barlenon

Well known Chinese actor, Ge You, plays a kind of geeky middle-aged man, an inventor, who after becoming rich, wants to fulfill his next ambition and get a girlfriend. The comedy aspect of the film is more successful as Ge You's character tries personal ads and meets with several unsuitable candidates. One of the candidates (played by Qi Shu) is an air flight attendant who is unsuitable in many ways including still being in love with another man who has rejected her. Despite mutual animosity, they develop a kind of twisted friendship and agree to help each other. Predictably they become more attracted to each other but have to overcome difficult obstacles to find real love. The comedy is kind of goofy and slapstick but sometimes amusing with some humorous but pointed criticisms of modern Chinese life. However, the more romantic second half of the film is overwrought and increasingly unbearable to watch as Qi Shu's character struggles with herself and Ge You's character becomes increasingly tolerant of her self torment. bleeech.

Something like a cross between the Da Vinci Code and Raiders of the Lost Arc, although not too scary or anything. Nicholas Cage is Ben Gates, a rich guy who likes to give talks about his historical interests. After giving a lecture about the Lincoln assassination, a chiselled figure, Mitch Wilkinson, appears with a missing page from diary of John Wilkes Booth which appears to implicate Ben Gates' ancestors as a co-conspirator in the assassination. To prove his great great grandfather's innocence, Gates sets out on an adventure which follows a set of clues which ultimately lead to a search for the fabled "City of Gold". Fortunately Gates' best friend is an electronics wizard which enables them to bypass security measures and have convenient access to highly guarded areas such as Buckingham Palace and the Oval Office of the White House. Even more convenient, other family members know extinct languages and can read ancient runes. A Love interest tags along and Mitch Wilkinson reveals himself as a bad guy who is trailing Gates, hoping to grab any loot they may uncover. Geared toward an audience with a low attention span, the pace is fast and they don't get stuck on difficult clues for long. Ludicrous plot probably wouldn't prevent this film from succeeding as a Saturday morning TV adventure for preteens. Trevor Rabin soundtrack seems apt.

In the early 90s, a young woman, Bai Xuemei, a recent college graduate, travels to the countryside of rural Shaanxi province believing she is going to start a job selling medicine to rural peasants. After arriving at remote village, she is drugged and awakes to discover her identity papers have been taken and she is the prisoner of her new 'husband', a contemptuous, uneducated peasant who has bought her for 7000 yuan. Bai protests and tries to leave but is forcibly restrained by her new 'family'. In fact, her new husband's parents assist him in restraining her so that she can be raped. Eventually Bai manages to escape her confinement and flees to inform the local police and is brought to the village chief. He, however, won't help her without proof (identity papers) or a refund of the 7000 yuan and returns her to custody of her would-be-husband. Later Bai meets other prisoner wives who share her fate but have long given up their will to escape. Horrified, as the seriousness of her predicament sinks in, she makes more desperate attempts to escape.

Incredibly enough, the film is based on the real stories of women who were enslaved this way in rural China - the demand for wives brought about by the imbalance of male and female children in the countryside. For once an idyllic, isolated rural Chinese village is portrayed as a place of ignorance and malevolence and a place to escape from. Amazing acting from the cast of non-actors who play themselves very convincingly. The only disappointment might be Bai herself who, as a college graduate, doesn't seem to plan her escape attempts very well.