Unbending Will

Modern-day urban problems like unemployment and teenage depression come under the microscope. Husband and wife lose their jobs, and their daughter is under considerable stress studying for her college exams. Meanwhile, grandmother is having an unexpected romantic liaison. Will the family be able to pull together to solve their problems?

Palace of Desire, also known as Da Ming Gong Ci, is a Chinese television series based on the life story of Princess Taiping, a daughter of China's only female emperor Wu Zetian. Directed by Li Shaohong and Zeng Nianping, the series starred Chen Hong, Zhou Xun, Gui Yalei and Winston Chao in the leading roles. It was first broadcast on CCTV-8 in mainland China on March 30, 2000.

After a large-scale police crackdown, narcotics officer Yang Yipeng seizes a critical lead with captured but defiant ringleader Mou Haidong. Alongside rookie officer Zhi An and informant Duo Zai, Yang follows a trail back to Mou Sen’s new synthetic drug operation, uncovering a complex web of drug networks. But as they delve deeper, the true mastermind remains elusive, hidden behind layers of secrecy

Freely adapted from Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the film follows the investigation of a local teacher's murder in a small and desperately poor rural village, the story of the crime gradually pieced together from the fragmented memories of witnesses forced to testify at an inquest. Sharing with her Fifth Generation colleagues Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang a remarkable eye for the barren landscapes of northern China and a fascination with small-town life — especially those enduring superstitions that Communism failed to erase — director Li Shaohong also introduces several formal innovations, particularly in storytelling structure, that remain unprecedented in Chinese cinema.

Jai Baoyu is a male heir who grew up in a wealthy feudal clan dominated by women. His love affairs with his cousins Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai happened in the midst of his family's struggle to remain influential.

When Yan'ni starts college she believes she is embarking on a new life away from her family, and she is, but not the new beginning she anticipates. Once at school, she immediately meets Muyu and falls in love with him. What she does not know is that from the moment he met her Muyu began an intricate deception that will lead to the loss of her child and the future she believes in.

The film charts the fortunes of two women who loved each other as sisters, but whose paths diverge when the Revolution brings an end to their old way of life in the brothel.

Consists of 8 different stories that talk about the problems and pain women face in the modern-day. Topics include leftover women, objectification of women, the role of a housewife, domestic violence, social appearance anxiety, women’s career choices, midlife crises, and family of origin issues.

In a mansion decimated during World War II, a frustrated, bored housewife, Yuwen, is torn between caring for her ailing husband and her longing for a former sweetheart, a doctor who has come to treat her husband.

The horror story set in the contemporary China centers on a young intellectual’s ominous journey to find his lost girlfriend and the truth behind the breakup.

After laying bare backward village mentalities in Bloody Morning, Li Shaohong turns her attention to China’s urban middle class. Cao is a photographer, married to an opera singer and with an infant son, caught in the usual professional morass of political compromise. His life starts to fall apart when he learns that his ex-wife also bore him a son some months after their divorce – and when the boy turns up looking for his father. Nothing wildly dramatic, just believable people in believable situations. If the ending seems a touch forced, this is nevertheless a sign that ‘Fifth Generation’ cinema is changing and coming to terms with up-to-date realities.

A casino broker who funds wealthy gamblers drops her guard when she falls for an artist with a gambling addiction.