In its fractured, interpenetrating (or rather, colliding) realities, Ying Liang’s The Other Half foreshadows Jia Zhang-ke’s 24 City, capturing China’s transforming industrial landscape through its alienated and displaced humanity. The opening frontal shot of job seeker, Xiaofei being interviewed by an off-camera recruiter establishes a sense of division – the unseen economic, social, educational, and […]
In an age of lawlessness and impotent (and corrupt) central authority, a member of the notorious, underground alliance of righteous, altruistic warriors known as the House of Flying Daggers is believed to be operating among the pleasure workers of the Peony Brothel. Police officers Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) attempt to root out […]
Composed of three chapters – Voices, Recollections, and Innocence – Zhao Dayong’s Ghost Town is a textured, graceful, and indelible panorama of the “other” China, a sobering account of threadbare lives lived in the shadows cast by China’s modern day economic miracle and its founding architect, Chairman Mao Zedong, whose imposing statue graces Zhiziluo village’s […]