"Actor: Zhao Jian"

• Cirque Du Soleil - Dralion | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £3.97   |  Saving you £16.02 (403.53%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The work of the Canadian circus troupe Cirque Du Soleil, Dralion is a show which has toured worldwide. It features elements of Chinese circus tradition interspersed with the troupe's own pan-cultural sense of stage spectacle. It's a combination of music, dance, clowning and acrobatics lavishly bathed in dry ice, strobe lights and a colourful array of oriental finery, elaborate costumes and props. Here you'l find Chinese women finding the strength from somewhere in their tiny bodies to balance by their hands atop 10-foot poles which are wheeled around gracefully; and young boys tumbling rapidly through revolving golden hoops; and bronzed dancers swinging through the air in balletic arcs from lengths of blue ribbon. What one could do without, though, is the She-Goddess' New Age babble throughout the proceedings, as well as the soundtrack, which is a queasy fusion of world music marinated in bass. There's also an over-indulgence of costume and choreography, presumably the work of the "avant garde" Cirque Du Soleil, though much here is distinctly apres-garde, reminding the viewer irresistibly of the musical extravaganza that was the daily centrepiece of the ill-fated Millennium Dome. All of this at times smothers and distracts from the impressive physical feats of the Chinese performers. Still, for the three million people who have witnessed this show worldwide this will certainly provide a worthy memento.On the DVD: a number of extra features include a featurette about the five-month deadline the troupe had to meet in putting together the show, splendid for those who thrill to the spectacle of tents being erected and dancers being winched carefully into the rafters of giant hangars. There's also a facility for viewing the performances from different angles. The show is presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and is generally pristine in both colour and definition. --David Stubbs

• Warriors Of Heaven And Earth | DVD | (13/12/2004) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Anybody hungering for a good old-fashioned Western needs to check out Warriors of Heaven and Earth, which--although it's set in 7th-century China--has all the valor and spectacle of a John Ford picture. It also has a goofy supernatural streak, for the chopsocky crowd. The opening 10 minutes or so offer an alarmingly convoluted plot, but it swiftly settles down. What's going on is that a long-exiled Japanese hit man (Kiichi Nakai), hired to kill a renegade Chinese warrior (Jiang Wen), temporarily teams up with his quarry in order to escort a camel caravan along the Spice Road. Of course, they are menaced by a brutal warlord, and beautiful Zhao Wei (So Close) is mixed in there too. Director He Ping (Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker) captures some magnificent vistas in the Gobi Desert, but more importantly he sketches the codes or honor and behavior essential to any such tale. --Robert Horton

• The Emperor And The Assassin | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £11.45   |  Saving you £11.53 (136.29%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in the 20th Century BC, THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASIN tells the story of Ying Zheng, a power-hungry heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Qin

• Happy Times | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £10.56 (52.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Zhao is an aging bachelor who hasn't been lucky in love. Thinking he has finally met the woman of his dreams Zhao leads her to believe he is wealthy and agrees to a wedding far beyond his means. Zhao's best friend Li hatches the idea to raise the money by refurbishing an abandoned bus which they will rent out by the hour the 'Happy Times Hotel' to young couples starved for privacy. Unfortunately this plan goes awry because Zhao is too old fashioned to allow the couples to leave t

• Still Life | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £8.66   |  Saving you £11.33 (130.83%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set against the spectacular landscape of the Three Gorges region Jia Zhangke's humane and moving Golden-Lion winner tells two contemplative and compassionate stories of a man and woman searching for absent spouses in Fengjie - an ancient town on the Yangtze River which is being demolished and will soon vanish for ever in the flooding caused by the controversial Three Gorges hydroelectric dam project.

• The World | Blu Ray | (13/02/2012) from £18.88   |  Saving you £1.11 (5.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The fourth feature by internationally acclaimed auteur Jia Zhangke was also his breakout success, an epic with a canvas as vast, and intimate, as its title suggests: a state-of-the-modern-world address, and a look at the insular world of a troupe of Chinese stage-performers dreaming of freedom… Zhao Tao, Jia’s muse, is one of these troupers. For Tao and the larger ensemble of pageant performers at Beijing’s real-life World Park (a sprawling hyper-pastiche of global landmarks — “famous sites from five continents”), love is respite from work, work is respite from love, and the line that extends from the past to the future loses all definition beyond the present. A testament to the wisdom of this young filmmaker who arrived in the late 1990s with Xiao Wu and, in 2000, Platform (regarded by many to be the greatest film of the 2000s), Shijie / The World provides an image of globalisation as a paradox: at once a phenomenon rooted in social control, and a network that allows connection across individual people and populations. Special Dual Format Edition: 1080p Blu-Ray transfer English subtitles Tony Rayns on The World: New and exclusive video introduction to the film Made in China: A 65 minute documentary on the making of The World The World according to Jia Zhangke: A 24 minute interview 40 page booklet

• Unknown Pleasures / Xiao Wu | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Unknown Pleasures: 19 year old friends Bin Bin and Ziao Ji live in the provincial Chinese city of Datong; disaffected and without jobs or ambition they pass their days wandering around town on their motorbikes hanging out at the smoky pool hall dreaming of girls and escape. Around them China is changing television informs them of their nation's rapidly developing political and economic role in the world and the inexorable encroachment of globalisation... Xiao Wu (aka P

• Beijing Bicycle | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Beijing Bicycle kicks off like an updated Chinese reworking of the 1948 Italian neo-realist classic Bicycle Thieves: a worker, dependent on his bike for his job, has it stolen and doggedly sets out to get it back. But pretty soon Wang Xiaoshuai's film mutates into something more elemental: a battle of wills between peasant lad Guei, original owner of the bike, and Jian, a surly urban schoolkid who claims to have bought it second-hand. For both the bike is status: for Guei it secures him his job as a courier, while for Jian it lets him keep up with his peers and chat up the girl he fancies. Each sees himself as the rightful owner and neither will give way, so the bike swaps hands back and forth, stolen and re-stolen, as the duel waxes increasingly personal. There's a diverting subplot about a beautiful, stylishly dressed girl glimpsed by Guei who turns out be something other than she seems, but essentially the battle over the bike is the meat of the film. The fascination of Beijing Bicycle--perhaps especially for non-Chinese viewers--is its portrait of present-day Beijing as a buzzing, high-pressure, neo-capitalist boomtown, impersonal and seemingly as lawless as any Wild West frontier burg. At no point, in all the thefts and counter-thefts and mounting violence, does anyone think to call the police--everyone is left to fight his own battles. Wang, one can't help suspecting, is slipping in a hint of social criticism in this vision of an uncaring society where possessions are all that matter. On the DVD: Beijing Bicycle on disc has the original theatrical trailer (the French version, oddly enough), filmographies for the director and four of his lead actors, notes on the film by Nick Bradshaw and trailers for other Metro Tartan foreign-language DVD releases. The transfer's in the full anamorphic widescreen of the original, with good Dolby Digital sound. --Philip Kemp

• 24 City | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Chengdu, nowadays. The state-owned factory 420 shuts down to give way to a complex of luxury apartments called "24 CITY".

• Red Light Revolution | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £13.79   |  Saving you £1.20 (8.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This Chinese comedy following the adventures of a luckless Beijing man who opens his own sex shop in an attempt to improve his life situation. Shunzi (Jun Zhao) is in a bad way. Not only has his girlfriend recently left him, but he has been sacked from his job as a taxi driver. Back living with his parents and with no income of his own, Shunzi's prospects seem bleak.When a successful former school friend (Xiduo Jiang) points him in the direction of Iggy (Masanobu Otsuka), a cut-price supplier of adult goods, Shunzi decides that anything is worth a try. He proceeds to open his own adult shop, with the help of his friend, Lili (Vivid Wang), but will the residents of the neighbourhood dare to visit the store? Moreover, will the ruling Communist party allow him to remain open if they discover what he is selling?