Watch: “Miss Tibet” Pageant Pushes The Boundary Of Both The Traditional And Modern

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The documentary company Journeyman has just uploaded a 28-minute film called Miss Tibet that offers possibly the realest look at contemporary Tibet you'll find anywhere. Mark Gould's description on Journeyman's website: The Miss Tibet beauty pageant claims to give women a platform to highlight Tibetan issues, drawing attention to the the plight of the its people as well as the brilliance of the lifestyle and culture.

China Loves Insane Martial Arts Battles

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Gawker Network's io9 has compiled a list of "27 of the most insane martial arts battles ever filmed," and would it surprise anyone that most of these were filmed or set in China? It's a great list, of course, and if you like martial arts / kung-fu, you'll lose many minutes of your day going through the videos. But one clip you'll not find is this from Dunken Master 2, and that seems like somewhat of an oversight:

Watch: Wukan Documentary By iSun TV

The Wukan protests that began last year over illegal land seizure might have seemed, at the start, unspectacular, merely another in the hundreds of rallies that happen every year in China. But with each passing day — and each development reported breathlessly by embedded reporters — the demonstrations revealed themselves to be a bit more... Read more »

A Film To Get Drunk With: Due West: Our 3D Sex Journey

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Quoting what appears to be an official film synopsis: Due West: Our Sex Journey describes the internal struggle of a young person seeking “love” and “lust” in contemporary society of Hong Kong. The film reflects the reason why men head North to Mainland to seek pleasure and the general problems exist among Hong Kong girls. It also focuses on the intricate conflict of the two-sided coin of love – affection and lust.

The Official Red Dawn Trailer Is Here, And It Features A Grammatical Mistake Within The First Eight Seconds

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I can't wait for Chinese people to overreact to this shitty movie full of Hollywood cliches about "freedom" and for everyone else to talk about it like it isn't a classic piece of Western propaganda. What's that? The invaders in the movie are North Koreans, not Chinese? Every soldier I see better look skinny and malnourished then, because I've been to Pyongyang, and that military is far from invading anyone. I wonder how many Americans who watch this will find the irony in a bunch of civilians fighting for their turf against an invading military.

Movies That Look Great: The Revolutionary

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The story of Sidney Rittenberg, one of Mao Zedong's "true believers" who joined the Chinese Communist Revolution instead of returning to his native Charleston, South Carolina after World War II, is about to be told as never before. Mark McDonald, writing for the International Herald Tribune's Rendezvous blog, turns our attention to the documentary The Revolutionary, completed last year, which tells of Rittenberg's 34 years in the People's Republic of China.

Movie Preview: China Heavyweights [UPDATE]

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Today (by which I mean Friday) marks the official premiere of director Yung Chang's documentary China Heavyweight in New York. Far be it from me to tell you New Yorkers how to spend your Friday evening, but this movie looks like it's worth your time. (There are two more showings today at IFC Center, at 7:25 pm and 9:40 pm.) It's by the same company that made Last Train Home (though not the same director), a film that I've seen no fewer than four times while writing a 40-page amanuensis