Twenty-five years ago, Platform, Jia Zhang-ke’s seminal film about China’s transformation through the eyes of a drifting theatre troupe, premiered at the 2000 Venice Film Festival, travelling soon after to TIFF. Ever since, the acclaimed filmmaker has gone on to direct films that regularly shine at film festivals, and have among their fans, Hollywood icon Martin Scorsese. Likewise, Taiwanese great Edward Yang’s Yi Yi—the saga of an extended Chinese family living in Taipei—was released internationally the same year.
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And if you’re someone who doesn’t mind the very broad distinction between Chinese and Hong Kong cinema—2000 was also when Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, distilling longing and restraint into a hypnotic dance, came out. A quarter-century later, these films remain not just masterpieces of their time but signposts of a cinematic tradition that continues to evolve—one that this list seeks to explore, across genres, generations, and geographies.
The Chinese Movie To Watch If You Love High-Stakes Crime Thrillers: Infernal Affairs
If you’ve watched and loved Martin Scorsese’s 2007 crime drama The Departed—this is the original. This classic Hong Kong cat-and-mouse thriller, which came out in 2002, pits an undercover cop against a mole embedded in the police force. Razor-sharp tension, moral dilemmas and a career-defining performance by Tony Leung make it essential viewing.
Directed by: Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
Starring: Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Anthony Wong
The Chinese Film To Watch If You’re A Diehard Romantic: Chungking Express
Cinephiles regularly bring up the 1994 dramedy among modern-era films with some of the most innovative and daring camerawork (including undercranking), courtesy cinematographer Christopher Doyle. A delightful, if briefly melancholic, diptych about two policemen in a Hong Kong neighbourhood—one experiencing heartbreak and the other falling for a waitress at a hawker stall. You’ll come away smiling at the end.
Directed by: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Brigitte Lin, Faye Wong
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The Chinese Film To Watch If You Root For The Marginalised: Pickpocket/Xiao Wu
Wang Hongwei and Hao Hongjian in Pickpocket
A particularly gritty watch, Pickpocket (1997) is an unvarnished, low-budget film about a petty thief who doesn’t belong anywhere, neither in the rapidly modernising China nor in the life of the woman he halfheartedly courts. Jia Zhang-ke is the master of hardened pathos, something that he does without pulling any punches here. A documentary picaresque that follows a hard-on-his-luck hero who has given up thieving around, this is a sparkling gem in Jia’s filmography.
Directed by: Jia Zhang-ke
Starring: Wang Hongwei, Hao Hongjian
The Chinese Film To Watch For Comedy Lovers: The Farewell
Awkwafina stars in this heartwarming family caper from Lulu Wang. Born in Beijing but raised in the US, Wang followed her 2014 film, Posthumous, up with The Farewell (2019), which is about a family returning to Changchun, China for a wedding in the grand family before the terminally ill matriarch (unbeknown to her) dies. A twist in the tale awaits—but go watch the film.
Directed by: Lulu Wang
Starring: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Tzi Ma
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The Chinese Movie To Watch If Heartbreak Is Your Vibe: Mountains May Depart
Another epic, exquisitely mounted saga by Jia Zhang-ke, this 2015 love triangle features two time leaps, follows the lives of three friends in a globalising China. Tao, who is in love with coal miner Liang, agrees to marry Jingsheng for financial security.
Directed by: Jia Zhang-ke
Starring: Zhao Tao, Liang Jingdong, Zhang Yi
The Chinese Film To Watch If You Are A Sucker For Period Sagas: Farewell My Concubine
A chronicle of love, betrayal, and artistic devotion set against the seismic shifts of 20th-century China, Farewell My Concubine is the kind of film that swallows you whole. The grandeur of Peking opera collides with the tragedy of personal and political upheaval, making this one of the most haunting period sagas ever filmed.
Directed by: Chen Kaige
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi
The Chinese Movie To Watch If you don’t Mind Violence: A Touch of Sin
Jia Zhang-ke (yes, this is a diehard fan’s list) turns real-life news headlines into four stark, unsettling tales of economic disenchantment and retributive violence. From the gun-slinging drifter to the exploited sauna worker, these are stories of people backed into corners they can no longer escape—except through bloodshed. Brutal, poetic and often uncomfortably relevant.
Directed by: Jia Zhang-ke
Starring: Zhao Tao, Jiang Wu, Wang Baoqiang
The Chinese Film To Watch If You’re A Neo-noir Fan: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Huang Jue in Long Day's Journey Into NightZhejiang Huace Film & TV
A slow burn that dissolves into pure hallucination, Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018) is less about crime than about memory itself—how it deceives, eludes and loops back on you when you least expect it. Bi Gan takes the classic noir trope of a man searching for a lost woman and bends it into something hypnotic, culminating in a gravity-defying, single-shot dream sequence that redefines the meaning of cinematic immersion.
Directed by: Bi Gan
Starring: Tang Wei, Huang Jue, Sylvia Chang
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The Chinese Movie To Watch If You Love Sweeping Generational Dramas: So Long, My Son
A quiet epic that follows two families over decades, So Long, My Son (2019) is devastating in the way only time can be—by piling regret upon regret until you’re suffocating under the weight of all that’s unspoken. As the characters grow old, so do the wounds they carry, and Wang Xiaoshuai never offers an easy resolution. Life goes on, but never quite the way anyone hoped.
Directed by: Wang Xiaoshuai
Starring: Wang Jingchun, Yong Mei, Qi Xi
The Chinese Film To Watch If Tragedy Is Your Poison: Suzhou River
If Vertigo had been shot on a handheld camera in the damp backstreets of Shanghai, it might have looked something like Suzhou River. A film of shifting identities, doppelgängers and impossible love, the feverish romance, also released in 2000, is drenched in neon-lit melancholy. The city’s murky waterways become a metaphor for memory itself—unreliable, always slipping through one’s grasp.
Directed by: Lou Ye
Starring: Zhou Xun, Jia Hongsheng
