Rentals
Chinese Voices
Since the 1980s Chinese and British-Chinese filmmakers have been telling their own stories about living in the UK. These funny, tender and insightful tales reframe the UK's recent past and explore its multicultural present.
The UK's thriving Chinese community was poorly served on British screens for decades, despite a presence since the 16th Century. Chinese characters were rare, frequently exoticised and even, in the early days, played by white actors in make-up. It wasn't until the 1980s that British-Chinese filmmakers began to make their own films exploring the British-Chinese experience at first hand. In Soursweet, adapted from Timothy Mo's Booker-shortlisted novel, a young Chinese couple balanced their inherited and adoptive cultures. Both Po-Chih Leong's Ping Pong and Kevin Wong's Peggy Su! poke gentle fun at the cultural divisions between the generations. Many of the Chinese voices in this collection have poignant personal tales to tell. Blue Funnel delves into emotive questions surrounding ideas of home and the cultural dislocation of second-generation British Chinese. Yellow Fever exposes the prejudices of a gay Chinese man, while Red deals with the challenge of adapting to a new country with a strange language. Meanwhile modern filmmakers Xiaolu Guo, Jane Wong and Selina Lim chart the friction when traditional Chinese values brush up against an often unyielding British culture.
SoursweetSoursweet
Drama 1989 111 minsDirector: Mike Newell
Hong Kong newlyweds seek a fresh start in 60s Britain, but fall foul of the Triad underworld in this adaptation of Timothy Mo's blackly comic novel.
We Went to WonderlandWe Went to Wonderland
Documentary 2008 72 minsDirector: Xiaolu Guo
British-Chinese filmmaker Xiaolu Guo follows her ageing parents' journey to the West as they visit Europe. A rare chance to see one of Guo’s most personal films.
Foreign MoonForeign Moon
Drama 1996 87 minsDirector: Zhang Zeming
A beautiful tale of three Chinese migrants who find love and companionship while struggling to work and survive in London.
Dim Sum (A Little Bit of Heart)Dim Sum (A Little Bit of Heart)
Short documentary 2002 38 minsDirector: Jane Wong
Documentarist Jane Wong films her mother and two Chinese friends as they discuss their lives and experiences as émigrés living in Liverpool.
Mercutio's DreamingMercutio's Dreaming
Comedy 2011 16 minsDirector: Jennifer Lim and Daniel York
The travails of a British-Chinese, would-be Shakespearean actor, in an industry that sees him only as an 'Oriental'.
Ping PongPing Pong
Comedy 1987 100 minsDirector: Leong Po-Chih
A young lawyer has to execute the will of a Chinese man found dead in a phone box in a witty comic thriller - the first British-Chinese feature film.
LiltingLilting
Drama 2014 86 minsDirector: Hong Khaou
Ben Whishaw stars in an intimate portrait of two strangers brought together by the common language of grief.
Yellow FeverYellow Fever
Comedy 1998 27 minsDirector: Raymond Yeung
A gay British-Chinese man refuses to date Chinese men. But then Jai Ming moves in next door.
Grow Your OwnGrow Your Own
Comedy 2007 97 minsDirector: Richard Laxton
A group of Merseyside gardeners take umbrage to the arrival of some refugees, but they find common cause to resist a devious corporate takeover.
3 Mile Radius3 Mile Radius
Drama 2011 16 minsDirector: Lab Ky Mo
A dying Chinese man returns to his estranged wife to ask permission to see his son for the last time. When his wife refuses, he has to resort to desperate measures…
My Dad the CommunistMy Dad the Communist
Drama 2009 17 minsDirector: Lab Ky Mo
Tony yearns to break down the cultural barriers between him and his inscrutable Chinese father, before it’s too late.