Ash Is Purest White

Sep 21, 2018

2h 16m

★ 6.8

In a world in ruins, love and loyalty burn out, but never disappear.

Overview

Set in China's underworld, this tale of love and betrayal follows a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight. On release from prison 5 years later, she sets out to find him.

Genres

Crime

Romance

Drama

Production Companies

Shanghai Film Group

Xstream Pictures

Huanxi Media Group

MK2 Films

ARTE France Cinéma

Ash Is Purest White Trailers

Cast

Zhao Qiao

Zhao Tao

Guo Bin

Liao Fan

Lin Jiadong

Diao Yinan

Woman on Boat

Ding Jiali

Policeman in Fengjie

Dong Zijian

Man from Karamay

Xu Zheng

First Man in Fengjie Restaurant

Zhang Yibai

Second Man in Fengjie Restaurant

Zhang Yi

Feng Xiaogang

Feng Jiamei

Kang Kang

It's the 1940s, and the notorious Axe Gang terrorizes Shanghai. Small-time criminals Sing and Bone hope to join, but they only manage to make lots of very dangerous enemies. Fortunately for them, kung fu masters and hidden strength can be found in unlikely places. Now they just have to take on the entire Axe Gang.

7.1

Once Upon a Time in China

Aug 15, 1991

Set in late 19th century Canton, this martial arts film depicts the stance taken by the legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung against foreign forces' plundering of China.

5.7

Woman Basketball Player No. 5

Aug 1, 1957

Tian Zhenhua arrives in Shanghai to coach a local women's basketball team. Number 5 on the team, Xiaoje, excels at basketball but is unsure of whether to continue playing. As Tian gets to grips with training Xiaoje and the rest of the team, he reflects on his career as a star basketball player before the revolution.

7.1

Brother

Dec 13, 2000

A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.

7.6

The Last Emperor

Oct 4, 1987

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

6.9

Shanghai Express

Feb 12, 1932

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

6.9

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

May 13, 1919

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

6.8

Brick

Mar 31, 2006

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

7.3

The Boondock Saints

Jan 22, 1999

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

6.7

Ruby & Quentin

Oct 22, 2003

After hiding his loot and getting thrown in jail, brooding outlaw Ruby befriends Quentin, a dim-witted and garrulous giant. After Quentin botches a solo escape attempt, they make a break together. Unable to shake the clumsy Quentin, Ruby is forced to take him along as he pursues his former partners in crime to avenge the death of the woman he loved and get to the money.

6.7

Bad Boys II

Jul 18, 2003

Detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force are tasked with stopping the flow of the drug Ecstasy into Miami. They track the drugs to the whacked-out Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia, who is also involved in a bloody war with Russian and Haitian mobsters. If that isn't bad enough, there's tension between the two detectives when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sister, Syd.

6.4

Milk Money

Aug 31, 1994

Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.

6.3

Red Corner

Oct 30, 1997

An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country.

6.8

Kundun

Dec 25, 1997

The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.

7.3

House of Flying Daggers

Aug 3, 2004

In 9th century China, a corrupt government wages war against a rebel army called the Flying Daggers. A romantic warrior breaks a beautiful rebel out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.

7.0

Ichi the Killer

Dec 22, 2001

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

7.0

The Emperor and the Assassin

Oct 8, 1998

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.

6.6

Ushijima the Loan Shark The Final

Oct 22, 2016

A classmate from Ushijima's middle school days, Takemoto, shows up. He was a kind man, but now is jobless and without a home. Adrift and unable to borrow money from Ushijima, Takemoto heads for Seiai Home where he can stay while doing work.

8.0

A Bad Summer

Mar 20, 2025

Sasaki is a sincere civil servant, working at city hall. Due to his timid personality, he can't properly deal with nasty people, including a single mother on the verge of giving up her own child, another civil servant pressing him to have a physical relationship, and a person who receives welfare benefits unfairly. His passivity leads him to get caught up in a terrible crime.

6.9

Police Story 3: Super Cop

Jul 4, 1992

A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.