Favourite Chinese films
I didn't discover Chinese cinema until the mid 90's, but quickly took to Wong Kar Wai, and Zhang Yimou were very accessible. Wong, in particular, spoke to my own cinematic sensibilities at the time, and I began to delve further from there.
While I haven't included everything I have discovered that is worthwhile, and I still have many reputed Chinese classics to see, I have included those that made the biggest impression.
While I haven't included everything I have discovered that is worthwhile, and I still have many reputed Chinese classics to see, I have included those that made the biggest impression.
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31 titles
- 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.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiChang ChenFang MeiThree stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors play the two main characters in each story.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenYi-ching LuHsiao-Kang, now working as a pornographic actor, meets Shiang-chyi once again. Meanwhile, the city of Taipei faces a water shortage that makes the sales of watermelons skyrocket.
- DirectorYimou ZhangFengliang YangStarsGong LiWei LiBaotian LiIn rural China, the young bride of a tyrannical owner of a silk-dyeing business finds temporary solace in the arms of her husband's nephew, but problems arise when she becomes pregnant.
- 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.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoTaishen ChengJue JingAn exploration on the impact of urbanization and globalization on a traditional culture.
- DirectorXiaogang GuStarsZhenyang DongHongjun DuWei MuA feature film shot over the course of two years intended to capture the changing of the seasons along the river in a town in the Fuyang district of Hangzhou city.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsSihung LungKuei-Mei YangWang Yu-wenA senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.
- 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.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsWu JiangBaoqiang WangTao ZhaoFour independent stories set in modern China about random acts of violence.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungTony Leung Chiu-waiChang ChenA couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsFan LiaoGwei Lun-MeiXuebing WangAn ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsWen JiangJoan ChenAnthony Chau-Sang WongJiang Wen stars in his third directorial work that boasts a stellar cast including Joan Chen, Anthony Wong and Jaycee Chan. A polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert.
- DirectorEric ValliMichel DebatsStarsThilen LhondupGurgon KyapLhakpa TsamchoeAn aging chief's last stand, lessons for the new, and the education of a young chief-to-be played against harsh Nature in Nepal's Dolpo. When his son dies returning from Tibet's salt lakes, Tinle blames Karma, his son's friend, refuses to give Karma his blessing as the new chief, and organizes a rival caravan to take the salt to lower Nepal to trade for grain. He, a few old men, his son's widow, his grandson, and his second son, a monk, set out on the arduous journey. Fearing storms, Karma has led his caravan out of the village before the auspicious day ordained by the lamas. Tinle's group catches Karma's before the final pass; the two stubborn men lock wills with Tinle's grandson watching.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeon LaiMichelle ReisTakeshi KaneshiroThis Hong Kong-set crime drama follows the lives of a hitman, hoping to get out of the business, and his elusive female partner.
- DirectorBo HuStarsYu ZhangYuchang PengUvin WangFour people in a Chinese city live through a complicated day as their lives intersect.
- 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.
- DirectorXiaoshuai WangStarsTong WangYu ShiTao GuoTwo young farm workers, who like millions of others, leave their village to seek their fortunes in the city. Each chose a vastly different path to make it and become embroiled in misunderstandings, gangster brawls and police raids.
- DirectorTian-Ming WuStarsXu ZhuRenying ZhouZhigang ZhaoIn a remote area of China, in the 1930s, a street performer named Wang practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian. Seeking to pass his art, Wang buys what he believes to be an orphan boy, but quickly learns his new disciple's secret.
- DirectorShaohong LiStarsXun ZhouJun WuMing CaiWhen Yan'ni starts college, she believes she is embarking on a new life away from her family, and she is but without the new beginning she anticipates. Once at school, she immediately meets Muyu and falls in love with him. What she does not know is that from the moment he met her, he began an intricate deception that would lead to the loss of her child and the future she believes in.
- 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.