Movies

The Top Five Movies to See About Chinese Culture and History:

1. The Joy Luck Club-When June's mother dies, she is invited to join a long-standing club of Chinese women who urge her not only to take her mother's place at the mah-jongg table, but also to carry the news of her mother's death to her step-sisters in China. Through the stories of the women and their daughters, the values of different generations are articulated. June's anxiety about her responsibility to the past is contrasted with the older women's concerns that their values and culture are being lost by their Americanized daughters.

2. Farewell my Concubine- This is the story of two homeless outcasts, trained from childhood in the grueling rigors of the Opera by master Lu Qui. The film traces their 52-year friendship and the challenges they faced along the way.

3. The Soong Sisters-To see that China remains a dominant world force after the founding of the Republic by Dr. Sun Yai-sen, the patriotic Charlie Soong sends his three daughters to America for their education. The sisters return to China marks the beginning of their hard lives, as the country endures the Japanese invasion and the subsequent clash between the communists and the nationalists.

4. The Last Emperor-A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

5. The Blue Kite-Told from the perspective of a child, this film depicts the lives of Chinese families in the hutong, or traditional neighborhoods in Beijing between 1953 and 1968.