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chinese

20 May

Cliff Walkers: A Taut Spy Thriller Winning the Chinese Box Office

New DVD release, , , , ,
We hear a lot about the Chinese box office, but it is usually from an American perspective—e.g. how is the latest American blockbuster doing at the much-sought-after Chinese movie market? But the Chinese box office goes on with or (increasingly) without Hollywood releases, and it’s fascinating to see what the other largest box office in the world is currently interested in. Right now, it’s Cliff Walkers, the latest from Hero‘s Zhang Yimou, and—unlike many Chinese releases—the film is currently available to watch in select American cinemas. If, out of Zhang’s 40-year career, you’re only familiar with his wuxia work, such…
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15 Apr

Chinese-Inspired Fantasy Books That Reframe Familiar Fairy Tales

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Reframing fairy tales has long been a common subgenre of fantasy fiction and, at the end of 2020, three authors put their own spins on stories (or fairy tale structures) familiar to most Western audiences by incorporating Asian mythology and settings. S. L. Huang combined European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood with the Chinese tale of Hou Yi the Archer to form a story of redemption, love, and family in Burning Roses. Chloe Gong cast tragic English characters Romeo and Juliette as gangsters in 1920s Shanghai—pitting them against a Lovecraftian monster rising from the depths of the Huangpu River…
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13 Feb

Chinese TV Drama Apologizes For Plagiarizing His Dark Materials

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… but not in the world of corporate copyright. New Chinese fantasy drama Douluo Continent came under fire after its premiere last week when viewers noticed that some shots in the drama’s magical opening credits, created by third party company Visual Impact Digital Production, looked quite similar to shots in the magical opening credits for the His Dark Materials TV show… You can watch the Douluo Continent credit sequence here: And here’s the opening credits for the first season of His Dark Materials, designed by Clarissa Donlevy at Elastic… As you may notice, the…
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25 Oct

The Weird History of A Chinese Ghost Story Franchise

New DVD release, , , , ,
When A Chinese Ghost Story premiered in 1987, it was already part of a unique category – the fusion of horror, comedy, and Kung Fu. Asian horror films are known as jiangshi, which is the name of a specific spooky hopping ghost found in Chinese folklore that proliferates these films. Part zombie, part vampire, jiangshi are corpses that are usually reanimated by demons or Daoist sorcerers. They hop along mindlessly with their arms outstretched like sleepwalkers, and feed on the life essence – or qi – of the living. Often a jiangshi is blind but can smell breath. This makes…
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10 Oct

Warrior Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Chinese Connection

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This Warrior review contains spoilers. Warrior Season 2 Episode 2 When Warrior was first announced, Bruce Lee fans were worried that this was going to be just another Bruceploitation. After all, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Bruceploitation flicks. Bruce Lee is the most impersonated icon on the planet. No one needed to see another weak caricature of the Little Dragon, even if it was on Cinemax. However, Warrior isn’t Bruceploitation at all. The creator and writer of the show, Jonathan Tropper, credits Bruce’s daughter, Shannon Lee for making sure that Warrior didn’t go “overboard with the Bruce Lee stuff.” Instead…
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15 Sep

Mulan: Disney Faces Congressional Scrutiny Over Chinese Production

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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Executive Chairman Robert Iger to explain the studio’s cooperation with the authorities in the Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang during the production of the Mulan live-action remake, according to NBC News. The Congressional letter is in response to allegations accusing Chinese authorities of detaining an estimated 1 million to 2 million Uighur Muslims, detained in mass internment camps in the Xinjiang region. The legislative interest comes after Disney thanked eight government bodies in Xinjiang, a Western province, in the film’s credits. “The closing credits of Mulan extend…
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03 Sep

Mulan And The Chinese Women Warriors of History and Legend

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While American audiences know the story of Mulan through the 1998 animated Disney film and the upcoming live-action reboot, they may not know that the films are based on a Chinese legend. Hua Mulan is a legendary figure whose story was first told in “Ballad of Mulan,” a folksong first transcribed in the 6th century. In the legend, Mulan is a girl who disguises herself as a man and goes to war in place of her father. Mulan fights for many years as part of the army and, after earning much honor and gifts from the emperor, returns home to…
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03 Sep

Mulan: The Non-Disney Adaptations of a Classic Chinese Folklore

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The 1998 animated Disney’s Mulan introduced many in Western audiences to the legend of a young Chinese woman who disguised herself as a man to fight against an invading army. But the legend of Mulan had been around a lot longer—the first transcription of the story appears in the sixth century, and the earliest film version appeared in 1927. If you just can’t get enough of Mulan, check out these other versions of her story. The Ballad of Mulan (1998) While this picture book is geared at a young audience, it’s notable because it includes the text of one of…
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03 Sep

Mulan: The Real History of the Chinese Legend

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Disney has been killing it with live-action remakes of their beloved animated movie catalog. While the upcoming Mulan might look like yet another relatively straight adaptation of a previous animated film, it’s not quite the same. Mulan, in 1998 and now, is based on an ancient Chinese legend. Not a fairy tale. Her story was commonly known across Asia long before Disney’s animated feature, and it’s that story (as much as the animated feature) that makes up the inspiration for the new film. When it was announced that the new live-action film would not include the songs or her mini-dragon…
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13 Dec

Chinese Portrait

Max SchindlerMovie reviews,
From acclaimed director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle; So Long, My Son) comes a personal snapshot of contemporary China in all its diversity. Shot over the course of ten years on both film and video, the film consists of a series of carefully composed tableaus of people and environments. Pedestrians shuffle across a bustling Beijing street, steelworkers linger outside a deserted factory, tourists laugh and scamper across a crowded beach, worshippers kneel to pray in a remote village. With a painterly eye for composition, Wang captures China as he sees it, calling to a temporary halt a land in a constant…
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DVD Guide reviews current dvd releases of movies and TV shows. The reviews of these dvd releases are my thoughts and understandings of the movie, dvd releases or TV show and not be taken as fact.

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