# Any Good Chinese Movies?



## Fannya24 (Feb 28, 2012)

Hello ,
I ma learning Chinese.
Searching Chinese book and movies?
Any one have a good recommendation ?
Any good movies? it is said that the Chinese Kongfu is amazing ,is everyone Chinese good at it?


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## spearss91 (Mar 1, 2012)

Lust, Caution
House of Flying Daggers
Cape No. 7
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Fearless
Eternal Summer
Suzhou River
Perhaps Love
Curse of the Golden Flower
Hero
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon


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## straightshreddd (Mar 1, 2012)

This might sound lame, but I found this awesome movie on netflix called "Vote for Me". It's a chinese documentary about an elementary school class implementing democracy in the classroom by allowing the children to vote for the next teacher's assistant. It was pretty interesting as well as adorable. Not to mention funny as balls sometimes. It really resembles American democracy at times the way the kids slander each other and try low-blow tactics to get votes. I highly recommend it. 

It will definitely help you because you get to hear mandarin spoken in conversational, everyday aspects rather than the rehearsed, scripted lines of the films listed(I love all of them though. Especially House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). As a matter of fact, if you go on Netflix, you can type in the search bar "mandarin films" and get a shitload of chinese films. I went on a Mandarin documentary spree one time. Great, raw films. 

Well, yup.


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## straightshreddd (Mar 1, 2012)

Oh, shit. Forgot to mention. Although this is a Korean film, check out a movie called "Oldboy". It is perhaps one of the greatest films I have ever watched in my life. Irrelevant to the thread but so necessary to the spreading of awesomeness.


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## imlikemike (Mar 1, 2012)

Ip Man 1 and 2!


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## XEN (Mar 1, 2012)

Are you learning Mandarin or Cantonese?


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## Xaios (Mar 4, 2012)

Raise the Red Lantern.


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## geofreesun (Mar 4, 2012)

A World Without Thieves - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## The Grief Hole (Mar 4, 2012)

Sha Po lang, 
Once Upon A Time In China
A Touch Of Zen
Chinese Ghost Story
Drunken Master 2
Shaolin Red Master
Snake and crane martial arts of shaolin or pretty mich any pre 95 Jackie Chan
PTU
Chunking Express
Flash Point

I've got a collection that goes back 15 years so if you want a specifc genre let me know. The ones above are mostly kung fu and totally fucking awesome.


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## Hollowway (Mar 4, 2012)

Infernal Affairs. AWESOME film. It came out in 2002, and then The Departed (the American film) came out, based on it, in 2006. I saw Infernal Affairs right after it came out, and loved it. Saw the Departed and hated it. 

Anyway, go rent it. Suuuuper good. (I watched it with the subtitles on, but if you're learning you could try to deal with it with them off. I'm pretty sure it's Cantonese, since it was filmed in Hong Kong, but I can't remember for sure).


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## soliloquy (Mar 5, 2012)

house of flying daggers
ip man 1 and 2


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## Osiris (Mar 7, 2012)

Jet Li's Fearless is insanely good but long.


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 7, 2012)

Anything by The Shaw Brothers, John Woo with Chow Yun Fat and young Jackie Chan! Awesome!


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## The Reverend (Mar 7, 2012)

Legend of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen! 

Most of the ones I'm aware of have already been suggested, though.


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## Bloody_Inferno (Mar 8, 2012)

Red Cliff 1-2. Among John Woo's finest. 




The Grief Hole said:


> Sha Po lang,
> Once Upon A Time In China
> A Touch Of Zen
> Chinese Ghost Story
> ...


 
Awesome choices here. 

Regarding Jackie Chan's films, a lot of the early day 70s stuff (particularly his stints with Lo Wei), are plentiful but not all are great. Hand of Death was decent (also John Woo). Some are alright like Snake+Crane, Shaolin Wooden Men etc. It didn't get better until the end: Snake In Eagle's Shadow, Drunken Master (both essentially the same film), Spiritual Kung Fu, Half A Loaf of Kung Fu and Fearless Hyena (Chan's final and best work with Lo Wei; essentially his version of Drunken Master). Stay the hell away from FH part 2 though. 

The 80s were Jackie Chan's best and most memorable work (mostly all directed by Chan himself). You can pretty much name most his movies during this time as essential viewing (except the weird odd ones like Big Brawl and The Protector.... Cannonball Run doesn't count as Chinese either). Project A (1-2), Police Story (1-3... acutually, all of them really...), Armour of God (1-2), Heart of The Dragon, all his movies with Sammo Hung (Lucky Stars series) the list goes on until Drunken Master 2, his last great film. Anything after 1995, much like his 70s work has to be approached with extreme caution. 

Jet Li.... similar story. From Shaolin Temple up to Hitman have all been good to great. The Once Upon A Time In China series are still great today (1-3 only, 6 is alright but can't compare to the first 3 films). Other greats include Fung Sai Yuk (1-2, shows the forgotten playful side of Jet Li), Fist of Legend (a very good remake of Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection/Fist of Fury). Anything after 98 gets a bit hazy, but Hero is an obvious choice (mentioned a few times already), Fearless and Warlords. 

Also note everything that Andrew Lau has directed. This includes the Young And Dangerous series (all 6 are fantastic), Infernal Affairs (1-3 already mentioned), Legend of the Fist: Return of Chen Zen (also mentioned) and all his fantasy sword fighting action films like Storm Riders, A Man Called Hero and The Duel. Avoid his Initial D movie though, that sucked. 

I'm glad The Grief Hole mentioned Chinese Ghost Story, all three movies are great (even if 3 was essentially a retelling of 1). One of Tsui Hark's greatest moments (also did Once Upon A Time In China). Speakin of which, he's got some great movies like Seven Swordsmen, Zu Warriors from Magic Mountain, among others. And to think he did that garbage Van Damme/Dennis Rodman duo movie Double Team... 

Stephen Chow also has a rich film resume, again be cautious. Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, King of Comedy and God of Cookery are the obvious choices. I still can't belive he was the producer of Dragonball Evolution, but I guess that doesn't count as a Chinese film now doesn't it. 

There's a ton of others I can recommend, but so far those are what I can remember. 

Also if you're considering TV shows, check out the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2010 series. 

EDIT: Just for the record, a lot of what's recommended falls more towards Hong Kong cinema and not Mainland Chinese film.


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## The Grief Hole (Mar 9, 2012)

Damn. Forgot The Prodigal Son with yuen biao and sammo and warriors two. Both are way too good not to watch.


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## USMarine75 (Mar 9, 2012)

I took Mandarin and Chinese culture for 3 years... we had to watch all kinds of movies from the Chinese "5th generation" of movie directors. Most are in one of the Chinese dialects... If your looking for something that you can get an understanding of their culture and not just martial arts... especially look for older movies by Zhang Yimou or Chen Kaige. Anyways, here's a list of a few classics:

Yi Yi
Raise The Red Lantern
Red Sorghum
Ju Dou
The Yellow Earth
Farewell My Concubine

If you're into this stuff I can try and find my binder from the class, but these are just the movie I could think of off the top of my head.


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## nojyeloot (Mar 9, 2012)

*Red Cliff (Theatrical Version)
Ip Man 1 & 2
Legend of the Fist (Chinese & Japanese)
Little Big Soldier
Goemon (Japanese)
Shinobi (Japanese)
ANYTHING with Jet Li in it.
*


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## Xaios (Mar 9, 2012)

nojyeloot said:


> *Red Cliff (Theatrical Version)
> *



I watched the version of Red Cliff that was released in North America, and while it was really good, it left me wanting more. I'm hoping to track down a copy of the original (which is actually a 2 part movie and quite a bit longer than the NA release) to watch.

As far as Jet Li goes, my advice is generally to watch his Chinese releases, but stay far, far away from his American movies. (The One )

Also, you can't go wrong with some of Chow Yun Fat's older movies, such as A Better Tomorrow, Hard-Boiled and The Killer. They're all archetypal Hong Kong action movies and they are AWESOME.


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## beneharris (Mar 16, 2012)

geofreesun said:


> A World Without Thieves - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



this movie is incredible. i watched it when i was in china 2 summers ago. awesome, awesome movie


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## Rock4ever (Mar 16, 2012)

Fist of Legend
Meltdown
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
hero
House of Flying Daggers

Not Chinese, but 13 Assassins is a damn awesome movie.


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## The Grief Hole (Mar 17, 2012)

The two parter of red cliff is fantastic. The supporting characters are all amazing despite very little actual focus on any of them. A shame that they spliced the movies together for NA.

For jet li I would recommend shaolin temple 3. Almost the same story as the first 2, with an added marriage (sans romance, how chinese) sub plot. The choreography is stunning but the visual colour and sets make the whole hing come alive. Shaolin Red Master is one of the only other fu films to pull this lush style off.


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## Bloody_Inferno (Mar 17, 2012)

The Grief Hole said:


> The two parter of red cliff is fantastic. The supporting characters are all amazing despite very little actual focus on any of them. A shame that they spliced the movies together for NA.



 Having said that, it was only a small part of the whole Three Kingdoms story after all, so it was difficult to get as much focus on them even on a double feature. Still enjoyable nonetheless. 

Everybody should check out the Three Kingdoms series (2010 remake) to get the full enjoyment of the entire story and character development.


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## bigboi23847 (Mar 17, 2012)

King of triad
Triad election
Ip man the legend begins
True legend
Champions
Sniper
Bodyguards and assassins
New police story
Dragon tiger gate
Invisible target
City under seige
Shaolin ( with Jackie Chan and Andy Lau)
Legendary Assassin
Empress and the Warriors
Flashpoint
Fatal Contact
A Better Tomorrow
Hard Boiled
The Storm Riders
The Warlords
The list goes on...


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