China on Film: The New Millennium

A six-disc set containing six award-winning documentaries and feature films that examine the human side of China’s rapidly changing social, economic and political landscape in the 21st century.

Disc One: China Heavyweight (2012 • 72 min)
Directed by Yung Chang
The award-winning Canadian filmmaker follows a charismatic boxing champion and coach who recruits youngsters from impoverished villages across Sichuan province—to train the next generation of Olympic hopefuls.

Disc Two: Last Train Home (2010 • 87 min)
Directed by Lixin Fan
China’s New Year holiday sees the world’s largest human migration, as 130 million migrant workers travel from city to countryside. This acclaimed documentary traces one couple that makes the arduous journey every year.

Disc Three: Up the Yangtze (2008 • 93 min)
Directed by Yung Chang
Chang’s riveting debut documentary traces the bizarre Upstairs, Downstairs life of one “farewell cruise” on the Yangtze River, and the landscape’s dramatic transformation wrought by the Three Gorges Dam project.

Disc Four: Young & Restless in China (2008 • 106 min)
Directed by Sue Williams
Produced for the prestigious PBS Frontline series, this documentary from the maker of China: A Century of Revolution examines the ambitions and struggles of twenty- and thirty-somethings across the country.

Disc Five: The World (2005 • 139 min)
Directed by Jia Zhangke
A surreal Beijing amusement park—an actual tourist spot that feels like a combo platter of Vegas and Epcot—is the backdrop for this riveting dramedy from the master filmmaker behind Platform, Still Life and A Touch of Sin.

Disc Six: The Turandot Project (2001 • 84 min)
Directed by Allan Miller
The Oscar-winning documentarian goes behind-the-scenes with filmmaker Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, Hero) and conductor Zubin Mehta for their historic staging of Puccini’s opera Turandot in Beijing’s Forbidden City. 

For educational use please purchase these titles separately at the links above.