Jiang Wen Movies

Some of the world's most-respected directors align forces to pay tribute to the city of the New York in this unconventional omnibus sister film to 2006's Paris, Je T'Aime. Broken into short segments, New York, I Love You is comprised of ten films, most choosing to take a down-to-earth approach to the stories of the countless lives lived in the city on a given day. The segments are as follows, chronologically:

Segment 1 -- Directed by Jiang Wen; written by Hu Hong and Meng Yao; starring Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia, and Rachel Bilson.

Segment 2 -- Directed by Mira Nair; written by Suketu Mehta; starring Natalie Portman and Irfan Khan.

Segment 3 -- Written and directed by Shunji Iwai; adaptation by Israel Horovitz. Starring Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci.

Segment 4 -- Directed by Yvan Attal; written by Olivier Lécot and Yvan Attal; starring Robin Wright Penn, Ethan Hawke, Maggie Q, and Chris Cooper.

Segment 5 -- Directed by Brett Ratner; written by Jeff Nathanson; starring Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thirlby, and Blake Lively

Segment 6 -- Directed by Allen Hughes; written by Xan Cassavetes and Stephen Winter; starring Drea de Matteo and Bradley Cooper.

Segment 7 -- Directed by Shekhar Kapur; written by Anthony Minghella; starring Julie Christie, John Hurt, and Shia LaBeouf.

Segment 8 -- Written and directed by Natalie Portman; starring Taylor Geare, Carlos Acosta, and Jacinda Barrett.

Segment 9 -- Written and directed by Fatih Akin; starring Burt Young, Ugur Yucel, and Shu Qi.

Segment 10 -- Written and directed by Joshua Marston; starring Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman.

Transitions in between segments -- Directed by Randall Balsmeyer; written by Israel Horovitz, James Strouse, and Hall Powell; starring Emilie Ohana, Eva Amurri, and Justin Bartha. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

On the heels of such extravagant historical swordplay epics as Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Mainland Chinese director Zhang Yimou returns to the reins to tell this intimate tale of an aging father who attempts to remedy a longstanding rift with his grown son. Summoned to Tokyo by his daughter-in-law, Rie (Shinobu Terajima), village fisherman Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura), arrives at a city hospital to find his son, Ken-ichi (Kiichi Nakai), bedridden by liver cancer. Though Gou-ichi attempts to use the visit as a catalyst to heal a decade-long dispute between the pair, stubborn Ken-ichi rejects his father's attempt at reconciliation outright. Subsequently handed a videotape by Rie before departing back to the countryside, Gou-ichi returns home unsuccessful in his efforts to build a bridge of peace between himself and his ailing son. Upon watching the videotape, a research project exploring the Chinese folk arts that was shot by Ken-ichi in the Southern province of Yunnan, Gou-ichi is oddly affected by the onscreen failure of his son in convincing well-known opera singer Li Jiamin (playing himself) to perform the titular song, a classic operatic piece espousing the values of friendship. Now determined to travel to Yunnan and videotape the performance that his son could not, Gou-ichi embarks on a life-changing quest that will not only give him a greater understanding of the relationship between himself and his own son, but set into motion a healing process that will also have a profound impact on the troubled opera singer and the man's long-lost illegitimate son as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jiang Wen, Zhao Wei, and Fang Lijun headline this romantic urban love story about a female professor who believes she can read her romantic future in a simple cup of tea. Wu is a successful college professor who could take her pick of handsome suitors, yet she cautiously abides by Lang Lang's advice to "Predict your love with a cup of tea." Smooth operator Chen thinks Wu's method of choosing a romantic partner is hopelessly absurd, but does her really know everything about women as he so arrogantly claims? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A popular Chinese folk tale gets a big-screen makeover in this animated feature. Sanshengmu (voice of Xu Fan) is a goddess who falls in love with a mortal man and leaves the heavens for earth with her magical lotus lantern in tow. Several years later, Sanshengmu's older brother Er Lang (voice of Jiang Wen), still furious at his sister's impropriety, finds her, captures her, and hides her deep inside Mt. Hua. But Sanshengmu now has a young son, and when he discovers what has happened to his mother, he sets out to find the Monkey King (voice of Chen Peisi), whose magical powers could set Sanshengmu free. But will the young boy prove worthy in the eyes of the Monkey King? Bao Lian Deng was a massive box-office success in its native China; the soundtrack features several original songs from pop singer CoCo Lee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

"Once upon a time in distant China, there were three sisters. One loved money, one loved power, and one loved her country." So opens this historical, melodramatic chronicle of the influential lives of three daughters from one of pre-Communist China's wealthiest families. Two of the Soong sisters married important figures in 20th-century Chinese history. Soong Ching-ling married Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic while her sister May-ling married Sun's successor, the famed Chian Kai-shek. The oldest daughter Ai-ling married industrialist H.H. Kung, a wealthy and powerful man who eventually became Hong Kong's finance minister. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The most expensive film ever made in China up to the time of its release, Qin Song (1996) is an historical epic of that country's first emperor. Jiang Wen stars as Ying Zheng, king of China's Qin province in the third century B.C. Determined to unite the land's six disparate kingdoms under his control, Qin has embarked on a campaign of conquest and unification. In the kingdom of Yan, however, Qin orders his men to spare the life of Gao Jianli (Ge You), a childhood companion whose mother cared for and even nursed both boys. Jianli is now a musician, and Zheng has plans for his old friend. Desiring a national anthem, Zheng commissions Jianli to compose such a tune, but the crafty and righteous Jianli has other plans, wooing Zheng's paralyzed daughter, Princess Yueyang (Xu Qing), who is promised to a high-ranking general. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In the twisty, labyrinthine world of politics, the word "Byzantine" conjures up an especially subtle world of shady alliances, betrayals, intrigues, murders and treachery. However, there should be some special word to describe the politics of late Imperial China, which multiplied the complexities we attribute to the Byzantines many-fold. Among the players of the game, no group of men were better versed in its intricacies than the Imperial Eunuchs. In this story, Li Lianying (Jiang Wen) is a confidential advisor to the feisty, but very narrow-minded, dowager empress (Liu Xiaoqing) at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. His goal is to help her keep her throne and to ensure the continuation of Imperial rule. At one point, the haughty empress must flee the palace and take refuge incognito in an ordinary person's home, enduring unpleasant comments about the royal family in the process. By her manners and her grooming, it was evident to her hosts that she was some sort of noblewoman, but they would have been appalled to know she was the empress herself. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Red Sorghum was the first directorial effort of controversial Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The director's favorite leading lady Gong Li plays a young woman of the 1920s whose family sells her into marriage with a wealthy winemaker. At first a loveless union, the relationship blossoms into one of strong friendship and mutual respect. During World War II, Gong Li fights side by side with her husband against the invading Japanese. A sweeping yet intensely personal historical epic, Red Sorghum won the 1988 Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. Despite its patriotic overtones, the film was heavily censored (when not banned altogether) in certain provinces of Communist China. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi