China, Hong Kong & Taiwan Challenge (Official, February 2019)

[funkybusiness]

China/Hong Kong/Taiwan Challenge


True.

Goal:
Watch as many from China/Hong Kong/Taiwan as you can!

Challenge runs 1 February 2019 - 28 February 2019.

List of eligible countriesShow

China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
If this list surprises you, I'm not sure I can help. I'm not even sure anyone can. Oh, maxwell, so funny.

Rules:
- Rewatches allowed.
- A feature film (at least 40 min) counts as one entry.
- A total of 60 minutes of short films count as one entry.
- We'll follow the "significant contribution" rule - China/Hong Kong/Taiwan must have made a significant enough contribution to the film to count for this challenge. Interpret as you may.
- No regular television allowed.

Stats & Formatting:
- Title (year, Country) is the preferred format
- New posts are preferred over edited posts

Official Lists:
100 Classic Martial Arts Films
Golden Horse's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films
The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures
LoveHKFilm.com's The Best Hong Kong Films Ever
Asian Cinema: A Field Guide: China (1-76), Hong Kong (356-459), Taiwan (633-675)
UNESCO's Memory of the World: China (129-143)
Caveat: the obviously not Chinese films (such as Rush Hour et al) that appear on the Asian Cinema Field Guide list are ineligible

Unofficial lists (submit 'em if you got 'em):
Onderhond's Top 200 Hong Kong/China/Taiwan
Onderhond's China's Post-2000 Hidden Genre Gems
cinewest and the forumites discuss Chinese cinema
iCM Forum's Favorite Chinese Movies
101 Essential Chinese Movies

Movies Streaming on Common Platforms (US Data; please verify eligibility):
Netflix: https://trakt.tv/search/movies/?watchno ... s=cn,hk,tw
Hulu: https://trakt.tv/search/movies/?watchno ... s=cn,hk,tw
Amazon Prime: https://trakt.tv/search/movies/?watchno ... s=cn,hk,tw
Filmstruck: https://trakt.tv/search/movies/?watchno ... s=cn,hk,tw

參加者:

秩	參加者	電影
1	Traveller	50
2	jeroeno	35
3	72allinncallme	25
4	Mate_cosido	23
5	Lonewolf2003	15
6	Knaldskalle	12
6	Onderhond	12
6	sol	12
9	albajos	11
9	funkybusiness	11
9	morrison-dylan-fan	11
12	maxwelldeux	8
13	hurluberlu	7
14	ororama	6
14	wasabi	6
16	clemmetarey	5
16	globetrotter	5
18	cinephage	4
19	allisoncm	3
19	jdidaco	3
19	frbrown	3
22	mightysparks	2
22	OldAle1	2
22	RBG	2
22	VincentPrice	2
22	vortexsurfer	2
27	3eyes	1
27	lynchs	1
27	blocho	1
27	Coryn	1
27	flavo5000	1
27	zzzorf	1

B-b-b-b-bonus Challenge!
It's... "The Find Tien Feng Scavenger Hunt"!
Take a screenshot and post it when Tien Feng shows up in your viewings. He's in so many films, you'd practically have to try to avoid him. One screenshot per film, please.

田豐!Show

田豐!

秩	參加者	電影
1	funkybusiness	2
1	Traveller	2

Links to posts w/ screenshotsShow

funkybusiness:
1. Shi di chu ma (The Young Master) (1980, Hong Kong, Jackie Chan)
2. Lung siu yeh (Dragon Lord) (1982, Hong Kong, Jackie Chan)

Traveller:
1. The One-Armed Swordsman (1967, HK)
2. The Shadow Whip (1971, HK)

Thanks to maxwelldeux for the OP content from last year's challenge! and for the helpful tips gained from his past experiences.

[mjf314]

Can we change the rules to allow TV? If TV is allowed then I'm in.

[funkybusiness]

No. there were many voiced complaints about TV in and after last year's challenge so, no. unless I really bump up the amount of TV per point, like, 4hrs. maybe.

[mjf314]

I don't remember complaints. Where did people complain?

If mini-series are allowed, then what's the definition of mini-series?

[funkybusiness]

it was a large part of the discussion about the challenge schedule for this year.

I'll remove the mini-series part.

[mjf314]

I found the discussion in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4085
There doesn't seem to be a consensus. Some people think TV should be allowed.
The most common arguments against TV seem to be "TV watchers have an advantage" and "reality TV shouldn't be allowed".

Why don't you make it 90 minutes of TV episodes per point (about the same as a movie), and ban reality TV? Then I don't see how anyone can complain.

[maxwelldeux]

Woohoo!

New list: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/onde ... onderhond/
Which comes from this thread: viewtopic.php?p=541662#p541662

Also cinewest's thread: viewtopic.php?p=558738#p558738

And one lesson I learned last year: I'd suggest closing the "John Woo directed and Jackie Chan starred in some American films that inexplicably appear on the Asian cinema list" loophole.

[funkybusiness]

thanks maxwell, noted and included.

@mjf, I don't see why we should ban reality TV only, that's a difficult task on its own and opens up the ugly can of worms that is "television discussion" and I'm not willing to deal with it just to incentivize something I don't think needs incentivizing in a challenge meant to broaden one's experiences, esp. regarding film viewing. What counts as reality TV? where's the demarcation between reality TV and documentary? why only allow non-reality TV? why is a shitty soap opera better than a goofy singing competition? and ultimately I'm not willing to police television viewing habits so users can get internet points.

There's nothing stopping anyone from watching television programs in the month of February. In fact, if they have a country of origin applicable to the challenge, I don't even mind if users discuss said television programs in this thread. but it's not going to count towards point totals.

[mjf314]

My suggestion was an attempt at a compromise, but actually I think all TV should be allowed. TV should be allowed in a film-viewing challenge because a TV episode IS a film. A film is a sequence of images that create the illusion of movement. It doesn't matter if it's shown in a cinema, VHS, DVD, a streaming website, or TV. If the issue is that it's a series, a TV series is no different from a film series (except for where it's shown).

You say challenges are meant to broaden one's experiences. Most members of this forum haven't watched any Chinese TV, so for most members, watching Chinese TV would broaden their experiences.

[fori]

I agree! I’ll be watching a lot of Chinese TV and not many movies during February, so if TV is included, I’m in.

[mjf314]

@fori: Which TV series are you planning to watch? I was planning to start with The Bund.

[fori]

Don’t have any plans in particular, I have been watching the Legend of Ruyi & another one (that the name of escapes me right now) because my wife wanted to. I expect that I’ll be watching a lot of TV with in-laws during spring festival.

[72allinncallme]

I’m In! Thanks for being strict on the TV You got my support.

[Traveller]

This will be my challenge for this month. Apart from some backlog movies, my focus will be on these three lists, especially the HK one.

Golden Horse's 100 Greatest Chinese-Language Films - 68/104 - #33
LoveHKFilm.com's The Best Hong Kong Films Ever - 72/203 - #92
The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures - 57/104 - #41

[Onderhond]

New list: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/onde ... onderhond/
Which comes from this thread: viewtopic.php?p=541662#p541662

Glad to see your remembered!

If people need some visual stimulation for the Top 200 I once did: https://www.onderhond.com/china-200/all-intl.html
That one is three years old now, so it misses some more recent entries, but still a very broad selection I think

[maxwelldeux]

New list: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/onde ... onderhond/
Which comes from this thread: viewtopic.php?p=541662#p541662

Glad to see your remembered!

If people need some visual stimulation for the Top 200 I once did: https://www.onderhond.com/china-200/all-intl.html
That one is three years old now, so it misses some more recent entries, but still a very broad selection I think

I remembered for several reasons, mostly relating to this challenge, but I've been planning to hit a few of those when this challenge came up. So yay!

[albajos]

Updated table on all previous China/HK/Taiwan challenges (4)
viewtopic.php?p=527152#p527152

And a reminder that we have a Triple challenge running
viewtopic.php?p=552574
For February there are no triples possible though, so keep on posting those doubles

[VincentPrice]

Sure

[Lonewolf2003]

I’m In! Thanks for being strict on the TV You got my support.

You have my support also. I don’t see why we need to have discussion again here and do hope we aren’t going to have this discussion every challenge.

[3eyes]

Seems but yesterday that I worked pretty hard on this challenge (July), so my participation, if any, will be minimal.

[Lonewolf2003]

China/Hong Kong/Taiwan Challenge


Unofficial lists (submit 'em if you got 'em):
Onderhond's Top 200 Hong Kong/China/Taiwan
Onderhond's China's Post-2000 Hidden Genre Gems
cinewest and the forumites discuss Chinese cinema

How about our own list: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/icm+ ... /joachimt/

[Onderhond]

How about our own list: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/icm+ ... /joachimt/

Beware of the echo chamber!

[Mate_cosido]

This is a good list focused on Mainland China https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/101+ ... betrotter/

[Traveller]

This is a good list focused on Mainland China https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/101+ ... betrotter/

Looks good. Bookmarked, thanks.

[jeroeno]

I got a lot of the HK movies from recent freeleeches so I'm all in this one. At the very least I'm going for 36 but I'll probably end up closer to 100.

[Knaldskalle]

In, but probably not for a lot.

[Traveller]

01. The Butterfly Murders (1979, HK) - 6/10
Expected more. Still, overall enjoyable.

[wasabi]

Don’t have any plans in particular, I have been watching the Legend of Ruyi & another one (that the name of escapes me right now) because my wife wanted to. I expect that I’ll be watching a lot of TV with in-laws during spring festival.

I think Legend of Ruyi is more interesting than Story of Yanxi Palace, they both came from 2018. Empresses in the Palace probably still the best of the similar type in 10 years...The story of Minglan is new, and very popular now.

[Traveller]

02. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, CN) - 8/10
It’s a four hour glimpse into the harrowing emptiness of Hu Bo, his first and sadly only film as he committed suicide shortly after finishing it. My so far favorite film of 2018.

[OldAle1]

In. Don't expect to watch much, some 30s stuff for sure, dunno what else. Maybe more stuff from Jia and Hou.

[wasabi]

I'm in, I just got tickets of Still Life.

[Traveller]

03. Peking Opera Blues (1986, HK) - 7/10
04. The Spooky Bunch (1980, HK) - 5/10

[72allinncallme]

1. 2046 (2004)

[Onderhond]

I won't be really participating, but I guess I can list the films that are a natural fit.

01. 1.0* - The Arch [Dong Fu Ren] (1968)
Notable because this is the first Hong Kong drama film directed by a female director, but that's about it. The drama is poor and imposed, the camera work and editing feel extremely amateurish and the ever-present soundtrack is simply maddening. It may deserve its place in history, but it's far from a good film.

[fori]

I think Legend of Ruyi is more interesting than Story of Yanxi Palace, they both came from 2018. Empresses in the Palace probably still the best of the similar type in 10 years...The story of Minglan is new, and very popular now.

Thanks, the Story of Minglan was the other one.

[cinewest]

02. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, CN) - 8/10
It’s a four hour glimpse into the harrowing emptiness of Hu Bo, his first and sadly only film as he committed suicide shortly after finishing it. My so far favorite film of 2018.

Sorry to hear that. This film is in my top 10 to see from 2018.

[sol]

1. Chun Can (1933) China



This silent film from China follows the plight and hardships of a family of silkworm farmers. The patriarch is very superstitious and conflict comes as he argues about whether to spend the family's negligible savings on rice for themselves or leaves for the silkworms. Unfortunately, few of the characters are well developed or likeable. The insight into silkworm farming is rather interesting though, and with some luscious tracking shots over the family at work and well distributed close-ups, this may have well worked better as a documentary on the subject.

[jeroeno]

01. Hái-kak chhit-ho (Cape No. 7) (2008)
02. Tian cai yu bai chi (Crazy Money) (1975)
03. 92: Hak Mooi Gwai dui Hak Mooi Gwai (1992)
04. Tou ze (A Simple Life) (2011)

[Traveller]

05. Nomad (1982, HK) - 7/10

[funkybusiness]

01. Zui quan (Drunken Master) (1978, Hong Kong)

100 Classic Martial Arts Films, 14/99