Yan Qingyu

The film tells the touching story of Yin Lingzhi, a young girl from a mountain village who experienced the severe test of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and eventually grew into a staunch communist fighter and sacrificed her life for it.

Often cited as China’s first independent feature film, this low-budget drama, filmed largely in the director’s Beijing apartment, depicts the life of a single mother (a topic considered taboo at the time) caring for her mentally challenged son. Shot with a documentary aesthetic that includes interviews with families of mentally challenged persons, the film helped kick-start the Sixth Generation of filmmakers (including Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke) and their ethos of employing documentary realism to depict the true conditions of contemporary China.

6.8/10

Before dying from HIV, a man names three college girls that he had sexual relationships with while working at Southern University. A four-member special investigation team is formed to track them down