Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art.
The Last Emperor (1987)
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.
Shanghai Express (1932)
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
Broken Blossoms (1919)
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)
Two former cops start investigating the series of murders that tanked their careers when the killings begin again.
The Emperor and the Assassin (1998)
In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.
The Alley (1981)
The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.
Swell Guy (1946)
Perception vs. reality in a tale of a scoundrel and user whose jovial manner masks his true nature until a climatic redemption.
Eraser (1996)
U.S. Marshall John Kruger erases the identities of people enrolled in the Witness Protection Program. His current assignment is to protect Lee Cullen, who's uncovered evidence that the weapons manufacturer she works for has been selling to terrorist groups. When Kruger discovers that there's a corrupt agent within the program, he must guard his own life while trying to protect Lee's.
The Good Son (1993)
A young boy stays with his aunt and uncle, and befriends his cousin who's the same age. But his cousin begins showing increasing signs of psychotic behavior.
Kundun (1997)
The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.
Ward 16 (1983)
Set in early 1980s, Xishan tuberculosis hospital. Three female patients lives in ward 16. A new one moves in and makes others think about their lives.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)
The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
In 9th century China, a corrupt government wages war against a rebel army called the Flying Daggers. A romantic warrior breaks a beautiful rebel out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.
The Herdsman (1982)
In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.
Airport (1970)
Melodrama about a bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.
We've Never Been Licked (1943)
Young Brad Craig enters the military school with a chip on his shoulder which upperclassmen quickly knock off. Once adjusted, Craig falls in love with a professor's beautiful daughter, only to find she is in love with his roommate.