Li Baotian Movies

Utilizing a hand-held camera to create a frantic, off-balance effect that is radically different from the techniques with which he made his films best known to Western audiences Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou has made a fast-paced modern comedy that serves as an allegory for the state of China in the late 1990s. The story's protagonist is Xiao Shuai, a bookseller who falls in love with the seductive, free-spirited An Hong. To learn her address, Xiao follows her, but An spurns his advances. He refuses to give up; eventually she caves in and invites him to her home for some quick love. Unfortunately they start, but are interrupted at a crucial moment. Later Xiao is accosted by the burly henchmen of An's new lover, a sleazy nightclub owner. They are beating him like an old rug when Lao Zhang, an old researcher, intervenes. During the scuffle, his prized laptop computer is smashed and later, he demands that Xiao replace it. But Xiao cares nothing for the destroyed laptop; he only wants revenge upon his attackers. Together he and Lao arrange to meet the villains in their club for a showdown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Old man Ge (Li Baotian) has been left in a hospital to die by his well-to-do grandson (Jiang Wu). It is true that he is sick, but he isn't dead yet, and he isn't about to stay idle when there is something he has yet to do in life. Despite the fact that it is winter, he walks out of the hospital and begins gathering and reselling people's junk in order to raise the money to visit the village he grew up in. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A dark, sensual, and visually sumptuous drama, Ju Dou centers on the title character, the third wife of a wealthy silk dyer in 1920s China. Forced into marriage by poverty, Ju Dou is repeatedly mistreated and cruelly disciplined by her husband, Jin-shan, for failing to bear him an heir. Her suffering attracts the sympathy of Jin-shan's younger, kinder nephew, Tian-qing, and the two begin a secret affair that could have tragic consequences. Spanning the course of many years, the film's narrative takes several surprising turns, defying expectations and complicating audience sympathies. None of the film's characters is wholly heroic or evil, allowing all three central performers -- Li Bao-tian as Tian-qing, Li Wei as Jin-shan, and the luminous Gong Li as Ju Dou -- to fashion memorable, complex portrayals. Director Zhang Yimou, a former cinematographer, uses gorgeously saturated images that emphasize his story's elemental nature, which often recalls classical tragedy. Met with controversy in China due to supposed political overtones that worried government officials, Ju Dou received fairer treatment overseas, winning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and numerous festival prizes. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Three different women play three periods in the life of a successful actress in modern-day classical Chinese theater, whose hallmark role is as a male demon, Zhong Kui. Flashbacks take place as she applies the makeup for this role, and bring the story of her life (from the 1950s to the 1980s) to light, beginning with the sacrifice her loving peasant father made to ensure that she got the attention she needed to be a success on the stage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide