It might not have Jim Carrey in 3D, but I'll take the Walker Art Center's cinema over a suburban cineplex any day.

Since the Walker opened its $130 million expansion in 2005, the theater that once housed both movies and performing arts has become a full-time film house, with programming you often can't find anywhere else.

"It gave us a chance to rethink what we really wanted to do with this dedicated film space," said Dean Otto, the museum's associate curator for film and video.

More than 190 films played at the Walker last year. And the cinema is coming off an impressive retrospective of the Coen brothers' film career, which ran in September and October.

Its latest series, which starts this week, is as ambitious as they come. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in China, and it's no secret that the world's most populated country now wields a great deal of influence on the world stage.

The Walker is observing these milestones with a 14-film series called "The People's Republic of Cinema: 60 Years of China on Film."

Film curator Sheryl Mousley said the goal of the monthlong series is to show China's growth and hardships through the eyes of its filmmakers. Mousley worked on the series with Jason McGrath, associate professor of modern Chinese literature and film at the University of Minnesota. Half of the films will be screened at the Bell Museum on campus.

"The filmmakers had to have their script approved, and they were rewriting it as things were changing in the news," Mousley said. "The revolution was literally at their doorstep."

While you might expect a bunch of documentary snoozers here, all of these movies are narrative features. Their stories track Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, the reform years of the 1980s and all the way up to the 2008 Olympics, which transformed Beijing's urban landscape.

Just don't come expecting kung fu flicks or John Woo shootouts. That's Hong Kong cinema. This is mainland China, whose cinematic history is fraught with Communist censorship.

That's not to say this series is filled with propaganda films. In fact, it's the very opposite -- the movies abound with subversive messages. Most of all, the filmmakers relate stories of normal people striving under a repressive system.

The seeds of the series were planted almost a decade ago when Mousley began traveling to China, researching films for the Walker.

With the filmmakers' blessings, she brought some of the movies back to Minneapolis.

A retrospective of this size is rare. It can be difficult to track down usable 35mm prints of these films, said Otto. Chen Kaige's "Yellow Earth" is probably one of the more well-known films in the series, but getting a copy of the movie wasn't easy. Otto said he only knows of two prints in the world, and one was already loaned out. The other copy arrived at the Walker just days ago from Australia's National Film and Sound Archive.

While filmgoers may be unfamiliar with most of the titles, Mousley said that should not scare them away. She made this comparison: If we were to make a film retrospective dedicated to telling the history of this country, which movies would be included? Probably classics such as "Gone With the Wind," "Citizen Kane" and "The Godfather." Mousley said these Chinese films share a similar gravitas.

This is that kind of film series.

thorgen@startribune.com • 612-673-7909

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)

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)