4 Movies Starring Vivian Wu

The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1997-06-06

Languages:

English, Cantonese, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, French

Countries:

Netherlands, UK, France, Luxembourg

Runtime:

126 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

6.7 (10207 Reviews)

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

Sei Shonagon (book)

Peter Greenaway

Sei Shonagon

Fullplot:

As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Nagiko grows up, obsessed with books, papers, and writing on bodies, and her sexual odyssey (and the creation of her own Pillow Book) is a "parfait mèlange" of classical Japanese, modern Chinese, and Western film images.

8 è Women

8 è Women

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1999-12-10

Languages:

English, Italian, Japanese, Latin

Countries:

UK, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany

Runtime:

118 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

5.8 (3248 Reviews)

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Genres:

ComedyDrama

Fullplot:

After his wife dies, 55-year-old businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight and a half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces. Each has a distinctive personality: a nun, a child bearer, a gambler, a student of Kabuki, a horsewoman with a pet pig, a maid. Philip throws off his strait-laced and repressed attitudes, immersing himself in pleasure. After about a year, the women begin to assert their own power. Side adventures pre-figure the household's breakup, and the women depart in one way or another, one at at time. Philip's fate is in the hands of Palmira, his favorite.

Chinaman

Chinaman

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2005-04-01

Languages:

Danish

Countries:

Denmark, China

Runtime:

88 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.1 (1283 Reviews)

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

Keld, an overweight, uninspired Danish plumber, is alone. When his bored, frustrated wife leaves him, he begins to eat dinner at the family-run Chinese take-out across the street. Working methodically through the numbered menu, he finds an unexpected friend in Feng, a genial man with his own concerns. Keld helps fix the plumbing in the diner, and then Feng asks for assistance with another problem: his Chinese sister requires a marriage of convenience to stay in Denmark. Enter Ling (Vivan Wu), a young woman who is not at all comfortable with this "strictly pro-forma" arrangement. Over time, Ling's gentle influence brings Keld into a world of tradition, full of surprising rewards and life-changing affection. This romantic tale has the fairy tale feel of what just might happen when people fall in love.

Eve and the Fire Horse

Eve and the Fire Horse

Basic Info:

Released Date:

2006-01-01

Languages:

English, Cantonese

Countries:

Canada

Runtime:

92 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.1 (513 Reviews)

Director:

Julia Kwan

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

Chinese-Canadian Eve Eng was born in 1966, in the year of the fire horse. In Chinese culture, fire horse children are notorious for being troublesome. In 1975, nine year old Eve is looking for some meaning for her life, especially after her mother, May-Lin Eng, miscarries, and her paternal grandmother passes away, the latter event particularly concerning not so much for the event itself but the circumstances leading to the death. The Engs follow traditional Buddhist philosophy, primarily as a cultural tradition. While her husband Frank Eng is away in China dealing with his mother's burial, May-Lin doesn't stop their eldest daughter, Karena Eng, from pursuing knowledge of and eventual faith in Christianity, most specifically Catholicism. May-Lin sees it as a cushion for ensuring a good life and good after-life, as much of Christian teaching follows that of Buddhism anyway. Eve follows in her sister's footsteps. While Karena becomes a devout Catholic to the expense of her Buddhist upbringing, Eve takes whatever she can from wherever she can to apply to her life for it to make sense, often with disastrous or confusing results. It isn't until she comes face to face with the fire horse that life becomes a little more understandable for Eve.

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