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CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
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Our Price: $28.95
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Director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) delivers his most ambitious martial arts epic to date. Set near the end of the Tang dynasty, the film revolves around the twisted marriage of the emperor (Chow Yun-Fat) and his bride (Gong Li)--he's slowly poisoning her, she's plotting to overthrow him. The overstuffed story, filled with intrigue, incest, and other operatic devices, is excessive to say the least, right along with the boldly colorful visuals, grand production design, and soaring battle sequences. With Jay Chou and Ye Liu. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---Hong Kong/China---2006---114 mins.
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FLOWERS OF WAR, THE
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Our Price: $27.98
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Christian Bale stars as an adventurer in Zhang Yimou's melodrama set during the Rape of Nanking. Bale becomes the unwilling "guardian" of a group of Catholic school girls (and, parenthetically, prostitutes escaped from a Nanking brothel) as the city is under siege by the Japanese who pillage and rape. The most expensive Chinese film in history and the Chinese submission for Academy Awards, The Flowers of War is impeccably filmed and a tearjerker of the highest order. In English and Mandarin with English subtitles.
Zhang Yimou---China/Hong Kong---2011---146 mins.
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HERO (JET LI)
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Our Price: $29.99
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Beautiful imagery, fine storytelling and impressive martial arts sequences set Zhang Yimou's epic in class of its own. Action, romance and history are deftly mixed to examine the nature of the hero and its relation to Chinese nationalism. Set deep in China's past, when the country was divided into seven warring states, Hero follows in flashback the shifting accounts made to an emperor by a nameless warrior (Jet Li) who claims to have killed three indestructible assassins (Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen). Yimou's use of color is extraordinary and the many action sequences, including one in which Cheung and Li deflect thousands of arrows in a whirlwind of hands and motions, set a new standard. Also stars actress Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---China---2002---93 mins.
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HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
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Our Price: $28.95
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Zhang Yimou's second consecutive martial arts drama blends sumptuous sets and balletic action sequences into a stunning and kinetic whole. Set in 859 AD, the film follows a pair of lawmen (Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro) as they attempt to uncover a revolutionary faction called the Flying Daggers. The captains enlist the help of a beautiful dancer (Zhang Ziyi) whose father is a member of the faction, and she agrees to help after falling deeply in love with one of her protectors. The story is ultimately secondary to the stunning visuals, which burst forth with startling energy. As he proved with Hero and again with this film, "Zhang could not shoot an unbeautiful scene if he tried" (Anthony Lane, The New Yorker). In Mandarin with English Zhang Yimou---China / Hong Kong---2004---119 mins.
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HOUSE OF FLYING/ CROUCHING T
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Our Price: $36.96
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This set combines two of the most successful and visually outstanding martial arts dramas of recent years, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, 120 mins.) and Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers (2004, 119 mins.). Both films are in Mandarin with English subtitles. Ang Lee/Zhang Yimou---China / Hong Kong---2000, 2004---239 mins.
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JU- DOU
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Our Price: $19.99
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The erotic thriller that China didn't want you to see. An exquisitely photographed and smartly performed drama of secret love and hidden faces. Trouble closely follows passion when a beautiful young bride is drawn to the handsome, strong nephew of her new husband, an ancient and disagreeable owner of an isolated dye factory. With excellent performances by Gong Li, Li Bao-tan, Li Wei and Zhang Li. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---China/Japan---1989---98 mins.
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NOT ONE LESS
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Our Price: $29.95
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From the celebrated director of Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern comes this warm, witty and touching comic fable about a thirteen-year-old girl who is chosen to serve as a substitute teacher when her poor village's elder schoolmaster is away. Her troubles teaching children not much younger than herself are nothing compared to the trouble she finds in the city when she travels to find a missing student. "Not One Less is a movie whose humanity is irresistibly, even joyfully, accessible" (Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com). A Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival. In Zhang Yimou---China---1999---106 mins.
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RAISE THE RED LANTERN
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Our Price: $19.98
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The third feature by Zhang Yimou stars the beautiful Gong Li as a 20-year-old college student who leaves school to become the fourth wife of a wealthy, powerful aristocrat. Her presence occasions a series of bitter jealousies and disputes with the three other wives. A fascinating work about sex, oppression and patriarchy. Named Best Foreign Language Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. In Mandarin with English Zhang Yimou---China/Taiwan---1991---125 mins.
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ROAD HOME (2000)
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Our Price: $29.98
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Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) stars in this lovingly visualized film from Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou) . After his father dies, a son arranges for the traditional funeral ceremonies of his mother's village. As the customs are revived, so are memories of his parents' courtship. "The director finds poetry in the face of his lead actress, whose performance is as luminous and moving as the film itself" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone). In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---China---1999---89 mins.
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SHANGHAI TRIAD
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Our Price: $29.95
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Gong Li is once again the star of a lavish period piece from one of China's most celebrated directors. Li becomes enmeshed in a struggle between vicious, feuding warlords. As the mistress of Shanghai's chief gangster, she doesn't have much say in the matter. Beautiful cinematography, for which this film was nominated for an Academy Award, makes it simply spellbinding. The cause of controversy in China, it offers an unparalleled look at China's enduring power politics. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---China---1995---107 mins.
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TO LIVE
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Our Price: $19.98
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Winner of the 1994 Cannes Palme d'Or, Zhang Yimou's daring political tale of modern China landed him in hot water with the Chinese authorities. To Live follows a contemporary family across the turbulent face of 20th century China, from the Japanese invasion through Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The powerful drama is made all the more potent by the strong performance of Gong Li. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Zhang Yimou---China---1994---125 mins.
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WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP, A
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Our Price: $28.95
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"Those who found Blood Simple--the Coen Brothers' stylish 1984 debut--too humourless a black comedy may be biting their tongues over Zhang Yimou's (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) sacrilegiously funny period remake...In what is surely one of the year's unlikeliest projects, Zhang has traded Texas' oppressively bleak vista for China's visually intoxicating desert landscape for this enthralling film, at once hilarious and cruelly ironic. An abusive noodle shop owner (Ni Dahong) hires a poker-faced police officer (Sun Hunglei)--who specialises in detecting the serious crime of adultery--to murder his wife (Yan Ni) and her wimpy lover (rising comedian Xiao Shenyang), only to have things go wrong...Zhang even manages to make his characters, despite their bumbling and clowning around, endearing: something you can hardly say of the Coens' sleazy creations" (Edmund Lee, Time Out Hong Kong). In Mandarin with English subtitles.
Zhang Yimou---China---2009---95 mins.
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