RadiiChina's 100 Films to Watch to Help You Understand China

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The history of cinema has shadowed the history of modern China, turning a lens on more than a century of radical upheavals that have given form and substance to the People’s Republic as it stands today. In the spirit of exploring this vast and complex country through the layer of its big-screen output, RADII presents our list of 100 Films to Understand China. This is not a ranked list of 1-100 — we’re not trying to tell you the 100 “best” or “most important” films to come out of China. Our goal is to give a round and deep profile of the country through the medium of films made here in the last 100 years or so.

This list is a syllabus of movies across the spectrum of time, space and quality that, taken together, provide a snapshot of today’s China, the forces that shaped it, and the directions in which it’s moving looking forward. We’re focusing primarily on films made in mainland China, since these come from a different cultural context and industrial framework than films made in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

In assembling the list we reached out to filmmakers, producers, distributors, curators, critics, experts and industry insiders, who gave us an eclectic mix of mainstream titles, cult classics, and deep cuts. They provided these via the category headings that we provided and therefore do not necessarily endorse all of the selections you’ll find here.

To make it easier to navigate, we’ve divided the 100 films up into 10 categories with 10 movies each:

- Pre-war Shanghai;
- The Mao Years;
- Opening Up;
- Indie & Arthouse;
- Documentaries;
- Wuxia;
- Pop(corn) Culture;
- China Today;
- Bad Films;
- Animation.

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  1. 7 new

    Ma lu tian shi

    1937 — a.k.a. Street Angel, in 6 top lists Check
  2. 21 new

    Cuo wei

    1986 — a.k.a. Dislocation, in 0 top lists Check
  3. 24 new

    Ermo

    1994, in 1 top list Check
  4. 25 new

    Min jing gu shi

    1995 — a.k.a. On the Beat, in 0 top lists Check
  5. 33 new

    Guanggun'er

    2010 — a.k.a. Single Man, in 0 top lists Check
  6. 61 new

    A Great Wall

    1986 — a.k.a. The Great Wall Is a Great Wall, in 0 top lists Check
  7. 62 new

    Jiafang yifang

    1997 — a.k.a. The Dream Factory, in 0 top lists Check
  8. 63 new

    Feng kuang de shi tou

    2006 — a.k.a. Crazy Stone, in 1 top list Check
  9. 64 new

    Rang zi dan fei

    2010 — a.k.a. Let the Bullets Fly, in 1 top list Check
  10. 66 new

    Bei Jing yu shang Xi Ya Tu

    2013 — a.k.a. Finding Mr. Right, in 0 top lists Check
  11. 67 new

    Zhuo yao ji

    2015 — a.k.a. Monster Hunt, in 1 top list Check
  12. 81 new

    Ren zai jiong tu: Tai jiong

    2012 — a.k.a. Lost in Thailand, in 1 top list Check
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Last updated on May 3, 2021; source