Mandarin

Filmmakers survey Beijings’s surprising underground punk rock scene in a celebration of gutter trash wannabes, throat-singing rockers and all-girl expletive-ridden riff magnets.

Life in a Chinese garment factory through the eyes of one of its 14-year-old workers. "A must-see film for anyone interested in global politics, economics, and the socio-cultural issues of contemporary China." — Globe and Mail

Far from limping to the finish line, Fearless is 42-year-old kung-fu icon Jet Li’s most ballsy and brutal martial arts flick since his peak Hong Kong period.

Compelling minimalism sees first-time writer/director skewer floundering patriarchal authority (her dad!) in a 50-square-metre Beijing apartment.

The great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien retraces history through three vignettes of romantic love. Set in 1966, 1911 and 2005, each affair is encapsulated in a film-style tailored to its period.

Absorbing documentary about four Chinese students at New Zealand high school provides a rich and finely nuanced portrayal of cultural displacement.

The world’s most horrible, life-endangering jobs are the subject of Austrian Michael Glawogger’s superbly cinematic, confrontingly aestheticised documentary.