Chen Yan-Yan

The film is based on a true story: the tragic life of China's first prima donna of the silver screen, Ruan Lingyu. This movie chronicles her rise to fame as a movie actress in Shanghai during the 1930s. Actress Maggie Cheung portrayed Ruan in this movie. Nicknamed the "Chinese Garbo," Ruan Lingyu began her acting career when she was 16 years old and committed suicide at age 24. The film alternates between present scenes (production talks between director Kwan, Cheung, and co-star Carina Lau, interviews of witnesses who knew Ruan), re-creation scenes with Cheung (as Ruan, acting inside this movie), and extracts from Ruan's original films including her final two films The Goddess and New Women.

7.5/10

When a once infamous criminal decides to give up his lifestyle and return the many treasures he has stolen to their rightful owners; he is promptly murdered by his partners in crime. To avenge his death is his son, with the deadly "mantis fist".

4.6/10

A spoilt rich kid turns up at a fu school to show off, but he gets clobbered by the boastful Little Tiger, who is later framed for the kid's murder when a gang of blackmailers make an example of him. The police allow Tiger to escape, in order to find the real culprits. Tiger hides at his girlfriend's place, but a model she works with does some whoring on the side for the blackmailer, and so the crooks are onto his trail...

4.5/10

After a career spanning more than forty years and dozens of films as director or writer, Yueh Feng used everything he learned on a final few martial arts epics, of which this is one of the most memorable. It's not easy to forget a hunchbacked, one-armed protagonist, nor the "Poisonous Dragon Sword" style, nor the luminous and lethal Shih Szu as the title swordswoman, who is out to avenge her father's death at the mid-autumn festival.

6.3/10

Plotting to obtain the Yen family's land, dastardly Japanese plutocrat Omura (Ching Miao) bribes Yen nephew Hsu Chien (Chen Feng Chen) to steal the family seal and land deed. When Hsu Chien is caught in the act, he viciously beats elderly Master Yen to death to cover his actions. Determined to avenge the wrongs committed on his family and his country, young master Yen Tzu Fei (Ling Yun) blazes a knife-throwing path of revenge that leads him to his love Yue Hua's (Ching Li) father, who has corrupt connections with the Japanese

5.6/10

The Yang family, men and women, have served their country loyally for generations. During the war General Yang is ambushed and killed. His widow and the entire family set out to avenge his death and defend the country.

6.5/10

Intrigue in the court means that the wife and daughter of framed scholar Sung have to travel to the capital in disguise, as court agents hunt them down. A righteous swordsman and a group of kiln workers get caught up in the action.

6.5/10

This tale is about a decapitating swordswoman who will let nothing stand in her way when she falls in love with a bandit's son. Chiao Chiao, made famous in One-Armed Swordsman, is the girl who won't let such trifles as craniums keep her from freeing her man from jail.

6.5/10

The film tells the story of Tang Bohu, a famous scholar who spends most of his time wandering around the countryside.

6.8/10

Spring Blossoms is a parable about the Chinese youth culture and what's important to the younger generation when it comes to romance. It starred a new wave of seventies, Shaw's beauties, Lily Li, Shu Pei-pei and Essie Lin-chia as single women looking for love. It's a triple-decker romantic bus ride on a road to nowhere speeding toward a low bridge. Only Lily Li became successful via her martial-arts abilities, so awesomely featured in Jackie Chan's The Young Master.

6.6/10

Mandarin-era Hong Kong film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.

Su Fen, a young and frail girl, looked forward to her wedding with her fiancé, Li Kuo-liang. The happy couple's bliss was cut short when war broke out. Kuo-liang was summoned to fight at the front lines. In his absence, Su Fen discovered she had tuberculosis.

6.1/10

With her elegant classic persona, Li Li-hua was the ideal performer for period aristocratic and imperial roles. The Goddess Of Mercy is a good example of her strong empathy and noble presence. The youngest daughter of a brutal king, the princess openly disapproves of the floggings and cruel treatment her royal family heaps on the peasants. As a result, the heartless king turns on his own daughter forcing her into exile. This humanistic tale will inspire and hearten even the most cynical viewer.

6.9/10

An evil gang attacks the Chi school of Golden Sword Kung Fu. One student sacrifices his life to save his teacher and his school, his dying wish is that his son be taken in as a student. Young Fang Kang grows up in the school and treasures his father's broken sword and the memory of his father's sacrifice. The other students (including the teacher's daughter) resent him and try to drive him away. The teacher's daughter challenges him to a fight and when he refuses she becomes enraged and recklessly chops off his arm! He retreats, broken and bloody, and is found by a young poor girl living alone who nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, the evil gang who originally attacked the Golden Sword school develops a weapon that renders the Golden Sword useless and starts killing off all of the schools students. Fang Kang eventually recovers with the girl's help but must now face a life with only one arm. Will he be able to recover and live to defend the school as his father did?

7.3/10

The film tells a complicated love story. Carmen with Ke, Xiang Yi and Jiyuan. They start as a friend, but somehow a love triangle occur, and the outcome is very tragic.

6.9/10

A young woman lost her fiancé from the plane clash , later she discover that she becomes pregnant with his baby.She question herself what should she do between keep the child safe until she give a birth or she abortion the child.

6.6/10

Hong Kong musical directed by Lo Chen.

Part two of the wartime love story

6.4/10

It's a powerful melodrama about a thwarted romance in 1930s Tientsin, China, during the Japanese occupation, and it stars Linda Lin Dai, one of the era's most popular stars. It was part of Golden Horse's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films.

7/10

War film set during the second Sino-Japanese war.

6.8/10

A scholar woos the daughter of an important family, while outwitting rebels who try to capture her.

7/10

With China under control of a weak Emperor, two officials compete to steer the future destiny of the land. Chiu believes the people are the future of China, while the diabolical Tu wishes to grind the people beneath an iron heel. Tu decides to take out Chiu's family, but one lone infant escapes.

8.1/10

The Goddess of Hua Mountain is imprisoned for falling in love with a mortal, meanwhile her son is raised in secret until he can attempt to free her.

7.2/10

The story revolves around Tian Yu Quan (Chin Feng) who rushes to the aid of an elderly fisherman who is bullied by an arrogant relative of the Qiu Shan ministry. In the heat of the ensuing battle he kills the said man and is hence chased by the district's officials. Trying to use the waterway to shake off his enemies, Yu Quan finds a true friend in the old fisherman's bark-stearing daughter, Hu Feng Lian (Ting Hung) who becomes his loyal accomplice. As symbol for his gratitude, Yu Quan bestows Feng Lian with a Butterfly Chalice to reflect their eternal friendship bond...

6.4/10

Ling Bo is Lin, a young man engaged to the daughter of a rich man, who now despises Lin because of his family's declining status. Lin visits his beloved fiancee before he heads towards the imperial city to participate in the civil service examination, only to find her maid lying dead in blood. Lin is then accused of murder. How can Judge Bao prove his innocence?

6.8/10

Fan Chia-soo is a kind-hearted student whose heart is captured by the sweet song of Shen Feng-hsien. However, he is not the only one who has eyes for Shen. The General's henchmen are also determined to present the songstress to their superior as a gift. Fan received help from an unexpected quarter to save the woman he loves.

7.3/10

About a woman who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army.

7.1/10

A widow of four gave up two of her children to be raised by an uncle in Singapore. Many years later, just when the widow, now a house maid, is feeling contented by good news of her long gone son and daughter, she accidentally runs into his own son, now a lawyer, and ends up being looked down upon by him. It was a story about how traditional Chinese family and its value was impacted by the change of time. The movie depicted Macau in 1945 to Hong Kong in the mid-60s, moving from poverty after WWII to opulence. The human relationships became complicated and fragile. Many elements uniquely "Hong Kong", such as upper class Chinese, western religions, English speaking and a mixed-culture society are used to contrast the traditional, kind, enduring and forgiving love of a mother.

In this dreamy romance set in China during the fourth-century, a young woman convinces her parents to allow her to dress as a boy and attend university.

7.1/10

Based on one particular storyline from The Water Margin, Three Sinners weaves an intriguing story of romance, treachery, and death, all within the context of the traditional Huangmei Opera. Yan Jun casts his real-life wife, the elegant Li Li Hua, star of such Shaw Brothers films as The Goddess of Mercy and Vermillion Door, as one of the title characters, a woman who finds herself in the middle of a stormy love triangle involving her controlling husband (director Yan Jun serving double duty in a starring role) and a passionate lover (Chen Yan Yan).

7.5/10

Melodramatic film about a child prodigy.

6/10

A war-veteran husband and his wife are slowly consumed with distrust in Xu Changlin’s fascinating hybrid of noir thriller and melodrama.

Three stories about art stages. "Film City", "Drama Group" and "Dance Class".

6.6/10

"Lianhua Symphony" - a small collection, consisting of eight short films shot in 1937 by young filmmakers Shanghai Lianhua Film Company.

7.1/10

A businessman moves his family from the city to the countryside to open a school.

6.4/10

Six young men from the city take jobs building roads for the Chinese Army

6.9/10

Although Hui-Ying is now married to a husband that offers a life of stability and comfort, over ten years ago her first husband (Jia-Hu) fled from Shanghai to Nanyang (old name for Southeast Asia) to escape capture by a warlord - leaving her and their toddler daughter (Shao-Mei) behind in helpless desperation. Despite the mother's emotional attachment to her absent husband, she has never told the daughter about Jia-Hu so the daughter believes the stepfather is her biological father. But the mother begins to have second thoughts about the stepfather when she sees the teen daughter zealously follow the path paved by him - a path that the mother fears will lead to her daughter's moral decline.

A Chinese couple in the 1930s struggle to survive. Things get complicated for them when he enlists to fight the war against Japan.

7/10

The film tells the story of Yang Naifan (Ruan Lingyu) who runs from her arranged marriage to be with her true love, Li Zuyi (Jin Yan). The film details the poverty she must endure for breaking with tradition.

7.2/10

This is a silent film from China made in 1931. It is about two leads in a film, Yan (Raymond King) and Ying (Violet Wong). They meet after hearing Ying sing while another movie is being shot. You, of course, don't get to hear the song, but it catches people's attention. Once they meet and work together, they fall in love. Is it forever?

6.1/10

This film depicting the lives of ordinary people — street peddlers, poor scholars, and young revolutionaries — reflects the culturally progressive political climate of that pre-War, post-May the 4th era.