Chinese

Chinese lion dancing is a beautiful and vibrant artform that has gradually been fading from existence. In this wonderful short documentary by Law Chen, we meet Sara Lai, a dancer who has trained to become the head of the lion in the traditionally male-dominated performance.

Musician Michell Kwan plays a brilliant cover of Guns N’ Roses classic Sweet Child o’ Mine on her Guzheng – a traditional Chinese string instrument that dates back to the 5th century BC. We can almost hear Axl’s singing along.

Headed stateside this March, this lighthearted Chinese action film follows a kitchen cleaver made from the most deadly swords in the history of martial arts, and the tales behind the blade.

This brilliantly illustrated, thoroughly entertaining tale of a hungry mutt’s trip through Chinatown combines hand-drawn animation from Shanghai with 3D effects and backgrounds from Australia.

In an attempt to keep up with Japan’s giant Gundam, China has built a 32-foot tall version of Transformer’s big bot, using 10,108 junk car parts. Check it out the next time you’re in Beijing.

Daniel Lee’s weapon-filled martial arts spectacular was nominated for best action choreography and sound design at the Hong Kong film awards. Now own it in all its blood-splattered 1080p, 7.1 glory.

2 different videos here for Chinese farmer Wu Yulu, who has created an army of homemade scrap metal robots. Some of his self-described “sons” will be at the Shanghai Expo in person later this year.

There’s no release date, but we’re liking this first trailer for Shaolin; starring Andy Lau with a special appearance by Jackie Chan, it pits the Shaolin masters against feuding warlords.

You needn’t be a history buff to get the gist of The Warlords (in theaters 4/2/10); this featurette with director Peter Chan reveals that it’s essentially a story about three blood brothers.

NSFW trailer: John Woo’s bullets and blood masterpiece, The Killer, arrives on Blu-ray 3/30/10; starring a much younger Chow Yun-Fat, the 1989 classic is a must for HK cinema fans.

John Woo’s war epic Red Cliff arrives on Blu-ray 3/23/2010 in two forms: the theatrical version runs 2h 28m, but it’s the two-part international version that’s truly epic at nearly 5 hours.

Trust us, you won’t need to know a lick of Chinese to understand this Future X-Cops trailer; it packs in bullet-proof angels, multi-headed dragon arms, and robotic police armor suits.

NSFW: this trailer for Donnie Yen’s 14 Blades is largely wordless, which is fine as it lets its weapons do the talking: it features crossbows, the occasional vase, and oh so many blades.

Warlords stars Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro in an epic dramatization of the 19th century Taiping Rebellion in China; released in 2007 in Asia, it arrives in US theaters 4/2/2010.

Partly fictional, partly historical, and purely epic, Bodyguards & Assassins gets a trailer as epic as its cast (nearly every major Hong Kong star) and set (full-scale replica of old Hong Kong).

To promote Red Cliff, we’re giving away two posters signed by John Woo plus three other movie DVDs. Update: this contest has concluded. Congrats to the winners and thanks to all who participated!

Available on VOD, Xbox Live and Amazon on 10/22 and in theaters 11/20, Red Cliff is John Woo at his best: the most expensive Asian movie ever, it’s an epic film set in ancient China.

There’s no dialog in this trailer for Confucius, but the visuals look absolutely epic; the biopic about the famed Chinese philosopher stars Chow Yun-Fat and hits theaters Spring 2010.

Celebrating three years in Hong Kong, Maison Martin Margiela’s ultra-clean Mahjong Set is only available to big shoppers: you’ll need to spend over $8,999 HKD (~$1,160) to get one.

Take the wicked visuals of 300, place them in ancient China and you’ll get The Storm Warriors, a martial arts/fantasy flick that should be pure heaven for fans of Hong Kong cinema.

Mixing urban fashion with Chinese culture, Akunfuncture’s t-shirt line takes ancient symbols and legends and gives them a fresh coat of ink; above: Monkey King Urban rocks.