Zhao Liang

The Return of the Condor Heroes is a Chinese television series adapted from Louis Cha's novel of the same title. It is the second installment of a trilogy produced by Zhang Jizhong, preceded by The Legend of the Condor Heroes and followed by The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. It was first broadcast on 17 March 2006 in China and subsequently broadcast in other Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

The outbreak of blue-green algae in Qijiang City, H province. Wang Wu, the vice mayor in charge of environmental protection, had to suspend his work due to overwork. Lin Han Jiang, a university professor who has made great achievements in the field of environmental protection, was appointed director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Qijiang City.

Zhao Liang’s film portrays AIDS sufferers of both genders; they are all people with very different biographies. As if it wasn’t bad enough being infected by HIV, their suffering is compounded by the fact that in the People’s Republic of China the disease is hushed up and people living with AIDS are ostracised. In China, the public at large knows very little about the disease and most people associate the virus with promiscuity. This fear of discrimination forces most patients to hide the fact that they are positive. The AIDS sufferers in Zhao Liang’s film were willing to share their experiences with him. The filmmaker was able to make contact with them via internet support groups; he also visited children with Aids at a ‘red ribbon’ school; but above all, he talked to AIDS sufferers during the making of Gu Changwei’s film. It is their presence which lends Changwei’s film its particular authenticity.

Under the sun, the heavenly beauty of grasslands will soon be covered by the raging dust of mines. Facing the ashes and noises caused by heavy mining , the herdsmen have no choice but to leave as the meadow areas dwindle. In the moonlight, iron mines are brightly lit throughout the night. Workers who operate the drilling machines must stay awake. The fight is tortuous, against the machine and against themselves. Meanwhile, coal miners are busy filling trucks with coals. Wearing a coal-dust mask, they become ghostlike creatures. An endless line of trucks will transport all the coals and iron ores to the iron works. There traps another crowd of souls, being baked in hell. In the hospital, time hangs heavy on miners' hands. After decades of breathing coal dust, death is just around the corner. They are living the reality of purgatory, but there will be no paradise.

With the fishermen's life on the southeastern coast in the early 1960s as its background, the film depicts a group of militia women who work both as fisher women and fighters defending their homes and the motherland.

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In a quiet forest, a sign warns of radiation hazard. “Is this the past or the future?” muses the masked figure who appears like a kind of ghost in nuclear disaster areas. At a time when nuclear power may be re-emerging as an alternative to fossil fuels, this calmly observed and compelling tour takes us to places that may serve as a warning.

The dysfunctional Chinese justice system allows citizens with grievances against their local governments to petition the court to clear or correct their record. Yet in order to do so, the petitioners must travel to Beijing to file paperwork and wait an indefinite period to plead their case. Following the saga of a group of petitioners over the years of 1996 and 2008, Petition unfolds like a novel by Zola or Dickens. This was filmed surreptitiously from the point of view of the petitioners, and not the justice officials, the police, or those heavies sent by the municipalities.

In a small southern frontier town, an old man called “Nail Li” boasts about his chess skills by nailing a general piece to the board, challenging anyone to remove it. During this era, many young people moved to the countryside. The town’s new party secretary, played by Niu Ben, was angry after losing a game and sent his team to the city to find talents in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Wang Yisheng, a Beijing youth known as “The Chess Fool,” was mistakenly labeled a counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution but was saved by those searching for him. Unconcerned about his destination, he was content with food and chess, saying, “What can relieve my worries? Only playing chess.” He became engrossed in the game, leaving memorable matches with various masters in the unfamiliar town.

Return to the Border is a documentary directed by Zhao Liang about his return to his hometown in China that borders the Yalu river and North Korea. The film presents deep insight into both the Chinese and North Korean societies and changes that have taken place over the last several decades.

SYNOPSIS Towards the end of 1989, several artists moved to an area near the ruins of Yuanmingyuan, the former Beijing Summer Palace. Farewell, Yuanmingyuan documents the trials and tribulations of the artists in their nubile makeshift community.

More than 30 years ago, when the nuclear disastee occurred in Chernobyl, Maria was over 50. Her village was within the 30 kilometres restricted area. She and her neighbors were sent far away. Missing her hometown, Maria and her several sisters returned to the village secretly and lived a self-sufficient life.

Paper Airplane is a feature-length documentary that looks at the breakdown of China’s socialist systems, which had previously provided jobs and security, now having turned to capitalism allows disenfranchised youths to fall into new lifestyles that sometimes involve the underworld of drugs.

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In a small town near China's North Korea border, a state police station exerts itself as a solicitous caretaker of the locals. As it goes out to catch criminals and punish them too, professionalism fades into the background.

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Zhao Liang’s City Scene shows a poetic portrait of China’s contemporary metropolises.

Using the format of music videos, Zhao films an actor running through the remnants of a traditional Beijing neighborhood that is in the process of being destroyed as a result of urban economic redevelopment.

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2000 short video work by Zhao Liang