Films with: Zhang, Yimou

Da hong deng long gao gao gua Raise the red lantern / ERA International (Hong Kong) Ltd. ; producer, Chiu Fu-sheng ; China Film Co. production corpora

An idealistic young woman agrees to become the fourth wife to the wealthy Chen, a distant man who encourages his wives to compete for his affections.

DVD 5478

Huo zhe To live / To live / ERA International (HK) Ltd. presents, in association with Shanghai Film Studios ; producer, Chiu Fusheng ; script, Yu Hua

In a smoky gambling den in 1940s 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. Through the terrors of China's civil war, the passions of the communist takeover, the betrayals of Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward and the tragic mistakes of the Cultural Revolution, their lives unfold across four decades of momentous change.

DVD 6487

Jinling shi san chai

The dangerous streets of Nanjing throw together a group of opposites, a flock of shell-shocked schoolchildren, a dozen seductive courtesans, and a renegade American posing as a priest to save his own skin, or so he thinks, all seeking safety behind a walled cathedral. Trapped by marauding soldiers, over the next few days the prejudices and divides between them will fall away as they unite around a last ditch plan to protect the children from impending catastrophe.

DVD 10229

Ju Dou

The battered wife of a Chinese mill owner and his overworked nephew fall in love. Only murder could free them from the mill owner's tyranny -- or could it?

DVD 737

Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia Curse of the golden flower /

China, Later Tang Dynasty, 10th Century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai. His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress, this seems disingenuous. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan, her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan, the Imperial Doctor's daughter. Meanwhile, faithful son Prince Jai, grows worried over the Empress's health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans and the Imperial Doctor is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor's family from the Palace to a remote area. They are attacked by mysterious assassins and Chan and her mother are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace.

DVD 7992

Qian li zou dan qi Riding alone for thousands of miles /

Takada is an aging Japanese fisherman who has been estranged from his son for many years. When the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. When his son refuses to see him, Rie gives him a videotape about the work his son was doing on a documentary film in a remote region of China's Yunnan province. Still troubled by the relationship, Takada decides to go to China and complete his son's work in part to develop an understanding of his son, and in part to do something for him. Once in China a series of obstacles and relationships bring him unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.

DVD 6758

Shi mian mai fu House of Flying Daggers /

During the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, a secret organization called "The House of the Flying Daggers" rises and opposes the government. Leo is a police officer who sends officer Jin to investigate a young dancer named Mei, claiming that she has ties to the "Flying Daggers" organization. Leo ends up arresting Mei, only to have Jin break her free in a plot to gain her trust and lead the police to the new leader of the secret organization. But things are far more complicated than they seem.

DVD 3707

Story of Qiu Ju Qiuju da guan si /

In a small Chinese village a farmer (Qing Lai) and his chief quarrel over land. When Qing Lai is injured by the chief, who kicks him in the groin, Qing's wife Qiu Ju begins a quixotic odyssey that takes her from her small village to the provincial capital. She is relentless in her one-woman crusade to wreak a simple justice from the proud Chief ... she wants him to apologize.

DVD 5413

Xing fu shi guang Happy times /

In an attempt to impress a portly divorcée that has caught his eye, an unemployed factory worker poses as the wealthy manager of a non-existent hotel. Hoping that his fabricated success will lead to holy matrimony, he instead finds himself the guardian of the woman's blind stepdaughter. Now, as the lies get more complicated and the deception more difficult to sustain, the sweet young blind girl and the crazy middle-aged man find themselves forming an emotional friendship that is as touching as it is unlikely.

DVD 4966

Yi ge dou bu neng shao Not one less /

A young woman is ordered to a remote Chinese village to be a substitute teacher. Barely older than her students, the shy girl is charged with keeping the class intact for one month or she won't be paid. When one of her students disappears into the city to find work, the stubborn teacher is determined to follow the boy and bring him back to school. Once in the city, her simple peasant pleas fall on deaf ears, and only when the local television sympathizes does her search bear fruit.

DVD 2396

Ying xiong Hero /

With supernatural skill and no fear a nameless soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that massacred his people. Now, to achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat.

DVD 3403