In 1913, Yu Dafu goes from China to Japan to study. At that time, Japan is the nascent superpower of East Asia, while China, the “sick man of Asia”, is in turmoil. Dafu is forced to confront the formidable combination of challenging schoolwork, foreign culture, and a racist populace during his time in Japan, and, along the way, struggles with becoming a man, emotionally and sexually. Towards the beginning of the film, he meets, while bathing nude in a hot spring, Lung-erh, and falls in love instantly. Although Yu Dafu is unable to locate her after their brief encounter, he eventually runs into her again after having taken up his studies in Nagoya.
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Tag Archives: Hong Kong
5 Shaolin Masters / 5 Masters of Death (1974) Cheh Chang, David Chiang, Lung Ti, Sheng Fu, Action, Drama
The story is simple (Shaolin vs. Manchu traitors), but the effect was anything but, as the screen’s most charismatic action actors team with a legendary director and revered choreographers (Liu Chia-liang and brother Liu Chia-yung) for scenes of unparalleled power.
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Power of Love / Qing bu zi jin zhi xiang ru fei fei (1993) Chi Wah Leung, Tong Suen, Rena Otomo, Yu Lung Hsiao, Action, Erotic
A young girl, Jane gets a job as a maid to a lecherous old billionaire. During her time there he dies, and decides to leave his money to the object of his desire, rather than his own son. His son’s wife however is less than happy about this and sets in motion a chain of sexual dalliances and murder.
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Farewell My Concubine (1993) Kaige Chen, Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Li Gong, Drama, Romance, Music
In 1924, young Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) begins training at the Beijing Opera House at the same time as Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang). Cheng specializes in playing female parts, often against Duan’s commanding male leads. While pretending to be in love with Duan onstage, Cheng begins to develop actual romantic feelings for his co-star, which are not reciprocated. Over the next 50 years, the two men maintain a complicated friendship as China undergoes turbulent changes.
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Cheut ai kup gei / Exodus (2007) Ho-Cheung Pang, Simon Yam, Annie Liu, Nick Cheung, Comedy, Crime, Drama
A low-ranking cop often relegated to desk duty, middle-aged Tsim Kin Yip (Simon Yam) lives a stable, mundane life with his young yoga instructor wife Ann (Annie Liu). The monotony is broken one day when he interrogates Kwan Ping Man (Nick Cheung), a nervous, profanity-spouting man caught spying in the women’s bathroom. Kwan, who seems to have more than a few screws loose, confides to Tsim a shocking secret: a ring of women conspiring to murder men. Everyday, plans are whispered in restrooms and deaths are carefully engineered, so that men die unnoticeably from “accidents” that are anything but. Tsim initially dismisses Kwan’s conspiracy theory, but then clues crop up suggesting there is something fishy at work. Both his marriage and life could be at stake as Tsim becomes increasingly obsessed with cracking the case.
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Tau ban no hoi / Boat People (1982) Ann Hui, George Lam, Cora Miao, Season Ma, Drama
A Japanese reporter arrives in Vietnam hoping to capture the essence the society under the rule of the Communist Party. With the help of a vietnamese girl, he eventually opens his eyes to the painful truth of postwar Vietnam.
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Du bei dao / The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) Cheh Chang, Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Chung-Hsin Huang, Action, Drama
An evil gang attacks the Chi school of Golden Sword Kung Fu. One student sacrifices his life to save his teacher and his school, his dying wish is that his son be taken in as a student. Young Fang Kang grows up in the school and treasures his father’s broken sword and the memory of his father’s sacrifice. The other students (including the teacher’s daughter) resent him and try to drive him away. The teacher’s daughter challenges him to a fight and when he refuses she becomes enraged and recklessly chops off his arm! He retreats, broken and bloody, and is found by a young poor girl living alone who nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, the evil gang who originally attacked the Golden Sword school develops a weapon that renders the Golden Sword useless and starts killing off all of the schools students. Fang Kang eventually recovers with the girl’s help but must now face a life with only one arm. Will he be able to recover and live to defend the school as his father did?
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Banana Spirit / Jing ling bian (1992) Kin Lo, Collin Chou, Josephine Foo, Ching-Ying Lam, Comedy, Fantasy
Francis Ng stars as Chic, who helps his friend Che (Ngai Sing), a Taoist ghostbuster, with various assignments. They both owe gambling debts to the nasty mobster Rabid Hsiung (Tommy Wong), so they’re in desperate need of money, leading them to take on a request from the elderly Taoist master Tang (Richard Ng) to help him capture the Banana Spirit. On a late-night search, the trio is frightened by a demon as well as awakening the Banana Spirit, Muyung Yu-Yu, who takes the earthly form of a beautiful model and seduces Chic. Chic and the ghost become lovers, and she saves his life when he is shot at by mobsters as well as helping him win a great deal of money at one of Rabid Hsiung’s casinos. Hsiung figures out that Yu-Yu has special powers, which he attempts to use for his own benefit, but Chic kills him before he can realize his plans. Unfortunately, Hsiung rises from the grave as a clownish evil spirit looking for revenge, and Yu-Yu’s allotted time on Earth is quickly running out. Lam Ching-ying and Yip Wing-cho co-star in the lively romp.
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2046 (2004) Kar-Wai Wong, Tony Chiu Wai Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Faye Wong, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
The story evolves around the main character, Zhou Mo Wan who writes a novel about a mysterious train that leaves for a place called 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who boards that train has the same intention – which is to recapture their lost memories. It is said that in 2046, nothing ever changed. Nobody knows for sure if it was true, because nobody who went there had ever come back- except for one. He had been there but He chose to leave. He wanted to change.
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The Four 3 / Si da ming bu 3 (2014) Gordon Chan, Ronald Cheng, Collin Chou, Chao Deng, Action
Emotionless has left Six Doors, as has Cold Blood, who has decided to investigate the death of Lord Bu on his own. The departure of two of the four constables has effectively left Six Doors defunct. At this time, trouble begins to brew in the Imperial Palace as Emperor Huizong plans to travel incognito to the outside world. When he is almost assassinated and subsequently disappears, Cold Blood, Emotionless, Iron Hands and Life Snatcher must band together once again under Master Zhuge to save the empire from a massive conspiracy.
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