Yelu Gu
Set in the 1930s, “Fortress Besieged” follows the misadventures of Fang Hung-chien, a bumbling everyman who wastes his time studying abroad, and secures a fake degree when learning he has run out of money and must return home to China. Fang was the son of a country gentleman. A marriage had been arranged for him while at university, but the intended wife died before he could see her.
Our story derives from the period 1644, when the Ming dynasty was threatened with destruction. This forced the emperor to issued a new decree by which the prince and heir to the throne has to leave territory due to threat placed on their lives. Chong Zen punished escape persecution in Nanjing. This course takes the emperor, in the hope that one day the prince would return and take his rightful place on the throne. In the meantime empire and dynasty face complete destruction. On all sides they bid to mercilessly destroy all enemies that comes to hand.
In 1930's Shanghai, Wu Sunpu, chief executive of the Shanghai Yuhua Silk Company, faces many struggles: with plant workers, with strikers, others in his industry, and most of all with bourgeois comprador Zhao Botao. Capitalists and other figures in Shanghai's industrial and commercial community come and go. The strategy finally comes down between Wu and Zhao. Zhao plans to take over Wu Sunpu's plant with support from Americans. Wu faces a choice of surrender to Zhao or bankruptcy. He considers suicide, but decides to go on vacation with his wife on Mount Lushan. When they leave Shanghai at midnight, Wu paces the deck of the ship, reviewing his life and fate.
In 1949, as the country celebrates liberation, KMT agents are ploting.
Hua wanted to be a professional barber, but her husband Jia didn't support her. But Hua joined a barbershop and became a popular barber when Jia was on a business leave. What will Hua do when Jia coming back?
This biography film is based on the life of the real historical figure Li Shizhen.The story focuses on the social injustices suffered by Li as well as the difficulties he overcame in writing the famous Encyclopedia of Herbs.
Performer Fang Zhenzhu is persecuted by both the collaborationist government under Japanese occupation and the Nationalist government after World War II. His life begins anew after Liberation.
