| China: The Panda Adventure | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Robert M. Young |
| Starring | Maria Bello |
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
Release date |
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Running time | 48 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
China: The Panda Adventure is a 2001 film directed by Robert M. Young and based on the true story of the expedition of Ruth Harkness, who brought the first live giant panda to the United States. It stars Maria Bello and Yu Xia. [1]
Set in 1936 China, Ruth Harkness has come to settle the affairs of her husband, Bill, who died while observing the rare and unstudied panda bear. His journal describes the panda as shy and docile, while great white hunter Dak Johnson describes them as ferocious beasts. This intrigues her, and she sets off to retrace Bill's steps and save the pandas from Johnson. She encounters many obstacles, both natural and created by Johnson.
Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of historical fantasy literature, its popularity has caused it to be adapted for such diverse art forms as Chinese opera, manhua, television dramas, films, and video games. It forms part of popular culture in many Chinese-speaking communities around the world. According to Hong Kong film director, producer, and movie writer Ronny Yu, wuxia movies are not to be confused with martial arts movies.
The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, it was established by the legendary figure Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia was succeeded by the Shang dynasty.
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress. Born in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents, she has starred in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), in two Charlie's Angels films, and in the crime-drama series Elementary (2012–2019), as well as in films Payback (1999), Shanghai Noon (2000), Chicago (2002), Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Watching the Detectives (2007), The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), and Set It Up (2018).
A Chinese Ghost Story is a 1987 Hong Kong romantic comedy horror film starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma, directed by Ching Siu-tung and produced by Tsui Hark. The plot is loosely based on a short story about Nie Xiaoqian from Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling's Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and is also inspired by the 1960 Shaw Brothers Studio film The Enchanting Shadow. The film was popular in Hong Kong and several Asian countries, including South Korea and Japan. Although the film could not gain access to movie theaters in mainland China when it was first released, it became a cult film among young people in the mainland. At that time the film generated a phenomenal cult following among audiences, especially the generation born in the 1980s. In 2011, the Hong Kong producers screened a restored version officially in mainland China.
Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong. It was first serialised concurrently from 3 September 1963 to 27 May 1966 in the newspapers Ming Pao in Hong Kong and Nanyang Siang Pau in Singapore. It has been adapted into films and television series in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China numerous times since the 1970s. Set in 11th-century China, the plot is made up of separate yet intertwining storylines revolving around three protagonists – Qiao Feng, Duan Yu and Xuzhu – and other characters from various empires and martial arts sects. The novel examines the cause and effect that form and break the inherent bonds underlying each major character's struggles on five uniquely corresponding levels: self, family, society, ethnic group, and country (dominion).
Ruth Elizabeth Harkness was an American fashion designer and socialite who traveled to China in 1936 and brought the first live giant panda to the United States.
The Neanderthal Man is a 78-minute, 1953 American black-and-white science fiction film produced independently by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen, as Global Productions Inc., from their own original screenplay.
Lau Kar-leung was a Chinese actor, filmmaker, choreographer, and martial artist from Hong Kong. Lau is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio. His most famous works include The 36th Chamber of Shaolin starring Gordon Liu as well as Drunken Master II starring Jackie Chan.
Panda diplomacy is the practice of sending giant pandas from China to other countries as a tool of diplomacy and wildlife conservation. From 1941 to 1984, the Chinese government gifted pandas to other countries. Since 1984, they have been leased rather than gifted due to a PRC policy change.
Xia Yu is a Chinese actor. At the age of 18 years, he rose to international prominence after winning the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival in 1994 for his leading role in the film In the Heat of the Sun and became the youngest actor to win that award in the history of the Venice Film Festival.
Su Lin was the name given to the giant panda cub captured in 1936 and brought to America by Ruth Harkness.
H. M. Pulham, Esq. is a 1941 American drama film directed by King Vidor and starring Hedy Lamarr, Robert Young, and Ruth Hussey. Based on the novel H. M. Pulham, Esq. by John P. Marquand, the film is about a middle-aged businessman who has lived a conservative life according to the routine conventions of society, but who still remembers the beautiful young woman who once brought him out of his shell. Vidor co-wrote the screenplay with his wife, Elizabeth Hill Vidor. The film features an early uncredited appearance by Ava Gardner. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.
The Amazing Panda Adventure is a 1995 American adventure film directed by Christopher Cain and starring Stephen Lang, Yi Ding, and Ryan Slater. It follows a 10-year-old American boy who travels to China and has to take a panda cub to the reserve so it can reunite with its mother. The film was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment label on August 25, 1995, and was preceded by the Looney Tunes short Carrotblanca in theaters.
All About Women, originally titled She Ain't Mean and Not All Women Are Bad, is a 2008 Chinese romantic comedy-drama film directed by Tsui Hark. Starring Zhou Xun, Kitty Zhang and Gwei Lun-mei, the film tells a series of interwoven stories as it focuses on the lives of three women and their romantic relationships. Zhou plays a clumsy woman who secretly develops a pheromone drug patch, which serves as a plot device for the film; Kwai plays a punk rock band singer, who is also a boxer and novelist; and Zhang plays a wealthy attractive woman.
Adelaide "Su-Lin" Young was an American explorer, journalist, and disc jockey. A Chinese American, she was the first American woman to explore the Himalayas in the 1930s and Su Lin, the first giant panda brought to the United States, was named for her.
Home with Kids, is a sitcom/drama from Mainland China. There are 4 seasons of Home with Kids, i.e. Home with Kids 1, Home with Kids 2, Home with Kids 3 and Home with Kids 4, which were released respectively in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. It is considered to be an equivalent to Growing Pains and Fresh Off The Boat, both a US sitcom. Unlike most Chinese multi-camera sitcoms, Home With Kids prominently uses child actors as main roles. As a spiritual successor of China's first multi-camera sitcom, I Love My Family, the series also reunites Song Dandan and Wen Xingyu.
Dragon is a 2011 Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts film directed by Peter Chan, and starring Donnie Yen, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tang Wei. Yen also served as the film's action director. It premiered on 13 May 2011 at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in the Midnight Screenings category.
We Bare Bears is an American animated series created by Daniel Chong for Cartoon Network. The show follows Three Bear brothers Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear, and their awkward attempts at integrating with the human world in the San Francisco Bay Area.
María Teresa is a 1972 Venezuelan telenovela written by Cuban writer Delia Fiallo and broadcast on Venevisión. The telenovela starred Lupita Ferrer and José Bardina as the main protagonists.
Pretty Li Huizhen is a 2017 Chinese television series starring Dilraba Dilmurat in the title role, along with Peter Sheng, Vin Zhang and Li Xirui. The series is a remake of the South Korean drama She Was Pretty. It was first aired on Hunan TV from 2 January to 2 February 2017.
