Asian TV » movie » A Beautiful Life
Name:

A Beautiful Life (2011)

Other name:
Cast: Liu Ye (1978), Shu Qi (1976), Liang Tian (1959), Feng Dan Ying (1988),
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Chinese
Release year: 2011
Status: Completed
 
WATCH NOW  
Plot:

"A Beautiful Life(2011)"

Among the steady stream of new Chinese movies opening in America, “A Beautiful Life” stands out — rather than an overstuffed, jingoistic historical tale or martial-arts blowout, it’s a contemporary romantic melodrama with a plaintive pop soundtrack that might call to mind “Terms of Endearment,” “The Other Sister” or, most strongly, a Nora Ephron comedy minus most of the laughs. (There’s also a bit of “Memento” thrown in.) It’s no great shakes, but a substantial number of American moviegoers — soft-hearted, slightly masochistic and largely abandoned by Hollywood — would like it if they found their way to it. The first hour, especially, is charming, before the balance shifts from romance to melodrama to, in the final minutes, the kind of maudlin crescendo that Asian audiences are accustomed to. The director, Andrew Lau, gives further proof of his versatility, having already shown that he can make very good gangster movies (“Infernal Affairs”) and so-so kung-fu epics (“Legend of the Fist,” which opened in the United States last month). He practices heroic restraint and delicacy, given the five main characters he’s been handed: one’s blind, one’s autistic, one’s mute, one has early-onset dementia and one’s a healthy, bitter drunk. Mr. Lau is helped by his charismatic stars, Shu Qi and Liu Ye, both of whom are very appealing within the narrow range set for them. Mr. Liu plays an upright cop who’s slowly losing his memory and leaves himself notes to remind him of his daily tasks; Ms. Shu has the Holly Golightly role as a real estate agent trying to strike it rich in Beijing so that she can support her parasitic Hong Kong family. (One not very convincing theme of the film is Beijing incorruptibility versus Hong Kong decadence.) She’s a bit forced and shrill in her drunk scenes, but otherwise she underplays adroitly and flashes some sly humor.
Comment
RANDOM
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Secret Army (2021) (2021)

    Secret Army (2021)
    Genre:
    Action, Adventure
    Country:
    Chinese
    The story tells that during the Republic of China, Zhang Xiaozhi, Qianyan and Yangling were threatened by the riot warlord Li Yufei and forced to go to the Shenlong Underground Palace to solve the thousand-year secret.
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Taoist Master : Kylin (2020) (2020)

    Taoist Master : Kylin (2020)
    Genre:
    Drama
    Country:
    Chinese
    Chen Cheng’s Taoist Master: Kylin is the quick fire sequel to Wu Yingxiang’s Taoist Master (released just a few months ago, already online), with Fan Siu Wong returning in the role of Zhang Taoling, the founder of the first organized form of Taoism, flanked by his disciple (Li Lubing, also returning). This time, Master Zhang arrives in a village near Mount Yun Jing, where Kylin, the legendary God of the Mountain, is rumored to prey on hunters and those foolhardy enough to venture into the mountain. While Taoist Master was on the higher end of Chinese direct-to-VOD films, this sequel is disappointingly average: it lacks the refreshing presence of Zhang Dong (who played a feisty huntress in the first film), it’s criminally low on fight scenes (one of the original’s strong suits), and the plot is the usual thudding supernatural set-up resolved with the censorship-placating hallucination card.
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Malli Raava (2017) (2017)

    Malli Raava (2017)
    Genre:
    Drama, Family, Romance
    Country:
    Indian
    Karthik and Anjali meet each other in three different phases of their life and experience three different stages of love - attraction, attachment, and commitment respectively. Although in each phase, they develop a close bond with each other, they ultimately decide to part ways. Why and how they part away, forms the crux.
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Swordsman III (1993)

    Swordsman III
    Genre:
    Fairy, Wuxia
    Country:
    Hong Kong
    Asia the invincible (Brigitte Lin) comes back to kill all her impostors and to restore the order in the world of martial arts.
  • Ep 1 SUB

    The Constable (2013)

    The Constable
    Genre:
    Action, Crime, Thriller
    Country:
    Hong Kong
    Nearing retirement from police command Lin Guoquan, raise a mentally retarded son. Lin Guoquan daily simply is responsible for police vehicles, but it is often involved in criminal arrests, their bravery and more front-line police officers. And even criminals fighting, see the Thief caught, see bad beats. But Lin Guoquan believed that "to live one more day to do more for the justice day, life and death ... Who can't stop.
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Are You Lonesome Tonight? (2021) (2021)

    Are You Lonesome Tonight? (2021)
    Genre:
    Crime, Drama, Murder, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
    Country:
    Chinese
    On a dark night, Xueming hits a pedestrian with his car and flees the scene. Desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he decides to approach the dead man’s wife, Mrs Liang. Meanwhile, the body is discovered – riddled with bullets. Chen, the detective in charge of the investigation, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, all three remain caught in a tangled web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed…
  • Ep 1 SUB

    Attack on Titan (2015) (2015)

    Attack on Titan (2015)
    Genre:
    Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Thriller
    Country:
    Japanese

    Several hundred years ago, humans were nearly exterminated by titans. Titans are typically several stories tall, seem to have no intelligence, devour human beings and, worst of all, seem to do it for the pleasure rather than as a food source. A small percentage of humanity survived by walling themselves in a city protected by extremely high walls, even taller than the biggest of titans.

    Flash forward to the present and the city has not seen a titan in over 100 years. Teenage boy Eren and his foster sister Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a colossal titan that appears out of thin air. As the smaller titans flood the city, the two kids watch in horror as their mother is eaten alive. Eren vows that he will murder every single titan and take revenge for all of mankind.

  • Ep 1 SUB

    Confession (2024) (2024)

    Confession (2024)
    Genre:
    Crime, Mystery, Thriller
    Country:
    Japanese
    Two old college pals, Asai and Jiyong, make their annual pilgrimage up a mountain in the middle of winter in honor of their friend Sayuri who disappeared there 16 years earlier. However, Jiyong seriously injures his leg in the middle of a violent blizzard. Overcome by cold and pain, he asks Asai to let him die here and save his own life. First, though, he confesses to a horrible secret that has been eating away at him. He was the one who killed Sayuri that fateful day, out of jealousy. The problem, if there is one, is that Asai finds a cabin nearby that they hadn’t seen because of the blinding storm. Once inside, the murderer's confession takes on a whole new dimension, and let's just say that the elephant in the room is more of a mammoth. To say that it's going to be a long night would be an understatement.