Core 7 - Films - China
Several Chinese films, or films about China, will be shown this semester. Please consult your instructor about any course requirements in connection with the films. The start time for all films will be 6:30. Please note show dates for each below. Showings will take place in the Courtney Auditorium unless a venue change becomes necessary. Any changes to the schedule will be announced during Core 7 lecture.
The Joy Luck Club - R
Description from Netflix: "Based on the novel by Amy Tan, Wayne Wang's drama follows four Chinese women living in California - Suyuan, Lindo, Ying-Ying and An-Mei -- who gather weekly to play mahjong and share stories about their lives. They also enjoy sharing stories about their daughters, and lamenting some of the younger generation's choices.
Film showing: Monday, August 30
The Last Emperor - PG-13
Description from Netflix: "Recounting the last years of China's Ching Dynasty through flashbacks and fast-forwards, this drama from director Bernardo Bertolucci won nine Oscars. The lavish epic charts the transformation of Pu Yi - who ascended the throne at age 3 - from coddled aristocrat to enlightened insurgent to ordinary citizen. With the help of his Scottish tutor, the young emperor learns about the world outside the palace walls."
Film showing: Wednesday, September 22
Together - PG
Description from rogerebert.com: "The movie tells the story of Liu Xiaochun, a 13-year-old violin prodigy who lives in a provincial town with his father, Liu Cheng. His father is a cook who decides Xiaochun must advance his studies in Beijing--and so he takes them both there, with his meager savings hidden in his red peasant's hat. Because he is so naive, so direct, so obviously exactly who he is, and because his son really is talented, the uncultured father is able to persuade a violin teacher named Jiang to take the boy as a student...The movie is also a story about the old and new China, set in old and new Beijing. Professor Jiang lives in a crowded quarter of dwellings that lean cozily on each other, its streets filled with bicycles and gossip. People know each other. Professor Yu lives in a sterile modern building with Western furnishings. When he suggests that Xiaochun leave his father and live with him, he is essentially asking him to leave an older, more human China, and enter a modern world of ambition, success and media marketing."
Film showing: Tuesday, October 12
Still Life - Unrated
Description from Amazon.com: "In Still Life, great changes have come to the town of Fengjie due to the construction of the Three Gorges hydro project on the Yangtze River. Countless families that had lived there for many generations have had to relocate to other cities. Fengjie's old town, which has a 2000-year history, has been torn down and submerged forever. There are still things that need to be salvaged and yet there are also things that must be left behind. In Still Life, such life-changing choices face both Sanming, a miner traveling to Fengjie in search of his ex-wife of sixteen years, and Shen Hong, a nurse who has come to Fengjie to look for her husband who she hasn't seen in two years. Both Sanming and Shen will find who they're looking for, but in the process they too will have to decide what is worth salvaging in their lives and what they need to let go of. Still Life is an empathetic portrait of those left behind by a modernizing society and, as in director Jia Zhang-ke's earlier films (Platform, Unknown Pleasures, The World), it is a unique hybrid of documentary and fiction."
Film showing: Monday, October 25
Iron Monkey - PG-13
Description from Amazon.com: "Yuen Woo-ping's dazzling take on Robin Hood, set in a 19th-century Canton township, stars Yu Rong-guang as the humble healer Dr. Yang, who dons black tights and a bandit mask for nightly excursions as the Iron Monkey to rob from the thieving governor of Canton and give to the poor. When wandering herbalist and martial artist Wong Kei-ying (Donnie Yen) enters town with his son in tow, the governor blackmails Wong into capturing the outlaw. Needless to say, Wong and Yang become fast friends and team up to take on the new villain in town, the Monk, and his mob of street-fighting thugs."
Film showing: Wednesday, December 1
