To Live to Sing

24 City chronicles the dramatic closing of a once-prosperous state-owned factory in Chengdu, southwest China and its conversion into a sprawling luxury apartment complex. Three generations, eight characters : old workers, factory executives and yuppies, their stories melt into the History of China.

A group of performing art troupe members each face their own trials and tribulations in Chengdu; from escaping a family scandal to dealing with unrequited love, each experiences rejection that shapes their lives.

A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.

The circus comes to town, and the town's orphans are treated to a day at the circus. The circus troupe's 'Jinx' girl causes so many problems for the performers and performances that, to escape punishment, she has to run away. She mingles with the orphans and runs away to join an orphanage.

Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled "Farewell My Concubine" that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Douzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo's explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.

Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry. Addicted to gambling, Fugui loses everything. In the years that follow he is pressed into both the nationalist and communist armies, while Jiazhen is forced into menial work.

China's rapid changes from the late-1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.

The Andrews Sisters headline this musical. They play the lead act at a popular nightclub. The trouble begins when they hire a few students from a financially foundering dance school for their newest production. One of the dancers, a rich young socialite, desperately wants to be in it too, but her prurient maiden aunts refuse to allow her to disgrace their family by becoming a common chorine. She and the club owner (who must have the aunt's permission because the girl is underage) try to convince them, but it's not easy.

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 ..

The daughter of iconic actor John Barrymore is reunited with her father after a ten year estrangement and engages in his self-destructive lifestyle.

A theatre troupe finds escape from the realities of incarceration through the creativity of putting on a play in this film based on a real-life rehabilitation programme and featuring a cast that includes former inmates.

Set in China in the 1930s, the film is about the unsettling relationship between three characters, each involved with a performance of the opera Fleeing by Night in a local theatre.

Riley Burdett, the artistic director of the Onota Theatre in Massachusetts, learns that the theatre’s Scrooge-like owner Regina is preparing to close. So, she calls upon the ghosts of Regina’s past, present, and future to change her mind. Meanwhile, Riley casts a big TV star, Sam Palmer, who has moved to the area to escape, as Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol.”

The ambiguities of Verdi’s theatre are particularly clear in his baritone roles, among which is that of Boccanegra, corsair turned doge of Genoa and the troubled observer of the conflicts that tore apart 14th century landowners and peasants. An eminently political opera in which power struggles are interwoven with family conflicts, Simon Boccanegra echoes the life of its composer – the man who championed the cause of Italian unification and overcame the loss of his wife and children.

In the later stage of the Liberation War, with the victory of the three major battles over, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao Zedong made strategic decisions, ordering Liu Bocheng (played by Fu Xuecheng) and Deng Xiaoping (played by Lu Qi) to lead a group of the Second Field and Fourth Field to advance towards Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and annihilate the remaining enemies in the southwest. On his way south, Deng Xiaoping asked railway experts he met about the construction of the Chengdu Chongqing Railway and gave political education classes to the troops heading south in a timely manner, implementing Chairman Mao's great teachings of "carrying out the revolution to the end"...

Caitlin, a tough city girl and an orphan since age eight, faces two options when she gets in trouble with the law: Go to juvenile hall, or move to the wilds of Montana to live with distant cousins.

Mel is a local politician from a political family. When a family scandal leaves her niece, Lennox, and nephew, Ryder, without their parents, Mel takes them in. She hires Joe to become the family's male nanny, or "manny," after a Ponzi scheme leaves him broke.

A motley crew of young rebellious aliens commandeer an old Starfleet ship and must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy, in search for a better future. These six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.

The adventures of Joanna Beauchamp and her two adult daughters Freya and Ingrid -- both of whom unknowingly are their family's next generation of witches -- who lead seemingly quiet, uneventful modern day lives in Long Island's secluded seaside town of East Haven. When Freya becomes engaged to a young, wealthy newcomer, a series of events forces Joanna to admit to her daughters they are, in fact, powerful and immortal witches.

In 1937, the Japanese imperialists launched a brutal war of aggression against China. Xu Tian was a color-blind accountant in Shanghai with military training who decided to stay close to his mother after the death of his father. After an accident involving a group of patriots led by a friend of his late father, he was touched by the patriotic spirit. He used his sharp mind to help the patriots transporting important materials, which also drew the attention of Japanese occupying the city to himself. During this period, he befriended Jin, a conman-turned-businessman and Tielin, a police officer working in the Shanghai French Concession. At the same time, pharmacist Tian Dan rented a room in Xu's house after losing her parents in an incident Xu was deeply involved. On the backdrop of the national crisis, people were living their intertwined lives with their own agenda, be it for revenge, for duty, for self-interest, or for ideology.

Can five single, independent career women who live in the Ode to Joy apartment building find fulfillment on their own terms? An Di is a successful business woman who has returned to China after studying in New York to find her younger brother. Qu Xiao Xiao is only 25 but already owns her own small business. Fang Sheng Mei grew up in poverty but has shed her “Princess of the Streets” background to work for a multinational company. Qiu Ying Ying is a 20-year-old small-town girl who is trying to make it in the big city. Guan Ju Er is a 20-year-old from a highly educated family, but she must discover what she wants out of life when enters the workforce for the first time. For these women, there is a man (or two) who is trying to get their attention. Dr. Zhao is a flirtatious, handsome doctor. Qi Dian is the stoic businessman. Wang Bai Chuan is Sheng Mei’s steadfast friend who has always carried a torch for her. Yao Bin is a second-generation chaebol. Tan Zong Ming is An Di’s boss who has been friend-zoned by her despite knowing her since their schooldays. 

Chronicles the life of Judy Garland, from her first public performance in 1924 until her death.

Amidst political conflict and precariousness in 1930s Beiping, a wealthy businessman becomes captivated by a talented Peking opera performer.

Six survivors of a car accident are trapped in a mysterious river valley where hair-raising events ensue. What is the shocking secret in the valley? The lone survivors of a deadly accident have their own secrets to hide. Unable to treat each other with sincerity, they become increasingly suspicious as tensions rise. As they try to find a way out of their ordeal, they experience strange circumstances. Escape may seem impossible yet they continue to make a desperate attempt in the hopes of salvation.

A story about the worries of youth as they enter adulthood is told from the perspective of four girls who are about the graduate from college. Being someone with no power nor looks nor money, Jiang Xiaoguo has always envied her three roommates. Duan Jiabao who comes from a wealthy family has simple desires. She is carefree and only cares about chasing after celebrities and eating good food. Luo Yan may despise her mother's tendency to become too overbearing, but at least she can rest assured that her future is in good hands.

In a mysterious and unknown continent named "Suchuan", there are many beautiful legends of mythology. A catastrophe caused the gods to fall, and Suchuan was thrown into chaos. After many years, the young monarch Yuan Yi ascends to the throne and vows to end the troubled times. Yuan Yi believed that the source of chaos was the falling of the gods. He fled the imperial city and found a girl named Ling Long, who possesses a strong spiritual power of the god. Ling Long and her father, Chi Xin, lived in a remote village. Although Ling Long lost her mother since young, she is independent and outstanding. At the request of Yuan Yi, Chi Xin left the village with Ling Long and Yuan Yi and embarked on an adventure to save Suchuan. Evil can never rival justice, and the trio finally defeated the power of evil and led Suchuan to a beautiful new era.

In the 9th Century Tang Dynasty-era China, the Emperor is locked in a deadly power struggle with a group of formidable eunuchs who wield enormous power at court. He strikes back by ordering the death of their ringleader Qiu Shi Liang. But the mission is botched. The eunuchs get their revenge by murdering the Emperor’s loyal first minister, along with his entire family. But his twin daughters, later known as Cheng Ruo Yu and Qiu Yan Zhi, escape. The Emperor is determined to rid the scourge of the eunuchs once and for all, and Ruo Yu pledges her life to help him do that – even if it means throwing herself in the path of danger. The duo forms a romantic bond as they get closer. But will the Emperor still trust her when he discovers her true identity – and her connection to his mortal foe?

Lu Si Heng is the CEO of an IT company and is known as the "male god" of the industry. He was separated from his childhood playmate, and kept to himself ever since. He meets Lin Xiao Di, an news anchor who has to move in to his house due to problems with her property. After spending some time with her, he realizes that she is his long-lost childhood friend whom he has been searching for for fifteen years.

The vigorous head, Qiao Haiyun, ever set rules that every New Year all family members must go home. No one had broken rules all the time, until the most honest third-generation Li Yijin suddenly broke the tradition to go to her boyfriend’s home for the New Year, causing family contradiction. Qiao Haiyun has three daughters. The three generations of women in the Meng family were like a flock of birds. Although they watched each other from the distance, they supported each other and coexisted.

After a successful Canadian run as Second City TV on Global and SCTV on CBC, the cast packed up and moved to America (theoretically) when NBC offered them a timeslot under the title SCTV Network 90. With them, they brought their unique, quirky characters, their personalities, and the shows they had appeared on. Dick Blasucci had begun writing for the cast in their second series, SCTV, and joined them here, serving as a recurring straight man for the characters. Tony Rosato and Robin Duke wrote scripts at the beginning of the show as they had before, until quickly leaving to write and perform for Saturday Night Live. The appeal of SCTV Network 90, however, doesn't only come from the writing, but from the sheer wit of its legendary stars.