In an effort to make the cinematic experience more accessible to China's moviegoers, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) plans to set a maximum price for movie tickets in the near future. more ›

"The only reason that we cannot make genre movies is the barrier that censorship sets. If I want to make the movie here, I have to portray all the communists as superheroes...This would betray my original idea and make it difficult to develop the story."

Whatever you think of her acting, Zhang Ziyi has without question been the most visible thespian to break out of China for the last ten years and now, CineAsia is recognizing that by naming her the "actress of the decade". more ›

Internet censorship always grabs the spotlight however the PRC censors the film industry pretty thoroughly too. China has no motion picture rating system meaning everything obtains approval on a film-by-film basis and unfortunately the government does not look so favorably on the mainstays of horror pieces, namely violence and the supernatural. more ›

• After reporting that The Office was on its way to China, we offered you an insight on what you could expect.
• We were rather surprised that the Henan Airline investigation revealed that some 200 airline pilots have fake resumes and flying histories. We were even more surprised that these pilots have been allowed back on the flight deck! No matter, we always preferred trains anyway...
• A rather LARGE can of worms was opened when we featured Morrissey in our ‘Quote of the Day’. He referred to Chinese being a ‘subspecies’, see what fellow readers thought here.

While Aftershock, the movie about the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976, has been excessively popular, it's also been excessively pumped full of advertising - including 20 minutes of adverts before the movie even started. One woman was so mad, she sued. more ›

Are the directors and film producers of the world running out of imagination? Something about the film climate of Shanghai, and most of the worlds mainstream cinema this last year has been a bit... repetitive.. with remakes, sequels, new versions of old movies, adaptations of comic books or literary classics or just movies on the exact same theme we´ve seen popping up in the theatres lately. We've had Transformers 2, Ip Man 2, Iron Man 2, Step Up 2, Kung Fu Hip Hop 2, Shrek 4, Alice In Wonderland, Doraemon, Astro Boy, G.I. Joe, Black Cat Detective, kung fu kicks here and kung fu tricks there and god knows how many government made flicks with the single goal to place an air of glory around The People's Republic of China. more ›

Vienna Café goes epic tonight, when showing Yimou Zhang´s drama "To Live" (Huozhe) from 1994. The film who is based on the novel of the same name by Yu Hua, earned several awards and nominations in Cannes that year, as well as other international film festivals. The story starts in the forties, moves passed the CCP´s 1949 victory, on to the Cultural Revolution in 1966 and onwards... more ›

In 2008, at the age of 86, Alain Resnais, one of the most prominent filmmakers in French film history, once again got behind the camera. The result was Les Herbes Folles (Wild Grass), which earned him a lifetime achievement award in Cannes, as well as a nomination for the Palme d´Or (The Golden Palm). This upcoming Friday you have a chance to enjoy the romantic drama at Alliance Française! more ›

"David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs invite you to lunch". This Tuesday´s SubCinema at Dada presents Naked Lunch, (1991) a partially biographical interpretation of William Burroughs book with the same name. It might be a bit dark and gory, but isn´t that how we know Cronenberg´s movies best? more ›

Ip Man, the kung fu master who among others taught Bruce Lee some of his tricks and kicks seems to be the honey of the 2010 silver screens. Two years after the film Ip Man (叶问), a sequel is now released, once again under the direction of Wilson Yip (Yip Wai Shun) and with Donnie Yen in the leading role. Apart from this, two other pictures about the great fighter is under production right this moment. more ›

Cinedans - the international film, dance and media festival based in Amsterdam is dropping down in Shanghai for a weekend. This is your chance to get updated on the current dance video scene of Europe, or, if you´re a newbie, to get to know a new genre, the dance film. It´s not dance, not film - but something of its own. more ›

If you´ve missed the first four films of The German Consulate´s month-long Fatih Akin Retrospective there are still two more flicks to go, this coming Friday, and the next. One musical documentary and one thought-provoking culture crossing drama. Fatih Akin is a Turkish-German director with a series of successful and award winning movies behind him, such as Im Juli (In July, 2000) the Golden Bear-awarded Gegen die Wand (Head-On, 2004) as well as last year´s New York, I Love You. more ›

Following the spectacular box office revenues of Hollywood's "Avatar" (1.3 billion RMB) and "Alice in Wonderland" (168.6 million RMB in 12 days), it seems that Chinese movie makers are gearing up to take a slice of the lucrative 3D pie. more ›

So dooown the rabbit hole we go again! We´ve been waiting for months and here it finally comes, the Tim Burton - Johnny Depp - Helena Bonham Carter-fueled version of the classic tale Alice in Wonderland. more ›

With the tagline "Does for rock and roll what The Sound of Music did for hills", we wonder if you can possibly refuse this week´s SubCinema screening. The film in question is This Is Spinal Tap, a mockumentary about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. That is, a fake documentary about a fake band - that became real in the process. Well, kind of real anyway. more ›

Follow the basketball wonder LeBron James and the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School basketball team as they rise to (the) stars in More Than a Game, the documentary that has now reached Shanghai movie theaters. more ›

¡Híjole! If last week´s Espacio Femenino´s smorgasbord of Spanish movies wasn't enough, here´s another chance to indulge yourself in cinema en Español. A whole month of Mexican films lies ahead of us, as the Consulate General of Mexico and of Spain have been so kind to dig up a list of classics that will be given us for free. It´s called The 2010 Mexican Bicentennial Film Festival and all we say is: ¡vamos! more ›

You don't have to be Laura Mulvey to realize that most of the actors you see in film are male, most directors are male, and most stories are told from a somewhat "male" perspective. Time to make way for female directors and female actors, and try to shrug that male gaze off our eyes and minds. more ›

If Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas isn't checked off your list of classic must-see movies, Vienna Café will help you sort this out on Thursday! Johnny Depp styled to the point of impossibility of recognition, an immensely decadent ride through Las Vegas casinos and hotel rooms, one of the most vivid depictions of a psychedelic drug rush and in the same time a crucial part of journalistic history. Legendary reporter Hunter S. Thompson made the journey that became a book that became a movie... more ›

Can we ever get enough of kung fu movies? We don't think so, and are therefore thankful to the Chinese movie industry for offering us its never ending stream of beautifully set fighting epics. This time, we´ll cuddle up in the cinemas to 14 Blades,(锦衣卫) a 14th century Ming-era martial arts movie from director Daniel Lee starring Donnie Yen and Vicki Zhao. more ›

Blaxploitation was a film genre which especially addressed an audience of urban black people and became popular in America during the 1970s. These films were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music, which makes it a perfect fit for art/music bar/lounge Dada's Tuesday SubCinema. This time, they offer up a free screening of The Mack, the biggest grossing blaxploitation film of its time. more ›

Get a closer look at the 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine and get tangled into the symbolist movement, absinthe hazes and gay love scenes. Later this afternoon Vienna Café shows the 1995 movie Total Eclipse which depicts the friendship between the two poets. more ›

We've counted to three in where to find chocolate, ladies nights, brunches, scary stuff, video games and more in our Threesday feature... now it's about time to gather three movie nights. more ›

Not many new movies showing up in Shanghai this week as it seems, but at least Alliance Francaise offers "a movie - a book" event on Wednesday that sounds tempting. It goes in the footsteps of Marcel Proust, so for literature lovers it should be a mind treat. more ›

The most talked about climate flick since An Inconvenient Truth is down for its first licensed showing in Shanghai this Wednesday! The Age of Stupid tells the story of how our era´s stupidity and lack of action in the climate matter will be looked upon from a futuristic point of view, namely in the devastated world of 2055. The movie didn´t make it into Chinese cinemas so Dulwich College in Shanghai is now showing it, making Wednesday´s event one of the few public screenings in China of this engaging film. Sounds like a must-do! more ›

On Thursday 3 December, Vienna Café will, as they put it, "finally will bring some good laughs to our wee cinema, to celebrate the arrival of the winter and the holiday season." The 2007 comedy Death at a funeral shows the strange and hysterical happenings taking place at what was supposed to be a dignified family gathering. more ›

Mulan, the old Chinese tale that was made into a Disney movie in 1998, is finally finding its way back home to its original country. Under the direction of Jingle Ma and with Zhao Wei in the leading role, the movie about the female warrior goes up on cinemas starting Friday. Who can resist another epic costume drama from China?! more ›

Are you a party animal, do you love electronic music, and do you happen to dream about the city of Berlin for just those reasons? Then you should come to Vienna Café on Thursday, who will show the 2008 flick Berlin Calling - a film about a Berlin DJ and his attempt to make it in the club music industry, "a melodramatic tragic comedy set in the world’s most recognizable and bustling hub of dance music activity today." more ›

Have you discovered Sub-Cinema, the new bi-weekly film screenings that started taking place at Dada last month? Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month you can watch cult classics, B-movies, independent cinema and documentaries - all for free! This week it´s time for Babylon, Franco Rosso´s film about black youth growing up in South London. more ›