Jonathan Papish

A birth, a death, a pilgrimage. A film about the 1,200-mile journey of a pregnant woman, a butcher who wants to atone for his sins and a rag-tag band of villagers who go on foot from their small village in Tibet to the sacred Mt. Kailash has become a surprise winner at the Chinese box office. It has also found a cult following among an unexpected audience — China’s venture capitalists and startup founders.

Dissatisfied with the lackluster homegrown production of Midnight Diner, China’s net users offer suggestions for an improved version of popular manga adaptation. The Chinese remake of a hit Japanese television series set in an all-night diner has failed to sate Chinese viewers, many of whom complain that the show lacks local flavor.

Celebrated filmmaker Pema Tseden talks about why he refuses to romanticize his homeland in his pioneering Tibetan-language movies. For many outsiders, be they from China or abroad, Tibet is either an unearthly paradise sitting atop high mountains and shrouded in mist, or a region defined by an ongoing rift with the central government. But to Pema Tseden, a Tibetan filmmaker who made China’s first Tibetan-language feature film, there’s another story to tell.