link that still bonds them together. When Hehe is diagnosed with leukemia, the doctors relay that the only hope for the ailing girl is a bone marrow transplant from a healthy sibling. Realizing that Hehe has no siblings, her desperate mother and father are suddenly faced with a life altering decision. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A young girl living with her family in rural China finds both her father and the rapidly changing times weighing heavily on her dreams in this drama from filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai. At the dawn of the 1980s, modern sensibilities had reached to the furthest corners of the globe, but previous political obligation had forced some loyal Chinese families to move to remote border provinces in hopes of establishing a stronger line of defense against possible invasion. Qinghong's family was one such family, though her father's growing regret of having uprooted his life for an invasion that never came has been weighing heavily on his conscience. As dreams of returning to Shanghai haunt his sleep, Qinghong's father vows not to let his daughter establish roots in the remote region in hopes that when the time comes, his clan can return to the modern world from which they came so long ago. In his quest to ensure that Qinghong is ready when that time comes, he isolates his daughter by crushing her dreams with poisonous rhetoric and attempting to ensure that her crush on a local boy doesn't have the opportunity to develop into something deeper. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A young man from rural China struggles to make good in Beijing in this drama, which suggests an updated and relocated variation on the neorealist classic Ladri di Biciclette. Guei (Cui Lin) is a teenager who arrives in the big city looking for work; he and a handful of other youngsters are hired as bicycle messengers, with their employer giving them new mountain bikes under the condition that they're paid ten yuan for each message they deliver, and the bicycles are theirs once they've made 58 trips. Guei discovers the job is not an easy one, as he deals with the complexity of the huge city, confusion over who gets what message, and the condescending attitude Beijing residents often display toward the new arrivals. Guei is determined to make good and is close to owning his bike when it's stolen; Guei's boss tells him the only way he can keep is job is if he can find the bicycle, which, in a city the size of Beijing, is no easy task. Against all odds, Guei finds the bicycle, but it's now in the hands of Jian (Li Bin), who claims he got it at a second-hand shop and isn't about to give it up. Guei steals the bike back from Jian, but now has to deal with the teenaged tough and his roughneck friends. Shiqisuide Danche was produced as part of a series of films from young Chinese directors called "Tales of Three Cities," co-produced by French and Taiwanese companies. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi