Let it be known that 2010 was an exceptional year for Chinese independent cinema.

Most media attention on Chinese cinema in 2010 was directed at its record-breaking domestic box-office receipts, led by blockbusters such as Feng Xiaogang’s Aftershock and If You Are the One 2. What hasn’t been reported enough is the abundance of excellent Chinese films to be found outside the mainstream cineplexes. Accessing these films is a challenge, to be sure; most have only been screened one or two times at small-scale independent film festivals in China. A lucky few have made it to international festivals; some have even won awards. Scattered over last year’s festival calendar, their appearances made resounding but isolated impressions – but taking them in all at once, the diversity and quality of these independent visions is staggering.

I originally wanted to write an article spotlighting my favorite Chinese independent films of 2010, but looking at the year’s bounty, it seems that the real story is in how richly differentiated Chinese independent cinema is becoming. Even a lesser film by objective standards of quality may offer an exciting new approach in subject or form. Such efforts to innovate may prove to be more vital to the development of cinema than the so-called masterpieces. In his provocative articles for dGenerate and elsewhere, Shelly Kraicer has repeatedly asked, “What Is Chinese Cinema?” He’s raised this question to challenge both international audiences and Chinese filmmakers on their assumptions and expectations on what Chinese films should be. No more succinctly does he make the point than in an essay from three years ago:

People see what they want to see. Mass media is about giving comfort, reinforcing patterns of thought, policing the boundaries of what we call knowledge. So, instead, why not shake people up? If I had to give the Chinese filmmakers an answer, I’d say: Make and exhibit films that show audiences what they don’t already know. Find images that are fresh, provocative, that destabilize the complex of pre-established, pre-thought concepts that a film audience totes like baggage. Don’t show what’s already been seen; don’t depict what’s already been imagined. Unsettle, surprise and disturb, and you’ve started to point in the right direction.

In that spirit, instead of listing my favorite Chinese indie films of last year, I want to draw attention to films that, each in their own way, broke new ground and offered new possibilities for Chinese cinema. In some ways it makes easier the task of narrowing down a list of exceptional films, which otherwise could include any of the following: Crossing the Mountain (dir. Yang Rui); East Wind Farm Camp (dir. Hu Jie); The High Life (dir. Zhao Dayong); No. 89 Shimen Road (dir. Shu Haolun); The Old Donkey (dir. Li Ruijin); Rivers and My Father (dir. Li Luo); Single Man (dir. Hao Jie); A Song of Love, Maybe (dir. Zhang Zanbo); Spiral Staircase of Harbin (dir. Ji Dan); Triumph of the Will (dir. Mao Chenyu); Winter Vacation (dir. Li Hongqi). There are also many films I haven’t seen, most notably Wang Bing’s The Ditch. I hope that merely mentioning these titles might help lend them some much-needed attention.

Dooman River, dir. Zhang Lu
Zhang Lu has made a career of exploring the ambiguous boundaries that define his Korean-Chinese heritage, perhaps no more explicitly than in this film, situated on the North Korean-Chinese border.  Depicting the complex interactions between men escaping the PRK and the ethnic Korean Chinese who reluctantly take them in, it’s Zhang’s most accessible film, offering emotional payoffs while complicating notions of Chinese and Korean identities. Technically it’s a Korean-European production, which may explain why it’s been largely marginalized from discussions of Chinese cinema of the past year; but in no way should its relevance be in doubt.

Fortune Teller, dir. Xu Tong
Xu Tong continues the detailed portraiture of the professional underclass he exhibited in his first documentary Wheat Harvest, expanding it into a 360 degree panorama of a vibrant, sprawling subculture that could never be shown in mainstream Chinese media. Xu ironically employs the chaptering structure of classic Chinese novels to tell the story of a crippled soothsayer, his mentally disabled wife, and a clientele of prostitutes ever anxious about their futures. Xu doesn’t do this to elevate his socially disreputable subjects, but to collapse notions of high and low into a universally moving story of people who bring uncommon dignity to their lives and work.

I Beat Tiger When I Was Young , dir. Xue Jianqiang
Love it or hate it, this breathtakingly abrasive work shakes up the Chinese documentary scene at a point when it is becoming increasingly conventionalized in format and institutionalized in distribution. Young Xue Jianqiang has the balls (or naivete) to criticize several more established filmmakers to their faces while filming them at a Beijing film festival. It’s remarkable that the Chinese documentary movement, hardly 20 years in existence, has reached the point where young turks like Xue (and the equally polarizing Wu Haohao) are taking on the status quo. A landmark, if only because it’s arguably the first filmed work of film criticism in Chinese cinema history.

Karamay, dir. Xu Xin
Xu Xin’s six hour documentary is a radical statement that ties the aesthetics of oral history to its own moral regard for its subjects. Capturing the testimonies of parents whose children were among hundreds who died in a tragic fire at a government event, Xu lets the camera run with minimal direction, rendering his camera in near-total service of his subjects, as if compensating for the years of neglect they’ve suffered in seeking justice following their tragedy. Seemingly spare in design and intention, the effect is immersive, compulsively watchable and undeniably devastating.

Madame, dir. Qiu Jiongjiong
The Chinese documentary movement continues to evolve, reaching new levels of awareness of issues complicating its mission to objectively capture the reality of its society. Among these issues is that of performance in its subjects; this is especially critical given that an increasing number of documentaries are personal portraits that delve into subjective experiences. Perhaps the most memorable instance of the past year is Qiu Jiongjiong’s stark black-and-white series of interviews with transsexual cabaret singer Madame Bi Langda. Madame Bi’s recollections of past experiences explicitly touch on how she performs her way through life, whether interacting with friends, lovers or her audience. More than a document of the increasingly complicated gender identity politics in China, it’s also a poignant testimony of a life dedicated to articulating the aesthetics of living.

Piercing I, dir. Liu Jian
To my knowledge, this is the first animated indie feature produced in China, at least the first worth noting. A graphic novel come to life, its deliberately coarse renderings of Chinese urban landscapes populated by various scheming social types mix scathing caricature with sharply observed detail. With all the makings of a generational statement, this could be a major cult hit in China, if underground distribution networks prevail.

Tape, dir. Li Ning
Dancer and experimental filmmaker Li Ning chronicles five hapless years as a struggling artist and father while his hometown of Jinan undergoes calamitous renewal.  Utilizing a variety of approaches and elements (including CGI), this ground-breaking work shatters documentary conventions, whether with moments of nakedness (literal or otherwise) or bolts of dazzling avant garde performance art video (as well as behind the scenes footage of said performances), with the camera assuming multiple roles as witness, accomplice, performer, object. In many ways it’s an update to Jia Zhangke’s Platform for the DV era, capturing the past decade’s hopes and failures of artistic aspiration in provincial China.

The Transition Period, dir. Zhou Hao
Zhou Hao takes the all-seeing mission of China’s DV documentary movement into a realm no one could have imagined possible to infiltrate: the inner workings of Communist Party politics. With an impassive objectivity worthy of Frederick Wiseman, Zhou takes advantage of an outgoing county official’s hubris to quietly record his wheelings and dealings with commercial and political interests en route to his provincial-level promotion. What is revealed may not be surprising to those familiar to CCP corruption – expensive banquets held for private investors, officials trying to outdo each other with their vanity development projects, field visits with state limos plowing heedlessly through crowds of angry citizens whose land is being requisitioned for said developments – but to see it all on video is astounding.

Thomas Mao, dir. Zhu Wen
Unlike the other films on this list, this is technically a state-approved production, having passed the Film Bureau and premiered at the Shanghai International Film Festival. But its irreverent, independent spirit is undeniable and unlike any other film that made it to official movie screens (the possible exception being Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly). Using everything from broad comedy involving animal sex to sophisticated CGI, Zhu Wen paints a lively, shape-shifting relationship between Chinese artist Mao Yan and German curator Thomas Rohdewald, who switch roles halfway through. Zhu Wen, a lover of opposites as seen in his past films Seafood and South of the Clouds, does a lot here with thematic face-offs: Chinese vs. foreign, urban vs. rural, educated vs. primitive. Probably the most playful Chinese film of the year, one that keeps you guessing from start to finish.

Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon, dir. Yang Jianjun
This is technically a 2009 film, having premiered at YunFest that year before mostly eluding the festival circuit. Fortunately last year’s Reel China Biennial saw fit to include it, which is how I encountered one of the most quietly beautiful documentaries of recent memory.  With a gifted eye, first time director Yang painstakingly details life among his own family, who practice the ancient art of Buddhist geomancy, bringing blessings to others at all stages of life in northwest Sichuan province. To be honest, it’s not so much a ground-breaker as an exceptional film whose unassuming manner of mastery is at risk of being lost in the shuffle. It’s criminal that this film wasn’t pushed or noticed more in the fest circuit. But it just goes to show that there is no end to the discoveries to be found in Chinese independent cinema.

Relevant Classroom Use

Michael Berry
UC Santa Barbara
1. Platform – Jia Zhang-ke, 2000, Hong Kong/Japan/France/Netherlands/Switzerland
2. Yi Yi – Edward Yang, 2000, Taiwan/Japan
3. Blind Shaft – Li Yang, 2003, China/Germany/Hong Kong
4. Summer Palace – Lou Ye, 2006, China
5. Though I am Gone, Hu Jie, China 2008.
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Ang Lee, 2000, China/Taiwan/USA
7. In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar-Wai, 2000, Hong Kong/France
8. Three Times – Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005, Taiwan
9. Goodbye, Dragon Inn – Tsai Ming-Liang, 2003, Taiwan
10. 1428 – Du Haibin, 2009, China

Honorable Mentions:
Along the Railway – Du Haibin, 2000, China; Devils on The Doorstep – Jiang Wen, 2000, China; Somewhere Over the Dreamland – Cheng Wen-tang, 2002, Taiwan; West of the Tracks – Wang Bing, 2003, China; Café Lumière – Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2003, Taiwan/Japan (even though it is in Japanese); Infernal Affairs Trilogy – Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002, 2003, Hong Kong; Kung Fu Hustle – Stephen Chow, 2004, Hong Kong/China; The World – Jia Zhang-ke, 2004/China/Japan/France; Delamu – Tian Zhuangzhuang, 2004, China; Shanghai Dreams – Wang Xiaoshuai, 2005, China; The Wayward Cloud – Tsai Ming-liang, 2005, France/Taiwan; Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles – Zhang Yimou, 2005, China; Still Life – Jia Zhangke, 2006, China; Election 1 & 2 – Johnnie To, 2005, 2006, Hong Kong; God Man Dog – Singing Chen, 2007, Taiwan; No Pudeo Visir Sin Ti – Leon Dai, 2009, Taiwan; Legend of the Mountain – King Hu, 1979 (restored complete 180 min. version, 2008), Taiwan, South Korea

Andrew Chan
Critic, Film Comment; Reverse Shot
1. Yi Yi
2. Platform
3. Three Times
4. In the Mood for Love
5. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
6. What Time Is It There?
7. The Other Half
8. Oxhide
9. Ghost Town
10. Everlasting Regret

Cui Zi’en
Filmmaker (Queer China; Enter the Clowns), Activist
1. Zhou Hongxiang: The Red Flag Flies
2. Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest
3. Andrew Y-S Cheng: Shanghai Panic
4. Andrew Y-S Cheng: Destination Shanghai
5. Jia Zhangke: Still Life
6. Yang Jin: A Black and White Cow
7. Zhao Ye: Jalainur
8. Lv Le: Novel
9. Du Haibin: Along the Railway
10. ZHu Chuanming: Extras
11. Wang Libo: Buried

Mike D’Angelo
Film Critic
1. In the Mood for Love
2. Hero
3. Devils on the Doorstep
4. The Wayward Cloud
5. What Time Is It There?
6. Not One Less
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
8. Blue Gate Crossing
9. Red Cliff
10. The Orphan of Anyang

Aurelia Dubouloz
Scholar
Platform, Jia Zhangke, 2000
I Love Beijing, Ning Ying, 2001
West of the Tracks, Wang Bing, 2002
Goodbye Dragon Inn, Tsai Mingliang, 2003
Dam Street, Li Yu, 2005
Triangle, Johnnie To, Tsui hark, Ringo Lam, 2007
Crime and Punishment, Zhao Liang, 2007
1428, Du Haibin, 2009
Spring Fever, Lou Ye, 2009
The Search, Pema Tseden, 2009

Gan Xiao’er
Filmmaker (Raised from Dust)
1. Summer Palace (Liu Ye)
2. Spring Fever (Liu Ye)
3. Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
4. Floating Dust (Huang Wenhai)
5. Bing Ai (Feng Yan)
6. Platform (Jia Zhangke)
7. Oxhide (Liu Jiayin)
8. History of Chemistry 2 (Lu Chunsheng)
9. Raised from Dust(Gan Xiao’er)
10. Silent Holy Stone (Wanma Caidan)

Thomas Hart
EU-China Information Society Project
1. Still Life (Jia ZhangKe)
2. Blind Shaft (Li Yang)
3. In the Mood for Love (Wong KarWai)
4. Isabella  (Pang Ho-Cheung)
5. The world  (Jia Zhang-Ke)
6. Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles  (Zhang Yimou)
7. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
8. 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)
9. Infernal Affairs  (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak)
10. Summer Palace  (Lou Ye)

Brian Hu
UCLA
1. Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
2. The World (Jia Zhang-ke)
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
4. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
5. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
6. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
7. What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang)
8. Summer Palace (Lou Ye)
9. Sparrow (Johnnie To)
10. My Life As McDull (Toe Yuen)

Huang Weikai
Director (Floating; Disorder)
Wong Kai-wai: Ashes of time (final version)
Wong Kar-wai: In the Mood For love
Jonnie To: Breaking News (2004)
Wai Keung Lau, Siu Fai Mak: Infernal Affairs (2002)
Feng Xiaogang: Big Shot’s Funeral (2001)
Pang Ho-cheung: You Shoot, I Shoot (2001)
Wu Wenguang: Fuck Cinema
Liu Jiayin: Oxhide
Zhang Jingwei: KJ
Huang Weikai: Disorder

Huang Wenhai
Director (Floating Dust, We)
Edward Yang: Yi Yi
Lou Ye: Summer Palace, Spring Fever
Jia Zhangke: Still LIfe, Public Space
Wanma Caidan: Search
Yang Fudong: A Strange Heaven
Wang Bin: West of the tracks.
Zhao Liang: Petition
Hu Jie: Looking for Linzhao’s Soul

La Frances Hui
Programmer, Asia Society
Face
Platform
Kung Fu Hustle
In the Mood for Love
The World
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
Infernal Affairs
Blind Shaft
In Search of Lin Zhao’s Soul
Delamu

Jian Yi
Filmmaker (Super, Girls!; Bamboo Shoots)
Documentary:
Chinese Villagers’ Documentary Project (Wu Wenguang)
Survival Song (Yu Guangyi)

Narrative Films:
Platform (Jia Zhangke)
Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke)
Bamboo Shoots (Jian Yi)

A.S. Keijser
Leiden University
1 A One and a Two (Yi Yi), d: Edward Yang / Yang Dechang, TW 2000
2 Infernal Affairs (Wujiandao), d: Lau Wai-Keung & Alan Mak, HK 2002
3 I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Hei yanquan), d: Tsai Ming-Liang, TW/Malaysia 2006
4 Still Life (Sanxia haoren), d: Jia Zhang-ke, PRC 2006
5 Oxhide (Niupi), d: Liu Jiayin, PRC 2005
6 Us Two (Women lia), d: Ma Liwen, PRC 2005 (am not sure about the English title of this film…)
7 In the Mood for Love (Huayang nianhua), r: Wong Kar-wai, HK 2000
8 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (Tiexiqu), d: Wang Bing, PRC 2003
9 Suzhou River (Suzhouhe), d: Lou Ye, PRC 2000
10 Devils on the Doorstep (Guizi laile), d: Jiang Wen, PRC 2000

Anthony Kaufman
Film Critic, IndieWire
“Platform” (2000)
“Unknown Pleasures” (2002)
“The World” (2004)
“Still Life” (2006)
“Dong” (2006)
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000)
“Green Hat” (2003)
“Blind Shaft” (2003)
“In the Mood for Love” (2000)
“Quitting” (2001)

Robert Koehler
Film Critic / Programmer, AFI Festival, Variety
1. PLATFORM (Jia Zhang-ke)
2. UNKNOWN PLEASURES (Jia Zhang-ke)
3. THE WORLD (Jia Zhang-ke)
4. TIMBER GANG (Yu Guangyi)
5. TIEXI DISTRICT: WEST OF THE TRACKS (Wang Bing)
6. NIGHT TRAIN (Diao Yinan)
7. FENGMING: A CHINESE MEMOIR (Wang Bing)
8. STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang-ke)
9. SURVIVAL SONG (Yu Guangyi)
10. OXHIDE (Liu Jiayin)

Shelly Kraicer
Film Critic, Programmer, Vancouver International Film Festival, Cinema-Scope
Suzhou River (Suzhou he), Lou Ye, 2000
Durian Durian (Liulian piaopiao), Fruit Chan, 2000
In the Mood For Love (Huayang nianhua), Wong Kar-wai, 2000
Platform (Zhantai), Jia Zhangke, 2001
My Life as McDull (Maidou gushi), Toe Yuen, Brian Tse, Alice Mak, 2001
What Time is it There? (Ni neibian ji dian?), Tsai Ming-liang, 2001
West of Tracks (Tiexi qu), Wang Bing, 2002
PTU, Johnnie To, 2003 (actually, the entire body of Johnnie To’s work in the decade, taken together, constitutes a “masterwork”: I choose PTU as a representative)
Three Times (Zuihao de shiguang), Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005
Oxhide 2 (Niupi 2), Liu Jiayin, 2009

Kevin Lawrence
China Institute
1. What Time Is It There? (2001, dir. by Tsai Ming-liang) – no movie has ever made me swing from laughter to crying in less time than it takes to type this sentence (except maybe Tsai’s The Hole).
2. Yi Yi (2000, dir. by Edward Yang) – a masterpiece.
3. The Wayward Cloud (2004, dir. by Tsai Ming-liang) – one of the most controlled works of art about rage and sex and sex and rage—how could I not admire this film even if on some reflection I have absolutely despised it?
4. Three Times (2006, dir. by Hou Hsiao-hsien) – the first 1/3 of this film is some of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s best work ever (and that is very high praise!)
5. The World (2004, dir. Jia Zhangke) – I feel like everyone will chosePlatform as their top pick, but for me that movie feels very 90s; The World issquarely situated in the 21st century.
6. Kung Fu Hustle (2004, dir. by Stephen Chow) – my favorite superhero film so far!
7. Blind Shaft (2003, dir. by Li Yang) – there are many worthy realist films from young 21st century Chinese directors, and this one is edited verysmartly.
8. Lust, Caution (2007, dir. by Ang Lee) – what an unexpected surprise coming from Ang Lee and being (loosely) based on a Zhang Ailing short story. I think the psychology of occupation and betrayal was very timelyand handled quite nicely.
9. Visage/Face (2009, dir. by Tsai Ming-liang) – I couldn’t resist putting another Tsai Ming-liang film on here (could just as well have been Goodbye,Dragon Inn or I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone); this film definitely proves Tsai is still thinking/digging deep and growing, even as he returns to familiar tropes.
10. In the Mood for Love (2001, dir. by Wong Kar-wai) – such a guilty pleasure—I could watch Tony Leung smoke a cigarette all day!

Dennis Lim
Editor, Moving Image Source
1. Platform
2. In the Mood for Love
3. Goodbye Dragon Inn
4. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
5. Still Life
6. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
7. Unknown Pleasures
8. Survival Song
9. Millennium Mambo
10. Oxhide

Greg Louvel
Film Critic
Jiang Wen – Devils at the Doorstep
Jia Zhangke –  The World
Jia Zhangke – Still Life
Edward Yang – Yi Yi
Wong Kar Wai – My Blueberry Nights
Li Yang – Blind Shaft
Wang Xiaoshuai – Beijing Bicycle
Zhang Yimou – Three Guns / A Simple Noodle Story
Jia Zhangke – Unknown Pleasures

Edwin Mak
Film Critic/ Blogger
West of the Tracks, Wang Bing
Platform, Jia Zhangke
Devils on the Doorstep, Jiang Wen
A One and A Two, Edward Yang
PTU: Into the Perilous Night, Johnnie To
In The Mood For Love, Wong Kar-wai
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, – Ang Lee
The Wayward Cloud, Tsai Ming-liang
Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow
The Warlords, Peter Chan

Jason McGrath
University of Minnesota
Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen, 2000)
Platform (Jia Zhangke, 2000)
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Chicken Poets (Meng Jinghui, 2002)
Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, 2002)
West of the Tracks (Wang Bing, 2003)
Pirated Copy (He Jianjun, 2004)
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (Lu Chuan, 2004)
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang, 2006)
Lust, Caution (Ang Lee, 2007)

Jia-yan Mi
The College of New Jersey
1. Devils on the Doorstep (Jian Wen, 2000)
2. Suzhou River (Lou Ye, 2000)
3. In the Moods of Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)
4. What Time Is It Over There? (Tsai Mingliang, 2001)
5. Yi yi: A One and a Two… (Edward Yang, 2001
6. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2001)
7. Still Life (Jiazhang Ke, 2006)
8. Infernal Affairs (Wai-keung Lau, 2002)
9. Peacock (Gu Changwei, 2005)
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)

William Phuan
Programmer, Singapore
Beijing Bicycle
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
In the Mood for Love
Suzhou River
Yi Yi
What Time Is It Over There
West of the Tracks
Springtime in a Small Town
Platform
Infernal Affairs

Honorable Mention: 2046; Goodbye Dragon Inn; PTU; Uniform; The Shaft; Kung Fu Hustle; Election; Three Times; I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone; Still Life; Summer Palace; Taking Father Home; City of Life and Death; The Message; Unknown Pleasures; The World; Red Cliff 1 & 2

James Quandt
Programmer, Cinematheque Ontario; Toronto International Film Festival
It all but kills me to proffer a list with only one film by Jia and Tsai, as I admired so many of their films this decade, but otherwise my list would be all established masters, so I have forcibly made space for several films by newcomers. No ranking implied:

Orphan of Anyang – Wang Chao
Platform – Jia Zhang-ke
What Time is it There? – Tsai Ming-liang
West of the Tracks – Wang Bing
In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar Wai
Oxhide & Oxhide II – Liu Jiayin
Uniform – Diao Yi’nan
Three Times (the first part) – Hou Hsiao-hsien
Springtime in a Small Town – Tian Zhuangzhuang

Toss-up: Suzhou River – Lou Ye or Grain in Ear – Zhang Lu

Tony Rayns
Programmer, Vancouver International Film Festival
BAOBER IN LOVE (Li Shaohong)
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong Kar Wai)
MID-AFTERNOON BARKS (Zhang Yuedong)
THE NARROW PATH (Cui Zi’en)
A ONE AND A TWO … (Edward Yang)
OXHIDE (Liu Jiayin)
PETITION (Zhao Liang)
SPRING FEVER (Lou Ye)
STILL LIFE (Jia Zhangke)
SWEET FOOD CITY (Gao Wendong)

Bérénice Reynaud
California Institute for the Arts
Unranked (by year of release)
Wong Kar-Wai: In The Mood For Love (2000)
Yi Yi – Edward Yang, 2000, Taiwan/Japan
Devils on The Doorstep – Wen Jiang, 2000, China
Millennium Mambo – Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2001, Taiwan/France
Wang Bing: West Of The Tracks (2004)
Liu Jiayin: Oxhide (2005), and Oxhide 2 (2009)
The Other Half – Ying Liang/Peng Shan, 2006, China
Jia Zhangke: Still Life (2006)
Perfect Life – Emily Tang, 2008, China
City of Life and Death – Lu Chuan, 2009, China

Peter Rist
Zhantai (Platform), Jia Zhangke (P.R. China/Hong Kong/France/Japan)
Suzhou he (Suzhou River), Lou Ye (China/Germany)
Fa yeung nin wa (In the Mood for Love), Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong/France)
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Wang Bing (China), documentary, digital
Cha ma gu dao xi lie (Delamu), Tian Zhuangzhuang (China/Japan), digital, doc.
McDull, Prince de la Bun, Toe Yuen (Hong Kong), animation
Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan/France)
Hei yan quan (I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone), Tsai Ming-liang
(Malaysia/China/Taiwan/France/Austria)
Binglang (Betelnut), Yang Heng (China), digital
Niu pi er (Oxhide II), Liu Jiayin (China), digital

Jason Sanders
Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley
Yi Yi: A One and a Two, dir. Edward Yang, Taiwan, 2000.
The World, dir. Jia Zhang-ke, China, 2004.
In the Mood for Love, dir. Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong, 2000. (Seems so long ago)
Goodbye Dragon Inn, dir. Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, 2003.
Fuck Cinema, dir. Wu Wenguang, China, 2006.
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, dir. Lu Chuang, China, 2004.
Tang Poetry, dir. Zhang Lu, China, 2003.
The Other Half, dir. Ying Liang, China, 2006.
Tie Xe Qui: West of the Tracks, dir. Wang Bing, China, 2003.
Infernal Affairs Trilogy, dir. Alan Mak & Lau Wai-keung, Hong Kong, 2002-2003.

Runners-up: Crazy Stone, dir. Hao Ling, 2006; Little Moth, dir. Peng Tao, 2007; Oxhide, dir. Liu Jiayin, 2004; Flower in the Pocket, dir. Liew Seng Tat, Malaysia; Still Life, dir. Jia Zhang-ke, 2007; I Love Beijing, Ning Ying, 2001; 15, dir. Royston Tan, Singapore, 2003

Michael Sicinski
University of Houston
1. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong Kar-wai)
2. STILL LIFE (Jia Zhang-ke)
3. DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP (Jiang Wen)
4. YI YI (Edward Yang)
5. KUNG FU HUSTLE (Stephen Chiau)
6. EXILED (Johnnie To)
7. THE SUN ALSO RISES (Jiang Wen)
8. BLUE GATE CROSSING (Yee Chin-yen)
9. HERO (Zhang Yimou)
10. KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (Lu Chuan)

J.P. Sniadecki
Harvard University
Platform, dir. Jia Zhangke
Suzhou River, dir. Luo Ye
Unknown Pleasures, dir. Jia Zhangke
Wayward Cloud, dir. Tsai Ming Liang
West of the Rails, dir. Wang Bing
Bing’Ai, dir. Feng Yan
Outside, dir. Wang Wo
Petition, dir. Zhao Liang
In the Mood for Love, dir. Xu Ruotao
Ghost Town, dir. Zhao Dayong

Mingwei Song
Wellesley College
The World (Jia Zhangke, 2005; PRC)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000; Taiwan)
Yi Yi: a One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000; Taiwan)
Seafood (Zhu Wen, 2002; PRC)
Durian, Durian (Fruit Chan, 2000; Hong Kong)
Devils on the Doorstep (Jiang Wen, 2000; PRC)
Lust, Caution (Ang Lee, 2007; Taiwan)
Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005; Taiwan)
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000; Hong Kong)
Summer Palace (Lou Ye, 2006; PRC)

Chuck Stephens
Film Critic, Film Comment, Filmmaker
Uniform
Seafood
In the Mood for Love
2046
Goodbye Dragon Inn
Millennium Mambo
Lan yu
Unknown Pleasures
West of the Tracks
Pangyau (Amir Muhammad)

Honorable Mentions: All Tomorrow’s Parties; Useless; Mid-Afternoon Barks; Little Moth; The Orphan of Anyang; Cry Woman; Rain Dogs (Ho Yuhang); The Beautiful Washing Machine (James Lee); Gubra (Yasmin Ahmad);

David Walsh
Film Critic, World Socialist Web Site
Platform, Jia Zhangke (China, 2000—but also, Unknown Pleasures, 2002; The World, 2004)
Good Cats, Ying Liang (China, 2008—but also Taking Father Home, 2006; The Other Half, 2006)
Little Moth, Peng Tao (China, 2007)
Blind Shaft, Lang Yi (China, 2003)
Cry Woman, Liu Bingjian (China, 2002)
Bing Ai, Feng Yan (China, 2007)
Durian, Durian, Fruit Chan (Hong Kong, 2000—but also, Little Cheung, 1999—I saw it in 2000!)
River People, He Jianjun (China, 2009)
Grain in Ear, Zhang Lu (China, 2005)
The Orphan of Anyang, Wang Chao (China, 2001)
An eleventh would be Yi Yi, Edward Yang (Taiwan, 2000)
And a twelfth, Bundled, Singing Chen (Taiwan, 2000)
Wang Bing deserves mention, if not a more exacting editor, for West of the Tracks (China, 2003) and Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (China, 2007)

Ban Wang
Stanford University
1. Kekexili
2 Kongque (Peacock)
3 Hero
4 24 City
5 Platform
6 Postmen in the Mountains
7 Suzhou River
8 The Road (Fangxiang zhi lv)
9 Blindshaft
10. Jijie Hao (Assembly)

Wang Ge
Film Critic, The Beijinger
Still Life, 2006, Jia Zhangke, China
Devil On The Doorstep, 2000, Jiang Wen
Cape No.7, 2008, Wei Desheng, Taiwan
How Are You, Gongliao?, 2004, Cui Suxin, Taiwan
Blind Shaft, 2003, Li Yang, China
Peacock, 2005, Gu Changwei, China
Bodyguards and Assassins, 2009, Chen Desen, Hong Kong/China
Yi Yi, 2000, Edward Yang, Taiwan
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, 2003, Wang Bin, China
Trivial Matters, 2007, Peng Haoxiang, Hong Kong

Qi Wang
Georgia Institute of Technology
And the Spring Comes (dir. Gu Changwei)
Butterfly (dir. Yan Yan Mak)
Devils on the Doorstep (dir. Jiang Wen)
Orphan of Anyang (dir. Wang Chao)
The Other Half (dir. Ying Liang)
Platform (dir. Jia Zhangke)
Suzhou River (dir. Lou Ye)
Though I Am Gone (dir. Hu Jie, documentary)
West of the Tracks (dir. Wang Bing, documentary)
Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang)

Wanma Caidan
Filmmaker (The Silent Holy Stones; The Search)
Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
Taking Father Home (Ying Liang)
Peacock (Gu Changwei)
Delamu (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
Spring Fever (Lou Ye)
Platform (Jia Zhangke)
Lust and Caution (An lee)
Blind Shaft (Li Yang)
Devils on the Door Step (Jiang Wen)
Beijing Bicycle (Wang Xiaoshui)

Xu Tong
Filmmaker (Wheat Harvest; Fortune Teller)
1. Summer Palace (Liu Ye)
2. Rumination (Xu Ruotao)
3. Good Cat (Ying Liang)
4. Along the Railway (Du Haibing)
5. San Li Dong (Lin Xin)
6. Dr. Ma’s Clinic (Cong Feng)
7. Crime and Punishment (Zhao Liang)
8. Using (Zhao Hao)
9. Two Seasons (Zhao Xun)
10: Wheat Harvest (Xu Tong)

Yan Yu
Filmmaker (Before the Flood)
West of the Tracks (Wang Bin)
Summer Palace (Lou Ye)
Still Life (Jia Zhangke)
Incense (Ning Hao)
Blind Mountain (Li Yang)

Chi-hui Yang
Programmer, San Francisco Asian American Film Festival
Grain In Ear, Zhang Lu
Summer Palace, Lou Ye
Yi Yi, Edward Yang
Jailanur, Zhao Ye
Goodbye Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang
Conjugation, Emily Tang
Dumplings, Fruit Chan
My Life As McDull, Brian Tse
West of the Tracks, Wang Bing
Quitting, Zhang Yang
Still Life, Jia Zhang-ke

Yang Jin
Filmmaker (The Black and White Milk Cow; Er Dong)
Survival Song (Yu Guangyi)
West of the Tracks (Wang Bin)
Classmate (Lin Xin)
Petition (Zhao Liang)
Mr. Ma’s clinic (Cong Feng)
Platform (Jia Zhangke)
Seven Intellectuals in the Bamboo Forest (Yang Fudong)
Rain Clouds over Wushan (Zhang Ming)
Chong Qing + Li Li (Zhang Lv)
The Other Half (Ying Liang)

Emilie Yeh
Hong Kong Baptist University
Yi Yi
The Wayward Cloud
Still Life
2046
Millennium Mambo
In the Mood for Love
Lust, Caution
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Summer Palace
West of the Tracks

Ying Liang
Director
Platform (Jia Zhangke)
Oxhide (Liu Jiayin)
Spring Fever (Lou Ye)
Karamay ?Xu Xin)
Aoluguya (Gu Tao)
Classmates (Lin Xin)
West of the Tracks (Wang Bin)
Wheat Harvest (Xu Tong)
Buried (Wang libo)
Before the Flood (Yan Yu)

Neil Young
Film Critic; Programmer, Bradford Film Festival
1. Blind Mountain (2007; Mang shan) by LI Yang
2. Condolences (2009) by YING Liang — short
3. Night Train (2007; Ye che) by DIAO Yi’nan
4. Taking Father Home (2005; Bei yazi de nanhai) by YING Liang
5. How Is Your Fish Today? (2006; Jin tian de yu zen me yang?) by Xiaolu GUO
6. The Other Half (2006; Ling yi ban) by YING Liang
7. Kung Fu Hustle (2004; Kung fu aka Gong fu) by Stephen CHOW
8. Little Moth (2007; Xue chan) by PENG Tao
9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000; Wu hu zang long) by Ang LEE
10. Timber Gang (2007; Mu bang aka The Last Lumberjacks) by YU Guangyi

Then (in alphabetical order): Accident (2009; Yi ngoi) by CHEANG Pou-Soi; I Love Lakers (2009) by YING Liang — short; In the Mood For Love (2000, Fa yeung nin wa) by WONG Kar-Wai; Seafood (2001; Haixian) by ZHU Wen; Survival Song (2008; Xiao li zi) by YU Guangyi

Zhao Liang
Filmmaker (Crime and Punishment, Petition)
To Live is Better than to Die (Chen Weijun)
Before the Flood (Li Yifan, Yan Yu)
Crime and Punishment (Zhao Liang)
Petition (Zhao Liang)
Looking for Lin Zhao’s Soul (Hu Jie)
Outside(Wang Wo)
Timber Gang (Yu Guangyi)
Bingai (Feng Yan)
Dr.Ma’s Country Clinic (Cong Feng)
The Fortune Teller (Xu Tong)

This is actually Zhu Rikun’s list, but I agree with it.

Angela Zito
New York University
Along the Railroad 2000 Du Haibin
This Happy Life 2002 Jiang Yue
DV China 2002 Zheng Desheng
West of the Tracks 2003 Wang Bing
Dr. Zhang 2005 Huang Ruxiang
The Bimo Records 2006 Yang Rui
The Villager Documentary Project, from 2006 onward, Wu Wenguang
Bing Ai 2007 Feng Yan
Although I am Gone 2007 Hu Jie
Petition: 2008 Zhao Liang

Special mention to Jiang Hu 1999, Wu Wenguang (I just think of Jiang Hu as founding a style for the decade)

Relevant Classroom Use

In the Mood for Love (dir. Wong Kar-wai)

In the Mood for Love by Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai topped the results of an international poll of the best Chinese-language films of the past decade, conducted by dGenerate Films. The poll included ballots from forty-seven filmmakers, critics, programmers and scholars from around the world. A total of 152 Chinese-language films were cited.

View the full list of ballots from all participants.

In the Mood for Love outpaced a field dominated by mainland Chinese titles, led by Wang Bing‘s seven-hour documentary West of the Tracks and Jia Zhangke‘s historical epic Platform. The two mainland titles are both independent productions made outside the official Chinese state system and have never officially screened in China. Yi Yi, by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang finished fourth.

The top four titles were each mentioned in at least half of the forty-six ballots submitted by participants. Rounding out the top ten were Jia Zhangke’s Still Life at #5,  Jiang Wen’s Devils on the Doorstep at #6, Liu Jiayin’s Oxhide, Lou Ye’s Summer Palace, and Jia Zhangke’s The World tied at #7, and Li Yang’s Blind Shaft and Ang Lee’s transnational blockbuster Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon tied at #9.

Jia Zhangke dominated among directors with seven films mentioned in the poll, three of which finished in the top ten. His films received nearly twice as many mentions as those of the second most-mentioned director, Wong Kar-wai. Works by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang and Chinese director Lou Ye (who is officially banned from making films in China) also featured prominently in the results.

The results suggest a changing of the guard among mainland Chinese filmmakers over the past decade. The highest placing title by a Fifth Generation director was Zhang Yimou‘s Hero at #22. The eight mainland productions placing in the top eleven are from Sixth Generation directors such as Jia Zhangke or Lou Ye, or the post-Generational wave of digital filmmakers such as Wang Bing and Liu Jiayin.  And yet, among these mainland films, only The World was approved by the state censors and released theatrically in mainland China.

Three of the top four films – In the Mood for Love, Yi Yi and Platform – have also placed prominently in polls conducted for all cinema of the past decade. The three films placed in the top ten of the Best of Decade Critics’ Poll run by IndieWire and in the top 11 of the poll run by Film Comment. But aside from Jia Zhangke’s films, the remaining titles on the list have fared poorly in these polls (West of the Tracks, #2 in this poll, places at #49 in IndieWire and #85 in Film Comment).

Oxhide, distributed non-theatrically in the U.S. by dGenerate Films, is the top ranking title by a female director. In addition to Oxhide, nine other dGenerate Films titles received mentions in the poll: Before the Flood (Li Yifan and Yan Yu); Betelnut (dir. Yang Heng); Crime and Punishment (Zhao Liang); Ghost Town (Zhao Dayong); Little Moth (Peng Tao); The Other Half (Ying Liang); Taking Father Home (Ying Liang); Timber Gang aka Last Lumberjacks (Yu Guangyi) and Using (Zhou Hao).

The full list of films, as well as top-ranking Chinese-language directors, can be found after the break. View the full list of ballots from all participants.

1. In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai (28 mentions)
2. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Wang Bing (25)
3.  Platform, Jia Zhangke (24)
4. Yi Yi, Edward Yang(23)
5. Still Life, Jia Zhangke (18)
6. Devils on the Doorstep, Jiang Wen (12)
7. Oxhide, Liu Jiayin (11)
(tie) Summer Palace, Lou Ye (11)
(tie) The World, Jia Zhangke (11)
10. Blind Shaft, Li Yang (10)
(tie) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee (10)

Top Directors (based on mentions of their films among all top ten ballots):
1. Jia Zhangke (63 mentions)
2. Wong Kar Wai (34)
3. Tsai Ming-liang (28)
4. Wang Bing (26)
5. Lou Ye (25)
6. Edward Yang (23)
7. Ang Lee (17)
8. Liu Jiayin (15)
9. Hou Hsiao-hsien (14)
10 Jiang Wen (13)

The rest of the results from the poll of Chinese-language films:

12. Goodbye Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang (9)

13. Three Times, Hou Hsiao-hsien (8)
(tie) Suzhou River, Lou Ye (8)
(tie) What Time Is It There? Tsai Ming-liang (8)

16. Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau & Alan Mak (7)
(tie) Lust, Caution Ang Lee (7)
(tie) Petition, Zhao Liang (7)
(tie) Unknown Pleasures Jia Zhangke (7)

20. Millennium Mambo, Hou Hsiao-hsien (6)
(tie) Spring Fever, Lou Ye (6)

22. Bing Ai, Feng Yan (5)
Hero, Zhang Yimou (5)
(tie) Wayward Cloud, The Tsai Ming-liang (5)

25. Nine films tied with four mentions:

Kung Fu Hustle, Steven Chow
Peacock, Gu Changwei
Oxhide 2, Liu Jiayin
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, Lu Chuan
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Tsai Ming-liang
Orphan of Anyang, The Wang Chao
2046, Wong Kar-wai
Other Half, The, Ying Liang
Survival Song, Yu Guangyi

34. Nine films tied with three mentions:

Along the Railway, Du Haibin
Crime and Punishment, Zhao Liang
Dr. Ma’s Country Clinic, Cong Feng
Though I Am Gone, Hu Jie
Delamu, Tian Zhuangzhuang
Looking for Lin Zhao’s Soul, Hu Jie
My Life as McDull, Toe Yuen
Beijing Bicycle, Wang Xiaoshuai
Timber Gang aka Last Lumberjacks, Yu Guangyi

43. 26 films tied with two mentions:

1428,Du Haibin
Before the Flood, Li Yifan and Yan Yu
Blind Mountain, Li Yang
Blue Gate Crossing, Yee Chin-yen
Buried, Wang Libo
Chinese Villagers’ Documentary Project, Wu Wenguang
Classmates, Lin Xin
Durian, Durian, Fruit Chan
Face, Tsai Ming-liang
Fuck Cinema, Wu Wenguang
Ghost Town, Zhao Dayong
Good Cats, Ying Liang
Grain in Ear, Zhang Lu
Jalainur, Zhao Ye
Little Moth, Peng Tao
Night Train, Diao Yi’nan
Outside, Wang Wo
PTU, Johnnie To
Quitting, Zhang Yang
Search, The,Wanma Caidan
Seafood, Zhu Wen
Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Yang Fudong
Springtime in a Small Town, Tian Zhuangzhuang
Taking Father Home, Ying Liang
Uniform, Diao Yinan
Wheat Harvest, Xu Tong

69. 84 films tied with 1 mention:

24 City, Jia Zhangke
And the Spring Comes, Gu Changwei
Aoluguya, Gu Tao
Ashes of Time Redux, Wong Kar-wai
Assembly, Feng Xiaogang
Bamboo Shoots, Jian Yi
Baober in Love, Li Shaohong
Betelnut, Yang Heng
Big Shot’s Funeral, Feng Xiaogang
Bimo Records, The, Yang Rui
Black and White Milk Cow, Yang Jin
Bodyguards and Assassins, Chen Desen
Breaking News, Johnnie To
Butterfly, Yan Yan Mak
Cape No. 7, Wei Desheng
Chicken Poets, Meng Jinghui
Chinese Odyssey 2002, Jeff Lau
Chongqing, Zhang Lu
City of Life and Death, Lu Chuan
Condolences, Ying Liang
Conjugation, Emily Tang
Cry Woman, Liu Bingjian
Dam Street, Li Yu
Destination Shanghai, Andrew Y-S Cheng
Disorder, Huang Weikai
Dong, Jia Zhangke
Dr. Zhang, Huang Ruxiang
Dumplings, Fruit Chan
DV China, Zheng Desheng
Everlasting Regret, Stanley Kwan
Exiled, Johnnie To
Extras, Zhu Chuanming
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, Wang Bing
Floating Dust, Huang Wenhai
Fortune Teller, Xu Tong
Green Hat, Liu Fendou
History of Chemistry 2, Lu Chunsheng
How Are You, Gongliao, Cui Suxin
How Is Your Fish Today, Guo Xiaolu
I Love Beijing, Ning Ying
In Public, Jia Zhangke
Incense, Ning Hao
Infernal Affairs Trilogy, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
Iri, Zhang Lu
Isabella, Pang Ho-Cheung
Juliet in Love, Wilson Yip
Karamay, Anonymous
KJ, Cheung King-wai
Lan Yu, Stanley Kwan
McDull, Prince de la Bun, Toe Yuen
Mid-Afternoon Barks, Zhang Yuedong
My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-Wai
Narrow Path, The, Cui Zi’en
Novel, Lu Le
Pangyau, Amir Muhammad
Perfect Life, Emily Tang
Perpetual Motion, Ning Ying
Pirated Copy, He Jianjun
Raised from Dust, Gan Xiao’er
Red Cliff, John Woo
Red Flag Files, The, Zhou Hongxiang
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Zhang Yimou
River People, He Jianjun
Road, The, Zhang Jiarui
Rumination, Xu Ruotao
San Li Dong, Lin Xin
Shanghai Panic, Andrew Y.S. Cheng
Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow
Silent Holy Stones, Wanma Caidan
Sparrow, Johnnie To
Strange Heaven, Yang Fudong
Sun Also Rises, The, Jiang Wen
Sweet Food City, Gao Wendong
Tang Poetry, Zhang Lu
This Happy Life, Jiang Yue
Three Guns / A Simple Noodle Story, Zhang Yimou
To Live Is Better Than to Die, Chen Weijun
Trivial Matters, Peng Haoxiang
Triangle, Johnnie To, Tsui hark, Ringo Lam
Two Seasons, Zhou Xun
Us Two, Ma Liwen
Using, Zhou Hao
Warlords, The, Peter Chan
You Shoot, I Shoot, Pang Ho-cheung

Relevant Classroom Use

Betelnut (dir. Yang Heng)

In conducting the one-of-a-kind poll of the Best Chinese-Language Films of the 2000s, we received ballots from nearly 50 participants from around the world, including filmmakers, programmers, critics and other experts. One of our participants, Peter Rist, who teaches at the School of Cinema in Concordia University, sent a particularly lengthy account of his rationale for his selections, which we felt deserve an entry of their own. We’re also pleased that he considered both Betelnut by Yang Heng and Oxhide II by Liu Jiayin worthy of his final ten, since dGenerate distributes both Betelnut and the first Oxhide film and consider Yang Heng and Liu Jiayin among the most exceptional young talents working anywhere today.

Here is Peter’s list – his commentary follows after the break, as well as a list of his best films of the decade from around the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the full results of the poll, compiled from all of our participants!

—–

Zhantai (Platform), Jia Zhangke (P.R. China/Hong Kong/France/Japan)
Suzhou he (Suzhou River), Lou Ye (China/Germany)
Fa yeung nin wa (In the Mood for Love), Wong Kar-wai (Hong Kong/France)
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Wang Bing (China), documentary, digital
Cha ma gu dao xi lie (Delamu), Tian Zhuangzhuang (China/Japan), digital, doc.
McDull, Prince de la Bun, Toe Yuen (Hong Kong), animation
Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan/France)
Hei yan quan (I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone), Tsai Ming-liang
(Malaysia/China/Taiwan/France/Austria)
Binglang (Betelnut), Yang Heng (China), digital
Niu pi er (Oxhide II), Liu Jiayin (China), digital

Honorable mentions: The Goddess of 1967, Clara Law (Australia); Wo men hai pa (Shanghai Panic), Andrew Y-S Cheng (China), digital; Ren xiao yao (Unknown Pleasures) Jia Zhangke (China/South Korea/France/Japan), digital; PTU, Johnnie To (Hong Kong); Bu san (Goodbye Dragon Inn), Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan); Niu pi (Oxhide), Liu Jiayin (China), digital; Niqiu ye shi yu (Loach is Fish, Too), Yang Yazhou (China); Le voyage d’un ballon rouge (Flight of the Red Balloon), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Fra); Sanxia haoren (Still Life), Jia Zhangke (China/Hong Kong), digital; He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, Wang Bing (China), documentary, digital; My Magic, Eric Khoo (Singapore)

So, I have 22 films made in Chinese or by Chinese filmmakers in my 100 picks of the decade, more than all of the English-language films (from the US, UK, Canada and Australia) combined. This is probably the only list in the world with such a line-up!. I am surprised, myself, to see that there is at least one film in every year, made in a Chinese language or by a Chinese director! Hong Kong and Taiwan both suffered declines in quality of their films over the decade, but, I am surprised at how creative Chinese films continue to be!

I have become somewhat disenchanted by Lou Ye, but, Suzhou River remains a very significant film and representative of the director’s refusal to be like any other Chinese director, and, to deal graphically with taboo subject matter.

I could have included even more films by Jia Zhangke, who would probably get my vote for “director of the decade.” He somehow manages to be aware of, and respectful of tradition while pushing the envelope of both documentary and narrative form, and challenging the political status quo.

Wong Kar-wai remains a great director, but, he needs to come up with something … soon.

I could easily have put Hou’s Millenium Mambo on the list, but, I chose Three Times instead because the third part seems to be a kind of summary of the earlier film (if not stylistically). My favourite Hou, though is Café Lumière in the way it returns to the on-the-street style of his earliest films, pays homage to Ozu (in many ways) and reveals the incredibly complex railway systems of Tokyo. (I used to be a trainspotter.) I also think Flight of the Red Balloon is great, but, it is not “Chinese.”

Wang Bing’s work was a revelation to me—what one could do in the digital documentary form if one kept going back to the same location, over and over again: we see China change before our eyes!

Tian Zhuangzhuang continues to be my favourite 5th generation director, and Delamu is a beautiful example of what one can do with a digital camera, and reflects the ancient art of landscape painting while questioning the future of Tibet.

The McDull films are so inventive and so much fun. It was great to watch the 2nd film together with a Hong Kong audience.

I picked a couple of Tsai films for my top-100, and I chose Sleep Alone, because I was struck by how the director adapted to filming in his home country, Malaysia. I don’t want to let those images of beds floating on water out of my head.

Betelnut is the best-looking “slacker” film I’ve ever seen, and Yang Heng’s recent Sun Spots stretches narrative minimalism even further.

As for Oxhide II, I think it is not only a totally original work of cinema, but also a great work of engineering. I’ve just noticed that four of my top-ten choices are digital! Surely, Chinese filmmakers are in the forefront of digital film aesthetics.

Selecting a ten best out 100 is very difficult, but, I would have to include Platform as well as In the Mood for Love, two really great films to kick of the new millennium, West of the Tracks, the best documentary of the decade and, the best new film of 2009, Oxhide II. (As much as I loved Liu Jiayin’s first film, this is even better. I interviewed her in Vancouver and my interview will be posted on www.offscreen.com, hopefully soon.) The other six spots would be filled by 2001’s Electric Dragon 80,000V directed by Ishii Sogo, who, for me is the most significant of the contemporary, crazily visceral Japanese directors (more so than Miike and Tsukamoto); Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten (2002, Iran), for showing what can be done with a cheap digital camera, a car, a driver and assorted passengers; Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine, Peter Tscherkassky (2005, Austria), as the best short film of the decade; Sang sattawat (Syndromes and a Century), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2006, Thailand/France/Austria), a representative work by the most interesting narrative filmmaker of the decade; Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako (Mali/USA/France), as the best “political” film, of which I am especially fond, because I saw it at an outdoor theatre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and last, but certainly not least, La mujer sin cabeza (2008, Argentina/Fr/It/Sp), Lucrecia Martel, who together with Liu and Weerasethakul, is the finest new talent to emerge in the last 10 years. I can’t believe I had to leave off a Hou film—I would have picked his most recent work—and I couldn’t find room for Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, my favourite animation of the decade, or films by Claire Denis, Alfonso Cuarón, Aleksandr Sokurov, Johnny To, Tsai Ming-liang, Jafar Panahi, Bong Joon-ho—whose Gwoemul (The Host, 2006) is my choice for “entertainment” of the decade—and Gus Van Sant, who along with Wang Bing, Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Martel, Kiarostami, and Liu, were the 14 directors who had two or three films in my top-100.

Relevant Classroom Use

Oxhide 2 (dir. Liu Jiayin)

On Wednesday, dGenerate Films will publish the results of its poll of Chinese filmmakers and experts on the top Chinese language films of the past decade. While the poll includes all Chinese language films, we’d like to take a moment to focus on films from Mainland China. Here are Shelly Kraicer’s top ten Mainland Chinese films of the 2000s, with some observations on key developments in the field over the past ten years. Shelly will give a slightly different list that includes all Chinese-language cinema for the official poll.

—–

The editors of the dGenerate Films blog have asked me to come up with a list of the ten best Chinese films of the decade (2000-2009). I’ve thought about this for several days, and would prefer to call these the ten films from China that I consider to be the most important from the last ten years. This shifts the emphasis from “best”, from some difficult-do-objectify criterion of excellence to one of significance. Equally non-objective, to be sure, but I feel more comfortable with significance as a subjective criterion. This is for several reasons: one in particular is that “best” seems at least to imply a criterion of professional polish, of mastery, that I would not want to over-value while surveying recent Chinese film.

In fact, the key trend, if I can call it that, of the last decade of Chinese filmmaking seems to be precisely its de-professionalization. Filmmaking has moved beyond the academy, the Beijing Film Academy to be exact, responsible for so many filmmakers superbly trained in their crafts, and towards something much more broadly based and open, dominated by amateur digital filmmaking. These young, often self-trained filmmakers aren’t necessarily making the most well-crafted films out there, but their experiments are often among the most important things happening in cinema in this part of the world.

Rather than ranking films (which is sort of silly: what makes #6 better than #7?), I’d like to group my choices into three larger sets, as follows:

Three masterpieces:

Platform (Zhantai), Jia Zhangke, 2001
Jia’s masterpiece, so far: beautiful moving, profound: the closest cinema in the PRC has come yet to its own grand generational narrative

West of Tracks (Tiexi qu), Wang Bing, 2002
A film that changed the way we see China: a cinema monument that defines the close of an era

Oxhide 2 (Niupi 2), Liu Jiayin, 2009
A structuralist experiment with a narrative core: and Liu makes these two apparent opposites seem simply to be the same: funny and profound.

Seven more that stand out:

Suzhou River (Suzhou he), Lou Ye, 2000
Lou’s most accomplished poetic fusion of style and content

Looking for Lin Zhao’s Soul (Xunzhao Lin Zhao de linghun), Hu Jie, 2005
Morally devastating, emotionally eviscerating, a testament to the courage of both its subject and its director

Still Life (Sanxia haoren), Jia Zhangke, 2006
Jia’s formal control contains fabulist touches and a staggeringly comprehensive intellectual apparatus

The Sun Also Rises (Taiyang zhaochang shengqi), Jiang Wen, 2007
Mysteriously beautiful, masterful even in its confusion (or is it ours, facing something so new we don’t yet know how to read it?)

Jalainur (Zhalainuo’er), Zhao Ye, 2008
China’s youngest poet of cinema: light, shadow, colour, steam and snow.

The Search (Xunzhao Zhimei Gengdeng), Wanma Caidan, 2009
So understated is this fable of making cinema (and love) that its sorrow and rage speak softly, all the more powerfully

Petition (Shangfang), Zhao Liang, 2009
China’s other great long form new documentary, with a political daring and commitment to the real that, at the limit, transmutes reality into something shocking (the 316 minute long version)

Other films of great significance this decade:

Orphan of Anyang (Anyang ying’er), Wang Chao, 2001
Seafood (Haixian), Zhu Wen (2001)
Fish and Elephant (Jinnian xiatian), Li Yu, 2001
Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (Zhulin qi xian), Yang Fudong, 2003
Tang Poetry (Tangshi), Zhang Lu, 2004
South of the Clouds (Yunde nanfang), Zhu Wen, 2004
A World Without Thieves (Tianxia wuzei), Feng Xiaogang, 2004
Oxhide (Niupi), Liu Jiayin, 2005
Thirteen Princess Trees (Shisan ke paotong), Lu Yue, 2006
Yasukuni (Jingguo shenshe), Li Ying, 2007
The Other Half (Ling yiban), Ying Liang, 2007
Little Moth (Xue chan), Peng Tao, 2007
Survival Song (Xiao Lizi), Yu Guangyi, 2008
24 City (24 chengji), Jia Zhangke, 2008
Perfect Life (Wanmei shenghuo), Emily Tang, 2008
Sun Spots (Guang ban), Yang Heng, 2009

Relevant Classroom Use

All of the above-mentioned titles screened at the 2009 New York Film Festival, where Ghost Town received widespread acclaim.  Dennis Lim of the Moving Image Source wrote:  “Ghost Town is one of the most surprising and rewarding films I’ve seen all year, one of the most important films to have emerged from the booming (but still underexplored) field of Chinese independent documentaries.”   LA Weekly film editor Scott Foundas exclaimed: “I didn’t think there was another Jia Zhangke or Wang Bing lurking out there, but it turns out there is!”

dGenerate Films is the sales representative for Ghost Town. For U.S. sales, including television, home video and non-theatrical exhibition, please contact us.

More information about the film can be found here.

View the trailer for Ghost Town:

Relevant Classroom Use

Film Comment has named Zhao Dayong’s Ghost Town as one of the top twenty unreleased films of the year. And Neil Young’s Film Lounge named Ying Liang films’ The Other Half and Taking Father Home two of the best foreign films of the decade.

Not to be excluded from all the fun, we will be releasing soon results from the dGenerate Films’ Top Chinese Films of the Decade poll.  Stay tuned!

Relevant Classroom Use