Chinese Films and Music Guide ~ Billington Library @ JCCC

Feature Films

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

[DVD] 791.43 B1985

Set in the early 1970s during the later stages of China's Cultural Revolution, the film follows two city-bred teenage best friends who are sent to a backward mountainous region for Maoist re-education. There they discover the redeeming power of literature and love.

Beijing Bicycle

[DVD] 791.43 B4223

Just as Guai, a bicycle messenger, makes his final payment for the silver mountain bike loaned to him by his company, he finds it stolen. After endless searching, Guai discovers his bicycle is now in the hands of Jian who bought the bicycle with stolen money. Although Guai and Jian finally work out a deal, they find themselves involved in a series of unforgettable events.

Blue Kite

[DVD] 791.43 B6581
[VHS] 791.43 C9524

Banned in China, this film is the most acclaimed and controversial to come out of the new Chinese cinema. Told from the perspective of a young boy, Tietou, it traces the fate of a Beijing family and their neighbors through the political and social upheavals in 1950's and 60's China.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

[DVD] 791.43 C9524
[VHS] 791.821

Set in 19th-century China, two master warriors are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocratic woman prepares for an arranged marriage, but soon reveals her superior fighting talents and her romantic past. As each warrior battles for justice, they come face-to-face with their worst enemy, and the enduring power of love.

The Curse of the Golden Flower

[DVD] 791.43 C9774

During the Tang Dynasty an Emperor is concerned with a conspiracy involving his Empress and several of his sons.

Dreaming Lhasa

[DVD] 791.43 D7714

Karma, a young Tibetan woman from New York City comes to Dharamsala, the exile headquarters of the Dalai Lama in India, in search of her roots. She is making a documentary film about former political prisoners who have escaped Tibet. One of her interviewees is Dhondup, who has recently fled to India. He reveals to her that his dying mother had made him promise to deliver an old charm box to an exile Tibetan named Loga, and appeals to her for help in locating the man. Their enquiries reveal that Loga, a former CIA-trained resistance fighter, has been missing for the past fifteen years and is presumed to be dead. But is he really dead? As they set out to unravel the mysterious circumstances of his disappearance, Karma finds herself unwittingly attracted to Dhondup even as she is sucked into the vortex of his search, which takes them through the world of the exile Tibetan community in India and becomes a journey of self-discovery.

Eat Drink Man Woman

[DVD] 791.43 E14

A retired widowed master chef is worried about the future of his three unmarried daughters who are skeptical about marriage. Yet he himself surprises them with his secret love affair with a young woman many years his junior.

Electric Shadows

[DVD] 791.43 E384

When a delivery man crashes into a girl, she asks him to feed the pets in her apartment, while she is in the hospital. What he finds there is a diary that exposes the young girl for who she really is.

The Emperor and the Assassin

[DVD] 791.43 E551
[VHS] 791.43 E551

Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire.

Farewell my Concubine

[DVD] 791.43 F2222
[VHS] 791.43 F2222

In a story that spans more than 50 years in the lives of two men at the Peking Opera, who have been friends since childhood face the woman who comes between them. The film is also an absorbing drama of the period in Chinese history from the warlord era through the Cultural Revolution.

Flowers of Shanghai

[DVD] 791.43 F6443

Set in late nineteenth-century Shanghai and takes place in an elegant brothel. With its own highly ritualized codes of behavior, the lives of the "Flower girls" depend on their ability to win, and then keep, the affections of their wealthy callers.

For the Children

[DVD] 791.43 F6925

In the parched desert landscape of northwest China, peasant Meili Zhang founds a school, determined to give her students a chance at a better life. When Yu Xia, a cultured volunteer teacher from Beijing arrives to help her out, these two women from strikingly different backgrounds discover that they share the same goal: to help a generation of disadvantaged children overcome a legacy of poverty and lost opportunities with the most precious and valuable gift there is, education.

The King of Masks Pien Lien

[DVD] 791.43 K536
[VHS] 791.43 K536

Desperate for his art to survive, the King of Masks finds an apprentice in a destitute child purchased on the black market. When the child reveals an unexpected secret, their relationship is suddenly tested by both the old man's stubborn sense of tradition and the established customs of China.

Mongolian Pingpong

[DVD] 791.43 M7434

Three young Mongolian boys embark on a journey to return a ping pong ball they have found to Beijing after they learn it is the "national ball of China".

Pavilion of Women

[DVD] 791.43 P3385

Set in 1938 China, an American priest increases his own peril as he is drawn into a forbidden liaison with a beautiful aristocrat and soon they are both caught in a gathering storm that will not only threaten their love, but also their lives. The film enters an exotic world that is on the brink of revolution and on the brink of social change.

Raise the Red Lantern

[VHS] 791.43 R1591

Set in 1920's China, 19-year-old Songlian has become Fourth Wife to the wealthy Chen. Yet she must share her husband with three existing wives. Each must wait until dusk for the arrival of a red lantern, which signifies with whom the master will sleep tonight. When Songlian discovers that the other wives cheat to win the red lantern, she decides to join the fight for Chen's attention.

Red Sorghum

[VHS] 791.43 R3129

Beginning as a lusty romantic comedy about a nervous young bride's arrival and ensuing seduction at a remote and winery, and ending as a heroic drama of partisan resistance during the Japanese occupation.

The Road Home

[VHS] 791.43 R6282

As a son helps his mother arrange for the burial of his father in the traditional Chinese custom of his mother's village, the beautiful and touching story of his parent's courtship unfolds. His father was from the city and came to his mother's village to become the schoolmaster. In the days of arranged marriages, the son discovers that his parents’ marriage was the first marriage based on love.

Shaolin: Wheel of Life

[DVD] 791.43 S5287

This tells the inspiring legend of how the Monks' loyalty to their Emperor was betrayed, how they were almost completely destroyed and how five young Monks survived to continue the "Wheel of life". The Monks display some of the most unique Kung-fu ever seen.

Still Life

[DVD] 791.43 S8574

After a town is completely destroyed by a flood, the residents must try to rebuild their homes, the town, and their lives.

To Live

[VHS] 791.43 T6275

In a smoky gambling den in 1940's China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation, and the first step in an odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution love and loss, tragedy ... and triumph.

Together

[DVD] 791.43 T6453

When a shy small-town boy heads to Beijing for violin lessons, he discovers a new world filled with first loves, lasting friendships ... and a secret that will change his life forever.

When Ruo Ma was Seventeen

[DVD] 791.43 W56755

Ruo Ma, a girl from Xiani tribe, lives with her grandma. Fantasizing about the outside world, Ruo Ma wants to visit the city but has no money. She meets Ming, an amateur photographer, who helps her earn money by asking Ruo Ma to take photos with tourists with her tribe dresses on. Eventually Ruo Ma makes enough money, but Ming has to leave.

Documentaries

1421 the year China discovered America

[DVD] 970.01 F7815
[VHS] 970.01 F7815

Did a daring Chinese admiral sailing the world's largest wooden armada reach America 71 years before Columbus? This program examines the mystery surrounding the sailing exploits of the legendary Admiral Zheng He and his 30-year command of a Ming fleet.

The Silk Road Videos:
(a complete set is also available on [DVD] 915.1 S5835)


	Glories of ancient Chang-an	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.1
	Visit modern-day Xi-an, formerly Chang-an, the starting point of the Silk Road and the world's largest city when it was capital of Tan Dynasty China in the 7th century. See the clay army of Emperor Qin Huang Di, the sculptures of Emperor Gao-zong's tomb, enter a Buddhist temple, climb the Great Wall, and examine the underground murals of Princess Yong-tai.


	A Thousand Kilometers beyond the Yellow River	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.2
	Leave Xi-an and cross the Yellow River on a goat-skin raft. Visit the giant Buddha at Bing-li-si, traverse the forbidding He-xi Corridor, stroll the streets of the citadel town of Zhang-ye, and visit the Nie-pan Buddha, already 200 years old when Marco Polo lived there in the fourteenth century.


	The Art Gallery in the Desert	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.3
	Tour the Ma-gao Caves at Dun-Huang--over 500 caves, more than 30 miles in length, with 3,000 murals and statues--in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Dating from 366 AD, and encompassing the art styles of Greece, India and the many dynasties of China, these hand-tunneled caves are a tour-de-force of religious art.


	The Dark Castle	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.4
	Encounter the ghost castle of Khara-khoto, 250 miles from the oasis of Jiu-chang. This legendary city was obliterated from the face of the Earth by Genghis Khan. It was later unearthed by the Russian explorer Koslov, who took its artworks to the Hermitage, but has been unentered for the past fifty years.


	In Search of the Kingdom of Loulan	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.5
	Learn of the lost kingdom of Lou-lan, which vanished into the sands of the desert when the nearby lake Lop Nor moved away. Find relics of the Silk Road from over a millennium ago.


	Across the Taklamakan Desert	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.6
	Visit the ancient Buddhist city of Miran, meet the Uighurs of the oasis town of Cherchen, cross the Taklamakan Desert, and stumble into the ruins of Niya.


	Khotan: Oasis of Silk and Jade	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.7
	Tour the Kun-lun Mountains where jade has been mined for over two thousand years; join the search for the rediscovery of Dandan Oilik, the great Buddhist temple city; watch the silk dance of the Xin-Yu Song and Dance Troupe; and wander a Sunday market in Khotan.


	Heat-wave called Turfan	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.8
	A visit to the place once called the land of fire located between the Tian-Shan Mountains and the Taklamakan Desert; the Fire Mountains; Thousand Buddha Caves; and the Jiao-he Castle.


	Through the Tian Shan Mountains by Rail	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.9
	A 300 mile journey from the oasis city of Turfan to Korla. The entire caravan including camels boards a train for the trip through the Gobi Desert and beyond the Tian Shan Mountain range.


	Journey into Music South through the Tian Shan Mountains	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.10
	A tour to the Pearl of the Desert at the edge of the Taklamakan; through Tien-men-quan, the most formidable mountain pass in the world; Subashi Castle; the legendary Kuntura Thousand Buddha caves; Salt River Canyon; Kysil Caves; shop with Uighurs at their outdoor marketplace and enjoy a wedding ceremony and learn about their traditions and customs.


	Where Horses Fly Like the Wind	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.11
	Cross the Tian Shan Mountains and meet the Kazakhs, commonly referred to as Cossacks; visit the Western Land, home to the legendary Heavenly Horses ridden by Genghis Khan; and enter the no-man's land between the Chinese and Soviet border.


	Two Roads to the Pamirs	[VHS] 915.1 S5835 v.12
	Tour the oasis town of Kashgar to celebrate the end of Ramadan in the largest mosque of the western lands; the Buddhist caves at San-xian-dong; the Pamir plateau; and Taskgurkan Castle.

A Candid Viewpoint of the Customs and Manners of Hong Kong

[VHS] 390.09 C2176

Part of the Asian Etiquette series

Basic Chinese Cuisine

[DVD] 641.5 C5393

Tricks and techniques of expert chefs through step-by-step demonstrations of eight Chinese recipes.

Ming Garden

[VHS] 712.6 M6646

Shows the installation, by Chinese craftsmen, of a Ming-style garden in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These gardens have been constructed in China for hundreds of years, and are renowned for their unusual rock sculptures and their elegant architectural and decorative elements.

Canal Boat to History

[VHS] 709.10

This program delves into the problems of communication caused by China's vast size and diversity of landscape, and shows how this has been reflected in Chinese art through the ages. From Shanghai, Edmund Capon journeys north, to the very cradle of Chinese civilization. He explores the three peaks of Chinese culture: the Bronze Age, the Han Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty and looks at their distinctive artistic achievements.

China and the World

[VHS] 709.11

This program explores China's erratic and invariably difficult contacts with other cultures and ideologies, caused by both natural and cultural barriers, and how this isolation has allowed China to develop her own great and distinctive traditions in art. Edmund Capon looks at China's cultural evolution through 2000 years of trading and commercial contacts and considers some of the ideological influences that entered the country from the outside world.

The Chinese Identity

[VHS] 709.12

This program takes viewers to selected locations that embody the distinctive character of China and the symbols that represent the unique spirit reflected in China's art: the Forbidden City in Beijing, a classic Chinese garden, the sacred mountain, Huangshan. He also visits the great calligrapher Huang Maozi and Jingdezhen, the home of Chinese porcelain.

Music CDs