2046
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2004
He was a writer. He thought he wrote about the future but it
really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every
once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention.....to
recapture their lost memories. 128 min. In Cantonese with optional English
subtitles.
Call number: DVD 2046 |
As Tears Go By / Wangjiao Kamen
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2000 (1988)
Stretched to breaking in a loyalty tug of war between Triad bosses
and a loose cannon partner, a rising film star in the HK underworld finds
himself saddled with his beautiful cousin. The fascination is his last
chance to escape a violent past. In Cantonese with optional English
subtitles.
Call number: DVD aste
|
Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress / Xiao Cai Feng
Director: Dai Sijie
2002
In 1971 China, in the lingering grip of the cultural revolution,
two university students, Luo and Ma, are sent to a mountain mining village
as part of their reeducation duty to purge them of their classical western
oriented education. Amid the backbreaking work and stifling ignorance of the
community, the two boys find that music, and the presence of the beautiful
local young women are the only pleasant things in their miserable life.
However, none compare to the young
seamstress granddaughter of the local tailor. Stealing a
departing student’s secret cache of forbidden books of classic western
literature such as the works of Honore de Balzac, they set about to woo her
and teach her things she had never imagined. In doing so, they start a
journey that would profoundly change her perspective on her world and teach
the boys about the power of literature and their own ability to change their
world in truly revolutionary ways.
Mandarin Chinese
dialogue with English subtitles.
Call number: DVD balz
|
A Better Tomorrow
Director: John Woo
2001 (1986)
A gangster is caught between loyalty to his down-and-out partner
and to his rookie-cop younger brother. 94 min.
Mandarin Chinese
dialogue with English subtitles.
Call number: DVD bett
|
Boys from Fengkuei
Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien
1983
Ah-Ching and his friends have just
finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their
time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of
Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and
Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the
harsh realities of the big city. In
Taiwanese with Chinese subtitles. 104 min.
Call number: DVD houh p.1 |
Chungking Express / Chong Qing Sen Lin
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
2000
Two intertwined romantic tales take place inside the Chung-ching
high-rise shopping center in downtown Hong Kong. A policeman falls in love
with a snack bar waitress while a house detective gets involved with a
female drug dealer. DVD. In Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese with optional
English subtitles.
102 min.
Call number: DVD chun |
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Wo Hu Cang Long
Director: Ang Lee
2000
Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious
fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's
daughter, who is at a crossroad in her life.
In English with Chinese,
Korean, Thai and English subtitles or Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin).
Plot
summary from IMDb.com
Call number: DVD crou
|
Days of Being Wild / A fei cheng chuan
Director: Wong
Kar-Wai
2004 (1990)
Interweaving love-hate relationships and passion, tells the story
of six young people
living in the 1960s in Hong Kong and their individual quests for intimate
connections. In Cantonese with optional English subtitles. 89 min.
Call number: DVD days |
Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Director: Ding Yinnan
2003
This movie narrates the glorious
struggling life of Sun Yat-sen. At his young age Sun plants to overthrow the
Qing Dynasty. He often gets together with the revolutionary pioneers such as
Song Yaoru discussing his ideals. He dies in 1925 and over more than thirty
years he leads one revolution after another and this movie reveals his
unconquerable determination and the magnificent wars and frustrations in his
revolutionary career.
In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles.149 min.
Call number: DVD drsu |
Dream of Red Mansions
Director: Wang Fulen
2009 (1987)
Set during the late Qing period in
China, Jia Baoyu is the only son in a very wealthy family. His father wants
him to become a state official; however, Jia Baoyu only wishes to write
poetry and flirt with women. After accidentally marrying a woman he does not
love, he leaves home to become an itinerant monk. In
Chinese (Mandarin or dubbed into Cantonese) with optional traditional
Chinese, simplified Chinese or English subtitles. 36 episodes in 12
videodiscs (ca. 40 min. for each episode).
Call number: DVD drea p.1-6 |
Dust in the Wind
Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien
1986
A love story about a young
couple from a village in the southern part of Taiwan. The boy goes to Taipei
to work after graduating from junior high to earn money to send home. The
girl follows him the next year and they work hard to earn enough money to
marry. Then the young man spends three years in the military and the girl
marries someone else. Although the young man regrets what happened he does
not blame the girl. In
Taiwanese with Chinese subtitles. 100 min.
Call number: DVD houh p.4 |
Early Spring
Director: Xie Tieli
2005 (1963)
In the late 1920s, a confusing young
man Xiao Jianqiu comes to Furong Town and works as a teacher. He shows great
concern and compassion for a widow but he loves a landlord's daughter more.
Later the widow's son dies so Xiao decides to marry the widow so as to help
her and her young daughter. His noble action brings about a lot of gossip
and the widow eventually committs suicide of shame and guilt. Xiao leaves
the town indignantly and throws himself into the reforming current of the
revolution. In Mandarin Chinese
with English subtitles. 98 min.
Call number: DVD earl |
Eat Drink Man Woman / Yin Shi Nan Nu
Director: Ang Lee
1994
A retired master chef and widower 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. In
Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles. 124 min.
Call number: DVD eatd |
The Emperor and the Assassin / Jing Ke
ci Qin Wang
Director: Chen Kaige
2000
Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one
driving ambition: to unify China’s seven kingdoms into one magnificent
empire. Impressed by her lover’s convictions, Lady Zhao helps Ying Zheng
concoct an assassination plot that would justify the conquest of Qin’s most
powerful enemy.
In Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles. 161 min.
Call number: DVD empe |
Exiled
Director:
Johnnie To
2007 (2006)
The time is
1998. The setting is Macau. Every living soul jumps at every chance to make
quick money before the Portuguese colony ushers in a new era under the
Chinese rule. A relationship is formed between an ex-gangster trying to turn
over a new leaf with his wife and newborn baby and two groups of hitmen -
those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.
In Cantonese or English with optional
subtitles in English or Spanish. 109 min.
Call number: DVD exil |
Fallen Angles / Duo Luo Tian Shi
Director: Wong
Kar-Wai
1995
In the garishly lit late-night world of Hong Kong, the lives of
four lonely people briefly intersect: Wong Chi-Ming, a jaded hit man who
wants out of his dangerous, solitary business but is leery of emotional
involvement; the Agent, the beautiful partner-in-crime he’s never met, but
who’s fallen in love
with Chi-Ming anyway; Baby, a bleached-blonde, nightcrawling cookie who’s
looking for love but will settle for being remembered by Chi-Ming; and He
Zhiwu, a mute, overgrown child who, in the wee hours, breaks into closed-up
shops, opens them for business and forces customers to shop against their
will. In Cantonese with optional English subtitles.
96 min.
Call number: DVD fall |
Farewell My Concubine
Director: Chen Kaige
1999 (1993)
Story that spans more than 50 years in the lives of two men
at the Peking Opera, friends since childhood, and the woman who comes
between them. Also an absorbing drama of the period in Chinese history from
the warlord era through the Cultural Revolution.
In Chinese with English subtitles.
Call number: DVD fare |
Frozen
Director: Wu Ming
1999
Provides a rare look at the avant-garde art world of Beijing. A young
performance artist decides to make his own suicide his ast work of art. On
the longest day of the year, he plans to melt a huge block of ice with his
own body heat and die of hypothermia. His "Ice Burial" is a chilling
expression of post Tiananmen Square ennui in China.
Call number: DVD froz |
Happy Times / Xingfu Shiguang
Director: Zhang Yimou
2002
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.
In Mandarin, English or French subtitles.
Call number: DVD happ |
Happy Together /
Cheun gwong tsa sit
Director:
Wong Kar-Wai
1997
Yiu Fai and Po Wing left Hong Kong for
a great waterfall in South America, but in the end are
stuck on the streets of Buenos Aires. Yiu Fai’s life
takes on a new spin, while Po Wing’s life shatters
continually.
In Cantonese with optional
English subtitles.
97 min.
Call number: DVD happ |
Hard Boiled
Director: John Woo
2007 (1992)
Tequila is a die-hard cop, hell-bent on bringing down the gun
smugglers responsible for his partner’s death. To avenge his partner’s
murder, Tequila joins forces with a rebel cop, and then the body count
soars. 247 min.
Mandarin Chinese
dialogue with English subtitles.
Call number: DVD hard
|
Heroic Sons and Daughters
Director: Wu Zhaoti
2003 (1964)
This is a love story about how a Chinese military adviser finds
his missing daughter in Korea during Korean War. Mandarin Chinese. 109 min.
Call number:
DVD hero
|
House of Flying Daggers /Shi Mian Mai Fu
Director: Zhang Yimou
2004
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.
Mandarin, dubbed English or dubbed French dialogue, English or French
subtitles. 115 min.
Call number: DVD hous |
In the Mood For Love /
Hua yang nian hua
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
2002 (2000)
The story of two lonely people who discover in each other the intimacy
they have lost in their marriages. In Cantonese & Shanghainese with English
subtitles. 98 min.
Call number: DVD
inth |
The Killer / Die Xue Shuang Xiong
Director: John Woo
2000 (1991)
Jeffrey is the killer hired by the mob for one last job. Lee is a
relentless cop whose mission is to stop Jeffrey at all cost. The two enemies
form a strange bond that blurs the line between good and evil. When Jeffrey
is double-crossed by the mob in a shootout, Lee picks up his trail in a
church while Jeffrey’s mistress is caught in a crossfire. 110 min.
Call number: DVD
kill |
Life
Director: Wu Tianming
2003 (1984)
A young man abandoned his girl friend in order to seek for a better life
in the city. However, he ended up getting nothing and when he was sent back
to the village, his girl friend was already married to someone else.
125 min.
Call number: DVD life |
Lust, Caution / Se, Jie
Director: Ang Lee
2008 (2007)
Set Japanese-occupied Shanghai, a young woman finds herself swept up in a
radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent. As
she immerses herself in her role as a cosmopolitan seductress, she becomes
entangled in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue, love and betrayal. 159 min.
Call number: DVD lust |
New Year Sacrifice /
Zhu fu
Director: Hu Sang
2004 (1956)
The story of a young woman, widowed twice, who is seen as a bearer of bad
luck and becomes a social outcast. Based on the short story by the Chinese
author Lu Xun and named one of the top 100 Chinese films of all time by Asia
Weekly. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 100 min.
Call number: DVD
newy / DVD new
|
Not One Less / Yi
Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao
Director: Zhan
2000
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.
Call number: DVD
noto |
The Puppetmaster / Xi Meng Ren Sheng
Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
2001 (1993)
Based on the memoirs of Li Tien-lu,
Taiwan’s most celebrated puppeteer, this story covers the years from Li’s
birth in 1909 to the end of Japan’s fifty-year occupation of Taiwan in 1945.
In Mandarin and Taiwanese with English subtitles.142 min.
Call number: DVD pupp |
Purple Butterfly / Zi Hudie
Director: Lou Yi
2005 (2003)
Cynthia is a young Chinese woman in love with Itami, a Japanese man about to
be sent home for military service. A devasted Cynthia moves back to Shanghai
only to witness the death of her elder brother during an attack by the
Japanese extreme right. She changes her name to Ding Hui and joins a secret
resistance group code-named Purple Butterfly. This will be the same group
that, years later, will plot to assassinate Itami.
123 min.
Call number: DVD purp |
The Rickshaw Boy /
Luo tuo Xiang Zi
Director: Zifeng Ling
2004 (1982)
Based on the famous novel by Lao She, Rickshaw Boy tells of a
hard-working peasant who tries to make his way in the city. He works hard,
struggles to establish a business, and falls in love. In Mandarin with
English subtitles. 120 min.
Call number: DVD
rick |
The Sent Down Girl / Xiu
Xiu
Director: Joan Chen
1999
Between 1967 and 1976, nearly 8 million Chinese youths were "sent down"
for specialized training to the remotest corners of the country. The young
and beautiful Xiu Xiu dreamt of becoming a horse trainer in Tibet, far away
from her busy city home. Her training begins in the isolated plains of Tibet
but slowly Xiu Xiu discovers that she is unlikely to ever see her home again
without a wealthy sponsor. Her world becomes a horrifying cage, where
"patrons" promise her escape in exchange for her sexual compromise.
Mandarin Chinese.
Call number: DVD xiux |
Stolen Life / Sheng Si Jie
Director: Li Shaohong
2007 (2005)
Yan'ni
starts college, but once there she immediately falls in love with Muyu. Muyu
begins an intricate deception that will take Yan'ni's child and the belief
in any future she has. 90 mins.
Mandarin Chinese.
Call number: DVD stol |
Temptress Moon / Feng Yue
Director: Chen Kaige
2002 (1996)
This is a captivating story of a beautiful young woman, her seductive
lover and their struggle for power, passion and revenge.
With English subtitles. 127 min.
Call number: DVD temp |
Time to Live and the Time to Die
Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien
1985
The film depicts a family transplanted
from mainland China to Taiwan in the early 1950s. The father dies of illness
and the elder sister marries. A-ha, the protagonist, struggles to deal with
adolescence.. In Taiwanese with
Chinese subtitles. 85 min.
Call number: DVD houh p.3 |
Shower / Xi Zao
Director: Zhang Yang
2000
Mistakenly believing his father has passed away, a bathhouse master's son
returns home and soon discovers the magic of the family business and its
importance to the community.
Call number: DVD show |
The Soong Sisters / Song Jia Juang Chao
Director: Cheung Yuen Ting
2004 (1996)
The end of Qing dynasty, the Soong sisters--Ai-ling, Ching-ling and
May-ling became legends in their own time. One loved money, one loved power,
and one loved her country. Their lives were interwoven into the turbulent
history of modern China. Ching-ling married to Dr. Sun who led the 1911
revolution and she embarked on a long journey of vagrant life. In Mandarin
with Chinese and English subtitles. 145 min.
Call number: DVD soon |
Summer at Grandpa's
Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien
1984
After their mother becomes
hospitalized, two city children find themselves spending the summer in the
country with their grandfather. In
Taiwanese with Chinese subtitles. 93 min.
Call number: DVD houh p.2 |
Summer Palace
Director: Lou Ye
2006
Yu Hong is a rebellious young woman
from a small Chinese town transplanted to a politically charge Beijing
University in the late 1980s. The country's social turmoil is witnessed
through its disaffected youth, whose newfound sexuality and activism
culminated in violent suppression. Spanning nearly 20 years of Chinese
history, projects the country's struggle for definition through the eyes and
heart of a young woman ill-equipped to handle it. While drifting between the
arms of two different men, her love fervent for both, Yu Hong's existential
crisis mirrors that of her nation. In
Mandarin and German with optional English subtitles. 140 min.
Call number: DVD summ |
Suzhou River / Suzhou He
Director: Ye Lou
2000
An exciting, action-filled mystery suspense movie, director Lou Ye's
Suzhou River shares many thematic and stylistic elements with Alfred
Hitchcock's Vertigo.
Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.
Call number: DVD suzh |
Temptation of a Monk / You
Zeng
1995
Set in 7th century China, it tells the story of a young general who is
betrayed and forced to take refuge in a Buddhist temple in order to confront
his mistakes.
Call number: DVD
temp |
Three Times / Zui Hao de Shi Guang
Director: Hou Hsiao Hsien
2005
A rapturous and beautiful love story set in three different eras - a pool
hall in 1966, a 1911 brothel, and present-day Taipei. The director brings to
life the culture of each period as the tales unfold. 135 min.
Call number: DVD thre |
Blush / Hong Fen
Director: Li Shaohong
1995
Charts the fortunes of two prostitutes
who loved each other as sisters, but whose paths diverge when the Revolution
brings an end to their old way of life in the brothel.
119 min. In Cantonese with English subtitles.
Call number: VHS PN1997 .B587 1995 |
Divorce / Li Hun
Director: Haowei Wang
199?
A story about civil servants in Peking in the 30's: the turmoils of
family life occur during a time when Western thoughts have started to
influence the old society.
Call number: VHS PN1997 .L45643 1990 |
Hibiscus Town / Furong Zhen
Director: Jin Xie
1989 (1984)
The film tells the story of a couple who sells rice beancurd for a
living. During the "four clean-ups" movement of 1964, they are classified as
new rich peasants: their house is confiscated and the husband is driven to
suicide. After the Cultural Revolution, the wife falls in love with a
rightist and almost dies when having a difficult delivery of their baby.
Call number: VHS PL2874.U1 F8 1989 |
New Year Sacrifice / Chu Fu
Director: Hu Sang
1990 (1956)
Story of a young peasant widow who is sold into marriage, who eventually
falls in love with her husband, and who is beset by tragedy for the rest of
her life.
Call number: VHS PN1997 .C58 |
Old Well / Lao Jing
Director: Tian-Ming Wu
1987
The story of the centuries old search for water in a Chinese mountain
village and the love between a married man and another woman trapped
together in a well.
Call number: VHS PN 1997 .L36 1987 |
Raise the Red Lantern /
Da Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Qua
Director: Zhang Yimou
2000
Mandarin Chinese
Call number: VHS PN 1997 .R35 |
Shower / Xi
zao
Director: Zhang Yang
2000
A son learns to appreciate his father's way of life in a gentle,
engaging story.
Call number: DVD PN 1997 .X5 2000 |
Spring Festival / Guo Nian
Director: Jian-zhong Huang
1991
A retired revolutionary living in suburban Beijing intends to spend the
New Year Holiday peacefully with his aging wife, but the unexpected visits
from his four grown children and their families and friends brings
excitement, conflict, and melodrama.
Call number: VHS PN 1997 .G86 1997 |
The Story of Qiu Ju / Qiuju da guan si
Director: Zhang Yimou
1993
A stoic
peasant woman demands an apology when her husband is kicked in the groin
by the village Chief. But the Chief is a proud man who refuses to
apologize, sending Qiu Ju on a futile trek therough the complicated court
system.
Mandarin Chinese
Call number: VHS PN 1997 .S855 |
To Live / Huozhe
Director: Yimou Zhang
1998 (1994)
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.
Call number: VHS PN1997 .T5937 1998 |
Yellow Earth /
Huang tu
di
Director: Chen Kaige
1993
The year is 1939. The life of a young peasant girl in Northern Shaanxi
province is changed forever by a Communist soldier sent out to collect folk
songs for the use of revolutionary armies. Mandarin Chinese.
Call number: VHS PN 1995.9 .C47 H836 |
