The best René Liu’s movies

Two grifters, Wang Bo and Wang Li, a couple who've been arguing, board a train in rural China. He wants to fleece a peasant, nicknamed Dumbo for his naiveté, who's carrying 60,000 yuan and trusts everyone. She wants to protect the hick kid, an act of expiation brought on by prayer and a visit to a temple. Also on board are one of more sets of thieves, including a calculating boss and his femme fatale. The boss wants to recruit Wang Bo, and a series of contests ensue, with the potential of turning deadly. While Li guards Dumbo from Bo and the others, can she and Bo sort out their relationship? And can Dumbo's simple spirituality touch anyone else?

An FBI Agent pairs with a troubled Taiwan cop to hunt for a serial killer who's embedding a mysterious fungus in the brains of victims.

Wise, reflective and bittersweet, director/actor Sylvia Chang's Taipei-set triptych weaves through the lives of a 40-year-old divorcée (Chang), a thirtysomething flight attendant (Rene Liu) and an aspiring pop singer (Angelica Lee). Co-written by the three principals, the script's meditations on love, friendship and life choices are as thoughtful and intriguing as the performances are unforced.

The film tells the stories of a mother and her three daughters about their own struggles in love. All the women had achieved progress in some way except in love. However, each of them found their own Mr.Right in the end. The woman named Mary (acted by XuFan) was a widow and came back to China from abroad. She was a generous woman and she learnt to cook with the help of a driver called Uncle Hua. After being together for a period of time, they fell in love. The eldest daughter, Rose (acted by René Liu), was an astronaut, who was very independent and capable, but alse a little bit competitive. In order to have the chance to go into space, she trained hard, only to find that she had to work with her ex: Michael (acted by Aaron Kwok). They stayed in the small capsule, working, eating and sleeping in the same place. Many things happened to them, making the fire of their love burn again.

There was once a young girl named May who felt alienated from everyone around her. May is worried about her mother and father, whose marriage is on the rocks, and she yearns to return to the woods where her grandfather lives. One day, May befriends a boy as lonely as she is. When reality catches up, they run away to a beautiful world that belongs only to them. Both imaginatively escapist and heartbreakingly realistic, their journey speaks to kids and adults alike with the pain of solitude, the sorrow of loss, and the warmth of hope.

In "Hot Summer Days" a hot summer heat wave engulfs the Chinese territory, while the movie covers the lives of various characters during that time. There's chaffeur Wah who tries to woo foot masseur Li Yan via text messages, air conditioner repairman Ah Wai interested in biker girl Ding Dong, a master sushi chef who spurns the love of writer Wasabi, country hick Da Fu who tries to impress teddy bear factory worker Xiao Qi Angela Baby by standing out in the hot noon sun for 100 days, & photographer Leslie Guan & assistant attempting to track down a woman who they believed cursed the photographer into blindness ...

Cop action movie clumsily inter-cut with slapstick. Dumb cop befriends triad guy who wants to go straight but is being set up by his unscrupulous drug dealing colleagues.

A mother intends to relocate Grandpa’s grave from the countryside to the city, where he could be re-buried with Grandma. However, her decision sparks a conflict with Nana, Grandpa’s first wife. Nana is childless, and all she has is her husband’s grave. As a result, she fights flat out to stop Mother moving the grave. At first, Weiwei, caught between her mother and Nana, is turning the fight over the grave into a story on television, but after having spent time with Nana, she learns a new understanding of life. In the end, these three women of different generations, each facing her own problems in her love life, follow their hearts and make their decisions, which result in an unexpected ending to the incident.

After being recruited by a race car driver coach, a female taxi driver joins the Speed Angels racing team.

The Personals is a movie for anyone who hasn't yet found what they're looking for or who remembers how tough it can be to find it. Rene Liu plays an eye doctor who's become disaffected with her present life and is craving something more – namely love and marriage. She's attractive, has a good job, and a decent apartment. Up until now she has done everything she's supposed to do, but it just hasn't worked for her. She's still alone. Now, she decides to take the extreme measure of advertising for a husband in the personals. The search leads her down the slippery slope of the modern dating scene whose universal quirkiness transcends the boundaries of all industrialized societies.

A woman finds the key to a room in the attic that her husband forbids her from entering. When she opens the door, she is confronted with the haunting existence of the woman her husband refuses to forget.

Run Papa Run is a 2008 Hong Kong comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Sylvia Chang, and based on a novel by Benny Li. It was produced by JCE Movies Limited, with Jackie Chan serving as an executive producer. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars Louis Koo as Lee Tin-Yun, a Triad boss who struggles to hide his criminal lifestyle when he is faced with raising his daughter.

The Chen family contagiousness extends to taking on an extra-marital affair. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely. Lang Hisung plays old dentist for broad comedy he is sixty years old.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rock Records in Taiwan, the music label put together an unprecedented concert in the history of Taiwan music, supported by more than 60 performing units. The show toured through Asia and many cities in the Mainland, and finally drew its curtains in Taipei Arena in November 2011. The massive lineup posed an array of challenges in terms of scheduling, lightning, sound and stage design for the crew, but in the end everything came together and resulted in a grand five-hour spectacle. Some of the artists who appeared in the finale include Wu Bai and China Blue, Mayday, Emil Chau, Alex To, Karen Mok, Fish Leong, A-Yue Chang, Rene Liu, Winnie Hsin and Richie Jen who brought to fans classic ballads like "Moment of Awakening," "Don't Leave Me If You Love Me," "Soft-Hearted," "A Tearful Decision," "Happy Paradise" and more.

A young Taiwanese couple, newly arrived in New York City, are struggling to obtain a green card. The woman, Siao-yu, works as a seamstress in a sweatshop while her lover, Jiang Wei, is a student who works in a fish market. They meet a middle-aged New Yorker, Mario, who has racked up a large gambling debt. Jiang Wei agrees to give Mario the $10,000 he needs if he will marry Siao-yu. Things get more complicated when Siao-yu is forced to move in with Mario to ward off the suspicions of the INS.

Fong, a Taiwanese woman has relocated to Canada with her husband Kwok. Fong suspects that Kowk is cheating on her on his regular business trips to Taiwan.

In 1949, the Communists take over mainland. The refugees and the military arrive in the Keelung Harbor in Taiwan. While the father holds secret meetings with other generals in attempt to recover the lost land, the kids still play games with their grandma who still enjoys the harmony and peace in hardship. Gradually, it seems that there was no hope to fight back the fatherland. The general turned father has to run a small business to support the family. He encounters a series of struggles. And finally his kids grow up.

A rather dejected Mei-li Chen lives with her extended family in the suburbs. She drops out of college when the boy she has a crush on finds a girlfriend. Mei-li eventually ends up selling tickets in a movie theatre. A great camaraderie then builds up between the two cashiers in the small ticket booth.