Jing Guo

The easternmost fishing town in China sits on the cusp of radical change, as this quietly devastating film details. Once a major hub for the Chinese fishing industry, Stone Town is facing seismic change. With its economic bedrock at risk, the small, secluded town is turning towards tourism as a way to support its local population. Jing Guo and Dingding Ke’s film balances intimate portraits of the townsfolk, whose lives are impacted by the coming change, with a wider perspective on the modernisation project driven by Xi Jinping’s government. The filmmakers capture the anxiety, sorrow and confusion of the people, in tandem with a perspective on a burgeoning environmental crisis, the ramifications of political turbulence and injustice at the way rapid modernisation impacts everyday lives. Stone Town is a compelling portrait of a world where feelings of despair and frustration are drowned by late-night drinks and non-stop karaoke singing in dingy bars.

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How much freedom can there be in a marriage? How much freedom can there be in a Chinese marriage? Long and Jun get married when the two find out that she is pregnant. She wants to have her child (only one is allowed under the Chinese policy) and Long agrees to become a parent, too. But the two of them still have to acquire doctorates in order to be able to teach in a Chinese university.

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Series looking at aspects of life in modern China gives an intimate view of the pressurised life of Liu Wei as he attempts to balance work and life commitments.

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On the first day of spring term, directors Guo Jing and Ke Dingding began to film the lives of three 11-year-olds and their class in Shanghai Experimental Primary School. Focusing on the challenges of growing up, the film captures the flirting, fighting, showing off and anguish of children on the cusp of adolescence, and gives an insight into the formation of a new generation of Chinese children.

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Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world. Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way. (Storyville)

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Archaeologist Rick O'Connell travels to China, pitting him against an emperor from the 2,000-year-old Han dynasty who's returned from the dead to pursue a quest for world domination. This time, O'Connell enlists the help of his wife and son to quash the so-called 'Dragon Emperor' and his abuse of supernatural power.

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