Wang Bing’s extraordinary observational documentary shows us what it’s like in a mental asylum in China—for four gruelling hours, we find ourselves full of human empathy and incapable of rendering judgment.
A conventional documentary about an unconventional instrument—the ancient shakuhachi—and the people who seek spiritual clarity through playing it.
This 5-hour long observational documentary shot in a psychiatric ward in Northeast China humanises patients diagnosed with mental illnesses and gives them tremendous empathy and dignity.
A modest if tender documentary about an Alzheimer’s-stricken father (a retired Peking opera director) and his son (a multimedia artist) who try to heal through art and the creative process as they witness the ravages of time on their mortal connection.
A dead body is found in the Mongolian steppes in this sublimely-shot if at times bizarre arthouse tale about carnal desires and the cycle of life.
Arguably Zhang’s masterpiece, this plays out like an opera, at times ceremonial, at times tragic, but always tense and captivating.
A haunting circular tragedy, Zhang Yimou’s tale of passion, lust and angst in rural China is a visual powerhouse.
Zhang Yimou’s greatest achievement comes in the form of this intimate and emotionally devastating through-the-decades account of one Chinese family’s tumultuous existence through the momentous times of the Cultural Revolution.
An unconventional mystery-drama about the burden of personal guilt as Wang Xiaoshuai riskily pursues narrative fragmentation that ultimately rewards with a strong finale.
The emotional struggles of a family torn apart by a major earthquake sets the melodramatic tone of this decades-spanning Chinese disaster epic.
