Product Details

• Actors: Ming Cai, Xiaoming Su, Jun Wu, Ni Yan, Xun Zhou
• Directors: Shaohong Li
• Writers: Liao Yimei
• Producers: Xiaowan Li
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Cantonese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: First Run Features
• DVD Release Date: June 19, 2007
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000OCXNQM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,230 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Stolen Life" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

A young girl, Yanni, is taken to live with her aunt and grandmother in Beijing. As an adolescent, Yanni becomes withdrawn and reclusive, believing that she has been abandoned by her parents, and that she has no control over either her life or her fate. Surprising everyone, Yanni is accepted to college. But as she prepares to begin her new life, an encounter with a delivery man triggers a series of unexpected events.DVD Bonus Features: DISCUSSION GUIDE which includes • DIRECTOR’S NOTES & BIOGRAPHY • FACTS ABOUT CHINA.90 minutes, color, Mandarin w/English subtitles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Psychologically Abused Woman in Modern China: A Very Slight Spoiler, March 25, 2008

By 

E. Drake - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stolen Life (DVD)

Without spoiling the film, I'd like to add only slightly to Amazon's "Product Description":

Yanni, the main actress in the movie is living with her extended family who sees her as a waste of a person with little to no future. To everyone's surprise she is accepted to a college in Beijing. She goes, life opens up, the wonders of the world are hers to discover. For those who have visited China's Universities, all the sights are there, particularly those incredibly cramped (with sometimes as many as 7 student) dorm rooms. A wonderful and slightly older delivery man sights her, makes his move and they are in love. Soon Yanni finds out she is pregnant. Not surprisingly, while her lover remains committed, we are slowly taken out of the bright dorm rooms and even the streets of this "New China". The couple move to dwellings underground and we begin to wonder what this delivery man's intentions really are.

This is a powerful feminist movie, where you (man or woman, feminist or non-feminist) would be ready to fight for this woman with every ounce of your human flesh. You will also doubt her choices and scream "Idiot!" a few times at her. But in so doing this, you will surely become all the more aware to what is going on in "Communist China" as a young, hyper-materialistic, and socially aware age group is nearing the age where they will begin to enter the political domain.

The movie is well shot as it is noticeably different in scenery, tone, color and pace from the moment Yanni begins school to the moment we realize she is pregnant.

Like the Criterion Collection, First Run Features is a terrific distributor for those film goers who are more independently and internationally aware. Their special features are not quite up to Criterion standards, however for no other reason than no one else chooses to release these films (from The Global Lens Collection and others) I am thankful for their DVDs. Not to forget, as mostly foreign and independent films, they are also reasonably priced.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sad but compelling independent film from China, August 18, 2009

By 

Phillip Royer "sitenoise" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stolen Life (DVD)

Zhou Xun is one of the most compelling actresses working today and she grabs you right from the start in this film. She plays a young woman whose parents, intellectuals from the previous generation, have abandoned her for the most part, shuffling her off to live in near poverty with her granny and aunt. Then she's accepted into university, raising her class status momentarily, but falls in love with a truck driver, gets pregnant and her life unravels. There's subtle and deep social commentary embracing this extremely sad tale of family, love, and one woman's struggle to survive in modern China. I was very surprised by the script. It's softly brutal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Downbeat Tale Of Victimization--What Doesn't Kill Us Makes Us Stronger, May 16, 2011

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stolen Life (DVD)

The melodramatic allure of "Stolen Life" is off the charts--in America, this might have been a Lifetime movie of the week about a girl who becomes a victim to her own choices. But keeping things at realistic levels, with a minimum of hysterics, I really appreciated this sad tale of young potential unraveling. With a solid lead performance, the film chronicles how an outcast who has a chance at a better life starts sacrificing everything for the love of a man. Slowly, her life is deconstructed and she must face the consequences of what has transpired.

This is a tough film that retains a nice realistic balance through its actors. Well made and entertaining, in spite of its downbeat story--the film exceeds in making you care about people that are difficult to like. It's a testament to the fact that life's hardships can only make the survivors stronger. In many ways, this is a fully rounded piece driven by character development and I really liked it. KGHarris, 5/11.