Equal parts documentary, essay, and narrative,"Captain Elliot's Circle" is mostly a poetic interaction with an obscure corner of Chinese and British history. Constructed using primary source documents about the taking of Zhoushan, Britain's first choice for a seaport, in the late 1830s,this movie uses Captain Charles Elliot's reluctance to brutalize the Chinese to reflect on the cyclical nature of history and the power structures that move it. The long takes used throughout function to illustrate the dramatically different ways in which people who lived in the mid-19th century perceived time. Additionally, it represents the psychological effect of living on an island regardless of what era you were born in.The last third of the movie focuses on a young woman whose strange day job has taken her far away from the island of Zhoushan generations after Captain Charles Elliot was last there. "Captain Elliot's Circle" was shot on location in Zhoushan and Hangzhou.
To escape the outback, a young Afghan cameleer falls in with a mysterious bushman on the run with stolen Crown gold.
Performed by Constance Smith, Pauline Cushman-Fryer tells us how she became a Union Spy, got caught and was almost hanged, why Abraham Lincoln granted her the rank of Major, and how she died lonely in San Francisco from an overdose of opium.
When Major Susan Turner is arrested for treason, ex-investigator Jack Reacher undertakes the challenging task to prove her innocence and ends up exposing a shocking conspiracy.
A coat-and-tie-wearing social worker scours the countryside in search of wild opium poppies.
China is in unrest, as the Republic falls prey to Warlords like Kahn Xin, who holds an entire province hostage to the opium trade—and destroys all who oppose him. Only the revered Wudang monks dare stand in Kahn’s way in order to protect the very soul of China. Among them is the Westerner, White Crane, a spiritual master of the martial arts and protector of the innocent. Revenge is not in Crane’s heart—until a mercenary army storms the temple and slaughters the beloved female Grandmaster Myling. Out of the ashes of the temple ruins, Crane rises—with vengeance in his heart. Crane comes upon Jane Marshall, a New York lounge singer and her gangster boss Bingo Quo. But it’s Bingo’s dangerous professional ties to Kahn that draw both Crane and Jane deep into the Warlord’s lair. Now torn between the spiritual Wudang teaching and the cold-blooded life of an assassin, Crane is about the cross the fine line between justice and revenge.
China, the early 1930's: martial arts master Wen Biao discovers that his brother has been using their security company for illegal activities. A confrontation between the brothers leaves Web Biao missing and presumed dead.
Masters of Darkness: Aleister Crowley - The Wickedest Man in the World
The story of the Opium War between China, in the waning days of the Qing Dynasty, and the British Empire, in the 1830s, and the subsequent takeover of Hong Kong by Britain; through the eyes of the key figures, fiercely nationalistic Lin Zexu, and opportunistic British naval diplomat Charles Elliot.
Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.
Biopic about famous gunslinger Wild Bill Hickock. The early career of legendary lawman is telescoped and culminates in his relocation in Deadwood and a reunion with Calamity Jane.
While master Wong Fei Hung is away traveling, the impulsive Lau Zhai (Yuen Biao), an initiate into Wong's kung fu school, begins wandering town. He soon allies with police chief Panther in order to offer assistance in toppling an opium distribution ring.
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
An evil Caucasian jewel smuggler named Robertson (Conwyn Sperry) enlists a small army to steal a map leading to a rare Chinese treasure hidden in Thailand; however, a grandfather and his daughter (Chin Siu Ho, Sharon Louise Kwok) evade the villain's forces while passing through what looks like a paid advertisement for the country's scenic and cultural wonders. The movie's nearly dense as granite with fight and chase scenes, a few of them quite witty, as well as near deadly encounters with drag queens, alligators, river torrents, kung fu elephants, and hot flying vegetables
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Living on an estate on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron is visited by Percy and Mary Shelley. Together with Byron's lover Claire Clairmont, and aided by hallucinogenic substances, they devise an evening of ghoulish tales. However, when confronted by horrors, ostensibly of their own creation, it becomes difficult to tell apparition from reality.
The Thai government sends a man in undercover to a guerrilla compound to bring down Thailand's biggest drug lord, who supplies opium to most of the world.
A small town is protected by one of the famous Ten Tigers of Kwangtung. The town is very safe as Ti Lung and his Kung Fu students patrol for criminals. Enter the rival Kung Fu school whom Ti Lung's students have beaten in a lion dance competition and then humiliated in a brawl. The rival school is joined by an opium dealing Kung Fu master who plans to turn the town into a community of addicts!
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.