1980s Chinese Movies

The Tang emperor is betrayed by one of his generals, who installs himself as emperor in the East Capital. The son of one of his slave workers escapes to the Shaolin Temple, learns kung fu, and sets out to kill the traitor who killed his father.

Jet, a young soldier at the end of the Second World War must overcome some abusive Americans who are bullying him as well as the Chinese people.

In ancient China, Zhi Ming trains at the legendary Northern Shaolin temple to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a nefarious magistrate.

An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

Romance blossoms between two rival families practicing Shaolin and Wudang kungfu respectively. despite familial opposition - until they overcome a gang of scheming bandits together.

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Set in the Anti-Japanese War, three different forces run into a complicated situation full of bloody conflicts. Who is fighting for country and who betrays?

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Yuangong, the deacon, opened the shrine and exposed the holy book to the human world. He is now punished to guard the book for life by the jade emperor for breaking heaven’s law. In order to pass this holy book to human beings, he would have to get by the antagonist fox.

In the spring and summer of 1949, the People's Liberation Army launched an offensive under the orders of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, they crossed the Yangtze River and Nanjing was liberated on April 23 which signaled the fall of the KMT regime, Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan; on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong standing on the rostrum of Tiananmen, solemnly declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

Set in the Shaanxi province of Northern China, In The Wild Mountains is a simple yet insightful tale of village life and how economic changes in the country affect even the most remote regions.

Said to be the first science-fiction film produced in China (and perhaps having its North American theatrical premiere in Future Imperfect?), Death Ray on Coral Island spares no bile, camp, or latent envy in portraying America as the cunning archenemy that will stop at nothing—industrial espionage, assassinations, even ballroom dancing—to steal China’s futuristic weaponry. The film occupies a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, representing a legacy of the Great Cultural Revolution and a harbinger of the nation’s ascension on the global economic stage. Courtesy of the China Film Archive and Shanghai Film Group.

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Xiao Xiao is sold into arranged marriage with a 2 year old boy, who she must raise as his nanny until he is old enough to marry her. She is expected to honour tradition and to toe the line so far as social proprieties are concerned, but the young girl rebels against the edicts of her elders until at 16, she falls in love with another man.

A Lijing City elementary school student takes credit for an insect collection that was not his.

Photographer and adventurer Tong (Yu Rong-Guang) spots a mirage of a beautiful woman while on a mission and is obsessed by the beauty of her. Heading into Mongolia with best friend (Tsui Siu-Ming), the discovery of the woman and her true nature is anything but beautiful however as she's the leader of a gang of desert bandits.

In ancient times, a Persian merchant gets lost in a windstorm. Suddenly a spiritual deer of nine colors appears to guide the man. Later on, the deer rescues a man drowning in a river. In exchange, the man promises not to reveal the deer's whereabouts. The man reaches an imperial palace. The king insists on hunting down the spiritual deer down to make clothes out of the deer skin. The man gives in to his greed and leads an army of warriors to the spot. He falls into the river again, hoping the deer will show up to rescue him. This time, all the warriors' arrows turn into dust and the man is drowned

An art professor find a piece of stitch work made by his long-missing lover who suffered a lot of hardships.

The Red Army and Nationalist forces battle over the Chishui River in 1935.

Swan song with a chapter like structure, spans many years from the onset of the Cultural Revolution to the 'open door' policies of the late seventies and eighties. The focus is on how off screen national events impact on individual lives, here, those of an elderly composer with an opium habit who is in constant political trouble with the authorities and his son who dissociates himself from his father.

No overview available

No overview available

Ninja Over the Great Wall takes place in the early nineteen-thirties when China was occupied by the Japanese imperial forces. Wa Chi Keung is a peasant who escaped the mass murder of his village by the Japanese. He joins his master in Bejing shortly before the old man's assassination by ninjas.

The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.

A young rabbit is rescued from disaster by the snowman he makes with his mother.

The Chinese Stuntman was a Bruceploitation film released in 1981. Bruce Li (who also directs) plays an insurance salesman who ends up working as a stuntman on a Hong Kong movie.

This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China's vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.

Conflict arises between generations in this Chinese film

No overview available

No overview available

Sixteen-year-old An-ran gets into repeated trouble because she refuses blind obedience to authority, openly challenging and correcting a teacher who makes a mistake in class. She is different.

investigation into the death of a Chinese mill worker

A beautiful girl is humiliated by powerful people both in the human world and dragon palace, and tries to suicide with her lover.

Ji Chang wants to be the best archer in the world. He seeks out a master who is able, at a distance, to shoot a single leaf off a tree. Over several years, the apprentice studies with the master. Finally, after mastering the techniques, as well as his own ambition, he sets off for the mountains, home of a legendary master of archery...

No overview available

A compelling study of three girls and the paths they choose to stardom when they cross paths with a womanizing artist.

Drama written by Su Shuyangin in 1978. The feature film adaptation was produced by Beijing Film Studio in 1980. Fang Lingxuan, a veteran Chinese medicine doctor, devotes himself to the research of new drugs for coronary heart disease and receives the enthusiastic support of Premier Zhou Enlai. But the Ministry of Health, controlled by the "Gang of Four," uses Fang's son-in-law to obstruct the research. Just as Fang and his colleagues finally succeed in producing a new drug, Premier Zhou dies. Grief turns into strength, and despite persecution, Fang works hard.

In autumn 1948, during the Huaihai Campaign, Xie Yanfei, a reconnaissance chief, infiltrated Hekou City with driver Xiao Wang, using Lou A’mei as cover. Discovering the local Party organization was compromised, he sought his childhood sweetheart, Xia Cailian, who had joined the enemy’s service corps. They met secretly at Lou A’mei’s, but the enemy grew suspicious. After a firefight, Xie was wounded, and Xiao sacrificed himself. Xie escaped into a lake and was rescued by Xia Cailian, who recognized him as her former lover. Despite their past, Xie maintained secrecy and left without revealing their identities.

An poor shipyard worker falls in love with a girl from a cadre family, and their romance is strongly opposed by the older generation.