Vistopia
Cover of For Chinese-Language Cinema
For Chinese-Language Cinema
4,000 minutes presenting a complete contemporary history of Chinese-language film
Completed · 135 episodes
Buy for ¥249.00
Audio in Chinese
01. Lao Ma: We Must Understand the World of Life before Chinese-Language Cinema 02. A Wu: The Atmosphere for Discussing Film Is Fading 01. What Went Wrong with Chinese-Language Cinema? | Self-Exploitation and Hollow Values 02. What Interrupted Its Development? | Explosive Growth in the 2010s 03. When Did All-Controlling Paternalism Begin? | Film under the Planned Economy 04. Nearly 100 Million in Box Office Revenue Uncollected—What Now? | The 1993 Reform 05. How Did Maoyan and Taopiaopiao Change Distribution? | Private Capital and Theater Chains 06. A Worldly Director Teaching Chopsticks on a New York Street? | Relaxing Production Qualifications 07. Has Censorship Grown Stricter? | Main-Melody Film and Content Limits 08. ‘I Make Films to Satisfy the Audience's Vulgar Taste’ | Generations of Directors 09. Critiquing Power, Attending to Marginal Lives | Independent Film and Official Reconciliation 10. Using Chaplin's American Films to Denounce America | Importing Hollywood Blockbusters 11. On the Run with a Print of The Fugitive | Opening the Industry and Resisting Hollywood 12. Li Han-hsiang Came to the Mainland with Only Tony Leung Ka-fai | Theaters and Coproductions 13. ‘Film Should Not Be an Appendix to Policy’ | The Officials Who Managed Cinema 14. Film Shows How History Is Distorted | Reflections on Reform 15. Special | Film Bureau Deputy Director Mao Yu: Is Chinese Cinema in Crisis? 16. Will Hong Kong Cinema Die? | A History beyond Elite Narratives 17. When Society Suffers, Ordinary People Huddle Together | Hong Kong at the Millennium 18. Infernal Affairs Was Hong Kong Cinema's Last Glory | Hong Kong Identity and Coproductions 19. Stephen Chow, Peter Chan, Tsui Hark, Wong Kar-wai, Andrew Lau—the Coproduction Pioneers 20. In Hong Kong, Nothing Lasts More than Fifty Years | Transition and Cultural Preservation 21. ‘I Don't Want to Make Films That Comfort the Middle Class’ | Ann Hui, Herman Yau, Pang Ho-cheung 22. Looking at the Bottom in an Unequal Society | Neoliberalism and Hong Kong Cinema 23. ‘My Fate Is Mine’: Dream or Tragedy? | Recent Local Cinema and Subjectivity 24. Is the World Mad, or Am I? | Tragedy and Loneliness in Social-Issue Films 25. Blood-Based Relationships Are the Most Conservative | Chosen Communities on Film 26. Leon Lai, Miriam Yeung, Sammi Cheng, Shawn Yue, Dayo Wong—Actors and Local Consciousness 27. Why Did Masters Emerge in 1980s Taiwan? | Model Student Edward Yang 28. ‘In the End They Chose Hsiao-hsien’ | Yang and Hou's Break and Reconciliation 29. Inner Rupture and Pain Equal to a Social Revolution | Edward Yang's Themes 30. Edward Yang's Film Consciousness Was Precocious | In Our Time and Eleven Women 31. After Nora Leaves, She Needs a Career and an Independent Self | That Day, on the Beach 32. Historical Upheaval Makes Chance Inevitable | Taipei Story and the Cost of Modernization 33. Everyone Is Victim and Perpetrator | Terrorizers and Urban Illness 34. ‘You Always Want to Change the World, but It Will Not Change’ | A Brighter Summer Day I 35. Can Individuals Preserve Spiritual Freedom under Authoritarianism? | A Brighter Summer Day II 36. So Many False Things Appear Because Only One Truth Is Permitted | A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong 37. No One Knows More Truth about Life than Another | Yi Yi and Growing Up 38. Keep Living Optimistically in a Tragic World | Edward Yang's Legacy I. Beginning with Hou Hsiao-hsien's Retirement | Naturalist Aesthetics II. Where Did Hou's Artistic Originality Come From? | The New Cinema Style Shift III. Growing Up Means Doing What You Do Not Want | A Summer at Grandpa's, A Time to Live, A Time to Die, Dust in the Wind IV. Everyday Action Becomes Sweeping Epic | A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster, Good Men, Good Women V. Scripts That Use Characters as Mouthpieces Are the Clumsiest | Goodbye South, Goodbye; Flowers of Shanghai; Millennium Mambo VI. Can a Film with Shu Qi and Chang Chen Be Bad? | Three Times and The Assassin Why Does Japanese Film Avoid Politics? Is Venice Rigged? Who Controls Art-Cinema Taste? | Q&A Film in the Short-Video Age? Must Directors Attend Film School? Why Did the Golden Rooster Decline? | Q&A 39. All Splendor Is Swept Away by Wind and Rain | Jia Zhangke and Caught by the Tides 40. Is Jia Zhangke a Genius or Overrated? | The Rise of an Independent Director 41. Everyone Loses through Friction with the Age | The Jia Zhangke Universe and Modernization 42. People Out of Time and Despair beneath Rebellion | Xiao Wu and Platform 43. Can a Trafficked Woman Love Her Buyer? | Unknown Pleasures, The World, Still Life 44. There Is No Certain, Unique Historical Truth | I Wish I Knew, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart 45. I Don't Believe You Can Guess Our Ending | Ash Is Purest White and Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue Special: Ne Zha 2 Tops the Box Office but Cannot Save Chinese Cinema 46. ‘Johnnie To's First Identity Is Company Boss’ | Thirty Years of Milkyway Image 47. What Actors Naturally Possess Matters More than Technique | Milkyway's Method and Style 48. The Gangster World Is a Distorted Projection of Reality | Themes and Narratives 49. Every Accident Has a Cause Unknown to Those Involved | Too Many Ways to Be No. 1, The Longest Nite, A Hero Never Dies 50. ‘Because It's Andy Lau, the Implausible Becomes Plausible’ | Running Out of Time and The Mission 51. Romance Became Milkyway's Box-Office Pillar | Sealed with a Kiss, Love on a Diet, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts 52. Hong Kong Police and Gangsters Worship the Same Lord Guan | PTU and the Blue Wall of Silence 53. What Is Karma? Bodhisattvas Fear Causes; Mortals Fear Results | Running on Karma and More 54. Can Traditional Morality and Loyalty Survive Gangland? | Election and the Collapse of the Gangster Myth 55. Nostalgia Is Best Enjoyed Briefly | Exiled, Eye in the Sky, Hooked on You, Mad Detective 56. In an Invincible Financial World, Humanity Has No Principles | Sparrow, Vengeance, Accident, Life Without Principle 57. Fate Cannot Change, but Our Attitude Can | Drug War, Trivisa, Mad Fate 58. Without Them, Hong Kong Film History Would Be Much Paler | Milkyway's People 59. ‘Wong Kar-wai Must Defeat His Imitators’ | Restoring In the Mood for Love 60. Love's Beauty Lies in Remaining Unfinished | Wong's Literary Formation 61. Does Wong Kar-wai Misunderstand In the Mood for Love? | Aborted Revenge and Contradictory Narrative 62. Who Loves More, Su Li-zhen or Chow Mo-wan? | Repetition, Ellipsis, and Continuity Errors 63. Tony Leung's Downcast Eyes and Maggie Cheung's Glance | Performance and Chemistry 64. The Qipao Patterns Are Gaudy, Yet We See Only Maggie's Beauty | Design, Cinematography, Editing 65. Wong Kar-wai Is a Shanghai–Hong Kong Hybrid | Staging and Shanghai Elements 66. Do You Still Love Wong Kar-wai after Twenty? | A Genius Director's Fall and Suspension Special: Under Tariff Clouds, Chinese Audiences Are Losing American Film 67. Taiwan Cinema in the 1990s: Noble and Lonely | The End-of-Century Low 68. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Blue Gate Crossing, Eternal Summer, A City of Sadness | Recovery 69. Must Film Express Positive Meaning? Should Disgraced Artists Be Banned? | Social Environment 70. No Successors after the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’? | Cross-Strait Coproduction and Golden Horse Awards 71. Cape No. 7 and an ‘Alliance of Losers’ | New Local Taiwan Cinema I 72. How Do Indigenous Directors Handle Tradition and Modernity? | New Local Cinema II 73. Formula 17, Monga, Love, Paradise in Service | Doze Niu's Rise and Fall 74. The Doctor, Soul, A Sun, The Falls | Chung Mong-hong, Leader of the 2010s 75. How Does Film Reflect Taiwan's Corrupt Politics? | Huang Hsin-yao, Ya-che Yang, Midi Z, Lee Yong-chao 76. Gatao, Man in Love, Hear Me, You Are the Apple of My Eye | Taiwan Youth Film Dominates 77. Crystal Boys, Your Name Engraved Herein, Formula 17, Marry My Dead Body | Taiwan Queer Cinema Leads Asia 78. Mongrel, Exit, Missing Johnny, Xiao Mei | Taiwan Films of the Underclass Need Not Be Miserable 79. How Do Motherhood, Patriarchy, and Horror Collide? | Cheng Wei-hao's High-Concept Genre Films 80. Why Does Taiwan Produce So Many Charismatic Young Stars? | Greg Hsu, Chris Wu, Eddie Peng, Tiffany Hsu 81. Artistically beyond Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige | On Huang Jianxin 82. Intellectual Disillusionment and Taming Make the Best Ending | The Black Cannon Incident 83. How Does the System Turn People into Robots? | Dislocation and Samsara 84. The Powerless, Penniless Intellectual Still Bows Down | Stand Up, Don't Bend Over and The Wooden Man's Bride 85. Rated 9.5: How Does This Masterpiece Satirize Officialdom? | Back to Back, Face to Face 86. Collective Duty or Personal Happiness? | Signal Left, Turn Right and The Trap 87. Lamenting Moral Decline Was a Fin-de-Siècle Anxiety | Sleepless Town and Tell Your Secret 88. Huang Jianxin Can No Longer Grasp This Age | Who Cares and Gimme Kudos 89. How Did an Avant-Garde Rebel Promote Main-Melody Film? | The Founding of a Republic and Beginning of the Great Revival 90. Is Refusing Some Things Merely Self-Preservation? | The Chinese Intellectual's Eternal Dilemma 91. How Was the Modern Star System Built? | Hong Kong Entertainment I 92. Who Managed Superstars like Faye Wong and Leslie Cheung? | Hong Kong Entertainment II 93. Why Did Hong Kong Have Only One Maggie Cheung and One Anita Mui? | Female Stardom 94. Why Is the Real Tony Leung No Different from His Screen Self? | Hong Kong Acting 95. How Did Wong Kar-wai Direct Maggie Cheung? | The Story of Rose and As Tears Go By 96. Maggie Cheung's Awakening Body Absorbed History's Sorrow | Full Moon in New York and Song of the Exile 97. No Twentieth-Century Hong Kong–Taiwan Problem Was Greater than Diaspora | Red Dust, Farewell China, Days of Being Wild 98. ‘The Gossip Is a Fearful Thing’: Is Ruan Lingyu Crying, or Maggie Cheung? | Center Stage, Ashes of Time, Green Snake 99. Is Maggie Cheung Suited to Comedy and Action? | New Dragon Gate Inn and The Heroic Trio 100. How Did Assayas and Maggie Cheung Meet? | Irma Vep I 101. Orientalism Is a One-Sided Fantasy about Foreign Culture | Irma Vep II 102. A Truly Moving Reunion Respects Life's Complexity | Comrades: Almost a Love Story 103. What Does a ‘Fallen’ Maggie Cheung Look Like? | The Soong Sisters, Hero, Clean 104. Whose Loss Was Maggie Cheung's Retirement at Her Peak? | Structural Problems 105. From Stars to Influencers, Where Will Our Emotional Investment Go? | The End of Stardom 106. The Commerce–Art Divide No Longer Works | The Indefinable Ang Lee 107. How Was Ang Lee Discovered? | Hsu Li-kong and Taiwan Cinema 108. ‘If I Don't Make a Film, I'll Die’ | New York Film Circles and Pushing Hands 109. Once a Father, You Become the Person You Once Hated | The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman 110. Why Ask an Eastern Director to Make Sense and Sensibility? 111. Faith in Endless Prosperity Collapses | The Ice Storm and Ride with the Devil 112. Why Does Li Mu-bai Insist on Taking Jen as His Disciple? | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I 113. Is Jen's Leap Destruction or Liberation? | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II 114. Love and Fear Can Coexist | Hulk and Brokeback Mountain 115. How Does Individual Loss of Control Undo Grand History? | Lust, Caution I 116. How Do Eileen Chang's and Ang Lee's ‘Crimes’ Differ? | Lust, Caution II 117. Faith Is Believing a Good Story without Reason | Life of Pi 118. How Does Patriotism Become a Commodity? | Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Gemini Man 119. He Is Not a Feminist; He Is Simply Good at Women's Stories | Ang Lee's Themes I 120. He May Not Understand ‘Queer,’ but He Understands Marginality and Repression | Themes II 121. Finale—Chinese-Language Cinema's Essence Is Rupture and Diaspora | Ang Lee, Art, and Life Special | Film, Football, Wuxia, Political Positions, and Artists' Morality Special | When Greek History, American Politics, and Nolan's Aesthetics Collide in The Odyssey