Chinese cinema: History on screen

By TOM HORGEN, Star Tribune

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 5:21 PM

Sixty years of Chinese cinema is a lot to take in. But "The People's Republic of Cinema" is worth your time. In these 14 films, China's history is told through the eyes of its most innovative filmmakers. Here are five highlights.

1. "Yellow Earth"

In Chen Kaige's 1984 film, a Communist soldier travels through rural China, where he tries to persuade a peasant girl to escape her arranged marriage and join the People's Liberation Army. In 2005, the Hong Kong Film Awards ranked it No. 4 on its 100 Best Chinese Motion Pictures list. (7:30 p.m. next Friday.)

2. "Little Red Flowers"

Four-year-old Qiang is abandoned at a boarding school shortly after the 1949 revolution. The school's strict conformity isn't for him. He cries. Then he rebels (no red flowers for him). It's an intimate look at the larger political forces at work in the newly formed Red China. Not to be missed. (7:30 p.m. Sat.)

3. "Crows and Sparrows"

Made in 1949 as the Communists were taking power, this classic was a sign of the times. The film critiqued Nationalist policies in the form of a shady landlord scheming against his lowly tenants. (7:30 p.m. today)

4. "Platform"

Jia Zhangke's acclaimed 2000 indie film follows a traveling theater troupe that ditches propaganda pieces for rock music during China's economic transformation in the 1980s. With a slow, static camera, the film documents Mao's China giving way to Western influence. (7:30 p.m. Nov. 14)

5. "Beijing Bastards"

Considered one of mainland China's first independent films, this 1993 feature by Zhang Yuan turns an eye to China's disillusioned youth -- a drugged-out rocker in search of his pregnant girlfriend. (7:30 p.m. Nov. 19)

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