Jane Sloan Media Librarian jsloan@rci.rutgers.edu June 2006

Research Resources: Subject Research Guides: Media Collections:
Feature Films China and East Asia

This guide is a browsing aid to selected titles in the video/DVD collections at Rutgers Libraries. The most up-to-date, accurate, and complete information regarding the libraries' holdings is available only through IRIS, our online catalog.

The blue kite 1994

Told from the perspective of a young boy, Tietou, the film traces the fate of a Beijing family and their neighbors as they experience the political and social upheavals in 1950's and 1960's China.

1 videocassette (138 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2594

Ch`a Kuan The Teahouse 1982

Traces the fortunes of the manager of a popular Beijing teahouse who witnesses the toll a restless and war-torn populace takes on his business and his beloved teahouse.

1 videocassette (129 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2248

Ching ch`un chi Rite of youth 1989?

Story of a girl who leaves her mother to work in an ethnic minority region during the cultural revolution. She stays in a T'ai household and subsequently falls in love with a local young man. She returns to the city, goes to college and learns that her lover is killed in a mud slide.

1 videocassette (95 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2354

Di xia qing Love unto wastes 2000

Three women from Taiwan go to Hong Kong with expectations of fame & fortune. Tragedy strikes the three when one is murdered & the other two become involved in a love triangle.

1 videocassette (ca. 92 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6121

Dust in the wind Lien lien feng ch`en 1989

A love story between a boy and a girl from the southern part of Taiwan. After graduating from school the two become more affectionate as they work together in Taipei. The boy eventually goes away for three years to military service and the girl marries someone else.

1 videocassette (109 min.) :

DANA 509

Eat drink man woman 1995

A retired master chef and widower is worried about the future of his three unmarried daughters who are skeptical about marriage. Yet he himself surprises them with his secret love affair with a young woman many years his junior.

1 videocassette (124 min.) :

DANA 487

The emperor and the assassin 2000

Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire.

1 videcassette (ca. 161 min.) :

DANA 1608

Farewell my concubine 1993

Story that spans more than 50 years in the lives of two men at the Peking Opera, friends since childhood, and the woman who comes between them. Also an absorbing drama of the period in Chinese history from the warlord era through the Cultural Revolution.

1 videocassette (157 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 1692 2-2595

A fei cheng chuan Days of being wild 2004

Interweaving love-hate relationships and passion, tells the story of six young people living in the 1960s in Hong Kong and their individual quests for intimate connections.

1 videodisc (89 min.)

MEDIA 10-564

Fu-jung-chen A small town called Hibiscus 198

Story of a couple who sells rice beancurd for a living. During the "four clean-ups" movement of 1964, they are classified as new rich peasants: their house is confiscated and the husband is driven to suicide. After the Cultural Revolution, the wife falls in love with a rightist and almost dies when giving birth to their baby.

1 videocassette (126 min.) :

MEDIA. MEDIA 2-5069 2-5069

Girl from Hunan 1992

A young girl, married to a child husband, becomes pregnant by a farm hand. The farm hand flees, but the husband's family allows the girl to raise her little boy as her husband's younger brother. On her son's wedding day, the girl is asked to sleep with her husband who has just graduated from school.

1 videocassette (99 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2592

A Great wall 1987

This moving and humorous story chronicles the return of Leo Fang and his American-born wife and son to his native China and provides a comical insight into the cultural clashes between traditional Chinese families and Chinese-American families.

1 videocassette (103 min.) :

MEDIA 2-678

Hai shang hua Flowers of Shanghai 1999?

This film is set in the elegant brothels of late nineteenth-century Shanghai, a hermetic world with its own highly ritualized codes of behavior, where "flower girls" must win, and then hold, the affection of their wealthy callers.

1 videocassette (113 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5439

Hai tan ti i tien That day on the beach 1983

Brought up in a strict and well-protected environment, Chia-li fought against a pre-arranged marriage, left home and married Je-wei. As Je-wei's career advances, they gradually grow apart and problems arise which Chia-li refuses to confront.

1 videocassette (ca. 166 min.) :

DANA 533

Hao nan hao nü 1999?

This film consists of three intermingling stories: a film within a film as well as the past and present as linked by an actress in present-day Taipei. The film in which she plays is about a couple who return to mainland China to participate in the anti-Japanese movement in the 1940s and are arrested as Communists when they return to Taiwan. Images of the film-in-progress contrast with images from the actress' own past, when she was a party girl involved with a gangster.

1 videocassette (108 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5437

Hong Fen 1995

Charts the fortunes of two women who loved each other as sisters, but whose paths diverge when the Revolution brings an end to their old way of life in the brothel.

1 videocassette (119 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5055

Hsiang ssu nü tzu k`o tien Ormosia Inn 1987

The breeze of economic reform reaches a remote mountain town. Zhao Xinyi, Party Secretary of the commune, dismisses his wife Qiao Sanla from her position as manager of the Ormosia Inn and appoints woman accountant Zhang Guanyin in her place.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5183

Huang Feihong/Once upon a time in China 2000

The story of young Huang Fei-Hung, the legendary Cantonese martial arts master and folk hero, at the turn of the century.

1 videodisc (134 min.) :

MEDIA 10-150

Hung i shao nü Girl in red 1988

Tells the story of a 16-year-old middle school student named An Ran, who is unafraid to pursue her own way of thinking, even if it causes problems. In a world dresses in blue and grey, she wears a bright red blouse. She refuses to conform to the norms of society.

1 videocassette (108 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5165

Hung kao liang Red sorghum 1991?

Story told by a young boy about the forced marriage of the woman who became his grandmother first to the leprous owner of a winery, then after his death to a local ruffian who first rapes her. She becomes the head of the winery, lives with the boy's father, and the entire winery community unites in bacchanalian solidary to resist atrocities of Japanese invaders.

1 videocassette (92 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 1592 2-2346

Ju Dou 1991

A variation of "The Postman Always Rings Twice," this film, set in the 1920's, follows a mill-owner's wife and nephew, who together plot the mill-owner's murder.

1 videocassette (98 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 536 2-2590

Kê t`u ch`iu hên Song of the exile 1992

A young woman returns home to attend her sister's wedding and finds herself at social and emotional odds with her mother.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

DANA 513

Lao ching 1987?

An educated youth returns to his village and helps his family realize their dream of finding water on their land. To do so, he marries a widow and sacrifices his real love. The villagers succeed in digging a good well.

1 videocassette (125 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2355

Life on a string 1993

A fable of a blind boy who is promised the restoration of his sight if he devotes his life to music.

1 videocassette (107 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2599

Liu lian piao piao Durian durian 2001

A Chinese girl wandering between Hong Kong and Dongbei.

2 videodiscs (110 min.)

MEDIA 10-428

Mang jing Blind shaft 2003

Two wandering con men travel from mine to mine, befriending single men and then killing them so that it looks like an accident. They then go after the mine management for hush money.

1 videodisc (92 min.)

MEDIA 10-376

Mom's got a lover 1995

"A romantic interlude shared on a train seven years ago is revisited when a now married woman accidentally meets her lover again. A poignant story of love, marriage, family and infidelity"--Container.

1 videocassette (95 min.) :

MEDIA 2-6217

Na shan na ren na gou Postmen in the mountains 2003

In southern China, a rural postman shows his son, the new postman, the mail route to small mountain villages.

1 videodisc (ca. 90 min.)

MEDIA 10-592

Nan ren si shi = July Rhapsody 2001?

Lam Yiu-Kwok is a high school teacher, having a perfect family. Good times don't last long, when a a student, Choi-nam, falls in love with him. For dealing with a realationship with Mr. Seng, a beloved teacher of the couple, his wife Man-ching requests a leave for a month. A midlife crisis mixing with pressure sends him into an emotional tailspin. Everything seems to lead him towards Choi-nam, the forbidden fruit. Will history repeat itself?

1 videodisc (103 min.) :

MEDIA 10-194

Nightgirl 2001

Presents the story of Han Lin, a 17 year old prematurely made to enter into the workforce as a Go-Go dancer to help ease her family's economic burdens.

1 videocassette (45 min.)

MEDIA 2-6321

Nü hsing shih chieh 1991?

A story of the loves and lives of three middle-aged women. Li Ch`ing, Lü Yün and T`ao T`ien-i have been close friends since school, but all have had different experiences in their life.

1 videocassette (108 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5261

Nü jen taxi nü jen Woman taxi woman 199

A female taxi driver, Chang Kai-hsiu, comes back from maternity leave and on her first day back nearly runs over a young scientist, Ch`in Yao. They soon become friends and offer each other the support and understanding each needs.

1 videocassette (87 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5084

Nü ren di gu shi A women's story 1989

A poignant tale of three peasant Chinese women who flee their village to taste freedom in the big city and escape the sexist oppression of rural China. After many experiences they return to their village to find life there has not changed, they have.

1 videocassette (95 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5440

Nü ta hsüeh sheng su she Girl students dormitory 1988

Five girls from different backgrounds, living in the same dormitory, become friends.

1 videocassette (93 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5157

Platform Zhan tai 2002

Follows the lives of four friends over a turbulent 10 year period of Chinese history, from 1979 to 1989. In the small town of Fenyang, in the remote western province of Shanxi, the teenage members of a state theatre troupe stage propaganda plays in praise of Mao. But as the country opens up to the free market and implements wide-ranging reform, their lives are irrevocably changed as the world around them is transformed by the music, fashions and other cultural influences of the West.

1 videodisc (150 min.)

MEDIA 10-397

Qing chin zhi ge Song of youth 1983

Lin runs away from home to escape an arranged marriage. On the verge of suicide, she is rescued by a young man whom she eventually marries. She chafes at the restrictions of married life, however, and when she meets Lu, a man involved in the student movement against the Japanese, she leaves her husband for a new life with him. Unfortunately, Lu is arrested.

1 videocassette (170 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5182

Qiu tian di tong hua An autumn's tale 199

An amusing romantic drama of a naive young woman from Hong Kong who goes to New York to study. A distant cousin takes care of her in the big city and sparks light up between this mismatched pair.

1 videocassette (ca. 98 min.)

MEDIA 2-7143

Qiu yue Autumn moon 1995

Clara Law's Autumn Moon is set in contemporary Hong Kong, where a young Japanese tourist is bargain-shopping and loooking for food, sex, or preferably both. He meets a fifteen-year-old waif and the friendship that develops allows the young man's passion for food to be assuaged by the girl's grandmother, the wielder of a magic wok. But sex is a different matter than friendship-- which is what this film is really about.

1 videocassette (108 min.)

MEDIA 2-6958

Raise the red lantern 1992

The 19-year-old Songlian (Gong Li) has become Fourth Wife to the wealthy Chen, and she must share her husband with his other three wives. When Songlian discovers that the other wives manipulate and cheat for their husband's favors, a battle of wills commences between the women that can only bring misfortune to all concerned.

1 videocassette (125 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 520 2-2353

The road home 2001

Prompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.

1 videocassette (89 min.)

MEDIA 2-6962

Ruan Lingyu Centre stage 1993

Biopic based on the life of the Chinese silent movie actress Ruan Ling-yu, who commited suicide before she was twenty-five. Maggie Cheung won the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival for her portrayal of the troubled movie star.

1 videodisc (121 min.) :

MEDIA 10-155

Shen nü 2003

A young woman can only support and educate her son by working as a prostitute in 1930s Shanghai. One of the rare films of famed Chinese star Ruan Lingyu.

1 videodisc (ca. 74 min.)

MEDIA 10-430

Shi qi sui de dan che Beijing bicycle 2002

Just as Gui, a bicycle messenger, makes his final payment for the silver mountain bike loaned by his company, he finds it stolen. After endless searching, Gui discovers his bicycle is now in the hands of Jian. The battle for the bicycle began.

1 videocassette (113 min.)

MEDIA 2-6961

Shower 2000

Mistakenly believing his father has passed away, a bathhouse master's son returns home and soon discovers the magic of the family business and its importance to the community.

1 videocassette (ca. 94 min.) :

DANA 1559

Song of the exile 1991

Hueyin Cheung returns home to attend her sister's wedding but quickly finds herself at social and emotional odds with her mother.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2657

Springtime in a small town 2004

In South China, it's the spring of 1946, less than a year since the defeated Japanese withdrew from China. A young woman languishes on the bomb-damaged walls of the small town. The sound of a distant train whistle triggers thoughts of escape.

1 videodisc (112 min.)

MEDIA 10-548

The story of Qiu Ju Qiu Ju Da Guan Si 1993

A woman's journey through the Chinese court system in a universal battle against bureacracy and indifference after her husband is kicked in the groin by a village chief.

1 videocassette (100 min.) :

DANA. MEDIA 1558 2-2593

Suzhou he Suzhou river 2001

Marda falls in love with Moudan, then tries to kidnap her for ransom. Moudan escapes in the Suzhou River, never to be heard from again. Marda, after serving three years in prison for the kidnapping, meets a woman who looks exactly like Moudan.

1 videodisc (83 min.)

MEDIA 10-423

T`ung nien wang shih A time to live and the time to die 1985

The film depicts a family transplanted from mainland China to Taiwan in the early 1950s. The Father dies of illness and the elder sister marries. A-ha, the protagonist, struggles to deal with adolescence.

1 videocassette (141 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5040

Tao ma tsei The Horse Thief 1991

In order to survive, a herdsman becomes a criminal, and finally atones for his sins by taking his own life.

1 videocassette (88 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2600

To live 1995

In a smoky gambling den in 1940's China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation, and the first step in an odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution love and loss, tragedy ... and triumph.

1 videocassette (132 min.) :

DANA. DANA MEDIA 1697 504 2-2826

Tu shen nü jen 1997?

Woman with failed marriage struggles to be equal to her male business partner. Deals with issues which concern single women.

1 videocassette (106 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5278

The United States and China : World War and Civil War, 1937-1949 1970

Describes U.S.-China relations from 1937- 1949, including Mao Tse Tung's northern peasant campaign and U.S. relations with Chiang during World War II and in the post- war period.

1 cassette, 30 min. :

DOUGLASS 31

Wangjiao kamen/As tears go by 2004

Already stretched to breaking in a loyalty tug of war between Triad bosses and his loose cannon partner, Wah, a rising star in the Hong Kong underworld, finds himself saddled with beautiful, ailing country cousin Ngor. As an escalating test of wills with a stubborn debtor explodes into bloodshed and a mob turncoat instigates a ruthless police crackdown, Wah's growing fascination with Ngor becomes his last chance for escape from a violent past and a debious future.

1 videodisc (102 min.)

MEDIA 10-560

Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the east? 1996

In a remote monastery high up in the mountains, an old master, a young monk, and an orphaned boy devote themselves to their Buddhist teachings. As the master faces death, he must lead his disciples away from their past ties to the outside world and its rapidly changing values, and point them toward their quest for enlightenment.

1 videocassette (135 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2838

Women from the lake of scented souls 1995

Xiang Ersao is the driving force behind her family's successful sesame oil mill. But, despite her prosperity, Xiang is profoundly unhappy. As society dictates, she must endure the drunken and abusive behavior of her husband, to whom she was sold at the age of seven and married at thirteen. When her mentally ill son asks for a wife, Xiang perpetuates her own destiny by "buying" a poor, reluctant peasant girl, Huanhuan, for him. Will Xiang recognize the parallel between her own life and Huanhuan's before it is too late?

1 videocassette (106 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2601

Wu t`ai chieh mei Two actresses 1991

"Chunhua, a child bride, runs away from home and is taken in by a small Shaoxing opera troup. She becomes a sworn sister of Yuehong. But when they were sold to a theatre in Shanghai, Yuehong falls from grace, and Chunhua draws herself to a progressive reporter"--Container.

1 videocassette (116 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5095

Xi lu Xiang Little Cheung 2000?

This film is the final part of Chen Guo's 1997 handover trilogy, following Made in Hong Kong (1997) and The Longest Summer (1998). Set within an extremely dense working class neighborhood in Mongkok, Hong Kong, Little Cheung, a 9-year-old occasional delivery boy at his father's restaurant, befriends with a young girl of his age and is devastated after witnessing her family being deported to the mainland.

2 videodiscs (117 min.)

MEDIA 10-427

Yellow earth Huang T`u Ti 1993

A singer and folk song interpreter falls victim to feudal Chinese society when she is forced to marry a young boy. She suffers endless pain until she meets a folk song collector who changes her life.

1 videocassette (89 min.) :

MEDIA 2-2545

Yi ge dou bu neng shao Not one less 2000

A young woman is ordered to a remote, rural, Chinese village to be the substitute teacher and is told that she must keep the class intact for one month or she won't be paid. When one of her students disappears into the city to find work, she goes after him.

1 videocassette (ca. 106 min.) :

DANA MEDIA 1589 10-13

Ying xiong/Hero 2004

With supernatural skill and no fear a nameless soldier embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that massacred his people. Now, to achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat.

1 videodisc (ca. 99 min.)

MEDIA 10-380

Yüeh ya erh Crescent moon 1991

A story of how Han Yüeh-jung and her mother became prostitutes under the pressure of life.

1 videocassette (ca. 99 min.) :

MEDIA 2-5211