Acting
Zhu Xu (Chinese: 朱旭) is a Chinese actor. He is well known for his roles in Zhang Yang's Shower and Wu Tianming's The King of Masks, the latter film helping him garner a Best Actor prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
An aged father and his younger, mentally challenged son have been working hard every day to keep the bathhouse running for a motley group of regular customers. When his elder son, who left years ago to seek his fortune in the southern city of Shenzhen, abruptly returns one day, it once again puts under stress the long-broken father-son ties. Presented as a light-hearted comedy, Shower explores the value of family, friendship, and tradition.
Set against the backdrop of the Boxer Rebellion and the takeover of the Forbidden City by foreign powers, the empress-dowager Cixi and her notorious chief eunuch fight a losing battle to preserve their corrupt and autocratic regime.
A brilliant, blackly comic script and the subtle comic genius of star Zhu Xu mark this as one of the best tragi-comedies of post-liberation Chinese cinema.
The film illustrates classical Beijing Opera in different generations and the boy’s process of growing-up.
An old teahouse in Beijing serves as the stage for a drama that unfolds over several tumultuous decades of modern Chinese history, from the waning days of the Qing dynasty to the eve of the People's Republic.
A young boy named Chen Xiang uses a magical lotus lantern to search for and rescue his mother, a goddess, from the cruel punishment she received from her brother, the king of the gods, for falling in love with a mortal man.
Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art.
The painless bruise marks on a child from the traditional Chinese guasha/scraping treatment was mistaken by child protection services as evidence of abuse and neglect, stirring clashes and debates on cultral prejudice and false philanthropy.
In China, during the Cultural Revolution, a young girl's parents are thrown in jail for ten years. She is raised by her grandfather. He introduces her to gymnastics where she does her best to fit in with the others.