Mandarin movie wish list

sorry i said tony cheung - i meant leung. sorry tony!

if you want the ultimate run down on asian movies (a good percentage of which are mandarin) go to this absolutely fabulous thread by dondonya.

uk.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=444287&page=1&pp=30

it's her top 100 asian films countdown. she's only got as far 21 and it's brilliant. i've seen about twenty of the films she comments on. her reviews are spot on. i can't wait for the top twenty.

no sneaky using her reviews though frank.

two films i'd recommend for a newbie/elementary speaker are:

'The Road Home'. a really simple and lovely film i- if you ignore all the hair flicking in it by zhang ziy. there isn't too much dialogue either, so it is possible to follow some of it.

'The Banquet'. bit long, but the dialogue is so slow and deliberate i could follow large sections of it. i can even turn chinese sub-titles on, on my copy so i get visual clues too. basically it's hamlet in the tang dynasty.

if you want some fun, watch 'In the Mood for Love' and '2046' by wong kar wai. he's a hong kong based director and these films are mostly in cantonese. however, wong kar wai is no ordinary director, he has the actors speaking in their own languages, so for example, in '2046', tony cheung and gong li will have a conversation in cantonese/shanghainese and mandarin in the same scene - each speaking their native tongue. in both these films you'll hear mandarin, cantonese, japanese, shanghainese and loads of other languages. its good to be able to pick up the mandarin.

apart from that, these are two superb films in their own right. and proof that the asian film industry is as good as anyones.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Lifetimes (aka To Live)

A World Without Thieves

Seven Swords

Farewell My Concubine

Hero

Warriors of Heaven and Earth

Raise the Red Lantern

Hey Dottie.. Dumplings is a pretty unforgettable movie.. that's for sure...

I recently saw The Romantic Fool... pretty bad

Also saw The Longest Night in Shanghai... not bad, but lots of Japanese dialog though.

I'm a huge fan of Tony Leung Ka Fai and I would love for you to review any of his movies. I recently saw "Dumplings" which I thought was kind of sick, yet entertaining. I loved him in Zhou Yu's train.

Just so you guys know, I absolutely refer back to this list for recommendations on new movies to review. PLEASE try to limit your suggestions to movies that are in MANDARIN. And thanks for all your help!

Yeah, Tianfeng's recommendation is good, the movie is called "To Live" 活着, starring Gong Li and directed by Zhang Yimou. The best movie I've seen regarding 20th century China, it deals with massive political change from the 40's-70's and shows how it affects the lives of one family of ordinary citizens.

I just saw " Dian4 Ying2" (Electric Shadows), made in Beijing within the last several years. It's a great story that takes place in the 1970's before the widespread emergence of television, radio and of course, the Internet. The dialogue is very Beijinghua, the narration of the principal character was flawless mandarin, I thought. Since the film revolves around children growing up, the dialogue was suited for me since it was not complex. I really enjoyed the film even though perhaps it does have some Chinese melodrama, which can be a tear jerker. Some have likened it to "Cinema Paradiso". The film reveals much about the pre-Deng Xiaoping era and slow unravelling of the Cultural Revolution period where cadres upheld the party line in typical Maoist style. If you are a fan of Italian neorealist cinema, then "Dian Ying" recalls some of its traits and vision. Anyone else seen it?

What about comedies? It seems to me that most Chinese films that get out in the west are so serious. What do the Chinese find funny?

我也喜欢无间道.

我昨晚观看了无间道三.

它是很好

Also, "The World" is worth a look for different reasons.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423176/

and pretty much everything I've seen so far by Wong Kar Wai (2046, Happy Together, Fallen Angel, Chungking Express)

If you don't mind ridiculous fun, try 'A Chinese Ghost Story'(倩女幽魂 ?)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093978/

Gong Li is one of my myspace friends now. :)

(Well she might not be the real one.)

I loved it so much I had to buy it (ebay is cheap if it comes to DVD´s)! :-)

I have Hero as a videotape from a movielibrary (I think they closed or completely switched to DVD)

I have never actually seen "Courching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" though.

Everyone, I have a suggestion. Write in parentheses the pinyin for every Chinese language movie title. That would be helpful to us all.

Aside from that, I like this discussion, because I like to know the original name of a movie regardless what country it's from.

Frank, my wife and I both loved 和你在一起. A shame the English title left out 'with you,' thinking 'Together' by itself was sufficient.

Xiaohu,

少林足球 Shaolin Soccer was pure fun! Now I wanna see Stephen Zhou do a Dragon Ball Z movie with the same wild frenticism :)

I saw part of 我的父親母親 - The Road Home on America's AZN-TV and loved it. A romance movie that shows that quality G-rated fare is possible and enjoyable :) I have yet to watch my DVD of it. 英雄 Hero wasn't very good in my opinion. Verrry elaborate but a mixed bag.

Shangdi knows we need a database of American and Chinese (plus HK) films with their names in English and Chinese. :D

I wanted the Chinese version of Back To The Future, but it seems it doesn't have a Chinese audio track, only subtitles.

Do zhang yi mou's best movie 或者. It is so good I got my professor to show it in modern Chinese history class. The depiction of how one family's life changed so much in a life time is moving and amazing.

Like john said Steven chow's old stuff is really good. My favorites are probably 唐伯虎點秋香 - the flirting scholar and 九品芝麻官 - Hail to the judge.

I forgot about 冯小刚! His situation is the same as Zhang Yi Mou's, 千里走单骑, was so GOOD and 满城尽带黄金甲 was SO BAD! Similarly 天下无贼 was SO GOOD and his latest film 夜宴 was SO BAD! I was really looking forward to both of these films to be epic masterpieces and yet they turned out to be colossal dissapoinments!

门徒

What's the name of that recent Ping Pong comedy?

Oh, I have a great little childrens' ditty with "在一起" in it. Oh...if I only knew how to share it with everyone...it's on my iTunes library. Help?

That's fantastic, Aggie! I just finished watching a film called "Together" (和你在一起), and while it was a GREAT movie, I really need a laugh! I can't wait to watch one of these!

Have you guys ever heard of Chinese director 冯小刚(Féng Xiǎogāng)？ He also has bunch of funny movies, like:

天下无贼 (A World Without Thieves)

手机(Cell Phone)

甲方乙方 (The Dream Factory)

不见不散 （Be There Or Be Square ）

I have enjoyed all the movies above and they are very funny!

After the movie Hannibal 完全是狗屎, I have no mood or stomach to see anything else with Hannibal in it. But according to the reviews I read, Gong Li was much better than the leading actor who played Hannibal.

A little off topic but has anyone else seen Hannibal Rising? Gong Li plays a Japanese woman again in that.

@italiana - "Memoirs of a Geisha" is based on an American novel (written by Arthur Golden), a story about Japanese people, and portrayed in the movie by Chinese and Japanese actors/actresses. Consider it as whichever you like... :)

BTW I´m shure it´s Memoires of a Geisha ( [ge_sha] ;-) )

... I realy would like to have a review of Princes Blade. I watched it, but it was in japanese with french subs; so I didn´t even realy get half of the half of it :-( .

好的...I´ve got...

Hah, I got Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on DVD with Chinese Audio and Subs :-)

Oh, Mandarin movies!! I didn't see that part. I'm not sure if this is considered Chinese or not (it may be Japanese) but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memors Of A Geisha (spelling?).

One movie I'd like to see is called Bamboo Shoot.. I've seen pretty much all of Xia Yu's other movies.. I have no idea how much of a part he has in this movie though. Also it's got Coco Lee in it, who I've only seen pictures of, and they were pretty nice pictures.

have any question,please send me letters,to china,cyc--202@163.com,or 279728615@qq.com

maybe the stone story is popular in China,resently the actress who act lindaiyu died,most of chinese fall into sad.

stone story 红楼梦 written by caoxueqing in qing dynasty

xiaohu - Great suggestions, but how about some films you haven't seen yet? Got any recommendations for some Mandarin movies you're wondering if you should see?

Curse of the Golden Flower 满城尽带黄金甲，sorry to say I didn't enjoy that movie much. If you're going to pick some great movies:

周星驰的 Stephen Chow's - 少林足球 Shaolin Soccer

張藝謀的 Zhang Yi Mou's - 我的父親母親 - The Road Home, 英雄 Hero, 大紅燈籠高高掛 Raise The Red Lantern, 幸福時光 Happy Times, 優化好好説 Keep Cool (All GREAT)

Ye Lou's 蘇州河 Su Zhou River (very uncharacteristic of most Chinese films, it's very stylish and experimental)

Jianqi Huo's: Postman In The Mountains (starring Liu Ye) 那山那人那狗, and The Floating Landscape 戀愛的風景 （Also starring Liu Ye)

All AWESOME movies!

i loooooooooooooooove Stephen Chow's movies!!! (周星驰)... I also rather enjoy those romantic comedies from hong kong, but i can't think of any movie titles at the moment

Do some of the early Stephen Chow (周星驰) movies... the ones before Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

I've seen "God of Cookery" (食神), and it's pretty funny, but there are a lot of other ones I haven't seen.

OH! I can't believe that I forgot to mention this... the movies I'll be reviewing will mainly be in Mandarin (hence the association with ChinesePod)! Keep those suggestions coming, but please, give me the English names when possible. I'm still a Newbie over here! :-)

红色玫瑰

Do one on Stephen King's "红 玫瑰" (Hong Meigui) "Rose Red". If you translated it, it is actually "Red Rose" but the movie title is "Rose Red".

Curse of the Golden Flower 满城尽带黄金甲

Frank,

You may try 无间道 (Infernal affairs) part 1 and 2 of the trilogy. It's a must.

You can also get philosophical and try to develop the Buddha quote at the end of each movie. It does apply really well to chinese study. ;)