Chinese Music Movies

Adaptation of a lesser known to Western world, yet wildly popular Peking Opera developed during the Cultural Revolution under the leadership of Jiang Qing.

This lively family entertainment film is about a group of children battling with a pair of musical con-men who stage a fake singing contest. The unfortunate duo hadn't anticipated the talents of Maestro Soong with his remarkable children's choir. What ensues is a string of hilarious, heartwarming, and ultimately inspiring events.

The lives and loves of 5 young people of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang set in a musical that reflects the upsurge of disco and breakdancing in late 80s China.

Liu Sanjie is a story that originates from the Zhuang minority people; the largest of the minority groups in China. It’s based on the legend of a woman called Liu Sanjie (literally meaning “third sister of Liu family”). Across generations, the story has become an oral tradition amongst these people and similar characters have even been found to exist in other minority cultures. According to legend, Liu Sanjie had the gift of a beautiful singing voice from a very early age. So beautiful was her voice, she could quell anger and raise the spirits of the people around her. The story became famous around China when the movie Liu Sanjie was released in 1960 – a rare musical production in Chinese cinema.

A former con-artist gathers a bunch of girls and puts together an all-female rock band.

A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.

Revolutionary Chinese opera in six acts depicting the struggle between Communist guerrillas and a KMT landlord for control of a village.

Taking Tiger Mountain was the very first model film produced during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Set during the civil war in 1946, it follows a detachment of the People's Liberation Army in Mandchuria as they are fighting a group of bandits hiding in the mountains. Based on a novel from the 50s, Taking Tiger Mountain was first a revolutionary opera before being made into film by director Xie Tieli.

Yang Bailao, a tenant farmer, lives with his daughter Xi'er. The despotic landlord, Huang Shiren, attempts to forcibly take Xi'er for himself. On the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival, Huang forces Yang to sell his daughter as repayment of the debt Yang owes him.

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Ah Peng meets a girl named Jinhua at a festival and they agree to meet the next year but she fails to turn up. He searches for her and finds other girls named Jinhua.

In this Chinese version of The Phantom of the Opera, the mysterious Song Danping terrorizes the newly rebuilt opera house and its young star.

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The story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese folk tale Journey to the West. Princess Iron Fan is a main character. Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.

The play concentrated on the exploits of the communist underground activities under Japanese occupation in 1939, though history traces back in the 1920s. When Li Yuhe, a railroad worker who was engaging in underground work, was taken away by special agents and Grandma Li has a premonition of being arrested, Grandma tells the protagonist, Li Tiemei the true story about her family. Grandma Li tells Li Tiemei how her parents have sacrificed their lives in the revolutionary struggle. Li Yuhe has taken up the unfulfilled task of the martyrs. After hearing the heroic story about her family, Li Tiemei is determined to follow the example of her father and carry the revolution through to the end.

Six young men from the city take jobs building roads for the Chinese Army

A Tibetan girl, who’d be a bride, could sing the traditional folk song Ganglamedo magically and elegantly. Her name was the same as the name of the song. But she disappeared in the night of her wedding. 60 years later, An Yu, a singer of Han nationality, became hot for singing Ganglamedo. But she lost her voice in a performance and then she disappeared, too. Is Ganglamedo a beautiful curse?

A young Chinese folk singer left his hometown to the big city, only to return to his musical traditions. On this journey, his humor, anger and powerful folk songs all comes from the rural life of past. That's the real taste of soil and dust.

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During the Southern Song Dynasty, the ghost of Li Huiniang returns to the world of the living to seek revenge against her murderer.

Tells the story of a corrupt emperor, his bigoted philosophies, and the princess who convinces him to change his evil ways.

Qing (i.e. Qin) Xianglian was the wife of a man named Chen Shimei, who won the first title of national examination and awarded as husband of the emperor's daughter. Then Qing (i.e. Qin) sues Chen as a murderer who plans to kill his wife and son. In spite of the royal power, gownsman Bao Zhen settles the lawsuit and sentences Chen to serve his head.

Two young people from different social classes put aside their differences and come together to form a dance group and win a championship in China.

Pre-Cultural Revolution propaganda at its most lavish, this model opera depicts the history and evolution of the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong from its founding in July 1921 to the establishment of "New China" in 1949. Detailed in the musical are several key events in CPC history such as the Northern Expedition, the KMT-led Shanghai massacre of 1927, the Nanchang Uprising and formation of the People's Liberation Army, the Long March and the founding of the PRC on October 1, 1949.

Legend of the Sea tells the story of a prince, Little Dragon, who loses a king’s treasure and source of power, the Luminous Pearl, as well as his father’s trust. In seeking the Pearl, he fights evil Ocho the octopus to save the kingdom and redeem himself.

Nazi and Caesar used to be dance elites and a couple in the academy of arts, but separated because of a misunderstanding to study dance. Years later, they met again and former emotions for dance art brought them together again.

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A musical adaptation of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'

A love triangle develops between the male and female leads and the director during the making of a musical in Mainland China.

This classic revolutionary model opera is based on a true story during the relatively short-term military conflict in which South Korea's best elite troop the White Tiger Regiment, that was a mechanized force fully equipped by the United States and boasted of being invincible (in a typical South Korean manner of bragging and fabricating), was destroyed in a raid.

A revolutionary model opera that focuses on ferreting out class enemies: those who did not belong the hallowed ranks of the gongnongbing 工农兵, the workers-peasants-soldiers.

A traditional chinese story about a girl, Zhu Yingtai, daughter of the noble Mr. Zhu, who goes to Hangzhou to study, dressed as a boy. There, she meets a student, Liang Shanbo, with whom she becomes good friends. They go to school together for the following years, and Zhu gradually falls in love with Liang.

The first Chinese sound film. It tells the story of Hong Pion (Red Peony), a singer-songwriter who, after her marriage to the depraved Faxiang Chen, not only tormented and suffered, but also endured the decline of her artistic career.

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