100 Essential Chinese Movies
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- DirectorShichuan ZhangStarsZhegu ZhengZhengqiu ZhengYing YuCheng the fruit seller is in love with the daughter of his neighbor the doctor, but the good doctor won't let him marry her unless Chang finds him more patients. With some creative carpentering, Chang sets about augmenting the doctor's income.
- DirectorYu SunStarsLingyu RuanCongmei YuanLi-li LiSister Ye is the master craftswoman in a village of toymakers that is subject to outside attacks. A series of personal tragedies reduces her to a shell of herself, until she breaks and rallies the townsfolk to fight their oppressors.
- DirectorZhengqiu ZhengStarsXiaoqiu ZhengZhiyuan TanJinglin XuanTwin girls separated at birth are reunited when the one raised in poverty becomes a servant in the household of her sister, now the pampered wife of a warlord general.
- 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.
- DirectorChusheng CaiStarsRenmei WangLangen HanPeng LuoAbout the trials and tribulations of the family of a poor fisherman.
- DirectorYu SunStarsYan JinYanyan ChenLi-li LiSix young men from the city take jobs on a road crew, building a highway of strategic importance to the Chinese Army. The story relates the men's interactions with each other, the local community, and two friendly and flirtatious young local girls who become part of their circle. Meanwhile, their hard work is countered by a traitorous foreman bribed by Japanese agents to sabotage the road.
- DirectorMuzhi YuanStarsDan ZhaoHeling WeiXuan ZhouIn old Shanghai, two sisters, a prostitute and a singer, tried to escape from the local scoundrels with the help of a trumpet player and a newspaper seller.
- DirectorWeibang Ma-XuStarsMenghe GuPing HuShan JinChina's first horror film, this is loosely based on The Phantom of the Opera. A disfigured musical genius roams a traditional Chinese opera house, punishing those who offend him.
- DirectorXiling ShenStarsDan ZhaoYang BaiBan LüFour students in Shanghai have recently finished university. All are unemployed. Xu contemplates suicide but his friend Zhao talks him out of it. Zhao lives in a shabby room with just a flimsy wall of planks separating him from the room behind. Miss Yang, in town to take a factory job, moves in behind. Her nails into the wall knock Zhao's photos down. The unseen neighbours start playing tit for tat... Zhao gets a job as proofreader at a newspaper. He sees that pretty girl on the tram to work every day. He doesn't know her, but it's Miss Yang... Zhao is assigned to cover labour conditions for the paper. He is sent to a factory, the one where Miss Yang works...
- DirectorChusheng CaiJunli ZhengStarsYang BaiJin TaoYinyan Wu1930's China. The village of a poor family is taken over by the occupying Japanese army. One son, Zhongliang, leaves his wife and young son to join a medic group for the Chinese Army. The other son, Zhangmin goes into hiding to protect his family. The focus shifts back and forth from the brothers' parents and Zhongliang's wife and son to Zhongliang's newfound life of luxury in a town not too far away. The plight of Zhongliang's mother, his wife, Sufan and her son, Kongeson is contrasted with Zhongliang's rise in a flourishing company.
- DirectorHu SangStarsTianliu JiangFa ZhangZhen LinAfter setting up a new company with his father-in-law's money, a man neglects his supportive wife for a seductive gold digger.
- DirectorMu FeiStarsChaoming CuiWei LiYu ShiA lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.
- DirectorFu ShenStarsMa LanYunzhu ShangguanQiaqia ShiThis tale of familial warfare and sacrifice takes place in hard-pressed Shanghai at the end of the 1940s. Hu Zhiqing can barely support his wife and children, and his situation is worsened by the unexpected arrival of his mother, brother and sister-in-law. When he is fired by his unscrupulous boss, the whole family becomes embroiled in one emotional/economic struggle after another.
- DirectorJunli ZhengStarsDan ZhaoYinyan WuDaolin SunA story of a corrupt party official who attempts to sell an apartment building he has appropriated from the original owner and the struggles of the tenants to prevent themselves being thrown onto the street.
- DirectorGong YanMing ZhaoStarsMo ChengLongji WangLong GongboanOn the adventures of homeless orphan Three Hairs, a street urchin fighting for survival in the 1940s.
- DirectorShilin ZhuStarsXuan ZhouShi ShuRhoqing TangSet in the Qing Dynasty, years of emperor Guangxu. Guangxu feels involuntarily like a puppet because of dowager Cixi's reigning behind the curtain. He wants to support a political reform.
- DirectorHui ShiStarsHui ShiHeling WeiYang ShenFifty years of modern Chinese history (1900-1950), including wars, revolutions and corrupt politics, as seen through the life and times of a simple Beijing policeman and his family.
- DirectorYu SunStarsDan ZhaoZongying HuangBoxun ZhouThe life-story of Wu Xun, a beggar in the Qing dynasty who set up free schools for poor children.
- DirectorTit LeeStarsYing CheungLuquan GaoBruce Lee
- DirectorWen YiStarsGrace ChangPeter Chen HouChien-Fei ChangA woman finds out that she's adopted and sets out to find her long-lost biological mother.
- DirectorFan CenJunli ZhengStarsDan ZhaoZheng GaoNan DengSet in the middle of 19th century, in city of Guangzhou. The United Kingdom stretches her tentacles to China, the country of great antiquity. UK exports a lot of opium to the Qing Dynasty and takes away immense amount of treasure. The "resistance" and "accommodationist" groups take intense struggles in the court. The Emperor supports Lin Zexu's prohibition policy of opium and sends him to Guangzhou as a Imperial Commissioner for investigating and prohibiting opium problems.
- DirectorChoui KhouaStarsTian XieBin LinWei MaA textile store in Zhejiang province encounters a series of trouble when the Japanese invade China and the war breaks out.
- DirectorTian-Lin WangStarsGrace ChangYang ChangPo-Chien ChinGrace Chang seduces as Hong Kong's most sensual Carmen ever. The torrid passions of Bizet's famous opera gets a postmodern reading when it is transposed to the noir-like setting of Hong Kong's Wanchai district. One of the most exhilarating and energetic musicals in the Chinese language.
- DirectorYuen ChorStarsYin PakWood-Yau CheungLap Ban Chan
- DirectorSu LiStarsWanqiu HuangZongxue XiaJu-ke ZhangThis is the first musical film in China which tells the story of Liu San Jie (Liu the Third Sister), a legendary folk female singer of Zhuang minority in Guangxi Autonomous Region.
- DirectorJin XieStarsXijuan ZhuXingang WangMei XiangIn 1930s, Wu Qionghua was a housemaid of Nan-ba-tian, a cruel warlord of a village in Hainan Island, China. Often abused by her master, Qionghua was finally rescued by Hong Changqing, leader of the Red Detachment of Women - a troop of women soldiers. She joined the troop and became the Detachment leader after the death of Hong. They captivated and executed the warlord and liberated Qionghua's home village.
- DirectorHan Hsiang LiStarsBetty Loh TiIvy Ling PoLi-Chu ChangThe story about the life of the students at a university in Hangchow. Chu Ying-Tai is a female who has to be disguised as a man in order to gain entry into the school.
- DirectorHsing LeeStarsWen-Wen ChangKuo-Chun ChenMing ChiangThe story of duck man Lin and his adopted daughter Hsiao-yue. Hsiao-yue knows nothing about her real descent, which Lin has been keeping secret from her. But one day, someone appears and changes her life.
- DirectorHan Hsiang LiTsun-Shou SungStarsChun YangHsiu-Fang WuLi-Ping ChaoA young guard witnesses the corruption of the system during his first night call in the tribunal. A series of dramatic stories told by each prisoner to the judge ensues in flashbacks. The young guard has some doubt of conscience on his new job, but an elder guard who is also his uncle reassures him it's just a matter of time. The guard back home at dawn forgetting every injustice he witnessed because his wife has just given birth to a baby.
- DirectorCheh ChangStarsJimmy Wang YuChiao ChiaoChung-Hsin HuangA noble swordsman, whose arm had been chopped off, returns to his former teacher to defend him from a villainous gang of rival swordsmen.
- DirectorKing HuStarsPolly Ling-Feng Shang-KuanChun ShihYing BaiWhen the children of an executed General are pursued in 1457 China, some heroic martial arts swordsmen intervene.
- DirectorShu Shuen TongStarsLisa LuRoy ChiaoHilda Chow HsuanA woman falls in love with a visiting cavalry captain, but chooses to suppress it for the sake of her daughter.
- DirectorHan Hsiang LiStarsAh-Lei GuaYeh TienPo-kien ChangThe winters in Northern China could become rather bitter and harsh especially if one must endure it alone. Hoping to spend his last winter in solitude, a timid man must declare his love for his sweetheart before her family forces her to be married off.
- DirectorChing-Jui PaiStarsChun-Hsiung KoAh-Lei GuaHsiang Li
- DirectorHsing LeeStarsHui-Lou ChenShao-Ching ChouBi-Hui FuPeigang, his family's only son for three generations running, is to be executed on account of larceny, but not without the intervention of his grandmother.
- DirectorWei LoStarsBruce LeeNora MiaoJames TienA young man seeks vengence for the death of his teacher.
- DirectorShu Shuen TongStarsChi-Lu TsengHsiao-Ling ShawPao-Hsien FengFour college students and a doctor try to escape the Cultural Revolution.
- DirectorShan-Hsi TingStarsZhen ZhenChun-Hsiung KoSha-Li ChenGen. Cheng Tsu-chung, the "Mars of China", is held in high esteem by his Japanese counterpart, General Itagaki during Sino-Japanese war.
- DirectorMichael HuiStarsMichael HuiSamuel HuiRicky HuiThe kingpin of the Manix Private Detective Agency and his fellow detective solve cases together.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuLieh LoYue WongA man studies kung fu at the Shaolin Temple to fight back against the oppressive Manchu government.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsJackie ChanSiu-Tin YuenJeong-lee HwangWong Fei-Hung is a mischievous yet righteous young man, but after a series of incidents his frustrated father has him disciplined by a master of drunken martial arts.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsSiu-Ming LauMichelle YimShu-Tong WongA journalist attempting to solve a mystery in "Martial World" enlists the aid of a master fighter and a woman named Green Breeze. They go to a mysterious castle where they come across poisonous butterflies and a black-leather-clad killer.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsSylvia ChangAngie ChiuNorman ChuA real murder case which was complicated by the minage ' trois relationship of the victim and the main suspects. As different witnesses narrated their conflicting stories, the case seemed set to lead to nowhere; especially when the real identity of the dead person was finally discovered.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsJosephine SiaoKenny BeeMang-Ha ChengA Cantonese opera company arrives in Cheung Chau to perform for a rich man, who wants to marry of his nephew Dick to the star of the company Ah Gee. As soon as they arrive, the company is thwarted by a female spirit, Catshit, who turns out to be the precursor of a whole army of spirits sent to pester the uncle and one of the older actors. Only Ah Gee and Dick find out that the danger has something to do with a crime committed by Ah Gee's ancestors. This involved selling bad medicines to soldiers as a result of which a whole platoon of ghosts is out for vengeance
- DirectorAllen FongStarsLei ShihHong ZhuWai-Man YungA young man dreamed of a career in comics and movies. But his father would rather gave up all he had in order to let him receive formal education.
- DirectorAnn HuiStarsGeorge LamCora MiaoSeason MaA Japanese photojournalist revisits Vietnam after the Liberation and learns harsh truths about its regime and its "New Economic Zones".
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsBiao YuenHoi MangAdam ChengA Chinese soldier in an ancient civil war flees the battlefield and gets caught up in a fantastical quest to save the world from evil.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouChuang-Hsiang TsengJen WanStarsBor-Jeng ChenLi-Yin YangKuo-Feng TsengThree vignettes from three different directors that tell stories of ordinary people during Taiwan's Cold War period.
- DirectorKun-Hou ChenStarsChun-Fang ChangFu-Sheng TsuiDoze NiuThe story follows a young man as he changes from an intelligently aware youth, to a teenager with much less confidence than he once had, and finally, to a stable adult.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsXueqi WangBai XueQuiang LiuA communist soldier travels to Shanbei to collect folk songs for propaganda while visiting a poor peasant family, giving hope to the teenage daughter in escaping an arranged marriage.
- DirectorHo YimStarsJosephine KooSiqin GaowaWeixiang XieCoral, a Hong Kong woman tortured by city life, returns to her hometown to visit her two old friends. They all find that some precious things in life that disappear through the years can never be recovered.
- DirectorHo YimStarsJosephine KooSiqin GaowaWeixiang XieCoral, a Hong Kong woman tortured by city life, returns to her hometown to visit her two old friends. They all find that some precious things in life that disappear through the years can never be recovered.
- DirectorJohnny MakStarsJing ChenLung ChiangLing ChowFour men sneak into Hong Kong to rob a jewelry store. Before the robbery, they're hired by a local triad to kill a man, who turns out to be a cop. They have to execute the heist while hiding from the police hunting them down.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChia-bao ChangNeng ChangChih-Chen ChenThe semi-autobiographical film on director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's childhood and adolescence, when he was growing up in Taiwan, living through the deaths of his father, mother and grandmother.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsChin TsaiHsiao-Hsien HouI-Chen KoLung is a former member of the national Little League team who lives with his old childhood sweetheart Ah-chin, a traditional family woman. Although they live together, Ah-chin is weary of Lung's past liaison with another girl.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsLung TiLeslie CheungChow Yun-FatA reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsCora MiaoLi-Chun LeeShih-Chieh KingA metaphysical mystery about the lives of three couples in Taipei that continually intersect over a span of several weeks.
- DirectorMabel CheungStarsChow Yun-FatCherie ChungDanny Bak-Keung ChanFilmed in New York, story of naive young woman from Hong Kong who goes to New York to study. Street-wise cabbie cousin takes care of her in the big city.
- DirectorRingo LamStarsChow Yun-FatYueh SunDanny LeeAn undercover cop infiltrates a gang of thieves who plan to rob a jewelry store.
- DirectorSiu-Tung ChingStarsLeslie CheungJoey WangWu MaAfter a string of bad luck, a debt collector has no other choice than to spend the night in a haunted temple, where he encounters a ravishing female ghost and later battles to save her soul from the control of a wicked tree demon.
- 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.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsGrace ChenShu-Fang ChenShu-Fen HsinA young couple leave their mining town home for Taipei where they struggle to eke out a living in an industrial wasteland.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsLeslie CheungAnita MuiAlex ManFleur is the blue angel in one of Hong Kong's "flower houses" - bordellos and night clubs of the 1930s. A detached and beautiful performer, she falls in love with Twelfth Master Chan, heir to a chain of pharmacies. They agree to a suicide pact. 50 years later, in modern Hong Kong, Fleur's ghost appears in Yuen's newspaper office, wanting to place an ad to find Chan, who never arrived in the afterlife. Yuen, and his equally bewildered girlfriend, An Chor, are captivated by Fleur and her story.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiShu-Fen HsinSung-Young ChenThe story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s.
- 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.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungMaggie CheungAndy LauA man tries to find out who his real mother is after the woman who raised him tells him the truth.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsJet LiRosamund KwanBiao YuenLegendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung fights against foreign forces' plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiPeiqi LiuLiuchun YangA peasant woman seeks justice after the headman of her village has kicked her husband in the groin.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsMaggie CheungHan ChinTony Ka Fai LeungBiopic of 1930s Chinese actress Lingyu Ruan.
- 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.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianStarsTian YiWenyao ZhangXiaoman ChenThe lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsWinston ChaoMay ChinAh-Lei GuaTo satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsTien-Lu LiGiong LimKuei-Chung ChengPuppeteer Li Tian-lu tells his life story, and through it, the story of Taiwan in the first half of the 20th century.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsYu XiaWei ChenShaobo DaiBeijing, 1970s. Now that the CR has driven most adults to the provinces, 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery referred to as "girls."
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsChen Chao-jungKang-sheng LeeKuei-Mei YangThree lonely young denizens of Taipei unknowingly share an apartment used for sexual trysts.
- DirectorJeffrey LauStarsStephen ChowMan-Tat NgKar-Ying LawA Monkey King is reincarnated in the un human form as Joker, a highwayman oblivious to his original identity and the fact that 500 years earlier, he and his master, the Longevity Monk, were punished and made to stay human.
- 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.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsBrigitte LinMaggie CheungLeslie CheungA broken-hearted hit man moves to the desert where he finds skilled swordsmen to carry out his contract killings.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsMaggie CheungLeon LaiEric TsangTwo Chinese-mainlanders living in Hong Kong form a close friendship. Over the years this grows into love, but there are obstacles.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsSam LeeNeiky Hui-Chi YimWenders LiAutumn Moon (Sam Lee), a low-rent triad living in Hong Kong, struggles to find meaning in his hopelessly violent existence.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangHongjian HaoBaitao ZuoA small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
- DirectorJohnnie ToStarsAnthony Chau-Sang WongFrancis NgJackie Chung-yin LuiTriad boss Lung, who has just escaped being killed in an assassination, hires five killers for his protection. Their grown solidarity is under compulsion when Lung gives a special order.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsChow Yun-FatMichelle YeohZiyi ZhangA young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorStephen ChowStarsStephen ChowWei ZhaoYat-Fei WongA young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.
- DirectorAndrew LauAlan MakStarsAndy LauTony Leung Chiu-waiAnthony Chau-Sang WongA story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.
- DirectorWang BingThe impact of the decline of heavy industry on workers and their families in the Tiexi district of Shenyang, China, at the turn of the 21st century, documented unflinchingly by a fly-on-the-wall camera.
- 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.
- DirectorJiayin LiuStarsHuifen JiaJiayin LiuZaiping LiuDaily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this, intimate portrait, with unprecedented access, of a working-class Chinese family.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorTe-Sheng WeiStarsVan FanChie TanakaMin-HsiungA unusual group of people in a village on the coast of Taiwan form a band to perform at a beach concert, while the lead singer searches for the intended recipient of 7 lost love letters.
- 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.