Think Rocky V, but during the Olympics. Jackie Chan, 54, will engage in some kind of fighting? boxing? kung fu? exhibition against Tszyu, 38, a welterweight boxer from Russia and former Olympian. However, as this is China's Olympics, we suspect that, like in the movies, Chan will triumph over the white man in the final, climactic scene. If he's in top form, he might be able to rescue some Ming vases and other priceless artifacts......

Do films with titles like "Feathers of Dongtan" and "Sounds. Breaths" give you a tingle in your special area? If not, fret not, there's still some time to develop that acquired taste which is promotional films for really-big-Chinese-events. "Vision Shanghai", like "Vision Beijing," is going to feature documentary films by famous directors, thought the names of those directors have yet to be released. However, Shanghai Film Group has announced its next Expo film, a full-length......

Chinese news portals have been abuzz lately with the news that a male prostitute has claimed on his blog to have had sex with Chinese film director Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯) who is currently attending the Cannes Film Festival. And Shanghaiist knows once something is claimed on a blog, it is absolutely true. The prostitute reportedly claimed that Jia saw him showering at a sauna and promptly had the pimp call him for paid sexual services.......

We pretty much knew, even before we stepped into the theater, how this film was going to play out among the critics: Some, like Richard Corliss at Time , would gush: Chow, the long-ago supercool star of Hong Kong crime movies, parades a magnificent malevolence he's not unleashed before. And Gong Li, working for the first time in 11 years with the director (and ex-lover) who made her an international star in Ju Dou and......

There's a definitely a buzz for fans of Chinese cinema with the release of Jia Zhangke's new film Still Life 《三峡好人》. In Shanghai and probably the rest of China, the film's theatrical release comes on December 14, the same day that Zhang Yimou's new film Curse of the Golden Flower. And while from the standpoint of the box office returns, it seems pretty clear who the winner will be, Jia doesn't at all seem flustered......

Jia Zhangke’s Golden Lion-award-winning Still Life (in Chinese, Sanxia Haoren, or "The Good People of the Three Gorges") isn’t quite the masterpiece that we’ve come to expect from the man responsible for the pitch-perfect The World (2004) or Platform (2000). But save for a few minor hiccups, it comes awfully close. The plot, as is often the case in Jia’s films, is window dressing of the plainest variety. In two non-overlapping storylines (fans of Babel......

We'd heard a lot of hype about Hong Kong director Johnnie To's (杜棋峰) new film Exiled (放逐), not least of all because it was one of three Chinese language films that competed at the Venice Film Festival (against new works by Jia Zhangke and Tsai Ming-liang). We just watched the DVD, and if ultraviolent action and stylish gunplay is your thing, then this is the movie to watch. The plot is simple: 1998 Macau, right......

Seems to be accessible in Shanghai ... for now. Get in there while you can! Also on Shanghaiist You Bastards! Wikipedia inaccessible in Shanghai Extra! Extra! Wikipedia, Starbucks and Kim Jong Il Extra! Extra! Wikipedia, Jia Zhangke and streetgirls......

Shanghaiist was thinking about how to characterize a movie like this: We mulled over “worst movie we’ve ever seen,” and thought this too harsh, as there are probably loads of worse movies that we’ve seen but have repressed the memory of. And we hope the same happens with this movie. The ensemble includes Hong Kong starlet Cecilia Cheung (Zhang Baizhi), Hu Ge, and most importantly, the cinematic debut of Super Voice Girl No. 2 Zhou......

The Observer runs a story entitled "Wikipedia defies China's censors," and therefore Wikipedia remains blocked here. Kind of.In a surprise win, Chinese film director Jia Zhangke took this year's Golden Lion, the top award at the Venice Film Festival, for his film Still Life. Even more surprising: Ben Affleck won an acting award.Gay students "too shy" to attend class on homosexuality at Fudan?The Chinese lose more than 600 billion yuan each year from gambling. During......

A former Chinese cabinet member (an atheist) and an American evangelist have published a book based on their dialogues about religion. Read it to find out if God really exists.Media reports and interviews with a a Tibetan princess -- the daughter of the 10th Panchen Lama. She's a student at Tsinghua and has recently attracted a lot of media attention.The Chinese drank 30 mln tons of beer last year.China will have its own digital TV......

A caveat to begin with: We are predisposed to liking movies about migrant workers attempting to eke out an existence in Beijing. Loach is Fish Too (泥鳅也是鱼), directed by Yang Yazhou, tells the story of recent divorcee Ni Qiu (meaning "loach" in Chinese), who takes her cute little twin girls to Beijing in search of a better life. Along the way she meets a man who has the same name as her, which makes for......

If you're like Shanghaiist, you like going to the movies. And if you're like Shanghaiist, you rarely go to the movies in Shanghai -- because, well, most of the movies that show here are crap. (And because you can buy 10 DVDs on the street for the price of one ticket to the theater.) Thank God then for the Shanghai International Film Festival, which concludes this weekend. Finally, we get some indie and art house......