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China

1991-2010

Films of Note

Bian zou bian chang (Life on a String) (Kaige Chen) [MORE] [ADD]

Li Lianying, the Imperial Eunuch (Tian Zhuangzhuang) [MORE] [ADD]

The Swordsman in Double-Flag Town (He Ping) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Qiu Ju da guan si (The Story of Qiu Ju) (Yimou Zhang) [MORE] [ADD]

Family Portrait (Li Shaohong) [MORE] [ADD]

Heartstrings (Sun Jou) [MORE] [ADD]

Mama (Zhang Yuan) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Beijing za zhong (Beijing Bastards) (Yuan Zhang) [MORE] [ADD]

Dongchun de rizi (The Days) (Xiaoshuai Wang) [MORE] [ADD]

Lan feng zheng (The Blue Kite) (Zhuangzhuang Tian) [MORE] [ADD]

For Fun (Ning Ying) [MORE] [ADD]

Stand Up, Don’t Bend Over (Xuang Jianxin) [MORE] [ADD]

– The Fugitive is the first Hollywood film to be shown in Chinese cinemas.   Despite proving a great success, the film is withdrawn after one week. [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Bian Lian (King of the Masks) (Tian-Ming Wu) [MORE] [ADD]

Dong gong xi gong (East Palace, West Palace) (Yuan Zhang) [MORE] [ADD]

Qin song (The Emperor’s Shadow) (Xiaowen Zhou) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Hui dao feng huang qiao (Out of Phoenix Bridge) (Hong Li) [MORE] [ADD]

Xiao Wu (The Pickpocket) (Zhang Ke Jia) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Suzhou he (Suzhou River) (Ye Lou) [MORE] [ADD]

Zhantai (Platform) (Zhang Ke jia) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Shiqi sui de dan che (Beijing Bicycle) (Xiaoshuai Wang) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Ren xiao yao (Unknown Pleasures) (Zhang Ke Jia)  [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Mang jing (Blind Shaft) (Yang Li) [MORE] [ADD]

Tie Xi Qu (Bing Wang) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

Shijie (The World) (Zhang Ke Jia) [MORE] [ADD]

Disney announces it is to make its first movie in China.   The Secret of the Magic Gourd, an adaptation of a local children's book, will be a co-production with local investors Centro Digital Pictures and The China Film Group Corp. [MORE] [ADD]

China 2005: Other Films of Note

Wu ji (The Promise) (Kaige Chen) [MORE] [ADD]

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television bans films and TV shows featuring live humans together with animated figures, stating that such films endanger ‘the broadcast order of homemade animation and mislead their development.’  [MORE] [ADD]

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television bans award-winning director Lou Ye from making films for five years after he premiered his latest film Summer Palace at the Cannes Film Festival last May without government permission.   The film includes footage from the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration. [MORE] [ADD]

China 2006: Other films of Note

Ye yan (The Banquet) (Ziaogang Feng) [MORE] [ADD]

Variety reveals Zhang Yimou's Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (Curse of the Golden Flower) became China’s biggest box-office hit in 2006 after just two weekends.  [MORE] [ADD]

On his official website, actor Jackie Chan announces that he has launched a film company in China and intends to produce 10 films.  [MORE] [ADD]

China’s film chief Zhang Hongsen criticises Jia Zhangke’s Golden Lion winner, Still Life, claiming it ‘lacks love and care to working classes.’  [MORE] [ADD]

Han Saping, Chairman of China Film Group, calls for more patriotism in Chinese movies a day after action star Jet Li calls for a relaxation of the country’s censorship rules.  [MORE] [ADD]

The state-run Administration of Radio, Film and Television warns Chinese directors that they face heavy punishment if they include ‘erotic scenes’ in their films.  [MORE] [ADD]

3/1 -

Fang Li and Li Yu, producer and director of the film Lost in Beijing are banned from any involvement in filmmaking for two years after screening an unapproved version of the film at the Berlinale in 2007. [MORE]

10/1 -

Director Zhang Yuan is arrested on drugs charges after a raid on his home in Beijing is broadcast on local television. [MORE]

11/2 -

The Film Bureau refuses permits for Weinstein Co. to shoot the film Shanghai, starring Gong Li and John Cusack, in Shanghai. [MORE]

13/2 -

US director Steven Spielberg withdraws as artistic advisor for the Beijing Olympics.   He gives his reason as China’s failure to use its economic influence to force a resolution of the crisis in Darfur. [MORE]

20/2 -

The overseas edition of the Chinese ‘People’s Daily’ newspaper carries an editorial criticising US director Steven Spielberg for resigning as artistic director to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on 12/2/08.   While naming no names, the article accused a ‘certain Western director’ of being ‘naïve’ and living in ‘a world of science fiction.’ [MORE]

26/2 -

The government announces that annual revenue of the country’s film industry has risen by 25% each year since 2002. [MORE]

10/3 -

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issue a list of censorship criteria as part of a general crackdown on screen sex and violence. [MORE]

10/3 -

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) ban a Pond’s skin cream commercial starring Tang Wei because of her appearance in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution which Sarft disapproves of because of its perceived glorification of traitors. [MORE] [ADD]

19/5 -

All forms of public entertainment are banned for three days for a period of mourning in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake, China’s worst natural disaster for 32 years. [MORE] [ADD]

29/5 -

Govt officials launch a scathing attack on actress Sharon Stone following her comments that the country’s devastating earthquake was the result of ‘karma,’ and a leading cinema chain threatens to ban her films. [MORE]

9/6 -

23-year-old stuntman Lu Yanqing is killed when a stunt goes wrong during filming of John Woo’s Chi Bi (Red Cliff) in Beijing. [MORE]

1/7 -

Despite the impact of the devastating Sichuan earthquake, the Chinese box office enjoys a 26% surge in revenue in May compared to the same month in 2007.   Attendance increased by 27%.   Gross at the box office in May 2008 was 253 million yuan (£18.5 million). [MORE] [ADD]

8/7 -

The success of Kung Fu Panda raises questions as to why such a film replete with Chinese symbols and settings could not have been made in the country itself. [MORE]

10/7 -

Red Cliff, Asia’s most ambitious ever movie project is released.   The movie, which stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Lin Chiling is director John Woo’s first Asian film since the 90s. [MORE] [ADD]

6/8 -

Documentary filmmaker Arto Halonen is denied entry to Beijing, where he was to attend the Olympics as a member of a Finnish cultural delegation.   Halonen claims it is because of his 1998 film, Karmapa -- Two Ways of Divinity, which focused on China's religious and cultural oppression of Tibet. [MORE] [ADD]

16/10 -

Gordon Chan’s Painted Skin, a fantasy film about a woman who eats the hearts of her lovers earns 200 million yuan (approximately £16 million) in its first 19 days of release. [MORE] [ADD]

Chinese actress Gong Li, the star of Farewell My Concubine and Curse of the Golden Flower is denounced as a traitor on internet blogs after renouncing her Chinese citizenship to become a citizen of Singapore.  [MORE]

7/1 -

Revenue for Feng Xiaogang’s If You Are the One reaches $44 million, making him the first Chinese director whose films have broken through the 1 billion yuan (aprox. £97,793,000).   Feng’s other hits include Cellphone, Big Shot’s Wedding and The Banquet. [MORE] [ADD]

20/1 -

Walt Disney Co. reach an agreement with the Chinese government to build the first Disneyland theme park on the mainland. [MORE]

Bill Ernest, Walt Disney Co.’s head of Asian operations, denies reports that the company has concluded a deal to open a theme park in Shanghai.  Ernest said, ‘We don't have a deal yet, and we don't have anything agreed to yet. We are still waiting.’ [MORE] [ADD]

Filming begins on The Great Cause of China’s Foundation, a film conceived by Beijing Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Communist revolution. [MORE]

China Film Group announces that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has commissioned more than 30 state-owned and private production companies to produce 50 propaganda films to mark the 60^th anniversary of the revelation that saw the communists win power. [MORE]

After five months, City of Life and Death and John Rabe, two films focusing on the slaughter of Chinese civilians by the Japanese in 1937 are cleared by government censors. [MORE]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen breaks box office records with receipts of 400 million yuan (£35.5 million), beating the 1998 record set by James Cameron’s Titanic, which took £31.95 million. [MORE] [ADD]

The World Trade Organisation rules that China’s restriction of the distribution of American films within its borders is in violation of international trade rules. [MORE]

The Founding of a Republic, a 60^th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China is released at 2pm and scores a record-breaking opening half-day, grossing £1.16 million nationwide.   The film, which chronicles the struggle for power immediately prior to China’s civil war, stars Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Zhang Ziyi, Vicky Zhao Wei, Leon Lai and Andy Lau. [MORE] [ADD]

Feng Xiaogang’s war film The Assembly wins four prizes, including Best Film and Best Director, at the 27^th Golden Rooster Awards in Nanchang City, Jiangxi. [MORE] [ADD]

The Zinhua News Agency announces that The Founding of a Republic has broken box-office records for a Chinese film with a take of approximately $59 million.  It’s domestic performance is exceeded only by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Titanic. [MORE] [ADD]

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA, China’s first arthouse cinema, opens – in Beijing’s MOMA residential compound.   The first film screened there is the Beijing premiere of Michael Jackson’s This Is It. [MORE] [ADD]

The World Trade Organisation dismisses China’s appeal against the decision to outlaw the country’s policy of restricting the number or foreign films that can be distributed within its borders. [MORE] [ADD]

The government reminds cinema operators of their duty to ensure that at least two-thirds of the movies they exhibit are produced domestically.   The move comes after Hollywood blockbuster Avatar becomes the country’s highest grossing movie ever. [MORE]

Animator Te Wei dies of respiratory failure in Shanghai at the age of 95.   The only artist in China to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), his best known work was the 1956 short The Conceited General. [MORE] [ADD]

Crossing Hennessy, Tang Wei’s first film since she was reportedly blacklisted by the Chinese government for her appearance in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution in 2007, is selected as the opening night film for the 34^th Hong Kong International Film Festival on 21^st March. [MORE]

Actress Zhang Ziyi denies accusations of fraud relating to donations she promised to make to victims of the Sichuan Province earthquake.   Ms. Zhang is accused of donating only $123,000 of the £146,000 she pledged and of failing to deliver $1 million she said she hoped to receive from foreign donors. [MORE] [ADD]

Local superhero movie Ip Man 2 sees off a challenge from Western superhero flick Iron Man 2 at the mainland box office.   It earns 100 million yuan (approx. £10.3 million) in its opening week (commencing 27^th April) while Iron an 2 (released on 7^th May) earns 60 million yuan (£6.1 million). [MORE] [ADD]

Gabriele Muccino’s Kiss Me Again, a sequel to his 2001 hit The Last Kiss, wins the Best Film award at the 13^th Shanghai International Film Festival’s Golden Goblet Awards.   Best Director goes to Liu Jie for the drama Deep in the Clouds.   Ocean Heaven, the Chinese film favoured by the media, wins nothing. [MORE]

Feng Xiaogang’s film Aftershock, a drama about the devastation of one family by the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, is released breaks domestic box office records on its opening-day, earning $5.34 million.   It is also the first foreign-language film to be released by Imax. [MORE] [ADD]

Zhao Shi, the deputy director of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announces that an age-appropriate rating system would not presently be ‘appropriate’ for the Chinese mainland. [MORE] [ADD]

Resident Evil: Afterlife manages to get past China’s notoriously tough censors to obtain a rare national release for a horror film. [MORE]