Shanghai gets its close-up in director Jia Zhangke’s new documentary

There is a moment in 24 City, Jia Zhangke’s 2008 documentary about the workers of a once top-secret state munitions factory, which makes you sit up and take notice. One of the workers, Hao Dali, tells the story of being on brief shore leave from the passenger ship which is taking her and her co-workers to the factory in the late 50s. The ship’s first whistle goes and she looks around for her infant son. He is missing. Hao and her husband frantically look for him until the second whistle blows. Still nothing. Now hysterical, and with the ship about to embark, Hao is forced by her co-workers to abandon the search for her only child and return to the boat. It’s a gut-wrenching, effective piece of filmmaking and even after you learn that it is not Hao, but actress Lu Liping who is playing her, the story retains its brutal poignancy.

China’s most in-your-face filmmaker

Make no mistake, writer-director Li Yang is China’s most important filmmaker. The 51-year-old’s movies are brutal, in-your-face exposés of some of the most sensitive social issues facing China today. Film critics have likened Li’s style to the best of the Italian neo-realists of the 40s and 50s. Born in Xi’an, Li studied at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute from 1985-1987, but dropped out to move to Germany where he has been based since. His Chinese directorial debut, 2003’s Blind Shaft, took viewers inside the dog-eat-dog world of China’s unregulated mines. Using non-professional actors, the films tells the story of a pair of grifters who murder their marks and then try to extort money from the mine by blaming the deaths on a shaft collapse. Li’s second film, 2007’s Blind Mountain, was no less shocking. It tells the story of a young woman who is unwittingly sold as a bride to a farmer in a remote rural village and her attempts at escape.

Li’s films have earned him plenty of recognition overseas – a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Blind Shaft, and entry into the prestigious Un Certain Regard category at Cannes for Blind Mountain - but, not surprisingly, have run into problems in China. Blind Shaft was denied a license to screen on the mainland, while Blind Mountain was eventually allowed to be screened after Li agreed to soften the ending. The third film in Li’s unofficial trilogy, Blind River, didn’t even make it to first base. Production of the film - about abandoned children looking for their mothers - has been suspended indefinitely because China’s Film Bureau has so far denied Li a shooting permit. We caught up with Li when he was in Beijing recently for this interview…

Marc van der Chijs, Tudou’s co-founder, tells how he built an Internet giant

“Last month I moved house and was going through my old stuff and found the business plan we had made back in 2005,” says Marc van der Chijs, the 37-year-old Dutch co-founder of Tudou.com. “We had a five year plan. We reached that plan within eight months. You dream about this kind of thing, but you never believe it. But it did happen. And it’s not the end yet, it’s going to be a lot bigger than this.”

The guy behind Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer chats about his recently released animated comedy CJ7: The Cartoon

Director, producer, comedian and all-around superstar Stephen Chow (周星驰, Sing-Chi Chow) who also answers to Grandmast Sing (星爷) has had a busy month. His new animated comedy came out July 9. CJ7 tells the tale of a father and son's encounter with a magical toy, which turns out to be an alien. Chow has been flying all over to promote it.

A Chinese comedy based on the story of famous scholar Tang Bohu. In search of true love the scholar, disguised as a houseboy, endears himself to a rich family in order to pursue the ravishing servant girl who has stolen his heart.

Tang Bo Hu Dian Qiu Xiang II (唐伯虎点秋香2) premiered July 9. It's showing in cinemas around town 

Gong Li and Steven Chow played leading roles the first time around. The second movie stars Huang Xiaoming (Ip Man 2, The Banquet) and Zhang Jinchu (Overhead), both of whom chatted with us about making the movie: