Bleeding Steel (2017)
SF Action Film
Jackie Chan starring action film that reads like an earthbound Star Wars with he up against a villain in black and his army of super-soldiers
Chinese Cinema
Chinese Cinema has been with us since the beginnings of cinema itself. The majority of early films are either not available or were mundane productions made by the Chinese Communist state and do not fall under purview of discussion here.
Chinese cinema started to emerge onto the world stage in the 1980s with a series of lavish colour productions. There was the major worldwide success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which popularised Chinese Cinema as its own entity. Following this, there have been a number of expensive, lushly made Wu Xia films produced.
China also produces a number of thrillers, romantic films, dramas and historical films for local consumption, although many genres popular in Western circles such as superhero and action films are not as common. There are some horror films, although the government officially disapproves of supernatural themes, and a small amount of science-fiction.
Chinese film audiences are one of the largest in the world and have a sizeable domestic box-office. Since the mid-2000s, Hollywood has attempted to court the Chinese box-office to the extent of importing Chinese actors and/or shooting scenes in China.
Hong Kong has a vibrant cinema of its own, which is discussed under Hong Kong Cinema, although all Hong Kong-made films after 1997 are classified as Chinese Cinema unless otherwise indicated.
The Butcher, The Chef and the Swordsman (2010)
Chinese Swordsmen Fantasy
Pitched as another Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this has multiple stories, a cluttered look and a bizarreness that comes out more like a Wu Xia version of Scott Pilgrim vs the World
A Chinese Ghost Story (2011)
Chinese Supernatural Fantasy/Ghost Romance
A Chinese Ghost Story was one of the greatest Hong Kong fantasy films; this remake gets everything wrong. The aerial combat scenes are replaced by CGI, the characters rewritten and the Buddhist elements eliminated
A Chinese Tall Story (2005)
Gonzo Journey to the West Adaptation
Another adaptation of Journey to the West. Coming from Jeffrey Lau, a director who specialises in rowdy, slapstick films, this is the most nutso adaptation of the story ever, winding in everything from alien visitors and Transformers
Cinderella Moon (2010)
Chinese Version of Cinderella
This claims to adapt a Chinese fairytale that was the basis for Cinderella. Nicely made but what you get is a cultural portrait with occasional Magical Realist elements more than anything like the traditional fairytale
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms (2023)
Epic Chinese Fantasy
Billed as the Chinese Lord of the Rings, this is an historically-based fantasy film that tries to out-Hollywood Hollywood in terms of effects, design and costuming and looks stunningly epic in scale
Croczilla (2012)
Giant Crocodile
The late 2000s brought a spate of giant crocodile amok films that included some really good efforts like Rogue and Black Water. This is a belated entry from China, featuring some surprisingly good CGI effects
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Sensational hit that introduced most of the West to the Wu Xia film. Directed with elan by Ang Lee, there comes a sublimely graceful poetry in the film’s imagery of sword combatants dancing up walls and flying through the air
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark returns to form in this lush Chinese-backed historical drama where his wildly fantastical martial arts combine with the story of the true-life detective De Renjie/Detective Dee
Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018)
Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
The third of Tsui Hark’s films based on the historical figure of De Renjie/Detective Dee. While the other films were rooted in a relative realism, Tsui lets all restraints loose here and goes way over the top
Dragon Tiger Gate (2006)
Hong Kong Martial Arts
A Hong Kong martial arts film set among the triad wars that is made with an assured blend of turbo-charged and frequently fantastical CGI-assisted action sequences
Emperor Visits the Hell (2012)
Modernised Journey to the West
The idea of (some chapters of) the classic Chinese legend Journey to the West retold in contemporary terms. This makes for some amusing interpolations, while also acting as a social critique of modern-day Chinese society
Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (2011)
Flying Swordsmen/Wu Xia Film
Tsui Hark, a key figure of the modern Wu Xia cycle, makes a lushly extravagant, Chinese-backed flying swordsman epic. Featuring a wide canvas of characters who come together in a series of very entertaining playoffs
Hero (2003)
Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Made following the international success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Yimou makes an exquisite Wu Xia fantasy that is an even superior film, filled with visually stunning set-pieces and costuming
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
Flying Swordsmen/Wu Xia Film
Building on the international success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dagger, Zhang Yimou made the lush, exquisitely dreamy Wu Xia film Hero and then immediately after made this equally visually dazzling follow-up
Jade Dynasty (2019)
Wu Xia Film
Ching Siu-Tung, director of classic Wu Xia films like A Chinese Ghost Story, returns to wow us all again after an eight years absence with another film of breathtakingly dreamy visuals
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)
Epic Chinese Legend/Comedy Prequel
Director/actor Stephen Chow is one of the undisputed comedy geniuses of Hong Kong cinema. Alas, he comes astray with this version of the classic Chinese legend
Journey to the West: Demon Chapter (2017)
Epic Chinese Legend
A sequel to Stephen Chow’s Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. Directed by the legendary Tsui Hark who leaps in with wildly fantastic regard but is also forced to incorporate Chow’s slapstick
Just Another Pandora’s Box (2010)
Gonzo Comedy/Film Parody
A demented Jeffrey Lau comedy that seems to have no limits on how silly it is willing to be, while parodying just about every other film made around the same time
Kung Fu Traveler (2017)
Time-Travelling Android/Martial Arts
A Chinese version of The Terminator if you can imagine the android as the hero who travels back in time to learn a lost form of kung fu in order to prevent an alien invasion
League of Gods (2016)
Epic Chinese Fantasy
A Chinese fantasy film that leaves anything Western fantastic cinema has made recently for dead, including epical battle scenes and a lavish sumptuousness of costuming that leaves your jaw on the floor
The Legend of Zu (2018)
Wu Xia Film
It is unclear if if this is a sequel or remake of Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, nevertheless this sits a confident stride between artful choreography and comedic interplay
Life After Life (2016)
Chinese Possession Story
Chinese film in which a dead wife comes back to inhabit the body of her son to get her husband to move a tree before their village is redeveloped
Longing for the Rain (2013)
Woman's Mystery Dream Lover
Intriguingly different Chinese film about a wife who develops a mystery dream lover and the havoc this wreaks in her life. Largely a work about female desire, this seems to want to be a horror film
Lost in the Pacific (2016)
Disaster Movie/Mutant Cats on a Plane
A Chinese-made attempt to make a disaster movie with a crosscut of characters aboard a luxury airliner. What causes the film to plummet down into the ridiculous is the addition of a horde of mutant cats
The Magic Flying Mouse
Chinese Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
China. ????) Plot China during the Song Dynasty. The Emperor Kang is kidnapped by Jin bandits. The martial arts warrior Li Ma and two swordmaster sisters head to the Jin stronghold on Lying Mountain to rescue him. Captured, they learn of the Jin scheme to substitute a double for Kang. They try to make an […]
The Magic Legs (1989)
Chinese Martial Arts
A rare venture into kung fu cinema made in Mainland China
The Mermaid (2016)
Mermaid Comedy
Stephen Chow has proven himself a comic genius in his directorial works of the 90s/00s. Unfortunately, as he has gained mainstream acclaim, his films have started to disappear under their big-budgets. This is sort of a version of Splash! by way of the fad for madcap Hong Kong slapstick
The Monkey King (2014)
Epic Chinese Legend
Enjoyably colourful and silly retelling of the classic Chinese legend. This is one Wu Xia film that leaps aboard the CGI and 3D bandwagon to create a wildly fantastical airbrushed world that comes out resembling a flying swordsman film by way of Avatar
The Monkey King 2 (2016)
Epic Chinese Legend
Sequel to the earlier The Monkey King, which was fun but this is altogether a better film. While the first film was more prelude to Journey to the West, this sets out on the journey and tells one of its stories. Directed with an immensely assured command of the live-action and CGi elements
The Monkey King 3 (2018)
Epic Chinese Legend
The Monkey King films are a series of extraordinary works that exists somewhere between CGI and live-action and have a lushness of design. That is balanced against a dated plot that basically rehashes Cat Women of the Moon
Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015)
Animation/Epic Chinese Legend
An animated version of the epic Chinese legend Journey to the West that was overshadowed by the hit live-action film that came out some months earlier that retold the tale with CGI
The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven (1965)
Chinese Animation/Journey to the West Adaptation
3D restoration of a classic Chinese adaptation of Journey to the West and the best film version of the story to date … an incredible film filled with psychedelically eye-popping animation and amazing action scenes, while gleefully celebrating a defiance of all authority
Monster Hunt 2 (2018)
Chinese Monsters and Hunters Comedy
Sequel to Monster Hunt, an audience pleasing comedy about a couple and a cute monster that became the biggest hit in Chinese box-office history. This offers more of the same
Monster Hunt (2015)
Chinese Monsters and Hunters Comedy
Apparently the biggest grossing film in China ever. What we get is not much more than a rehash of E.T. with the addition of flying swordsmen. What kills the film is an emphasis of excrutiating slapstick and low-res CGI that makes the various creatures resemble versions of Mr Blobby
Moon Man (2022)
Last Man Alive Abandoned on the Moon Comedy
Comedy from China about a man abandoned on the Moon, the last person left alive in the aftermath of the destruction of the Earth
Mr. Tree (2011)
Life in Rural China/Advice from Ghosts
Film about the life of a possibly handicapped man in rural China that takes a veer into total fantasy in the latter half. A head-scratching oddity that I failed to get a handle on
Mutant Ghost Wargirl (2022)
Chinese Cyberpunk/Mutant Superpowers
A very different to the current SF boom in Chinese cinema at the moment, this is a Cyberpunk film about the construction of mutant fighters
Phantom of the Theatre (2016)
Chinese Version of The Phantom of the Opera
A fascinating Chinese version of The Phantom of the Opera, transplanted from a Parisian opera house of the 19th Century to a film being shot in an abandoned theatre in the 1930s. On the other hand, this version makes the most radical changes to the story of any of the Phantom films
Reign of Assassins (2010)
Chinese Flying Swordsmen Film
Chinese-made Wu Xia film – sort of a flying swordsman variant on A History of Violence. This comes on an impressive scale but also plays down the action element and leaves all the flying swordsman moves sitting on the fence as being possibly mundane
Restart the Earth (2021)
Earth Overrun by Plants
A Chinese attempt to make a Michael Bay mass destruction spectacular depicting an Earth that has been overrun by massive plant growth
Shanghai Fortress (2019)
Chinese Alien Invasion Film
A Chinese attempt to create an alien invasion film epic mass destruction in the vein of Independence Day and Michael Bay
The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011)
Wu Xia Film
Hong Kong director Ching Siu-Tung returns with a Wu Xia film made with extravagant Chinese backing. Wu Xia of the 00s have slowly taken to CGI and Ching readily adapts his moves to this with often breathtaking effect
Sword Master (2016)
Wu Xia Film
One of the lush, beautifully produced modern Wu Xia (flying swordsmen) films. Produced and written by the legendary Tsui Hark
Taichi Hero (2012)
Wu Xia Film
Sequel to Stephen Fung’s Taichi Zero. The first film was distractingly self-conscious and hyper-active; by contrast, this is much less so, allowing it to settle down and start being the fantastic martial arts film it sets out to be. Even so, classic Wu Xia directors leave everything Fung does for dead
Taichi Zero (2012)
Wu Xia Film
From the high-profile release this had, I was expecting it to be a Wu Xia epic – instead we get what feels like a martial arts film by way of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World where instead of amazing us with the fight scenes the director seems in love with self-conscious cuteness of his own visuals
Thomas Mao (2010)
Film About Friendships with Flying Swordsmen and Aliens
Rather odd but amiable Chinese film about friendship between a real-life artist and his model & with flying swordsmen and alien visitors all thrown in for no discernibly apparent reason
The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)
Wu Xia/Flying Swordsman Fantasy
One welcomes a collaboration between Tsui Hark, the godfather of Hong Kong fantasy cinema, and Yuen Wo Ping, fight choreographer for The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but the the results are oddly disappointing, with Yuen’s talents seeming buried under the CGI
Time Raiders (2016)
Tomb-Raiding Adventures
Not a time travel film as the title leads you to expect but a Chinese copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark where you expect they were trying to call it ‘tomb raiders’. The director is also the production designer leading to a gorgeously designed film but also one of constant action postures almost entirely lacking in substance
2046 (2004)
Memories of Lost Relationships
An exquisitely dreamy Wong Kar Wai film as a man remembers his liaisons with various women. Only peripherally a science-fiction film concerning a story the protagonist is writing.
Vampire Cleanup Department (2017)
Hopping Vampire Comedy
Revival of the Hong Kong hopping vampire film phenomenon of the late 80s as personified by the Mr Vampire films. This lacks the slapstick silliness of the originals but settles in with a goofy nuttiness, getting some winning charms out of the romance between mortal and hopping vampire girl
The Wandering Earth (2019)
Moving the Earth/Mass Destruction Spectacle
Chinese attempt to make a Roland Emmerich-type mass destruction spectacle about the moving of the Earth. Much effects spectacle but the film suffers from plain absurd science
The Wandering Earth II (2023)
Moving the Earth/Mass Destruction Spectacle
Prequel to the Chinese spectacular about the construction of an engineering project to move the Earth, this comes with some epic-sized effects sequences
What Women Want (2011)
Man Can Read Womens' Minds/Romantic Comedy
Chinese remake of the romcom where Mel Gibson was suddenly able to hear women’s thoughts. A second time over, the premise seems slight while the film crucially fails to create much passion between its two stars
A Writer’s Odyssey (2021)
Meta-Fiction
A Chinese work of meta-fiction where a man is tasked with killing the author of a book that is having effects on the real world
Wu Dang (2012)
Martial Arts/Wu Xia Fantasy
Martial Arts/Wu Xia fantasy with various people involved in a competition while hunting for a fabled sword
The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (2020)
Wu Xia Film
A Chinese-made Wu Xia film with an exquisitely polished blend of CGI and visuals. This rather intriguingly operates as a blend of Wu Xia and murder mystery
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)
Historical Detective/Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Tsui Hark delivers a prequel to his 2010 Detective Dee film. This takes the character back far more to his original nature as a Chinese equivalent of Sherlock Holmes. That is if you can imagine Sherlock Holmes taking place as a flying swordsman film filled with sea monsters and wildly fantastic martial combat scenes (*)
Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015)
Wu Xia Film
Lush, visually extravagant Chinese-made Wu Xia film, shot with an epic widescreen eye that looks amazing. It falls down somewhat when the two leads become replaced by CGI and only look like the avatars from a videogame