Chen Shu
Shanghai, China, 1930. When young Shuisheng arrives from the countryside, his uncle Liushu puts him at the service of Bijou, the mistress of Laoda, supreme boss of the Tang Triad, constantly threatened by his enemies, both those he knows and those lurking in the shadows.
As most families only want to have boys, women end up becoming rare and precious.
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.
The film begins following the British victory of the first Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large port that both the British government and various trading companies believe will be useful for the import of merchandise to be traded on mainland China, a highly lucrative market.
In 1949, as the country celebrates liberation, KMT agents are ploting.
PLA send scouts to get through Yangtze River to collect enemy information of defense.
A soldier finds his new role in the transition from war time to the construction era.
A New York City businessman meets a window washer hoping to commit suicide and decides to market his grief to the highest bidder in this acidic satire on American capitalism, one made even more memorable by the fact that the entire “American” cast are Chinese actors in whiteface. The greedy Mr. Butler (Shi Hui) convinces the suicidal “Charley” that he might as well endorse some cigarettes as he jumps out of his office window, and maybe wear a particular suit too. A true cinematic oddity, this Korean War–era propaganda piece is a satire that Frank Tashlin could envy.
