Top 30 Chinese movies
A list of my favourite chinese movies. As you can immediatly see, there are a lot of movies from Zhang Yimou on this list, he is basically the main reason I watched the amount of Chinese movies that I have. Although I have found some really interesting Chinese movies not made by him (like Kekexili or Farewell my Concubine) Yimou is in my opinion still the epitome of Chinese cinema. But I still havent seen that many chinese movies so far, so I might have missed some masterpieces.
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- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsYou GeGong LiBen NiuAfter Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China."To live" might be the movie with the best title in film history, because it is so deeply connected with the message of the film. The film is basically about the rapit change society went through in China after Maos rise to power and the cultural revolution. Old tradition are being destroyed, new roles must be fulfilled, people are being brainwashed and you have to be afraid of what you say even at home. People are getting arrested left and right and the only thing that remains is your will to survive, to adapt and to live, trying to be happy against all odds.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsJet LiTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungA defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.This was probably the first chinese movie I saw, but I am not one who rates films higher because of nostalgia. The films cinematography, music and storytelling is just so perfect and fitting to the tone of the movie. In addition to its very fine action and drama scenes this movie is truely a masterpiece.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiJingwu MaSaifei HeChina in the 1920s. After her father's death, Songlian is forced to marry the wealthy Master Chen. With three wives already, each living in a separate house, there is fierce competition for his attention and the privileges that are gained.This is probably the epitome of Yimous cinematography. Its also a very well told and interesting story about the treatment of woman in chinese past.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsKen TakakuraKiichi NakaiShinobu TerajimaA Japanese father travels to China's Yunnan province in the place of his ailing son to film a folk-opera singer.A chinese/japanese movie by Yimou that again shows that he is the best when it comes to drama.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsJingchun WangMei YongXi QiTwo married couples adjust to the vast social and economic changes taking place in China from the 1980s to the present.A quite good drama about a family dealing a lot with loss and despair. The movie as a whole felt a little drawn out at some times, but overall i would say its has a nice pacing with a unique story structure and many very interesting scenes.
- DirectorNanfu WangJialing ZhangStarsNanfu WangZaodi WangZhimei WangAfter becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China's one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.A well paced documentation about one child policy and its shortcomings.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangTao ZhaoLiang JingdongA theatre troupe from rural Fenyang struggles under the decline of communism and rise of popular culture in China in the 1980s.I have seen a bunch of Jia Zhangke's movies and Zhantai is so far the best and only one that i can really recommend. His very slow pacing and long camera shots make me dislike many of his movie but for this one it works quite well. Thats because compared to other works of his, Zhantai has very interesting characters. Zhantai gives an insight into chinese past and the hopes and dreams of chinese people. Overall the dept in his movies was best portrait in this work, especially because you can empathize with the characters that much more.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsLeslie CheungFengyi ZhangGong LiTwo boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.A vey long watch that has some nice drama in it(not as well made as Yimou drama though). Overall a good watch, maybe a bit drawn out and forgettable, but definitly worth a watch.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsZiyi ZhangTakeshi KaneshiroAndy LauA romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.Besides Hero this is the best of Yimous action/martial arts movies. The story wasnt as good as "Hero" but cinematography and music were on par. The beginning is probably a 6/10 for me but the ending definitly a 8/10.
- DirectorYue DongStarsYihong DuanYiyan JiangYuan DuA man who is laid off from a steel factory desperately wants to chase a serial killer in a small city in Southern China.A very interesting and unique crime drama even though there were a few confusing and weird parts towards the end with convoluted character motivations. Also definitly the most rainy movie I have ever seen.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiPeiqi LiuLiuchun YangA peasant woman seeks justice after the headman of her village has kicked her husband in the groin.Yimous take on comedy is definitly quite unique and you can see a lot of his "drama making" ability in this one as well. This movie focuses a bit more on the comedy part while his other comedy "Happy times" is probably more on the drama side.
- DirectorLulu WangStarsShuzhen ZhaoAwkwafinaX MayoA Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies.A quite funny insight into chinese culture from the perspective of an american chinese woman.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsLifan DongBenshan ZhaoJie DongAn aging bachelor has to engage his old, laid-off friends to keep a blind girl happy as a masseuse at a non-existent massage parlor.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.Music is nice and also a nice relaxing story, but quite a bit forgettable for my taste.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiDaoming ChenHuiwen ZhangLu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer recognizes him.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiBaotian LiXiaoxiao WangA provincial boy related to a Shanghai crime family is recruited by his uncle into cosmopolitan Shanghai in the 1930s to be a servant to a ganglord's mistress.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsLeslie CheungGong LiKevin LinNot far from Shanghai, in a country town stands the palatial home of the Pang family. Old Master Pang is an addict who brings up his beautiful daughter Ruyi on opium smoke. Her older brother, Zhengda, is addicted as well, and then paralysed and effectively brain-dead. Zhongliang, Zhengda's brother-in-law, is a successful gigolo in Shanghai who seduces older married women and then blackmails them. When Older Master Pang dies, the clan elders make Ruyi take over the role as the head of the household. Zhongliang returns to the Pang family on the death of Old Master Pang, re-encounters Ruyi, and they are secretly attracted to each other. Wanting to seem sophisticated, she succumbs to Zhongliang's attempts to seduce her. But then an emotional maelstrom follows - for the angry, jealous and sexually frustrated sister (Zhengda's wife) is also part of the picture.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsGong LiFengyi ZhangZhou SunIn 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.
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsGe HuGwei Lun-MeiFan LiaoA gangster on the run sacrifices everything for his family and a woman he meets while on the lam.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsZiyi ZhangYou GeDaniel WuA loose adaptation of Hamlet, "The Night Banquet" is set in an empire in chaos. The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Minister and the General all have their own enemies they would like to finish off at a night banquet.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsYuanyuan GaoBin LiHao QinIn the 1980s, encouraged by the government, a large number of families leave Chinese cities to settle in the poorer regions of the country, in order to develop local industry. The film's main character is a 19 years old girl who lives in the Guizhou province, where her parents have settled. That's where she has grown up, where her friends are and where she first experiences love. But her father believes that their future lies in Shanghai. How can they all keep on living together when they don't share the same dreams ?
- DirectorZhou SunStarsGong LiTony Ka Fai LeungHonglei SunZhou Yu, a beautiful artisan, indulges in a torrid affair with Chen Ching, her poet-lover. United by their passion, he finds in Zhou the ultimate muse, while she believes Chen to be her ideal soul mate.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiZiyi ZhangFaye WongSeveral women enter a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years, after the author has lost the woman he considers his one true love.