Li Wei

Dance Without Music

In 1995, some high schools in Beijing began to enroll students from poor families, allowing the students to attend school free of charge, to keep them in school. They were given a grand name- “Students with Aspirations”. These children, who face a great deal of pressure just to get by, are an enormous inspiration, with their remarkably hard work, their diligence and their self-respect. They are courageous in facing what fate has dealt them and they dance, even without music.

Beijing Bastards

A rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.

Ju Dou

A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy. Filmed in glowing technicolour, this tale of romantic and familial love in the face of unbreakable tradition is more universal than its setting.

The Tribulations of a Chinese Gentleman

The young Chinese heir to millions in the USA is suddenly destitute. He takes out a life insurace policy on himself and assigns his former teacher to kill him.

First Woman in the Forest

A college student researches the story of 8 brothers who flee Hebei province in the 1940's for the forests of Heilongjiang's Great Khing'an Mountains.

Yue Yue

Yue Yue is a village girl living in the Qin Ling Mountain. Two boys, Cai Cai and Men Men, are her friends and both like her. Cai Cai is diligent and conservative, Men Men is discontented with life and like novelty.

Che lun si chong zou

A Tibetan college student is escorted down a treacherous mountain road by two soldiers/cadres. On the way, they pick up a sick hunter by the roadside.

Strange Encounters

1983 Chinese film

The True Story of Ah Q

Based on the 1921 novella of the same name by one of China's most well-known modern writers, Lu Xun (Lu Hsun), the True Story of Ah Q is set during the 1911 revolution. Ah Q is a lowly peasant who wants to rise above his class, or at least get out of his grinding poverty. At first he thinks the way to do it is by marrying into a better station in life; later, he joins the revolution as he feels that is the only way he and others like him can transcend poverty. In this film version of Lu Xun's story, the character of Ah Q might benefit from a more rounded humanity to make him appealing to those not familiar with the harsh environment in China before the 1911 revolution.

From Slave to General

Biography of Red Army commander Luo Xiao, known as Xiao Luo when a slave, who joined the Chinese army in 1915.

Hot Wave

A taiwanese romance set during the summer starring Brigitte Lin.

The Windows of the Mind

A man from an upper class family with a promising future gets into an accident and becomes blind. The accident causes apathy toward those close to him. One day, a nurse comes to attend him, leading to many ups and downs in his life.

Two Stage Sisters

In pre-revolutionary China, two young girls, Chunhua and Yuehong Xing, rise through the ranks of Chinese opera, but with their artistic success comes a new series of personal and social challenges. After they're sold to a Shanghai opera and the revolution dawns, Yuehong radicalizes and devotes her career to politically progressive performances, while Chunhua flees to avoid turmoil. As the world changes around them, they fight to maintain their friendship.

Diary of a Nurse

After graduating from a Shanghai nursing school, Jian Shuhua decides to work at a construction workers’ clinic in a remote area, despite the objections of her fiancé Shen Aoru. When she arrives at her new workstation, she finds that one of the clinic directors, Mo Jiabing, pays more attention to his love affair with nurse Gu Huiying than to his work. In addition, Gu’s jealousy is aroused by the arrival of the new nurse. Jian, then, the epitome of the selfless worker, has to deal with a faraway and egotistic fiancé, a selfish and lecherous boss, an unfriendly colleague, as well as the hardships of a remote and barren workstation. How can she succeed?

The Mother

Based on the novel "Mother" by Maxim Gorky, about the hardships of a peasant laborer.

The Story of South Island

Soldiers stay in Hainan Island and fight Japanese invaders in harsh conditions.

Stand Up, Sisters!

Da Xiang, a girl whose father died early, was deceived and sold to a brothel, and her desperate mother chose to commit suicide. Now a prostitute, she faces a tortuous life.

This Life of Mine

Fifty years of modern Chinese history (1900-1950), including wars, revolutions and corrupt politics, as seen through the life and times of a simple Beijing policeman and his family.

Spring in a Small Town

A married couple living in a desolate small town in post-WWII China are paid a surprise visit by an old friend of the husband's.