Good Chinese Movies - 中国好电影
A collection of good Chinese cinema. Some titles may be quite famous and some less so. This list is an attempt to collate some of the more beautiful pieces of Chinese cinema.
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64 titles
- DirectorBi GanStarsYongzhong ChenFeiyang LuoLixun XieWhile travelling the countryside to locate his nephew, a small town doctor finds himself interacting with people from his past and future.
- DirectorBi GanStarsTang WeiJue HuangSylvia ChangA man went back to Guizhou, found the tracks of a mysterious woman. He recalls the summer he spent with her twenty years ago.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsBingbing FanWei FanXiaogang FengAfter being swindled by her ex-husband, a woman takes on the Chinese legal system.
- DirectorXiaogang FengStarsXuan HuangMiao MiaoCaiyu YangA look at the lives of members of a Military Cultural Troupe in the 1970s.
- DirectorRene LiuStarsBoran JingDongyu ZhouZhuangzhuang TianDuring the hectic chunyun period, two strangers traveling home meet on the train.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsTang WeiShaofeng FengZhiwen WangThe life story of Xiao Hong, one of China's most famous essayists and novelists, who reflected the progressive thinking not frequently seen during the 1930s.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiTang WeiJoan ChenDuring World War II era, a young woman, Wang Jiazhi, gets swept up in a dangerous game of emotional intrigue with a powerful political figure, Mr. Yee.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsJet LiTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungA defense officer, Nameless, was summoned by the King of Qin regarding his success of terminating three warriors.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorAndrew LauAndrew Lau Wai-KeungStarsShu QiYe LiuAnthony Chau-Sang WongA cute, drunk realtor (Shu Qi), dating her married boss, pukes on a single, sober cop at a Beijing hotel after partying. They keep bumping into each other after that.
- 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.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoFan LiaoZheng XuA story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.
- DirectorBo HuStarsYu ZhangYuchang PengUvin WangFour people in a Chinese city live through a complicated day as their lives intersect.
- DirectorBaoping CaoStarsXinyue CaoXu DaiJinglin GuoTwelve year old Li Wan (Zhang Xueying) has lost her mother long ago. When she grew up, her father remarried. Not long after, Li played with a half brother. This series of events lead to adolescent Li play has become strange and silent, in order to appease and divert the daughter inside depressed, father bought a lovely dog, hoping it can replace himself with his daughter. Li Wan and the puppy soon established a deep affection, she named the puppy "Einstein"". Unfortunately, an accident, Einstein lost, under a huge blow, Lee with his wayward will play the whole family jiquanbuning exhortations. After the father sent Lee Wanyi puppy to replace Einstein, but Li Wan knew that everything changed, he could not go back to the past, compromise, seems to be the only choice.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorNgai Choi LamStarsSiu-Ho ChinWai-kong HaChien-Hua HsuWhen a gambling boss named Chen Yuan Lung ends up dead, he leaves his two sons, Chia Chin and Chia Kang in the custody of his good buddy Chiptooth.
- DirectorFelix ChongAlan MakStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiXun ZhouXuebing WangAn espionage thriller set in the 1950s and adapted from the novel "Year Suan/Plot Against" by May Jia. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a blind man who works for a piano tuner. He is recruited for a spy mission because of his exceptional hearing.
- DirectorMeng ZhangStarsHe ChenShawn DouChen YaoFrom acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Meng (Piano in a Factory), the Chinese remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's (Cinema Paradiso) emotionally stirring film follows a widower's visits to his four adult children who lead distinctly different lives in four Chinese cities.It takes an intimate look at the struggling young generation in a nation transitioning from a collective past to a materialist present.
- DirectorHu GuanStarsXiaogang FengHanyu ZhangQing XuA well respected man residing in what's left of old-Beijing attempts to exonerate his son from his wrongdoings with his own methods and beliefs.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsBrigitte LinTakeshi KaneshiroTony Leung Chiu-waiTwo melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsAndy LauDeannie IpHailu QinAfter suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
- DirectorSam VoutasStarsJun ZhaoWang NaixunQing HanWhen home entertainment enters the market in 90s Beijing, a former projectionist ropes his young son into starting their own pirate movie company, but easy money comes with its own price tag.
- DirectorStephen ChowLik-Chi LeeStarsStephen ChowAnita YuenKar-Ying LawA Chinese spy who's been out of service for ten years whilst making a living as a butcher is sent to Hong Kong to locate a stolen Tyrannosaurus rex skull.
- DirectorWi Ding HoStarsJack KaoHong-Chi LeeLouise GrinbergThis is a story about a common man who has extraordinary events in his mundane life. The film depicts the protagonist's turns of events in three eras, three seasons, three nights, in the same city, as told with reverse chronology.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenYi-ching LuA watch salesman meets a young woman soon leaving for Paris and becomes infatuated, so he begins to change all the clocks in Taipei to Paris time.
- DirectorChuan LuStarsYe LiuWei FanHideo NakaizumiIn 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing, the Chinese capital. There was a battle and subsequent atrocities against the inhabitants, especially those who took refuge in the International Security Zone.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsChang ChenLisa YangKuo-Chu ChangBased on a true story, primarily on a conflict between two youth gangs, a 14-year-old boy's girlfriend conflicts with the head of one gang for an unclear reason, until finally the conflict comes to a violent climax.
- DirectorMong-Hong ChungStarsShiao Hai PiShih-Chieh KingLei HaoTen year-old Xiang faces a lonely future after his father dies. Just when he thinks he's going to spend his life in the orphanage, his estranged mother shows up. And his life changes forever... A loveless mother, a hateful stepfather, a chilly home. Where's Xiang heading to? He finds comfort in drawing and his work reveals his longing for care and affection. Life is full of hope again when he meets the old school janitor who doesn't show his kindness easily and a portly man who has crazy ideas and is haunted with nightmares of his brother. A scary truth is about to be unmasked. Will Xiang be able to depict his own image in the fourth portrait?
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsXuejian LiTaishen ChengDongyu ZhouRomance sparks between a young woman and a young man from different economic backgrounds during China's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s.
- 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.
- DirectorDerek TsangStarsDongyu ZhouJackson YeeFang YinWhile she copes the the pressures of her final examinations, a bullied teenage girl forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious young man who protects her from her assailants.
- 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.
- DirectorShaohong LiStarsZhaohui GongYajie HuLu HuiThe young teacher Li Mingguang is to be murdered in the north of China because of having taken the virginity from the young girl Li Pingwa. The whole family wants to take revenge on him for that, even the whole village.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiWen JiangRujun TengWhen a leprous winery owner in 1930s China dies a few days after his arranged marriage, his young widow is forced to run the winery to make a living while contending with bandits, her drunkard lover, and the invading Japanese army.
- DirectorTian-yi YangStarsSiyuan ZhaoJia FuPongpazroj DejFang Lei, a Beijing housewife, is leading a peaceful and affluent life with her husband and daughter. Life goes by until one day a man appears in her dreams. His appearance is unclear, but the touch of his body is awakening a woman Fang Lei didn't know she could be. This shadow slowly becomes the lover she can't live without. Afraid of starting to loose her mind, she turns to a Taoist Monk for help. But the separation with her inner ghost is too painful and she soon returns to him.
- DirectorJi HuangStarsYixiang HuangXiaolin LiuPingao XiaoSet in her home village in rural Hunan province, Egg and Stone is a powerful autobiographical portrait of a 14-year-old girl's attempts to come to terms with her emerging sexual maturity.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWu JiangBaoqiang WangTao ZhaoFour independent stories set in modern China about random acts of violence.
- DirectorYuan ZhangStarsJian CuiWen LiBian TianshuoA rock musician looks for his girl-friend who left while pregnant, trying to decide whether to keep the baby.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangHongjian HaoBaitao ZuoA small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
- DirectorYe LouStarsXun ZhouHongsheng JiaZhongkai HuaAfter getting out of prison, small-time crook Mardar stumbles upon a woman who looks exactly like his long-lost lover.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsXiaodong LiuYe LouHong YuThe Days is Wang Xiaoshuai's 1993 debut. Filmed in black-and-white, The Days follows the life of two married artists who have graduated from the Beijing Art Institute.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsLin CuiXun ZhouBin LiA seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWei Wei ZhaoQiong WuTao ZhaoTwo unemployed Chinese teenagers have trouble resisting the temptations of the Western world.
- DirectorYe LouStarsLei HaoXiaodong GuoXueyun BaiYu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoZhou LanSanming HanA town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
- DirectorYang LiStarsYixiang LiBaoqiang WangShuangbao WangTwo coal miners and conmen looking for their next murder victim decide on a naïve country boy desperately looking for a job.
- 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.
- DirectorShuqin HuangStarsShouli XuBaotian LiQilin JiThe fictional life and career of a famous actress in Chinese opera, a woman who goes against tradition by specializing in playing male roles, especially that of Zhang Kui, a benevolent ghost who appears in several Chinese operas. Although the actress's career brings wealth and fame, it is attained only through considerable struggle against an anti-female system and an unhappy personal life.
- DirectorNuanxing ZhangStarsFengxu LiYuanzheng FengTao SongA young girl from the city is sent out to work in a village of Dai people in China's cultural revolution. Here she learns to enjoy being young and gains a new outlook on life.
- DirectorYonggang WuStarsLingyu RuanTian JianZhizhi ZhangStreet walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.
- DirectorXiaolian PengStarsLiping LüJingming ShiHaiying SunShanghai Women describes the problem that women encounter trying to secure urban (residential) space through the story of women from three generations.
- DirectorJi HuangRyûji OtsukaStarsYao FangXiao LiqiaoHonggui YaoA 16 year-old high-school student is left behind by her parents and longing for love. She steals cellphones and sells them to men she doesn't know. As she takes risks, she has her first sexual experience - a cruel one.
- DirectorWeijun ChenStarsCheng ChengLuo LeiXu XiaofeiDemocracy in China exists, that is, in a primary school in Wuhan where a grade 3 class can vote who they want as class monitor.
- DirectorWeixi ChenHao WuAnonymousRaw and intimate, this documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.
- DirectorLixin FanStarsChanghua ZhangYang ZhangSuqin ChenA couple embarks on a journey home for Chinese new year along with 130 million other migrant workers, to reunite with their children and struggle for a future. Their unseen story plays out as China soars towards being a world superpower.
- DirectorYung ChangStarsJerry Bo Yu ChenCampbell Ping HeCindy Shui YuAt the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
- DirectorYang MingmingStarsNai AnYang MingmingXianmin ZhangGirls Always Happy confronts the contemporary city life with a brand new perspective, and portrays with astonishing precision, the spectacle of mutual repulsion, hatred, and harm in a single mother-daughter relationship in a Beijing Hutong. Yet from the despair grows the power of tender love.
- DirectorPeng Fei SongStarsZe YingBule YeMen YeYe Nan, a mother belonging to the Dai minority, comes back to her village after living in the city. She wants to take care of the 13-year-old daughter she'd left behind, but the road to rebuilding their relationship is full of obstacles.
- DirectorDalei ZhangStarsWeiyi KongChen ZhangIn Inner Mongolia in the early 1990s, 12-year-old Xiaolei enjoys summer with his father, who works at a film studio, and his education-minded mother. But life is rapidly changing, as stable jobs at state-owned companies disappear. Hohhot-born director Zhang Dalei, who was inspired by "the magic of a daydream" he experienced while visiting his grandmother, has created a portrait of his country's past, in beautiful monochrome. Distancing itself from the nostalgic tone of popular teen dramas, the film presents a boy's detached view of the world. Pema Tseden, of Old Dog and Tharlo, is the executive producer. In a small town in western China in the early 1990s, after finishing primary school, Xiaolei looks forward to his long-awaited summer vacation, free of homework. However, this hot summer is not the usual leisurely summer he imagines, as it coincides with the transformation of state-owned companies and the loss of job security. While Xiaolei and his friends idle away the days, the shock of the reformation of state-owned enterprises sees his parents, seemingly calm in the blazing sunshine, seething wg with inner anxiety. As time passes, Xiaolei has a feeling that a revolution has quietly taken place. His father has to become a migrant worker to make a living, with the mother and son relying on each other. Xiaolei feels that life has changed completely. One night at the beginning of autumn, the epiphyllum in Xiaolei's yard blooms, as if it were an apocalypse.
- DirectorYichun WangStarsXiaotong SuXiao GuoQiwei LuIn the summer of 1991, a rape case broke the peace of a small town. The fathers of two girls in the local middle school were the policemen in charge of the case. Nevertheless, they had very different working styles: QU's father was a stubborn legal medical expert always insisting on ironclad evidence, while ZHANG's father, a retired soldier, handled cases relying on his intuition and often extorted confessions through torture. The supposed criminal was caught by ZHANG's father yet similar cases kept happening. Nobody noticed ZHANG's disappearance since she was kicked out of class.
- DirectorDa PengStarsJixiang WangDa PengLu LiuRework on Dong Chengpeng's previous award winning short "A Final Reunion". A comedy director has come up with an idea of breaking through his common filmmaking take by shooting a short film about how his grandmother would have spent on the New Year's day, crews recruited, the protagonist on set, everyone ready in the rural remote country where he was born and raised while out of everyone's expectation, the grandma passed. The movie has to go on, hence the narrative metamorphosizes from here - You can't always get what you want, as a storyteller, he leads the whole crew into another diverged yet moving journey.
- StarsWeizhong GaoArron LeeDong LiangThere is a not so common occupation for folks living next to the Huang River, dead body retrieving. The families of the deceased would pay high for people to retrieve their love ones' bodies. Liangde Wei's father is one of the retrievers. Liangde was in jail for the last ten years due to crime of intentional injury. In order to earn a living after being released from prison, he took up the same job as his father. In the process, they discovered secrets between each other.
- DirectorJie LiuStarsMi YangJingfei GuoHong-Chi LeeWhen a woman who was abandoned at birth because of a genetic disorder sees a child facing the same fate, she finds herself trying to persuade their parents to reconsider and goes to extreme lengths to save the child, in Liu Jie's latest.