Best movies like Be There or Be Square

Teacher Gao loves the students in his poor village and is devoted to educating them in the hope of their greater futures. When he is called away to tend to his dying mother for a month, the Mayor calls in an inexperienced 13 year-old replacement, Wei Minzhi; much to Teacher Gao's dismay. Teacher Gao cannot stand the thought of losing anymore students: he has already lost twelve to ever-increasing attrition, and he promises Wei an extra 10 yuan if she succeeds in ensuring that upon his return, there will be not one less. Wei's difficult mission to fulfill Teacher Gao's wish and her own concern for the welfare of the children begins.

Eddie Luca is the youngest son in a family of Italian immigrants who has moved to London. Beginning from nowhere, they open a cafe in an Italian neighbourhood. One day their father loses the cafe, the home and his wedding ring by gambling.

A true immigrant story set against the vibrant backdrop of Flushing, N.Y. in the 1980s and 1990s.

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

In the late Ming Dynasty, three sworn brothers who serve as the imperial secret police are dispatched to hunt down Wei Zhongxian, a eunuch politician who had been forced to resign from his influential post and exiled from Beijing. The brothers return successfully from their quest, only to find that their task was but the beginning of a strange conspiracy.

A terminally ill gangster becomes a police insider to cash in on the life insurance but ends up a department hero in this Chinese action comedy.

A family of Russian Jews living in New York struggles to survive, while the mother strives to better their lives, but she finds that most of her efforts costs more then they are worth.

A young gay man, identified as a writer, encounters a local policeman, who arrests him for public cruising in a park. The policeman is more than professionally curious about the young man, who seems to have the cop's number and suddenly kisses him.

When a violin prodigy Xiaochun and his father head to Beijing seeking fame and fortune, they soon discover a fierce world of cutthroat ambition. But when Xiaochun is "adopted" by a famous music tutor, success finally seems within reach - until a shocking discovery begins to unravel his entire world, and the boy must make the most difficult choice of his life. Can he achieve the fame his father had always hoped for without losing the extraordinary passion that sets him apart?

Devastated after her mom's serious accident and grief-stricken because she hasn't become the daughter she wanted to be for her mother, Jia Xiaoling finds herself transported back in time to the year 1981, where she meets her young mother before she was her mom.

The story of two warring generals fighting for control of China at the end of the Qin Dynasty.

An upper-class son of urbane landowners falls in love with a peasant girl. When a pregnancy results, the couple are kept apart by strict societal morays.

Ling Ai and He Jiang are young, ambitious, and in pursuit of careers imported from the West, but romantic longings and career ambitions are inevitably shaped by larger social forces.

A novelist uses all his money to buy gifts for the woman he loves who in turn is also seeing a business man, using him for expensive presents. As a consequence the writer is unable to pay the rent, whilst the womans family goes hungry as her fathers business suffers. A joyful comedy that expresses the dangers of consumerism for the careless spender.

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

The young adult life of Hong Yunsheng, nicknamed Little Brother, is seen as somewhat of a failure by those that know him. A Chinese national, he stowed away on a boat to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher in the restaurant of a family from his hometown back in Fujian province. After two years in the States and after fathering an illegitimate child there named Fusheng, the child's mother Xuhui who is the restaurateur's daughter, he was deported back to China. Since, he has been floundering in life, which has caused a rift between himself and his older brother, who, with his wife, operate a street front diner and can't have children of their own. Little Brother relies on his new girlfriend, a woman he barely knows named Wu Ruifang who is a performer in a touring opera troupe, for emotional support. Despite Little Brother being the local poster boy for not stowing away, his friend named Monkey tried to do the same, but died on the voyage over due to exposure to toxic ..

A father and son struggle to make ends meet on the rodeo circuit.

Gong Li stars in this low-key drama about a single mother who will do anything to provide for her son. Sun Liying (Li) struggles to care for her hearing-impaired child Zheng Da (Gao Xin) after her taxi driver husband divorces her. After Zheng Da gets his hearing aid smashed in a fight with classmates, Sun Liying sets out to raise 5,000 yuan (a small fortune) to buy him a replacement. A friend helps her set up an unauthorized bookstall, which soon gets raided by the police. Later she splits her time delivering newspapers and cleaning house for a rich businessman. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.

A car fixer jumps off stairs after illegal demolition. Police officer tries to find the crime and catch the evil boss.

Filth & Wisdom is a poignant view of the lives of three not quite ordinary friends settled into meaningless jobs that barely keep them afloat while helping to finance their dreams of bigger and brighter futures. Their unique yet universal stories capture their struggles that are at turns funny and tragic but always brutally honest. Their intertwined lives explore the inevitable: a path paved with filth will often end in wisdom and one paved with wisdom will often end in filth.

Have you kept in contact with your good friends from youth? Are they all doing well? Housewife Zhang Lijun reunites with her high school friend Lin Qing who is seriously ill in the hospital. Lin Qing hopes to be reunited with her old friends before her death. Zhang Lijun starts a journey to find their old friends. Along the way, everyone regained their youth and re-examined their current life.

Ellie, a recovering drug addict, has just moved to a new city with her two teenage children. She has struggled to stay sober in the past and is determined to make it work this time, finding a stable job and regularly attending her meetings. Unfortunately, new friends, a new job, and the chance of a new life, can’t keep Ellie from slipping once again. Her life changes when she meets Christopher – a different kind of addict – which forces her daughter and son to accept a new version of Ellie.

Abruptly abandoned by her husband in a country completely foreign to her, Colombian native Mariana (Paola Mendoza) struggles to take care of herself and her two young children on the unforgiving streets of New York City. Sebastian Villada, Laura Montana and Anthony Chisholm also star in this gritty independent drama jointly written and directed by Mendoza and her collaborator Gloria La Morte.

Yearning to leave behind his life of misfortune in the Middle East, Ibrahim Jarrah wins the U.S. Green Card Lottery for a chance to become an American citizen. Ibrahim lands in New York City the day before 9/11…and the events of the September terrorist attacks forever shape the struggles he faces on his journey to capture the American dream.

When Huiying hears that her mother's dying wish is to be buried next to her husband, she discovers that his remains are in the countryside and cared for by his first wife. A conflict ensues, and Huiying's daughter, an intrepid reporter, breaks the story as the three women search for proof of love.

The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.

The story tells about a 35-year old woman who has been struggling in the city for over 10 years. She meets a younger woman who dreams of a life in the city and a 7-years younger colleague and with the help of the two, her family and friends, she gradually finds her way back to herself again.

The play concentrated on the exploits of the communist underground activities under Japanese occupation in 1939, though history traces back in the 1920s. When Li Yuhe, a railroad worker who was engaging in underground work, was taken away by special agents and Grandma Li has a premonition of being arrested, Grandma tells the protagonist, Li Tiemei the true story about her family. Grandma Li tells Li Tiemei how her parents have sacrificed their lives in the revolutionary struggle. Li Yuhe has taken up the unfulfilled task of the martyrs. After hearing the heroic story about her family, Li Tiemei is determined to follow the example of her father and carry the revolution through to the end.

Mother Feng and her family struggle to live before and during the Japanese invasion of China.

A Chinese couple in the 1930s struggle to survive. Things get complicated for them when he enlists to fight the war against Japan.

A recruit grows up quickly in the army and becomes a mature soldier.

The police investigate the murder of a young woman whose corpse was frozen and dressed up like a doll.

Set in a remote mountainous region of southern China, the film is about a Hani tribe girl, Ruoma (Li Min) who dreams of seeing the outside world. Ruoma lives with her grandma and sells roasted corn in a market for fifty cents an ear. Beautifully attired in Hani ethnic clothing, she by chance catches the eye of a penniless photographer, Aming (Yang Zhigang). They soon becoming friends and he gets the idea of making money by having her pose with tourists beside a famous World Heritage site. Charging ten yuan per photo, they hope to make some money. Ruoma does her job well, sweetly smiling with the tourists while dreaming of going to the big city and riding in a glass elevator. She also falls in love with Aming.

With few other real options, when the young village woman in this story is offered an arranged marriage with a kindly but mildly retarded shopkeeper who lives in a nearby town, she readily accepts. Once she has settled into her new home, she becomes involved with her new husband’s patron, a man involved in some underworld trading activities.

Zhang Chu lives a simple, charmed life in the small town of Tao Yuan. His ex-wife, Cao Shujuan, left him behind to pursue greater dreams in Beijing, while his girlfriend, Li Hong, is back to town from Beijing to pursue a stable relationship with him but ends up failing. The three childhood friends struggle with each other and seek for a way out...