paglino9 on May 25, 2010 | reply

@ Sambowden

You can check out this independent movie label based right here in Beijing. They are called Dgenerate films, and focus a lot on documentaries. Their movies are a little hard to get a hold of, but many of their titles garner rave reviews such as this one called "Ghost Town"

http://dgeneratefilms.com/catalog/ghost-town-fei-cheng

Another film that I saw recently that was above average for Chinese Cinema is 全城热恋. There's some Cantonese thrown in here and there, but the story is dynamic enough to hold your interest.

Also there are two television shows that I'd like to recommend. The first one being 康熙来了 which is a Taiwanese variety show. I tune in due to the attractiveness of the female guests. The language is also colorful.

Also for a "Friends" meets "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" you can catch 武林外传. This series has 80 episodes, and a treasure trove of colloquialisms, and Chinese humor.

You can do a simple tudou search for both of these television shows.

trevelyan on May 25, 2010 | reply

My favourite Chinese films are probably Wang Kar-Wei's 2046 and (amazingly) Zhang Yimou's 我的父亲母亲 (translated title: The Road Home). The first is available in a mandarin dub. The second doesn't have much dialogue, but it's a fantastic tear-jerker that is beautifully filmed. Hard to believe it's the same Zhang Yimou who has gone on to produce such bad films as Curse, etc. The Road Home is also Zhang Ziyi's first film btw.

For more fun/casual films, I really like the older Andy Lau comedies from the first half of the decade. 老鼠爱上猫 is a fun romantic comedy (with a really cute Cecilia Cheung). There is also Missing You, an office romance. All these are Cantonese films, but any Chinese language version should have the mandarin dub availablfe.