Super sinomatic

Chinese movies are often the first introduction to the Chinese language for foreigners. But with the exception of John Woo's bullet-dance action movies, and the beautiful work of Wong Kar-wai, many recent flicks served up to the West have been bad kungfu flicks or overly sentimental statement movies.

As a language learning tool, Chinese films are not bad, though one tends to learn things such as "Nide gongfu bu hao (Your kungfu is weak.)" before the more useful phrases such as, "Wo neng yao yibei kafei ma? (Could I possibly have a coffee?) "

Locally, the Chinese film industry is growing, bolstered by a major selection of foreign imports, from James Bond's latest Quantum of Solace to Madagascar 2: Escape from Africa.