The history of Chinese language cinema mirrors the history of the expansive Chinese-speaking empire. The early days of Chinese cinema were centered around Shanghai. In the 1930s, the heyday of Chinese cinema, Nationalists and Communists made combatting films filled with propagandistic undertones. After Japan invaded China in 1937, filmmakers fled the mainland for places like Hong Kong, and the creative exodus reached its peach after the Communist Cultural Revolution in 1949, which imposed severe sanctions on cinema.
The Cultural Revolution ended in 1972, leading to another surge in Chinese moviemaking, both on the mainland and elsewhere, from Hong Kong to Taiwan. The films on this list represent some of the finest examples of Chinese-language cinema. They are not bound by genres or themes. They are just beautiful, plain and simple.
In The Mood For Love (2000)
Hong Kong-based auteur Wong Kar-wai made this breathtaking film about heartbreak. The film’s events take place in the crowded, stacked streets of Hong Kong in 1962, following two married couples who live in an apartment complex. When a man played named Chow finds out his wife is having an affair with his neighbor, he consults the neighbor’s wife, Li-zhen, in an attempt to reconcile with the pain brought on by the indiscretion.
As Li-zhen and Chow bond over their predicament, moving through the shadowy and balmy streets of Hong Kong, they fall in love. Their ability to love each other, though, is compromised by the world around them.
Hard-Boiled (1992)
John Woo is one of the best action directors of all time, and his style has been stolen by numerous western filmmakers. He’s at his best in Hard-Boiled, a film he made before he transitioned into English-language movies.
Hard-Boiled stars Chow Yun-Fat as a problematic cop whose partner is killed in a mob gunfight. Tequila, the nickname of Yun-Fat’s character, teams up with an undercover cop to take out the mob boss at the helm of the violence. Thanks to his characteristic sensational and choreographic approach to portraying fighting on screen, Woo made a name for himself with this masterpiece.
A Girl From Hunan (1986)
This Cantonese-language film exposes the stratified social structures that existed in turn of the 20th century China. Xiao Xiao is a 12-year-old who is endowed to a two-year-old boy as part of an arranged marriage. As she ages, she rebels against her circumstances after falling in love with a man her age.
While The Girl From Hunan is a period drama, it’s social commentary was designed to shine a light on Chinese politics and life during the late 1980s, when it was made.
Boat People (1982)
Considered one of the most important films to come out of the Hong Kong New Wave, Boat People employs Cantonese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, its action spanning across Asia.
The movie follows a Japanese photojournalist who visits Danang, Vietnam to document how the city is recovering from the Vietnam War. The man, Shiomi, is about to wander around the countryside, where he discovers many Vietnamese residents have been left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon. Boat People was filmed in China and was directed by a woman named Anni Hui.
The Farewell (2019)
Lulu Wang made a big impression among filmgoers with her 2019 release The Farewell. Comedian and rapper Awkwafina stars as Billi, a young woman living in America who travels back to China to bid farewell to her dying grandmother. The catch, though, is that her grandmother isn’t aware she only has weeks to live.
The Farewell is a touching story about the traditions, generational differences, and cultural experiences that cause families to both drift apart and come together. Awkwafina won a 2020 Golden Globe for her performance.
The Puppetmaster (1993)
Hou Hsiao Hsien is one of the most talented directors to come out of Taiwan, and The Puppetmaster is considered one of his masterpieces. The second film in a trilogy about Taiwanese life, it is a documentary that tells the story of Li T’ien-lu, a puppeteer and actor.
The Puppetmaster uses Asia’s complicated 20th-century history as a background, focusing on the Japanese rule that hung over the lives of so many Chinese people during the first part of the century. The documentary brings together interviews and reenactments to create a meditative, rich story about one man’s life.
Spring In A Small Town (1948)
Considered one of the most important mid-century Chinese features, Spring in a Small Town was filmed in the brief window between World War II and the Cultural Revolution, which limited the scope and abilities of filmmakers.
Set amongst the blooming and bursting spring in a Chinese village, the movie presents a love triangle between a woman, her husband, and the doctor who she fell in love with before her marriage. Wei Wei is torn between these two men. Her husband’s mental health is declining, yet she knows she’s still in love with the doctor.
Yi Yi (2000)
Taiwan-based director Edward Yang is responsible for this poetic and moving study about the day-to-day struggles that define modern life. Set contemporaneously, the movie follows N.J. Jian, his wife, his teenage daughter, and their young son. N.J. is an international businessman trying to support his family, who live in a cramped apartment.
Yi Yi is a slow-moving family drama focused on intergenerational allegiances, obligation, and love. Yang intricately weaves together multiple narratives to bring his overarching ideas into view for his audience.
Yellow Earth (1984)
Directed by Kaige Chen, Yellow Earth is a period drama set in the remote Shaanxi region of China. A Red Party soldier named Gu Qing visits the village in order to learn about the traditions and folk songs of the locals. The soldier befriends a family, soon developing a unique bond with a girl named Cuiqiao.
The movie melodramatically delves into the rise of the Communist Party, pitching traditional practices against the modernized views of Mao’s Revolutionary Party.
Raise The Red Lantern (1991)
This film did a lot to elevate the status of Chinese cinema in the world marketplace. Based on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, the film takes place in the 1920s. Songlian is a college student who is sold off by her stepmother to become the fourth wife of an elderly man, which was common practice at the time.
Songlian is forced to give up her own dreams of independence and personal development in order to serve her husband. Raise The Red Lantern was controversial in China, but it received acclaimed all over the world.
