"Actor: Zhao Tao"

• 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

• A Touch of Sin | DVD | (15/09/2014) from £5.68   |  Saving you £9.31 (62.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her. A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life. Four people four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.

• A Touch of Sin | Blu Ray | (15/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her. A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life. Four people four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.

• 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

• Platform | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £17.87   |  Saving you £2.12 (11.86%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jia Zhang Ke's ambitious film follows the lives of four friends over a turbulent 10 year period of Chinese history from 1979 to 1989. In the small town of Fenyang in the remote western province of Shanxi the teenage members of a state theatre troupe stage propoganda plays in praise of Mao. But as the country opens up to the free market and implements wide-ranging reform their lives are irrevocably changed as the world around them is transformed by the music fashions and other cul

• 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".

• Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon / Warriors Of Heaven And Earth / Legend Of The Red Dragon | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Dir. Ang Lee 2000): Amazing martial arts fighting sequences (choreographed by Yuen wo Ping - The Matrix) stunning special effects action adventure and romance have made Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon the most talked about movie of the year. Martial arts masters Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) battle against evil forces to recover their stolen sword the legendary Green Destiny. Warriors Of Heaven & Earth (Dir. Ping Lee 2003): China 700AD: the Tang Dynasty assumes far-reaching political influence culminating in battle against the Turks. Wen Zhu (Zhao Wei) the daughter of a top Chinese general spearheading the forces massed against the Turkish enemy is entrusted to the care of Lai Xi (Kiichi Nakai) the Japanese emissary and feared imperial bounty hunter who hunts down rebels in the Western Frontier who is ordered take her back to the capital city of Changan. Lai Xi longs for a return to his beloved Japanese homeland but his assignment is hijacked by the command to hunt down rebel Li (Jiang Wen) a lieutenant condemned to death for disobeying a direct order to murder innocent women and children in the name of war. However as dedicated to carrying out his duty as Lai Xi is when he tracks down Li he is surprised to find his foe transporting a sacred Buddhist relic across the Gobi desert to its rightful resting place. As Turkish forces mass to attack in an effort to steal the relic Lai Xi must question his loyalty to his superiors and his Buddhist faith... Likened to the multi-Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou's No.1 U.S. box office hit Hero China's official entry for the Best Foreign language Academy award Warriors Of Heaven And Earth is epic entertainment! Legend Of The Red Dragon (Dir. Wong Jing 2001): The epic story of a man who challenged the limits of courage and fought for the heart of a nation. When his wife and entire village are brutally murdered by evil Manchu soldiers the master warrior Kwun (Jet Li) sets out on a mission of vengeance with the only survivor of the massacre - his son Ting. For seven years the two journey across ancient China on their quest for revenge always staying one step ahead of the deadly army. But Kwun is forced to face the past when they come across a wealthy benefactor with five young Shaolin masters in his charge who unbeknownst to Kwun have the detailed map to a priceless treasure trove tattooed on their backs. It is not long before Manchu officials find out about the maps and deadly soldiers came after the masters. Now in an ancient battle that will pit Kwun against one of the very soldiers who helped to kill his family he and Ting will unite with the young masters of Shaolin for a fight to the death. Get ready for an ancient martial arts battle with the world's most masterful warriors!

• The World | Blu Ray | (30/08/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The fourth feature by internationally acclaimed auteur Jia Zhang-ke 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) 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.