Directed by Jill Li • Documentary • 2020 • 180 minutes
Embedding herself in the village of Wukan, southern China for several years starting in 2011, first time documentarian Jill Li witnessed an unprecedented experiment in local democracy. Corrupt officials had illegally sold villagers' land, but the villagers decided to fight back.
The documentary is divided into two halves: the first, "Protests", depicts the grassroots activities of Wukan residents as they work to reverse the land sales and gain a substantial measure of control over their local territory. We see how the villagers themselves learn to organize elections, form alliances, and win support. Part two, "After Protests", confronts the collapse of idealism as the newly elected village government finds itself mired in the same kind of corrupt dealings they had originally condemned.
Li reveals the complexities of their triumphs and setbacks from the inside. Her astonishingly intimate, sympathetic and fair-minded access to the events' major players reveals Chinese local politics with three-dimensional passion and energy.
Directed by Shunji Iwai • Drama • With Zhou Xun, Qin Hao, Zhang Zifeng, Du Jiang, Hu Ge, Tan Zhou, Wu Yanshu
• 2018 • 114 minutes
Yuan Zhilan (Zhou Xun) attends a class reunion in place of her sister Yuan Zhihua, who recently passed away. While there, she reunites with her high school sweethear...
Directed by Ann Hui • Drama • With Tang Wei, Feng Shao Feng, Wang Zhiwen, Zhu Yawen, Huang Xuan • 2014 • 179 minutes
Tang Wei plays famed Chinese writer Xiao Hong in director Ann Hui’s epic feature recounting her short life; from her childhood in the Heilongjiang Province to her final days in Ho...
Directed by Sanyuan Peng • Drama • With Andy Lau, Jing Boran, Sandra Ng, Tony Leung Ka-fai
• 2015 • 109 minutes
After losing his two-year-old son, Lei (Andy Lau) begins a fourteen-year-long quest in search of his missing child. Hanging off the side of his motorcycle is his most valued token, th...
