China Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Pegasus 3,’ starring Shen Teng, Yin Zheng, Zhang Benyu, Johnny Huang, Sha Yi, Fan Chengcheng and Duan Yihong

March 3, 2026

by Carla Hay

Shen Teng in “Pegasus 3” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

Directed by Han Han

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the action film “Pegasus 3” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A championship racing team experiences new obstacles when they enter an international race that is marred by corruption and vehicle malfunctions.

Culture Audience: “Pegasus 3” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the “Pegasus” movie franchise and crowd-pleasing films about car racing.

Wei Xiang, Yin Zheng, Shen Teng and Zhang Benyu in “Pegasus 3” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Pegasus 3” delivers exactly what fans expect from a movie series about racing car drivers who experience obstacles during high-stakes races. Yes, the movie’s ending is predictable, but it’s a wild ride getting there. Even with all the excitement, drama and spectacle, “Pegasus 3” is not as suspenseful as 2019’s “Pegasus” and 2024’s “Pegasus 2.” The “Pegasus”franchise shows signs that it’s running out of ideas for the same characters and might need a new generation of race car drivers to reinvigorate the franchise,

Han Han wrote and directed “Pegasus,” “Pegasus 2” and “Pegasus 3.” With each sequel, it becomes more difficult to depict the main characters as “underdogs,” considering the outcomes of each movie. However, “Pegasus 3” has some believable obstacles, including corrupt officials, mechanical malfunctions and dangerous weather.

In the beginning of “Pegasus 3,” longtime friends/racing colleagues Zhang Chi (played by Shen Teng), Sun Yuqiang (played by Yin Zheng) and Ji Xing (played by Zhang Benyu) are basking in the glory of winning the Bayanbulak Rally, which was the climactic race in “Pegasus 2.” Chi is the leader of the group and has a reputation for being an inspirational driver who doesn’t give up easily. Yuqiang is outspoken and a little bit of a rebel. Xing is mild-mannered and handles the team’s mechanical and technical issues. Chi and Yuqiang aren’t ready to retire as professional race drivers.

The trio still has a school for aspiring racers and gets some good news and generous gifts from Laotoule Automobile Factory owner Xin Di (played by Jia Bing), who was the team’s sponsor for the Bayanbulak Rally. Di has given the team a first-generation Aoyun car and the use of an old Laotoule Automobile factory as extra space for the team’s driving school. The team’s elation at receiving these gifts is short-lived.

Yuqiang, who manages the team’s financial matters, has bad news for the team: Their driving school is actually losing money. One way that the school can be profitable is to charge much more money for lessons, but it would be at a price that most of the students wouldn’t be able to afford. Another option would be to use the ¥2.5 million prize money from the Bayanbulak Rally to keep the school financially afloat.

Chi is dead-set against this idea. “The ¥2.5 million is a safety net,” he tells his team members. Chi says he would consider competing in another major rally to win prize money. However, Chi has set this rule: “There’s no way I’m racing on my own money.”

Also on the team is Manager Ye (played by Wei Xiang), who provides some of the movie’s comic relief because of his goofy personality. Ye is somewhat of a hanger-on who does assorted duties, including being a chauffeur for the team’s core trio. Ye used to be a manager for a professional champion racing team, but he was fired after the champion team had its first major loss.

As fate would have it, a technical engineer named An Zhongzu (played by Duan Yihong) from a company named SYLAD approaches the trio about the team competing in a new race called the Muchen 100 Rally, an international competition that has a unique feature: At a certain point in the race, the drivers can choose to take one of two paths. Zhongzu makes the offer more enticing when he says SYLAD chief Bai Qiang (played by Sha Yi) wants SYLAD to sponsor the team, which will be the first racing team to use SYLAD’s new SS1 driver-assistance technology.

Chi gets a tour of the SYLAD headquarters and is treated like a national hero. Qiang is so impressed with Chi, he gives Chi the use of the spacious office that Qiang used to have at SYLAD because Qiang now has another office in the building. Of course, when something is too good to be true, it usually is. Chi has some concerns that the SS1 technology is intended to replace a co-driver in races.

For the time being, Chi puts those concerns aside because SYLAD is a financially lucrative sponsor, and Chi wants to keep the team in Qiang’s good graces. A recurring joke in the movie is how Chi always lets Qiang win in their pool games against each other. SYLAD seems completely supportive of Chi and his team, which is why Chi agrees to the sponsorship deal.

As part of the deal, SYLAD agrees to Chi’s idea to have a contest to choose the four young racers who will be part of the team for the Muchen 100 Rally. Among those competing for these four spots on the team are Lin Zhendong (played by Huang Jingyu, also known as Johnny Huang), who was Chi’s main opponent in the first “Pegasus” movie; Li Xiaohai (played by Fan Chengcheng), who was Chi’s co-driver in “Pegasus 2”; Liu Shihao (played by Hu Xianxu), who has a reputation for “genius”-level driving; Li Lun (played by Zhang Xincheng), who is the son of one of team’s other sponsors; and Chi Haisheng (played by Aarif Rahman, also known as Aarif Lee Zhi-ting), who is the most arrogant one of them all.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a “Pegasus” movie without major setbacks for the “hero” team. There isn’t a lot of racing action in the first third of “Pegasus 3,” but once the racing starts, the scenes are thrilling. The chemistry between Teng as Chi, Zheng as Yuqiang and Zhang as Xing remains inact and one of the appealing aspects of the “Pegasus” movie.

However, “Pegasus 3” needed improvement in developing the characters of the younger drivers, who could represent the future of this franchise. The characters of Zhendong and Xiaohai, who were so integral in their previous respective “Pegasus” movies, are somewhat sidelined in “Pegasus 3.” The competing racers from the other countries are vague and hollow characters.

And it’s a noticeable exclusion that “Pegasus 3” has a lack of female characters with speaking roles. At least the first “Pegasus” movie had Yuqiang’s wife in a supporting role. “Pegasus 2” and “Pegasus 3” don’t have any women as characters who are part of the story. In the real world, women might be a minority in professional car racing, but they exist in various roles.

“Pegasus 3” has flaws, but they’re not enough to ruin this movie. The “Pegasus” franchise is escapist entertainment but the franchise needs to come up with more credible and original ideas, in order for this franchise to not turn into a ridiculous parody of itself. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having many of the same characters in each movie. But in a sport like car racing, it’s only a matter of time when the original main characters need to realistically retire and make way for the next generation.

CMC Pictures released “Pegasus 3” in select U.S. cinemas on February 23, 2026. The movie was released in China on February 17, 2026.

Review: ‘Scare Out,’ starring Jackson Yee, Yilong Zhu and Song Jia

February 21, 2026

by Carla Hay

“Scare Out”

Directed by Zhang Yimou

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in China, the action film “Scare Out” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An elite national security team has its operations turned upside down when a traitor is suspected to be on the team, and in internal investigation tests the trust of the team members.

Culture Audience: “Scare Out” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and stylist spy thrillers that have twists and turns.

Song Jia in “Scare Out” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Scare Out” uses a lot of familiar plot developments in this thriller about government security agency experiencing an internal investigation to expose a traitor. The engaging acting performances outweigh the movie’s flaws. The first 20 minutes of “Scare Out” zip around at such a frenetic pace, it’s almost like getting cinematic whiplash. This movie gets better once it slows down a little and takes the time to delve into the story’s political intrigue and the personal dynamics of the main characters.

Directed by Zhang Yimou and written by Liang Chen, “Scare Out” takes place in an unnamed city in China. The movie was actually filmed in Shenzhen, China. There is some technology in the movie that could be considered science fiction, because the technology did not exist in 2026, when “Scare Out” was released. However, “Scare Out” is meant to depict a near-future world where this technology will probably exist sometime after 2026.

“Scare Out” begins with a suspenseful but somewhat jumbled chase scene, where the National Security team is tracking down a suspected spy who is doing an exchange of a valuable. The team has operatives doing a foot chase on the ground. Meanwhile, the chase is being monitored by other National Security team members in a control room with several video monitors.

National Security members dress all in black when they’re on the job. Their headquarters are located in a sleek, high-rise office building. “Scare Out” is a very stylish-looking, futuristic movie. Expect to see a lot of scenes with aqua blue lighting and shiny silver objects.

The suspect being chased is a middle-aged American named Nathan (played by Nathaniel Boyd), who has been seen getting a delivery on the street. Nathan has in his possession a small metal box that is believed to have classified information that could threaten the national security of China.

Several team members are on the ground in their efforts to apprehend Nathan. A senior-level member of the team is Huang Kai (played by Yilong Zhu), a married man in his late 30s. Kai works closely with Yan Di (played by Jackson Yee), a bachelor in his mid-20s. Kai and Di have a brotherly relationship and have a great deal of respect for each other. Another team member on the ground is a young man named Su Bin (played Du Yusen), whose personality is as generic as generic can be.

Inside the building is their colleague Chen Li (played by Lin Boyang), who is in charge of operating a drone that is tracking the suspect. The top supervisors in the building are Director Liu (played by Chen Minghao) and Deputy Director Wang (played by Zhang Yi), who know what’s going on with this manhunt. Video surveillance from cameras on the streets and the team’s body cams allow the personnel in the control room to see what’s going on.

A tragedy happens on the streets when a sniper named Pin Shan (played by Jiang Qilin), using a crossbow and arrows, hits a National Security team member named Little Li in the neck. Little Li dies. An arrow from the sniper also hits Kai in Kai’s back shoulder, as he jumped in front of Di to shield him from the arrow. Kai is wounded at treated at a local hospital and gets discharged within 24 hours. It’s not the first time that Kai has put himself in harm’s way for Di, who is grateful to have Kai looking out for Di.

After an intense chase, Nathan is apprehended. But an explosive attached his abdomen detonates right before he is arrested, leaving Nathan severely injured with mostly second-degree burns. In his hospital bed, Nathan is questioned by National Security. Nathan denies that he’s involved in espionage and insists he was just paid to pick up the box without knowing what was inside the box.

Meanwhile, back at National Security headquarters, Li is reprimanded because the drone she was operating chased the sniper Shan onto a tall building, where he fell to his death, taking his many secrets with him. The National Security team wanted to capture the sniper alive, so he could possibly tell information that the team needs. The National Security team bosses think that the sniper is part of a larger spy network that the team wants to take down.

Li was a close friend of deceased Little Li, so she is questioned about whether or not she deliberately used the drone to cause the sniper’s death. Li denies that she did anything wrong, but she comes under suspicion by her superiors as someone who could be undermining the team’s work. This suspicion becomes even more problematic when a new supervisor joins the team.

Soon after Kai gets out of the hospital and returns to work, Deputy Director Wang makes an announcement to the subordinate team members that they have a new supervisor. Her name is Zhao Hong (played by Song Jia), who is a no-nonsense task master. She expertise is in internal affairs investigations.

Shortly after joining the group, Hong has a private meeting with Kai and Di to let them know that there’s a mole traitor on the team. And because they Kai and Di have high level of security clearances, Kai and Di are on the suspect list. Kai and Di undergo interrogations by Hong and Director Liu, who ask them intrusive questions about their personal lives. Li also undergoes a similar interrogation, which leaves her in tears when she goes back to her desk.

Hong has given a name for this mission to find out and punish the mole: Operation Scare Out. The rest of the movie chronicles four days of this internal investigation that causes tensions on the team, which is still expected to continue the tasks assigned to them before the internal investigation began. Operation Scare Out begins to erode the trust that Kai and Di had in each other, as the investigation singles them out as the two most likely suspects.

Other characters who have crucial roles in this twist-filled story are Bai Fan (played by Yang Mi), Kai’s seductive mistress; Xiao Yu (played by Liu Shishi), Kai’s wife, whose pregnancy affects the way Kai thinks about his future; and a scientific researcher named Li Nan (played by Lei Jiayin), who is a witness to something that could get one of the traitor suspects fired. “Scare Out” has such a frenetic pace, some of the movie’s characters are rushed into the story with more information revealed about them later in the movie.

“Scare Out” doesn’t become overstuffed with supporting characters. What the story really comes down to is if Kai or Di is the traitor. And if so, how and why does that traitor get caught? Could there be more than one traitor? Could there be someone else who’s the traitor who isn’t Kai or Di? The movie answers all those questions. The action scenes are suspenseful, but some of the movie’s visual effects needed improvement.

“Scare Out” cannot be recommended to people who get easily confused by movies about espionage intrigue and the layers of identities that spies often have for themselves. Thanks to the dynamic performances of Yee as Di and Yilong as Kai, “Scare Out” is a riveting movie that is more than about finding a traitor spy. The friendship between Di and Kai is believable, which makes this investigation a very personal matter and the stakes higher. The end of “Scare Out” is an unsettling reminder that trusting someone is very tricky in espionage and can often be a fatal mistake.

CMC Pictures released “Scare Out” in select U.S. cinemas and in China on February 17, 2026.

Review: ‘Busted Water Pipes,’ starring Eddie Peng, Allen Ai, Zhou You, Yan Peilun, Zhang Qi, Huang Yan, Xu Dong and Yang Zhen

February 4, 2026

by Carla Hay

“Busted Water Pipes”

Directed by Zhou Difei

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional Chinese cities of Hoping and Kingstown, the action comedy film “Buster Water Pipes” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people and one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: The Hoping Police Department is in danger of shutting down because the city has no serious crimes, so the police fabricate crimes to keep their jobs, when they come across a group of real thieves posing as plumbers for the police station’s busted water pipes.

Culture Audience: “Busted Water Pipes” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and silly action comedies about cops and robbers.

Yan Peilun and Zhou You in “Busted Water Pipes” (Photo courtesy of China Lion Distribution)

“Busted Water Pipes” tries very hard to be a hilarious action comedy about cops and robbers, but the results are more maddening than madcap. This overstuffed movie is more convoluted than it needs to be and has a lot of bad acting. “Busted Water Pipes” starts off with one idea and then goes quickly downhill when it veers off into another direction.

Directed by Zhou Difei, “Busted Water Pipes” was written by Zhou, Chong Zheng and Jiao Yufeng. The movie takes place in the fictional Chinese cities of Hoping and Kingstown. The movie was filmed in China. “Busted Water Pipes” is told in four chapters, with each chapter being more ridiculous as the story goes off the rails.

“Busted Water Pipes” begins by showing a SWAT police team responding to a hostage situation in Kingstown, which is a large city. A former SWAT captain, who had been an employee of the Kingstown Police Department for 10 years, has taken people hostage inside a building because he is angry about being fired. The hostage crisis is big news and is being televised live.

Unfortunately, the SWAT team was given the wrong building address for where the kidnapper and hostages are. The kidnapper sees the SWAT team break into the building across from where the kidnapper and hostages are. And the kidnapper decides to blow himself up, causing the entire building (where he and the hostages are) to explode, with the hostages and kidnapper dying in the explosion.

This fiasco makes international news. The Kingstown Police Department becomes a laughingstock. The leader of the SWAT team is an ambitious maverick named Yu Dahai (played by Eddie Peng), who had been considered a rising star in law enforcement. Dahai’s boss Chagnon (played by Prem Yadav) was the one who gave Dahai the wrong building address. However, Chagnon convinces Dahai to take the blame, with Chagnon promising that he will help Dahai in the future after the scandal dies down.

Dahai (who is a bachelor) is forced to resign from the Kingstown Police Department and is transferred to the small town of Hoping, which is a rural area. Hoping has a small police department with limited resources in a shabby building. The Hoping Police Department doesn’t get a lot of major crimes. A typical call to the Hoping police is to settle a fight among schoolchildren or to find a lost steer.

Needless to say, Dahai is extremely bored and thinks this job is beneath his level of skills and experience. Chagnon promised Dahai that would be in Hoping for one year, and then Chagnon would get Dahai transferred back to Kingstown. But that turns out to be an empty promise.

Seven years pass, Dahai is a police sergeant, but he is still stuck in Hoping. Chagnon then becomes a senator. Dahai foolishly thinks that Chagnon will help Dahai get transferred back to Kingstown. When Dahai calls Chagnon’s office to ask him about this promise, Chagnon orders his secretary Xia Yi (played by Jing Ci) to tell Dahai not to contact Chagnon again.

To make matters worse for Dahai, his boss gets promoted to the job that Dahai wanted in Kingstown. Hoping Police Department chief Lao Ge, also known as Old G (played by Yang Haoyu), who spends a lot of time sleeping on the job, gleefully transfers to Kingstown. Before he leaves, he tells Dahai that Dahai has a very good chance of being promoted to police chief of Hoping.

The remaining employees of the Hoping Police Department are Dahai and two goofy sidekicks: Li Baibai (played by Bu Yu) and Xiao Ma, also known as Little Ma (played by Jiang Xueming). They also get help from a guy named Monk (played by Fu Hang), a character that didn’t really need to be in the movie. Lao Ge fails in Kingstown, so he is sent back to Hoping.

These hapless employees find out that they soon could be out of a job. Chagnon has ordered that the Hoping Police Department get shut down because there are no major crimes in Hoping. And so, in a desperate attempt to keep their jobs, the Hoping Police Department cops decide to fabricate and stage crimes.

Meanwhile, the Luo crime family is looking for its next big scheme. Gang boss Luo Yin (played by Zhang Qi) wants to pass on the family’s crime business to his nephew Luo Siji (Allen Ai, also known as Allen), who is reluctant because Siji wants to keep his law-abiding job in another type of work. Yin doesn’t trust his hotheaded, vicious, and impulsive son Luo Hao (played by Zhou You) to take over the business. Other people in the gang are Luo Ma (played by Yang Zhen) and Niu Dalun (played by Yan Peilun).

“Busted Water Pipes” throws in a ridiculous story about an ancient pirate leader named Great Lady Chen, also known as Chen Yisao (played by Liu Yi Chun), whose pirate ship crashed and supposedly contains lost treasures. The Luo crime gang thinks the lost ship is underneath the Hoping police station. And so, the gang members pretend to be plumbers tasked with fixing busted water pipes in the police station. And there are at least two times in the movie where someone is wearing a bomb that looks like a neck collar and is threatened with death.

The rest of the movie wallows in a lot of fights and incoherence for this nonsensical scheme. And out of nowhere, there’s a subplot about Dahai being unexpectedly reunited with a 7-year-old girl who was a baby he saved from a building during the explosion that happened during the hostage crisis in Kingstown. In addition to dealing with this gang of robbers, Dahai has to protect this girl (who calls him “Daddy”) because she keeps tagging along while he tries to do his job. It’s all just a contrivance for this messy and mindless film that will only appeal to viewers who just want to see loud action scenes and don’t care if the story is garbage.

China Lion Distribution released “Busted Water Pipes” in select U.S. cinemas on January 30, 2026. The movie was released in China on January 23, 2026.

Review: ‘The Fire Raven,’ starring Peng Yuchang, Ning Chang, Huang Xiaoming, Wang Xun, Xu Jiao, Xing Jiadong and Huang Yi

January 31, 2026

by Carla Hay

“The Fire Raven”

Directed by Sam Quah

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025 (with flashbacks to 2010), in the fictional Doma City, China, the sci-fi/drama film “The Fire Raven” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A police detective and her psychic brother have a volatile relationship, as they try to solve a series of murders, while there is citizen unrest over air/ventilation taxes.

Culture Audience: “The Fire Raven” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of murder mysteries with plot holes and unrealistic plot twists that insult viewers’ intelligence.

A scene from “The Fire Raven” (Photo courtesy of China Lion Film Distribution)

“The Fire Raven” could’ve been an intriguing murder mystery thriller, but this disappointing movie has too much choppy editing and too many increasingly ludicrous plot twists to be enjoyable. Most of the acting performances aren’t very good. This is the type of movie that tries to do so many things at the same time, in an effort to look clever, but it just ends up looking like a moronic mess.

Written and directed by Sam Quah, “The Fire Raven” takes place in the fictional Doma City, China. The main story happens in 2025, but there are pertinent flashbacks to 2010. “The Fire Raven” has a little bit of science fiction because there’s some technology depicted in the movie that didn’t exist in 2025. Doma City is also a subterranean city because of environmental issues.

“The Fire Raven” haphazardly jumps back and forth between character subplots in ways that can make the viewers feel like they’re experiencing cinematic whiplash. There’s barely time to absorb what’s shown in many scenes before the movie abruptly cuts to another scene. This hyper style of film editing becomes very annoying to watch.

The movie begins at a place called Pacific Factory, where disgruntled workers are participating in a protest to abolish an air/ventilation tax. It’s not really explained until much later in the film why there’s an air/ventilation tax in the first place. Meanwhile, a raven is seen flying through the air, which is a recurring image in the movie.

On September 6, 2025, a man in his 20s named Fang Tianyang (played by Peng Yuchang) wakes up in his bed after having a nightmare. Tianyang has psychic abilities. In his nightmare, he dreamed about a 43-year-old woman being followed to her apartment by someone dressed all in black and wearing a raven mask. The stalker then stabbed and beat the woman to death inside the apartment.

The woman is soon identified as Taralah (played by Huang Yi), a bachelerotte who lived alone. Tianyang immediately knows who Taralah is because 15 years ago, when he was about 6 or 7 years old, Tianyang was on a train and hiding in a compartment when he witnessed Taralah get her left pinky finger get cut off. The full circumstances of this dismemberment are eventually revealed as a major clue to who Taralah’s killer might be.

Meanwhile, Tianyang’s older sister Fang Zhengnan (played by Ning Chang) is a Doma City police detective who’s been assigned as the lead detective in this homicide. Tianyang and Zhengnan (who is about five to seven years older than Tianyang) were very close when they were children because they grew up as orphans. Zhengnan was very protective of Tianyang, who showed psychic abilities from an early age.

However, as adults, the relationship between Tianyang and Zhengnan has become strained. Tianyang frequently wants to help with Zhengnan’s investigations by telling her about his psychic visions. Zhengnan has some resentment toward Tianyang because she thinks he interferes in her work in ways that he shouldn’t.

And so, when Zhengnan has been assigned to investigate the murder case of Taralah, she gets very annoyed when she finds out that Tianyang went to the crime scene first to investigate on his own. Tianyang tells Zhengnan that he had a psychic vision that Taralah was killed by someone dressed entirely in black and wearing a raven’s mask. Tianyang also tells Zhengnan that he’s sure the motive for the murder was revenge.

Zhengnan doubts that this information is correct because Taralah lived a quiet life and appeared to have no enemies. However, Taralah’s shady boyfriend Shang Zhan (played by Alan Aruna) is involved in the criminal underworld, and the couple was seen arguing not long before Taralah died. Zhan becomes the prime suspect in Taralah’s murder, even though he insists that he did not murder her.

Other characters in the movie have important roles in how the story unfolds. Cai Min An (played by Huang Xiaoming) is a handsome and charismatic political activist. He is Zhengnan’s role model and her greatest inspiration to becoming a police officer. He is also involved in protests against the air/ventilation tax.

A former police officer named Lin Hongyan (played by Xing Jiadong) left the Doma City Police Department in disgrace and shows up later in the movie. Zhengnan has two younger police department colleagues who do mostly administrative and research work in helping her with the homicide investigation: mild-mannered Ruby (played by Xu Jiao) and nerdy Edward (played by Wang Xun), who are both eager to impress Zhengnan.

The serial killer disguised as a raven strikes again. As shown in the movie’s trailer, the killer begins murdering prominent and affluent members of Doma City society. It should come as no surprise that all of the killer’s murder victims have scandalous secrets. Meanwhile, Tianyang keeps having nightmarish visions of a teenage girl named Lin Xiao Di (played by Phoebe Hou) being murdered in 2010.

“The Fire Raven” zips around various scenes and plot points like a person with a very short attention span. Tianyang is depicted almost like an underestimated superhero. Not only does he have psychic abilities (even though skeptics doubt his psychic visions are credible), but he also has a prosthetic left leg that can only be described as “bionic.” You can bet that he uses this leg’s superpowers to his advantage when he gets into fights.

“The Fire Raven” sometimes has an off-balance tone when it tries to inject comedy into this gruesomely violent murder mystery. And many of the fight scenes are awkwardly staged. For example, there’s a big fight scene that takes place at a wrestling match, where Zhan is about to be arrested, and the entire venue turns into to chaos, where too many people in the audience fight like they’re mixed-martial artist pros. Nothing in this scene looks believable.

Aside from the movie’s tonal and editing imbalance, the bigger problems in “The Fire Raven” are the movie’s weak screenplay and erratic direction. The murder scenes are filmed in a very schlocky and tacky way, but other parts of the movie want to look artsy and elevated. The main characters have hollow personalities, while none of the acting in “The Fire Raven” is impressive and is often very over-the-top hammy.

“The Fire Raven” really takes a nosedive in the last 30 minutes of this 117-minute film, when idiotic plot twists are crammed into the story, to an almost embarrassing level. These plot twists just add to the plot holes that already litter “The Fire Raven” and bring up questions that the movie never answers. Simply put: Anyone who wants to watch an absorbing murder mystery with a great story and compelling characters should avoid watching “The Fire Raven.”

China Lion Film Distribution released “The Fire Raven” in select U.S. cinemas on January 16, 2026. The movie was released in China on December 31, 2025.

Review: ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ (2026), starring Lin Gengxin and Li Youbin

January 27, 2026

by Carla Hay

Li Youbin and Lin Gengxin in “Every Dog Has Its Day” (Photo courtesy of Tiger Pictures Entertainment)

“Every Dog Has Its Day” (2026)

Directed by Yue Yang

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the comedy/drama film “Every Dog Has Its Day” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A debt-ridden and unqualified man takes a job as a caregiver for a suicidal elderly man with Parkinson’s disease and who wants his new caregiver to help him commit suicide.

Culture Audience: “Every Dog Has Its Day” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and bittersweet movies about caregiving and learning to appreciate life.

“Every Dog Has Its Day” shows what happens when a down-on-his-luck underachiever ends up working as a caregiver for a suicidal senior citizen who has Parkinson’s disease. This comedy/drama has familiar beats and story arcs about two men who have an unlikely friendship with a large age gap. However, the performances from the principal cast members are good enough to keep viewers entertained by this story.

Directed by Yue Yang, “Every Dog Has Its Day” was written by Liu Qian, Shao Yan and Zhang Dahai. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in China. “Every Dog Has Its Day” was actually filmed in China’s Guizhou province.

“Every Dog Has Its Day” begins by showing 36-year-old Ma Teng (played by Ling Gengxin, also known as Kenny Lin) running in a street because he’s being chased by people who want to collect money that he owes to them. Teng later reveals that he’s ¥100,000 in debt, mostly because he invested in a bad business deal with a scammer who stole his money. He is currently unemployed and needs to find a job quickly. His most recent job was a low-paying position as a sanitation worker at an aquarium.

Teng will soon turn 37, and he’s trying not to feel like a loser. Conversations that happen later in the movie reveal that Teng used to be married and he owned a home. But he lost the home because of financial irresponsibility, and he is now divorced. Teng’s ex-wife Zhou Yun (played by Song Quan, also known as Victoria Song) has full custody of their daughter Ma Shan (played by Chen Halin), who’s about 7 or 8 years old.

Teng wants joint custody of Ma Shan, but Yun isn’t convinced that Teng is financially stable enough to have joint custody. Yun tells Teng that if he can prove that he has ¥50 million in his bank accounts, then she will consider giving him joint custody. Teng knows that he has a long way to go before he can come close to having that type of money.

Desperate people do desperate things. And that’s why when Teng applies for a job as a live-in caregiver for an upper-middle-class elderly widower, Teng lies in the interview by saying that he is qualified. The person who needs the caregiving doesn’t have a first name in the movie. He is called Lao Lin (played by Li Youbin), which translates to Old Lin, and he is 71 years old.

Lao Lin used to be a steel technician in a factory. He doesn’t like retirement very much. He is very cranky and seems to hate his life. He didn’t use to be this way. The movie implies that Lin is very unhappy because he has Parkinson’s disease and often has to use a wheelchair. Teng will eventually find out how miserable Lao Lin is.

During the interview, Teng says that he is 25 years old. But then, he confesses his real age. Teng says he’s very reliable and he wants a chance to prove it. To his surprise, Teng gets the job. He’ll soon find out why it was so easy to be hired for this job.

Not long after Teng moves in and starts working for Lao Lin, Teng finds out that the turnover for this job has been very high. Lao Lin says that Teng is the fifth caregiver he’s had so far. The person who had the job before Teng abruptly quit. Lao Lin wants his hired caregiver to secretly help Lao Lin commit suicide.

There’s a reason why Teng was chosen: Lao Lin knows that Teng is a bit of a con artist, so Lao Lin thinks Teng will be the type to want to kill Lao Lin if Teng has a financial incentive for it. Lao Lin says he’s going to leave an inheritance of ¥300,000 to Lao Lin’s grandson and give the rest of the inheritance to Teng if Teng will help Lao Lin commit suicide.

Lao Lin has a strained and distant relationship with his son Lin Qin (played by Wang Yanlin), who thinks Lao Lin is very hard to please. Teng witnesses an argument between father and son that shows the resentment between them runs deep. Teng doesn’t know if he should tell people about Lao Lin’s morbid request to have Teng help Lao Lin kill himself.

Teng doesn’t think Lao Lin is serious about committing suicide, but Lao Lin is very determined to do it. The rest of the movie shows the ups and downs of their relationship as Teng and Lao Lin get to know each other. Of course, it’s easy to predict that they start to have a close friendship that’s like a surrogate father-son relationship.

“Every Dog Has Its Day” shows Teng convincing Lao Lin that they should travel to other countries before Lao Lin says goodbye to life. But first, as required by Chinese law, they need to get travel health insurance for Lao Lin before his passport can be approved to travel outside of China. And so, there’s a long stretch of the movie about getting this type of health insurance.

The movie has some cutesy scenes, such as Teng and Lao Lin visiting an amusement park and going on various rides. There are also some darkly comedic scenes, such as Lao Lin’s botched attempts at suicide. The movie gives a realistic portrayal of the despair that people often feel when they have a terminal illness.

Teng goes from being tempted to consider Lao Lin’s offer because Teng needs the money to wanting Lao Lin to live as long as possible. Lao Lin’s despair makes Teng appreciate that his own life isn’t bad as he thought it was. Teng predictably makes a tremendous difference in Lao Lin’s outlook on life. Although the supporting cast members give very good performances, the heart and soul of the movie are the lively performances by Lin as Teng and Li as Lao Lin.

“Every Dog Has Its Day” pushes all the emotional buttons that are found in movies with this subject matter. Some of the movie’s dialogue, tone and pacing are uneven, but “Every Dog Has Its Day” mostly succeeds in its attempt to be heartwarming. “Every Dog Has Its Day” seems to end on a cliffhanger before the end credits are shown. However, viewers need to watch the movie’s final scene after the end credits to find out the real ending.

Tiger Pictures Entertainment released “Every Dog Has Its Day” in select U.S. cinemas and in China on January 16, 2026.

Review: ‘Resurrection’ (2025), starring Jackson Yee, Shu Qi, Mark Chao, Li Gengxi, Huang Jue and Chen Yongzhong

January 4, 2026

by Carla Hay

Jackson Yee in “Resurrection” (Photo courtesy of Janus Films)

“Resurrection” (2025)

Directed by Bi Gan

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from the 1920s to the 1990s, across various places in China, the fantasy drama film “Resurrection” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: In a world where beings who can dream are called Deliriants and are in the minority, a Deliriant experiences various dreams as a cinematic transformations where the Deliriant experiences being different people in different decades.

Culture Audience: “Resurrection” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Bi Gan, and deeply layered artistic films about reincarnations.

Shu Qi in “Resurrection” (Photo courtesy of Janus Films)

The fantasy drama “Resurrection” has the ability to either transfix or bore viewers, depending on whether or not viewers are willing to go on an unusual journey about a being’s transformations across time and space. At 156 minutes long, “Resurrection” can be an endurance test if viewers don’t feel curious about what will happen next. It’s not always an easy film to understand at all times, but it’s an artistically unique movie that is a marvel to behold.

Written and directed by Bi Gan, “Resurrection” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won a special jury award. “Resurrection” also screened at several other film festivals in 2025, including the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. The movie takes place from the 1920s to the 1990s, across various places in China. “Resurrection” was filmed in China and in Denmark.

The beginning of “Resurrection” takes place in a movie theater in the 1920s and is filmed as if inspired by German expressionism cinema. People inside the movie theater scatter. “Resurrection” is stunning-looking movie whose production design and cinematography are among the film’s strongest assets.

It’s explained later in the movie that “Resurrection” takes place in a world where the majority of people (called the Other Ones) have given up their ability to dream in order to have longevity. Those who have kept their ability to dream are called Deliriants, who are either envied or treated like threatening monsters. Deliriants are rare, and what happens to a Deliriant who is discovered by an Other One.

An on-screen caption then explains, “There is one Deliriant, whose true form is unknown because he has been hiding in an ancient, forgotten past. That is film! Those who can see through illusions are the Big Others. To bring these Deliriants back to reality, they can mutate into the gentlest forms the Deliriants love the most. Could this Deliriant be hiding in an opium den?”

“Resurrection then shows a labyrinth-like opium den, where shadowy giant figures above and the occasional giant hand that reaches in the opium den suggest Big Others are hovering around this opium den, which has the size of a miniature dollhouse to the Big Others. A Big Other named Miss Shu (played by Shu Qi) finds a Deliriant (played by Jackson Yee), which looks like an hunched-over ogre, inside the basement of the opium den.

Miss Shu doesn’t want the Deliriant to hurt her. The Deliriant gives her flowers, as Miss Shu lets the Deliriant see his reflection in her eyes. The Deliriant falls on the ground, eats the flowers, and exclaims: “I don’t want to live in that fake world! Kill me now!”

Instead of killing him, Miss Shu allows the Deliriant to live out his dreams as if they were movies. The rest of Resurrection is told in five chapters, with each chapter showing the Deliriant being reincarnated as a new character in a new decade. It’s fascinating concept that “Resurrection” could have done a better job of explaining in the beginning of the film.

Because the Deliriant becomes several different people during the course of the story, actor Yee plays several different characters from the 1950s to the 1990s. In addition to the Deliriant, Yee has the roles of Qui, a man accused of murder; a thief named Mongrel; a con artist named Jia Shengjung; and a thug named Apollo. Yee gives skillful portrayals of each character by immersing himself into each role.

Other characters in “Resurrection” include Mark Chao as a police commander who is leading a murder investigation; Li Gengxi as Tai Zhaomeix, a mysterious singer; Huang Jue as Mr. Luo, the owner of the karaoke bar where Zhaomeix works; Chen Yongzhong as the Spirit of Bitterness; and Guo Mucheng as a girl who befriends Shengjun and becomes involved in Shengjun’s con games. All of these supporting cast members perform well in their roles, but there’s nothing particularly outstanding about their acting.

“Resurrection” has several suspenseful scenes, while other scenes move along at a leisurely pace. It’s a valid argument to say that “Resurrection” will be considered too long for an average movie viewer. Ultimately, “Resurrection” is worth watching for a unique cinematic experience that tells several anthology-styled stories within one memorable and beautifully filmed movie.

Janus Films released “Resurrection” in select U.S. cinemas on December 12, 2025. The movie was released in China on November 22, 2025.

Review: ‘Gezhi Town,’ starring Xiao Zhan, Peng Yuchang, Zhou Yiran, Yang Xinming, Alan Aruna, Gan Yunchen, Zhou Siyu and Yin Zheng

January 1, 2026

by Carla Hay

“Gezhi Town”

Directed by Kong Sheng

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, from 1937 to 1944, the action film “Gezhi Town” (inspired by true events) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Several residents in China’s Gezhi Town fight back when Japanese soldiers invade the town.

Culture Audience: “Gezhi Town” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies about the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Yin Zheng in “Gezhi Town” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Gezhi Town” is a gripping action film about Chinese refugees of Nanjing who resettle in Gezhi Town, which is invaded by Japanese soldiers in 1944. The movie has some corny dialogue and starts off slow, but once the suspense starts, it’s intense. “Gezhi Town” is not meant to be entirely accurate, since the movie is based on fictional people, but it’s intended to depict some of the brutal horrors of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Directed by Kong Sheng and written by Lan Xiaolong, “Gezhi Town” takes place in China from 1937 to 1944. The movie was filmed in Yichang and surrounding areas in Hubei Province, China. The first half of the movie takes place from 1937 to 1944. The second half of the movie speeds up the timeline considerably and depicts the Gezhi Town invasion over the course of a 24-hour period in 1944.

The story in “Gezhi Town,” which is told in chronological order, begins by showing Chinese soldiers getting air bombed by Japanese military planes in a wooded area in Jinling Town, near Nanjing, China, in 1937. One of these soldiers survives the attack. His name is Kang Lingbao (played by Zhou Siyu), and he will play a crucial role in the story, even though he is not the story’s main protagonist.

Several months later, in 1938, Lingbao ends up on the Yangtze River, in a refugee boat with Chinese people who survived the Nanjing Massacre, which began in December 1937 and ended in March 1938. Also on the boat is the story’s main protagonist: a man in his early-to-mid 30s named Mo Dexian (played by Xiao Zhan), a good-natured mechanic who has the nickname Master Mo. Dexian (whose most recent job was working for the Jinling Manufacturing Company) is traveling with his feisty great-grandfather (played by Yang Xinming), who doesn’t have a first name in the movie and is just called Grandpa Mo.

Grandpa Mo can be cranky and has a habit of pretending to be deaf or asleep when he doesn’t want to deal with communicating with people. Another refugee on the boat is a confident and outspoken woman in her 20s named Xia Cheng (played by Zhou Yiran), who is one of the first people to see a land mine floating in the water. There’s a frantic race against time to steer the boat away from the land mine.

Another mini-crisis occurs when Grandpa Mo jumps off the boat, in a desperate (and delusional) attempt to swim back to Nanjing. Dexian is able to catch Grandpa Mo before Grandpa Mo lands in the water. With help from other people on the board, Dexian pulls Grandpa Mo to safety. Dexian and Cheng start a rapport with each other.

Once they arrive on land, the refugees make a long trek to find a new place to live. They have to be on the alert for Japanese military. They arrive in a rural area and settle down in a place that has abandoned buildings.

Two years later, Dexian and Cheng are now married and the parents of a baby son named Dengxian. Grandpa Mo lioves with them. Tragedy strikes again, when air bombers destroy where the refugees are living. Dexian, Cheng, Dengxian, Grandpa Mo and several others escape. Grandpa Mo says dejectedly, “We’re homeless again.”

By 1940, the refugees are on the move again, as Japanese military have taken over the city of Yancheng. The refugees travel to Gezhi Town, which is just a river away from a Japanese military base. The refugees decide to take the risk of settling in Gezhi Town because it is fairly isolated and somewhat hidden by large fields that surround it.

For obvious reasons, the second half of the movie (which begins in 1944) is more action-filled than the first half of the movie. Dengxian (played by Yan Zhidu) is now a lively and slightly mischievous boy, who likes to play “hide and seek” at inconvenient times that can frustrate his loving parents. The residents of Gezhi Town, which has a mixture of military veterans (including Lingbao) and civilians, have been living peacefully until one day when that this tranquility is brutally interrupted.

Three Japanese soldiers, led by a vicious bully named Okawara (played by Yin Zheng), find Gezhi Town by accident. The soldiers think they have arrived in Ggun Town. Dexian is the first person whom they encounter. Okawara forces Dexian to do a series of tasks to test how much Dexian is wiling to follow orders. One of these tasks is to get a flagpole, so that Okawara can raise the Japanese flag.

This flagpole task sets off a series of events showing Dexian defying orders and leading the Gezhi Town residents’ battle to fight back against the Japanese invaders. The residents have a certain amount of weapons and ammunition. Although it might seem easy for the residents to win, because they far outnumber the soldiers, the Japanese soldiers are able to call for re-enforcement from other military personnel, including airplane pilots who can drop bombs.

There’s some dark comedy in the movie—particularly with Grandpa Mo, who makes fearless (some might say reckless) decisions that catch the Japanese fighters off guard because they don’t expect this old man to be angry and tough when fighting back in self-defense. Dexian also makes some unexpected wisecracking jokes during the battle scenes. There are also some harrowing moments involving Dengxian. All of the cast members give sufficiently effective performances.

“Gezhi Town” is the type of “underdog” war story that can be somewhat formulaic. But there’s a particular resonance to the story because it’s similar to what many real-life Chinese people experienced from Japanese military invasions during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It’s a movie that has riveting battle scenes but never loses sight of the characters’ humanity and what’s at stake for the refugees in this devastating war.

CMC Pictures released “Gezhi Town” in select U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 6, 2025.

Review: ‘731,’ starring Jiang Wu, Wang Zhiwen and Li Naiwen

September 20, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jiang Wu in “731” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“731”

Directed by Zhao Linshan

Mandarin, Japanese and Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China and in Japan in 1945, the dramatic film “731” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: The Japanese Imperial Army’s Unit 731 conducts torturous scientific experiments on people imprisoned in a barbaric institution, where a food service worker/janitor leads a prison escape plan.

Culture Audience: “731” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and historical World War II-era dramas, but the movie makes the grim living conditions look too glossy, and the characters are too shallow.

A scene from “731” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

The misguided movie “731” is an example of a real-life war story exploited for entertainment. This drama might be intended to give a meaningful history lesson about Japan’s horrendous World War II-era biochemical experiments. But the movie’s tacky filmmaking does a disservice to the real victims by turning this tragedy into a garish soap opera. The explicit blood, gore and torture in the movie are depicted in ways that give all of this disgusting violence a somewhat glamorous sheen, which is a very inappropriate look for a movie with this intensely disturbing subject matter.

Directed by Zhao Linshan, “731” was co-written by Zhao and Liu Heng. The movie has the alternate title “Evil Unbound” in some countries. The story in “731” takes place in 1945, in northeast China, with some brief scenes in Japan. With few exceptions, the characters in the movie are mostly fictional. Unfortunately, all the characters in the movie are generic.

The movie begins with a Japanese official name Ota (played by Tenma Shibuya) discussing “new recruits” for a place that is soon revealed to be a torture prison. The captives (mostly Chinese people and some white Europeans) are fooled into thinking they’re getting medical treatment, but they are really the targets of biochemical experiments that kill people. A caption says that poisonous gases were banned in China, but Japan’s invasion and forceful control over parts of China in the 1930s and 1940s have resulted in biochemical warfare against Chinese citizens.

The Japanese Imperial Army’s Unit 731 oversees and inflicts this torture and mutilation of people and animals. The movie’s protagonist is Wang Yongzhang (played by Jiang Wu), a middle-aged Chinese vendor who is captured because he’s suspected of being part of the Chinese resistance movement. However, he gains the trust of the prison officials and is assigned duties of preparing food and doing janitorial services for the prisoners.

Many of the prisoners are unsuspecting people (from infants to elderly people), who arrive by train because they think they’re getting medical treatment. The prison officials continue this ruse by telling the new arrivals that they are “patients.” It’s only after it’s too late that the captives find out the real reason why they are sent to this institution. There are gruesome displays of the torture, such as skin being ripped off of people’s arms, people’s frozen arms being chopped off, people being gassed to death, people being electrocuted, and other gruesome violence.

In addition, there are several scenes of people getting shot to death, for any number of reasons. The most vicious prison official is Yoshiko Inamura (played by Feng Wenjuan, also known as Joyce Wenjuan Feng), who sadistically murders people (usually by shooting or stabbing them), often in front of other prisoners. Another prison official is Ichizawa (played by Sato Takumi), who likes to watch films of prisoners being murdered. One of the movie’s few characters that is a depiction of a real person is Shirō Ishii (played by Yasuyuki Hirata), the microbiologist who was the director of Unit 731. Not surprisingly, he is portrayed as cold-blooded and cruel.

The movie’s production design makes this prison look like a shiny medical facility, where the only things that cause stains are the blood and guts of people being tortured and killed. It’s a very inaccurate depiction of a prison where people were held captive in very unsanitary conditions. Yongzhang also has unrealistic-looking adventure stunts in this heavily guarded prison, such as climbing artistically decorated walls that look like they belong in a museum, not a prison. One of the most irritating aspects of “731” is the movie’s choppy editing. Viewers barely get time to see what’s happening in a scene before the movie quickly cuts to the next scene.

Instead of doing a substantial story about the people who were victims of these war crimes, “731” reduces everything to montages of human suffering and a prison break story. Yongzhang is the mastermind for this escape plan. Other characters in the movie who portray imprisoned civilians are Du Cunshan (played by Wang Zhiwen); Gu Boxuan (played by Li Naiwen) and his pregnant wife Lin Suxian (played by Sun Qian); and Sun Mingliang (played by Lin Ziye), a boy who’s about 7 or 8 years old. Unfortunately, “731” is less interested in depicting these characters as fully formed human beings but rather as props in a movie where torture and murder are presented as stylishly staged parades of carnage.

Well Go USA released “731” in select U.S. cinemas on September 19, 2025. The movie was released in China on September 18, 2025.

Review: ‘Dead to Rights’ (2025), starring Turbo Liu, Wang Chuanjun, Gao Ye, Wang Xiao, Zhou You, Yang Enyou and Daichi Harashima

August 19, 2025

by Carla Hay

Pictured in center: Daichi Harashima and Wang Chuanjun in “Dead to Rights” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Dead to Rights” (2025)

Directed by Shen Ao

Mandarin and Japanese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1937, primarily in Nanjing, China, the dramatic film “Dead to Rights” (based on true events) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: During the Nanjing Massacre, a postal worker hides a family of four and an opera singer in a photo studio, as he is forced to develop the film of a sadistic Japanese military photographer, who is documenting the murders of Chinese people.

Culture Audience: “Dead to Rights” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in history-based dramas that can be emotionally wrenching.

Liu Haoran in “Dead to Rights” (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)

“Dead to Rights” is a harrowing and impactful depiction of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. This historical drama doesn’t give political lectures but instead takes an unflinching look at how heroic compassion can exist amid evil and inhumane atrocities. Sensitive viewers should be warned: “Dead to Rights” can get very explicit about the horrors of homicidal military invasions. There are scenes in the movie that can be too upsetting for some viewers.

Directed by Shen Ao, “Dead to Rights” doesn’t waste a lot of time with a buildup and long backstories of the main characters. The in real life, the Nanjing Massacre killed about 200,000 Chinese people from December 1937 to March 1938. The movie begins sometime in December 1937, when the massacre began during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese Imperial Army is invading Nanjing. And all hell is breaking loose.

Su Liuchang, nicknamed A-Chang (played by Liu Haoran), is a postal worker in his mid-to-late 20s. In the beginning of the movie, A-Chang is trying to escape some of the bombings and shootings by joining some of his co-workers in the back of cart vehicle that is leaving the city. Just as he is about to get on the cart, a man frantically stops him and asks A-Chang to see if a letter from the man’s daughter has arrived at the post office. The man explains that he hasn’t heard from his daughter in a while and is desperate to know if she might still be alive.

This opening scene shows immediately that A-Chang is a compassionate person because instead of ignoring or dismissing this stranger, A-Chang goes into the post office to look for the letter. It’s a stroke of luck because as A-Chang goes into the post office, he sees the cart vehicle that he was supposed to be on is bombed. The bomb kills everyone in the vehicle. A-Chang decides it will be safer to hide somewhere instead of being out in the open on the streets. He decides to hide in what seems to be an abandoned photo studio.

Meanwhile, Major Kuroshima (played by Shini Azuma) from the Japanese Imperial Army assigns Lieutenant Ito Hideo (played by Daichi Harashima) to be the official photographer to take photos and film the torture and murders of the Chinese people who are being captured. Nanjing is supposed to have cameras that will be more photo-sensitive to light. And that’s how Lieutenant Ito ends up in Nanjing.

In Nanjing, Wang Guanghai (played by Wang Chuanjun) is a Chinese citizen who is working as an interpreter for the Japanese military. Guanghai believes his interpreter position will allow him special treatment and will give him immunity from being murdered. He plans to use this perceived privilege to his advantage because he wants to get a visa to leave China safely. This visa can only be approved by the invading Japanese government.

Guanghai is married (his wife is never seen in the movie), and he has been having an affair with an opera singer named Lin Yuxiu (played by Gao Ye), who is outspoken and independent. Guanghai also hopes to get a visa for Yuxiu so they can start a new life together. But as time goes on, Guanghai proves to be very selfish and callous. He doesn’t hesitate to betray his fellow Chinese citizens and “look the other way” when he sees heinous acts committed against them.

Through a series of circumstances, Lieutenant Ito finds A-Chang, who pretends to work at the photo studio. Lieutenant Ito has come to the studio to get film developed. A-Chang also meets Guanghai and pretends to be helpful to Guanghai, in order to stay alive.

What Lieutant Ito doesn’t know is that inside the studio, there are five people who are hiding from the Japanese invaders: Yuxiu, who fled there after almost being raped by Japanese soldiers; Jin Chengzong (played by Wang Xiao), the kind-hearted owner of the studio; Chengzong’s loyal wife Zhao Yifang (played by Wang Zhen’er); the couple’s intuitive adolescent daughter Jin Wanyi (played by Yang Enyou); and the couple’s infant son. The rest of “Dead to Rights” shows the terrifying and courageous ways that they all try to stay alive.

The principal cast’s performances in the movie are top-notch and completely gripping. The movie’s pacing doesn’t let up on any of the tension. There is nothing in the movie that is not believable, which makes “Dead to Rights” a hard film to watch when it depicts some of the disgusting and cruel things that happen during this massacre, including the murders of children. “Dead to Rights” is an intentionally uncomfortable reminder that although “Dead to Rights” is a story about a massacre that took place in the past and shouldn’t be forgotten, these tragedies are still happening in communities that are being torn apart by war.

Niu Vision Media released “Dead to Rights” in select U.S. cinemas on August 15, 2025.

Review: ‘The Lychee Road,’ starring Da Peng, Bai Ke, Sabrina Zhuang and Terrance Lau

July 27, 2025

by Carla Hay

“The Lychee Road”

Directed by Da Peng

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place during the Tang Dynasty (sometime during the 750s decade) in China, the dramatic film “The Lychee Road” (based on the 2022 novel “Lychees of Chang’an”) features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A mid-level Bureau of Imperial Gardens inspector experiences various dangerous and frustrating obstacles after being tasked with delivering numerous fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an (about 1,553 miles between the two cities) to the emperor for the emperor’s birthday, before the lychees become spoiled in about three days.

Culture Audience: “The Lychee Road” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful dramas that are set in ancient times but have themes that are still relevant to today.

Sabrina Zhuang and Bai Ke in “The Lychee Road” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“The Lychee Road” is a bittersweet drama that’s partly a race-against-time adventure and partly a piercing observation of corrupt bureaucracy. Da Peng gives a tour-de-force performance as a government inspector tasked with a difficult lychee delivery. Although some of the action scenes are far-fetched, “The Lychee Road” has many other scenarios that are entirely believable and well-acted. The movie also makes good use of comedic moments.

Written and directed by Da Peng, “The Lychee Road” is based on Ma Boyong’s 2022 novel “Lychees of Chang’an.” Shen Yuyue and Dai Siao are also credit as scriptwriters for “The Lychee Road.” (There’s also a 2025 Chinese limited drama TV series called “Litchi Road” that is based on the same book.) The movie takes place during the Tang Dynasty (sometime during the 750s decade) in China, with the story centered on travel to and from the capital city of Chang’an and the city of Lingnan, which are about 1,553 miles (or 2,500 kilometers) apart from each other.

“The Lychee Road” begins by showing a conspiracy plan being set in motion. A eunuch named Yu Chao’en (played by Chang Yuan), who is based on the real politician of the same name and is called Eunuch Yu in the movie, has been given orders to find a government employee who can be a scapegoat for an “impossible mission.” The employee has to deliver several fresh lychees (fruit that resembles red berries on the outside) to the emperor in time for the emperor’s birthday celebration on June 1. Failure to do so could be punishable by being exiled or worse.

The problem is that fresh lychees spoil after about three days, and the emperor specifically wants the lychees to come from Lingnan, which is 1,553 miles away from the emperor’s home base of Chang’an. Eunuch Yu knows that travel by horse and by ship would not be enough time to complete this mission, which is why he’s looking for a lower-level person who will get the blame when the mission is expected to fail. Eunuch Yu is seen meeting with a government director named Biao Biao (played by Yi Yunhe), who gleefully tells him that he knows the perfect person who can be set up for this doomed mission.

The targeted person is Li Shande (played by Da Peng), a middle-aged inspector who works in the Bureau of Imperial Gardens. In a voiceover narration, Shande is shown giving a brief summary of hs adult life: After graduating from college with a degree in mathematics, Shande joined the Bureau of Imperial Gardens at age 24.

Shande has been stuck in the ninth rank (the equivalent of middle management) for several years. He’s underpaid, overworked, and frequently bullied by his supervisors. Shande’s personal life is much happier: He has a very good marriage to his loyal wife Zheng Yuting (played by Yang Mi), and they are devoted parents to their adorable daughter Li Xiu’er, who is about 6 or 7 years old.

Shande is assigned the task and is told that he will get a job promotion to be the official lychee envoy if he completes this mission of delivering lychees to the emperor by June 1. (in real life, Emperor Xuanzong was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty during the period of time that this story takes place.) In addition to a higher salary, the job of lychee envoy would also give perks and prestige to Shande and his family. Shande signs a contract to make this delivery by the deadline.

However, Shande finds out later that he’s been conned: The contract that he signed said that the lychees would be preserved, not fresh. When he gets the contract after he’s signed it, he finds out that a tiny, hard-to-detect sticker with the word “fresh” was placed over the word “preserved” after he signed the contract. This altered contract makes it look Shande has agreed to deliver fresh lychees to the emperor by June 1.

Shande angrily confronts Biao Biao about this contract fraud. Biao Biao says that it’s too late for Shande to back out of the contract. Shande is despondent and in a panic because he knows this mission could ruin his life and the lives of his family members. On the day that Shande leaves for Lingnan, the June 1 deadline is 117 days away. He has this period of time to figure out how to deliver fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an.

Before he leaves for the trip to Lingnan, Shande gets an unexpected visit from Du Shaoling (played by Zhang Ruoyun), the assistant military officer of the Right Guard Command. Shande confides in Shaoling about this big problem. Shaoling advises Shande to find a scapegoat if things go wrong. Shaoling also says that Shande could still possibly leverage the experience into being promoted to lychee envoy. Shande is given a Five Prefectures Pass to make his travels easier.

A skeptical and wary Shande travels by himself to Lingnan, in search of the perfect lychees. He encounters many challenges, including bad weather, wild animals, getting lost, and not knowing where to find lychees that would be suitable for the emperor. When he reaches Lingnan, he gets a hostile reaction from Lingnan’s governor He Qiguang (played by Lam Suet), who has some of his thugs rough up Shande because Qiguang doesn’t believe that Shande in on this mission for the emperor. However, Lingnan’s chief secretary Zhao Xinmin (played by Sunny Sun) intercedes and confirms that Shande’s mission is legitimate.

During Shande’s short visit with the governor, he sees an enslaved young man named Lin Yinu (played by Terrance Lau) being viciously whipped because Yinu has been accused of trying to make a partridge look like a peacock. After witnessing this cruelty, Shande has a private conversation with Yinu and tells Yinu that slavery is illegal in Chang’an. Shande promises that when Shande completes this mission, he will come back to get Yinu and take him to Chang’an, where Yinu can live as a free man.

Yinu, who has some speaking disabilities, ends up running away from his enslavers and following Shande around at an outdoor marketplace and other places where Shande goes. At first Shande is annoyed and thinks Yinu is being a pest. However, Yinu ends up becoming a very helpful assistant and later a trusted ally to Shande.

Just by chance, Shande meets a wealthy heir named Su Liang (played by Bai Ke, also known as White-K), who hears about this mission. Liang is up front in telling Shande that Liang’s father gives preference to Liang’s older brother Su Yan (played Wei Xiang) because their father doesn’t think Liang is a good-enough business. Liang wants to prove to their father that that he can do something successful in business. And so, Liang offers Shande the use of his merchant ship and crew to transport the lychees, with Liang covering all the expenses because Liang says he wants Shande to put in a good word for Liang with the emperor.

In exchange for this generous use of the ship and crew, Shande gives his Five Prefectures Pass to Liang, even though it’s illegal to give this pass to anyone else. Liang also tells Shande that the best lychees in Lingnan are at an orchard owned by a woman named Tong (played by Sabrina Zhuang), who inherited the property from her deceased parents. Tong is very outspoken and mistrustful of “city people.” However, Shande gains her trust, and she agrees to help him.

The rest of “The Lychee Road” shows how mathematician Shande uses some of his probability skills in testing various ways to get the lychees from Lingnan to Chang’an. Along the way, Shande encounters principal chancellor Yang Guozhong (played by Andy Lau), based on the real Yang Guozhong, who want Shande to fail in this mission. Shande also runs into a lot of bureaucractic complications when he has to get several approvals from various government ministry departments.

“The Lychee Road” has certain ideas for Shande’s problem that have more logic than other ideas. Several bureaucrats and other people in power don’t want Shande to succeed because they know that if he succeeds, he will look smarter than they are, and they will be exposed as mediocre or incompetent hacks. Shande’s physical abilities and psychological stamina are put to the ultimate tests.

Shaoling appears from time to time, mostly to give advice to Shande. He tells Shande that the three most important things that he learned as an official are (1) Going with the flow; (2) Sharing the benefits; and (3) Lifting each other up. However, Shande finds out that no amount of diplomacy or sycophancy can get a corrupt enemy to change if that enemy is rotten to the core.

With mostly solid direction and a well-paced screenplay, “The Lychee Road” has some memorable adrenaline-charged action sequences and moments of levity. Shande learns the value of teamwork with people of different backgrounds. The friendship that develops between Shande and Liang is thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Shande becomes like a father figure to Yinu. Shande also earns the respect of Tong.

Although all the cast members in “The Lychee Road” show talent in their roles, Da’s performance as Shande is the heart and soul of the movie. Shande goes through every possible emotion in “The Lychee Road,” which takes viewers on this wild and engrossing journey with Shande. The most underdeveloped character is Shande’s spouse Yuting, who is a stereotypical “worried wife of the hero” for most of her screen time.

The movie’s gorgeous cinematography is stunning, while the visual effects and production design are also above-average. And although there’s plenty of high-octane action and life-threatening things that happen in the story, “The Lychee Road” has some of its greatest impact in the quieter scenes, where guilt and emotional devastation are harder to recover from than physical wounds and injuries.

CMC Pictures released “The Lychee Road” in select U.S. cinemas on July 25, 2025. The movie was released in China on July 18, 2025.