China

• China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston (1980)

  [6/10]

  "The text is successful in questioning the myths that exits today about the Chinese Americans. It demonstrates how the Chinamen were a major work force in building the American West, and yet they are still viewed as outsiders that were trying to take advantage of the success that was built by people of European descent."

• Joy Luck Club, The directed by Wayne Wang (1993)

  [8/10]

  "The Joy Luck Club examines the lives of eight women: four mothers and their daughters. Each mother went through harrowing experiences to come to the United States from pre-Communist China. And even though the daughters only know fragments of their mothers' stories, these events define major aspects of their personalities and their relationships with their mothers and others."

• Kung Fu Hustle directed by Stephen Chow (2004)

  [8/10]

  "Kung Fu Hustle takes all the stereotypes of the martial arts genre, exaggerates them to an extreme, and provides a hilarious tribute to the genre."

• Mongol directed by Sergei Bodrov (2007)

  [6/10]

  "Director Bodrov clearly wants to paint a different picture of young Temudjin than most people have from from reading about the savage Gengis Kahn. Mongol paints a picture of a stubborn, religious man devoted to his wife and determined to create a great empire for the benefit of all Mongol people -- 'even if half of them have to die for it.'"

• Shanghai Noon directed by Tom Dey (2000)

  [7/10]

  "Shanghai Noon offers slightly better than usual Jackie Chan dialog, typical improvizational martial arts, and fun but merely average stunts (at least for Jackie)."

• Shi mian mai fu [House of Flying Daggers] directed by Yimou Zhang (2004)

  [6/10]

  "Even if I weren't tired of watching martial artists dancing in the treetops, Yimou Zhang's House of Flying Daggers lacks the depth of story found in many of the recent Hong Kong martial arts epics such as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and even his own Hero."

• Wo Hu Cang Long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] directed by Ang Lee (2000)

  [9/10]

  "I have tried to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a critical eye, but the engaging story and the absolutely gorgeous cinematography always distract me from my critical view and by the end, I just sigh like you would after taking a bite of the most succulent cheesecake."

  Average score: 7.14