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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54 new
Wo hu cang long
2000 — a.k.a. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in 27 top lists Check -
55 new
Ying xiong
2002 — a.k.a. Hero, in 6 top lists Check -
56 new
Shi mian mai fu
2004 — a.k.a. House of Flying Daggers, in 5 top lists Check -
58 new
Ip Man
2008, in 4 top lists Check -
57 new
Huo Yuan Jia
2006 — a.k.a. Fearless, in 2 top lists Check -
42 new
Tiexi qu
2002 — a.k.a. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, in 8 top lists Check -
10 new
Xiao cheng zhi chun
1948 — a.k.a. Spring in a Small Town, in 10 top lists Check -
19 new
Lan feng zheng
1993 — a.k.a. The Blue Kite, in 8 top lists Check -
95 new
Nezha nao hai
1979 — a.k.a. Prince Nezha's Triumph Against Dragon King, in 1 top list Check -
7 new
Ma lu tian shi
1937 — a.k.a. Street Angel, in 6 top lists Check -
4 new
Shen nu
1934, in 10 top lists Check -
17 new
Wutai jiemei
1964 — a.k.a. Two Stage Sisters, in 6 top lists Check -
24 new
Ermo
1994, in 1 top list Check -
27 new
Xiao Wu
1997 — a.k.a. Pickpocket, in 3 top lists Check -
63 new
Feng kuang de shi tou
2006 — a.k.a. Crazy Stone, in 1 top list Check -
53 new
Shao Lin si
1982 — a.k.a. The Shaolin Temple, in 1 top list Check -
20 new
Yang guang can lan de ri zi
1994 — a.k.a. In the Heat of the Sun, in 4 top lists Check -
93 new
Da nao tian gong
1963 — a.k.a. The Monkey King, in 0 top lists Check -
52 new
Hongxia
1929 — a.k.a. Heroine in Red, in 0 top lists Check -
62 new
Jiafang yifang
1997 — a.k.a. The Dream Factory, in 0 top lists Check -
26 new
Jidu hanleng
1996 — a.k.a. Frozen, in 1 top list Check -
28 new
Mang jing
2003 — a.k.a. Blind Shaft, in 4 top lists Check -
96 new
San ge he shang
1980 — a.k.a. Three Monks, in 0 top lists Check
Last updated on May 3, 2021; source