China breaks out

Some of the eight films featured in the series, which opens Saturday, are daring for their deviation from political orthodoxy, such as Jiang Wen's reexamination of the Chinese under Japanese occupation in "Devils on the Doorstep" or Hu Ze's chronicle of rebellious artists in "Beijing Suburb." Others push the envelope in their inclusion of sexual themes, whether frank heterosexual depiction as in Emily Tang's "Conjugation" or extreme ones in the vignettes of transgender tease in Cui Zi'en's "Enter the Clowns." Co-curated by the archive's head programmer, Cheng-Sim Lim, and by CalArts faculty member Berenice Reynaud, the series is not a comprehensive survey of current Chinese cinema, which certainly includes its share of fluff and box-office pandering, but a look at its edgier efforts.

These efforts are possible because the traditional studio system has broken down, and independent filmmakers have found ways to make films through co-production, foreign funding, shooting without licenses and other circumventions. And finally, in the past year, it is possible for independent production companies to apply for filmmaking licenses in China, although their projects are still subject to government script approval.

To remain free of such constraints, Reynaud says some filmmakers prefer to stay "underground," such as those behind "The Orphan of Anyang," "Beijing Suburb" and "Enter the Clowns." These touch on still-forbidden topics such as police repression and corruption, prostitution, homosexuality and transsexualism, or unemployment in the new economy.

The understated but compelling "The Orphan of Anyang," for example, opens with a middle-aged man facing unemployment after being laid off by an unprofitable factory. To make ends meet, he decides to look after an infant in exchange for a stipend offered by the child's mother, a downtrodden prostitute. For one happy moment, it looks as though a new family unit is about to be formed -- until the child's father, a gangland boss, decides he wants his son.