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 new
Pan si dong
1927, in 0 top lists Check -
2 new
Gu du chun meng
1930, in 0 top lists -
3 new
Yinhe shuangxing
1931, in 0 top lists Check -
4 new
Shen nu
1934, in 10 top lists Check -
5 new
Xin nu xing
1935 — a.k.a. New Women, in 1 top list Check -
6 new
Feng yun er nü
1935 — a.k.a. Children of Troubled Times, in 1 top list Check -
7 new
Ma lu tian shi
1937 — a.k.a. Street Angel, in 6 top lists Check -
8 new
Shi zi jie tou
1937 — a.k.a. Crossroads, in 1 top list Check -
9 new
Bu liao qing
1947, in 0 top lists -
10 new
Xiao cheng zhi chun
1948 — a.k.a. Spring in a Small Town, in 10 top lists Check -
11 new
Wu Xun zhuan
1951 — a.k.a. The Life of Wu Xun, in 0 top lists Check -
12 new
Ping yuan you ji dui
1955 — a.k.a. Guerrillas on the Plain, in 0 top lists Check -
13 new
Jia
1957 — a.k.a. Family, in 0 top lists Check -
14 new
Qing chun zhi ge
1959 — a.k.a. Song of Youth, in 0 top lists Check -
15 new
Wu duo Jinhua
1959 — a.k.a. Five Golden Flowers, in 0 top lists Check -
16 new
Hong se niang zi jun
1961 — a.k.a. The Red Detachment of Women, in 1 top list Check -
17 new
Wutai jiemei
1964 — a.k.a. Two Stage Sisters, in 6 top lists Check -
18 new
Jue lie
1976 — a.k.a. Breaking with Old Ideas, in 0 top lists Check -
19 new
Lan feng zheng
1993 — a.k.a. The Blue Kite, in 8 top lists 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 -
21 new
Cuo wei
1986 — a.k.a. Dislocation, in 0 top lists Check -
22 new
Bei kao bei, lian dui lian
1994 — a.k.a. Back to Back, Face to Face, in 0 top lists Check -
23 new
Tou fa luan le
1995, in 0 top lists Check -
24 new
Ermo
1994, in 1 top list Check -
25 new
Min jing gu shi
1995 — a.k.a. On the Beat, in 0 top lists Check -
26 new
Jidu hanleng
1996 — a.k.a. Frozen, in 1 top list Check -
27 new
Xiao Wu
1997 — a.k.a. Pickpocket, in 3 top lists Check -
28 new
Mang jing
2003 — a.k.a. Blind Shaft, in 4 top lists Check -
29 new
Khyi rgan
2011 — a.k.a. Old Dog, in 0 top lists Check -
30 new
Wan wu sheng zhang
2015 — a.k.a. Ever Since We Love, in 0 top lists Check -
31 new
Niu pi
2005 — a.k.a. Oxhide, in 2 top lists Check -
32 new
The Panda Candy
2009, in 0 top lists -
33 new
Guanggun'er
2010 — a.k.a. Single Man, in 0 top lists Check -
34 new
Tape (Jiao Dai)
2010 — a.k.a. Tape, in 0 top lists Check -
35 new
Self Portrait: At 47 Km
2012, in 0 top lists -
36 new
China Concerto
2012, in 0 top lists -
37 new
Bai ri yan huo
2014 — a.k.a. Black Coal, Thin Ice, in 1 top list Check -
38 new
Mirrors and Feathers
2017 — a.k.a. The Widowed Witch, in 0 top lists -
39 new
Jia nian hua
2017 — a.k.a. Angels Wear White, in 0 top lists -
40 new
Da xiang xidi erzuo
2018 — a.k.a. An Elephant Sitting Still, in 3 top lists -
41 new
Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers
1990, in 1 top list Check -
42 new
Tiexi qu
2002 — a.k.a. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, in 8 top lists Check -
43 new
San Yuan Li
2003, in 0 top lists -
44 new
Wo sui si qu
2006 — a.k.a. Though I Am Gone, in 0 top lists Check -
45 new
Xianshi shi guoqu de weilai
2009 — a.k.a. Disorder, in 2 top lists Check -
46 new
Petition
2009, in 1 top list Check -
47 new
Village Diary
2013, in 0 top lists -
48 new
Never Release My Fist
2015, in 0 top lists -
49 new
We the Workers
2017, in 0 top lists -
50 new
People's Republic of Desire
2018, in 0 top lists
Last updated on May 3, 2021; source