1. Still Life (三峡好人)
A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
It has an average vote of 7.2 on TMDB.
2. Shanghai Express
A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.
It has an average vote of 6.89 on TMDB.
3. Broken Blossoms
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
It has an average vote of 6.891 on TMDB.
4. M. Butterfly
In 1960s China, French diplomat Rene Gallimard falls in love with an opera singer, Song Liling – but Song is not at all who Gallimard thinks.
It has an average vote of 6.6 on TMDB.
5. The Warrior (무사)
In 1375, China was in chaos between Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Coryo sent a delegation of many diplomats, soldiers and a silent slave to make peace with the new Chinese government. However, this delegation got charged as spies and sent in exile to a remote desert.
It has an average vote of 6.96 on TMDB.
6. Mongolian Ping Pong (綠草地)
Bilike has never seen a ping-pong ball before. He and his family live without electricity and running water in a solitary tent home among the vast steppe grasslands. The magnificent landscape here has changed little since the days of Genghis Kahn. But life in the middle of nowhere can be exciting for a young boy. The smallest of details become big events for curious Bilike and his best friends Erguotou and Dawa. The mystery of the small white ball floating in the creek leads to questions about the world around them, as well as innocent mischief.
It has an average vote of 5.6 on TMDB.
7. Curse of the Golden Flower (滿城盡帶黃金甲)
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
It has an average vote of 6.823 on TMDB.
8. The Emperor and the Assassin (荆轲刺秦王)
In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.
It has an average vote of 6.943 on TMDB.
9. Farewell My Concubine (霸王别姬)
Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled "Farewell My Concubine" that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Douzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo's explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.
It has an average vote of 7.948 on TMDB.
10. Once Upon a Time in China (黃飛鴻)
Set in late 19th century Canton, this martial arts film depicts the stance taken by the legendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung against foreign forces' plundering of China.
It has an average vote of 7.141 on TMDB.
11. No Man's Land (无人区)
Pan Xiao, a young lawyer, goes to a rural small village settled in the western desert lands of China to handle the case of a falcon poacher who has ran over a policeman. Pan wins the case through sophisticated reasoning and forces the poacher to give him his car as a reward. Then, he just drives back home, but the return will not be an easy one.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
12. Shanghai Panic (我们害怕)
A glimpse into the lives of 4 Shanghai teenagers.
It has an average vote of 4.9 on TMDB.
13. The Painted Veil
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
It has an average vote of 7.243 on TMDB.
14. Blind Shaft (盲井)
Two Chinese miners, who make money by killing fellow miners and then extorting money from the mine owner to keep quiet about the "accident", happen upon their latest victim. But one of them begins to have second thoughts.
It has an average vote of 7.464 on TMDB.
15. Barricade
In China, a singer and a journalist meet while traveling on a train attacked by bandits.
It has an average vote of 5 on TMDB.
16. Hector and the Search for Happiness
Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.
It has an average vote of 6.718 on TMDB.
17. Not Scared to Die (顶天立地)
Historical movie set during the Japanese occupation of China during WWII. Jackie Chan is one of the good guys but has nothing much more than a supporting role.
It has an average vote of 5.8 on TMDB.
18. Black Coal, Thin Ice (白日焰火)
Two former cops start investigating the series of murders that tanked their careers when the killings begin again.
It has an average vote of 6.457 on TMDB.
19. The Herdsman (牧马人)
In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.
It has an average vote of 6.8 on TMDB.
20. The Alley (小街)
The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.
It has an average vote of 6.2 on TMDB.
