The Best Chinese-Language Films of All Time
The combined Chinese-language canon across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan — from the Fifth Generation to heroic bloodshed to the Taiwan New Cinema — ranked by our composite score (each region also has its own page).
In the Mood for Love (2000) leads with a composite score of 5.13. Top 100 of 118 films in our library.
- 1In the Mood for Love2000 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China / France / Thailand · romance, drama5.13
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #5 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #2 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #9
- 2Yi Yi2000 · Edward Yang · Taiwan, China / Japan · drama3.56
Film Comment year-end poll 2000 #3 · Sarris's annual top 10 2000 #1 · Rolling Stone 100 Best of the 21st Century #8
- 3Farewell My Concubine1993 · Chen Kaige · China · drama, romance3.39
Palme d'Or winner 1993 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1994 #2 · TIME All-TIME 100
- 4A Brighter Summer Day1991 · Edward Yang · Taiwan, China · drama2.89
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1992 #2 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #72 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #78
- 5A City of Sadness1989 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · drama2.77
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1990 #1 · Venice Golden Lion winner 1989 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #157
- 6Still Life2006 · Jia Zhangke · China / Hong Kong, China · drama2.50
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2007 #1 · Venice Golden Lion winner 2006 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2007 #2
- 7Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon2000 · Ang Lee · United States / Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China · romance, fantasy, action2.44
TIFF People's Choice winner 2000 · Oscar Best Picture nominee 2000 · Film Comment year-end poll 2000 #6
- 8The Story of Qiu Ju1992 · Zhang Yimou · China · comedy, drama2.30
Venice Golden Lion winner 1992 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1993 #2 · Sarris's annual top 10 1993 #1
- 9Flowers of Shanghai1998 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · drama2.05
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1998 #1 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1999 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #225
- 10Chungking Express1994 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China · comedy, drama, romance1.92
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #88 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1994 #2 · TIME All-TIME 100
- 11Not One Less1999 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama1.67
Venice Golden Lion winner 1999 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2000 #3 · Sarris's annual top 10 2000 #7
- 12Red Sorghum1988 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama, romance, war1.50
Berlin Golden Bear winner 1988 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1989 #3
- 13Happy Together1997 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China · drama, romance1.47
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #225 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1997 #6 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1997 #9
- 14Lust, Caution2007 · Ang Lee · China / Taiwan, China / United States · crime, thriller, drama1.43
Venice Golden Lion winner 2007 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #4
- 1520462004 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China / China / France · romance, drama1.30
Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #2 · Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #1 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2005 #7
- 16A Touch of Sin2013 · Jia Zhangke · China / Japan / Hong Kong, China · drama1.27
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2014 #3 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2013 #5 · Film Comment year-end poll 2013 #5
- 17Devils on the Doorstep2000 · Jiang Wen · China · comedy1.25
Cannes Grand Prix winner 2000 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2002 #3
- 18The World2004 · Jia Zhangke · China / France · drama1.23
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2005 #4 · Kehr's annual top 10 2005 #2 · Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #9
- 19Vive L'Amour1994 · Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan, China1.19
Venice Golden Lion winner 1994 · Sarris's annual top 10 1996 #5
- 20Platform2000 · Jia Zhangke · China / France / Japan · drama1.19
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2001 #6 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2001 #7 · Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #20
- 21To Live1994 · Zhang Yimou · China / Hong Kong, China · drama1.13
Cannes Grand Prix winner 1994 · Sarris's annual top 10 1994 #4 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 22Goodbye, Dragon Inn2003 · Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan, China · comedy, drama1.10
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #108 · Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #5 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2004 #8
- 23The Puppetmaster1993 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · biography1.06
Hoberman's annual top 10 1993 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1993 #9 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1999 #null
- 24The Blue Kite1993 · Tian Zhuangzhuang · China / Hong Kong, China · drama1.06
Hoberman's annual top 10 1994 #1 · Ebert's annual top 10 1994 #7 · Kehr's annual top 10 1994 #null
- 25Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks2003 · Wang Bing · China · documentary1.04
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2004 #2 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #157
- 26The Assassin2015 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China / China / Hong Kong, China · action, drama1.02
Film Comment year-end poll 2015 #2 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2015 #5
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- 29Black Coal, Thin Ice2014 · Diao Yinan · China / Hong Kong, China · thriller, film-noir1.00
Berlin Golden Bear winner 2014
- 30City of Life and Death2009 · Lu Chuan · China · war, drama0.95
San Sebastián Golden Shell winner 2009 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #32
- 31The Road Home1999 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama, romance0.93
Sarris's annual top 10 2001 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2000 #4
- 32A Touch of Zen1971 · King Hu · Taiwan, China / Hong Kong, China · fantasy, action0.92
Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #225 · TIME All-TIME 100 · Criterion Collection spine #825
- 33Raise the Red Lantern1991 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama, romance0.91
Letterboxd Top 250 #111 · Sarris's annual top 10 1992 #4 · Kehr's annual top 10 1992 #6
- 34
- 35The Killer1989 · John Woo · Hong Kong, China · action, crime0.83
Kehr's annual top 10 1991 #4 · Empire 500 (2008) #202 · Criterion Collection spine #8
- 36An Elephant Sitting Still2018 · Hu Bo · China · drama0.80
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2019 #9 · Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #13 · Letterboxd Top 250 #80
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- 38
- 39I Am Not Madame Bovary2016 · Feng Xiaogang · China · drama0.75
San Sebastián Golden Shell winner 2016
- 40
- 41Unknown Pleasures2002 · Jia Zhangke · China · drama0.74
Hoberman's annual top 10 2003 #2 · Film Comment year-end poll 2003 #12 · Kehr's annual top 10 2003 #8
- 42Goodbye South1996 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · crime, drama0.74
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1997 #2 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 43Three Times2005 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · France / Taiwan, China · drama0.71
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2005 #4 · Film Comment year-end poll 2006 #11
- 44Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains2019 · Gu Xiaogang · China · drama0.67
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2020 #7 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2021 #7
- 45In the Heat of the Sun1994 · Jiang Wen · China · drama0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1997 #2
- 46Dust in the Wind1986 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · romance0.61
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1989 #8 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1989 #9 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1987 #10
- 47A Summer at Grandpa's1984 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · drama0.61
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1990 #4 · Kurosawa's 100 favorite films
- 48Fallen Angels1995 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China · drama, romance, crime0.60
Hoberman's annual top 10 1998 #2 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1999 #null · Sarris's annual top 10 1998 #null
- 49Infernal Affairs2002 · Andrew Lau, Alan Mak · Hong Kong, China · crime, drama, thriller0.57
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2003 #9 · Criterion Collection spine #1159 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 50The Time to Live and the Time to Die1985 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Taiwan, China · drama0.55
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1989 #10 · Kehr's annual top 10 1989 #null · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 51The River1997 · Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan, China0.54
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1997 #4 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 52I Don't Want to Sleep Alone2006 · Tsai Ming-liang · France / Austria / Malaysia0.52
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2007 #10 · Film Comment year-end poll 2007 #19
- 53What Time Is It There?2001 · Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan, China / France · drama0.51
Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #17 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2002 #8 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 54Millennium Mambo2001 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · France / Taiwan, China · romance, drama0.50
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2001 #3
- 55House of Flying Daggers2004 · Zhang Yimou · China / Hong Kong, China · fantasy, action, romance0.48
Sarris's annual top 10 2004 #3 · Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #19
- 56Ashes of Time1994 · Wong Kar-wai · Hong Kong, China · action0.47
Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #28 · Sarris's annual top 10 1996 #9 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 57Springtime in a Small Town2002 · Tian Zhuangzhuang · China · romance, drama0.46
Kehr's annual top 10 2004 #6 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2004 #7 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 58Postmen in the Mountains1999 · Huo Jianqi · China · drama0.43
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2001 #4
- 59Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale2011 · Wei Te-sheng · Taiwan, China · war, drama0.43
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2013 #4
- 60Hard Boiled1992 · John Woo · Hong Kong, China · action, thriller, crime0.42
Criterion Collection spine #9 · Kehr's annual top 10 1993 #10 · Edgar Wright's 1,000 favorite movies
- 61Hibiscus Town1987 · Xie Jin · China · drama, romance0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1988 #5
- 62Three Sisters2012 · Wang Bing · China · documentary0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2013 #5
- 63Mountains May Depart2015 · Jia Zhangke, Wang Jing · China / France / Japan · drama0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2016 #5
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- 67Kung Fu Hustle2004 · Stephen Chow · China / Hong Kong, China · comedy, action0.38
Film Comment year-end poll 2005 #23 · Kehr's annual top 10 2005 #8
- 68Good Men, Good Women1995 · Hou Hsiao-Hsien · Japan / Taiwan, China · drama0.36
Kehr's annual top 10 1995 #3 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 69Vengeance2009 · Johnnie To · France / Hong Kong, China · thriller, action, crime0.36
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2010 #6
- 70Suzhou River2000 · Lou Ye · China / Germany / France · film-noir, romance0.34
Sarris's annual top 10 2000 #6 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2000 #8
- 71Ju Dou1990 · Zhang Yimou, Yang Fengliang · China / Japan · drama, romance0.32
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Siskel's annual top 10 1991 #8
- 72Ash Is Purest White2018 · Jia Zhangke · China / France · drama0.32
Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #8
- 73Exiled2006 · Johnnie To · Hong Kong, China · action, thriller, crime0.32
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #8
- 74Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In2024 · Soi Cheang · Hong Kong, China · action, thriller, crime0.32
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2025 #8
- 75
- 76Better Days2019 · Derek Tsang · China · drama, romance0.29
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2021 #10
- 77
- 78Taipei Story1984 · Edward Yang · Taiwan, China · drama, romance0.27
Criterion Collection spine #879 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 79The Hole1998 · Tsai Ming-liang · Taiwan, China / France · musical, drama0.26
Hoberman's annual top 10 1999 #9 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 80Long Day's Journey into Night2018 · Bi Gan · China / France · romance, drama0.26
Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #14
- 81
- 82The Horse Thief1986 · Tian Zhuangzhuang · China · drama0.25
Hoberman's annual top 10 1987 #12 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 83Youth (Spring)2023 · Wang Bing · China / France / Luxembourg · documentary0.24
Film Comment year-end poll 2023 #17
- 84Stray Dogs2013 · Tsai Ming-liang · France / Taiwan, China · drama0.24
Film Comment year-end poll 2014 #17
- 85The Grandmaster2013 · Wong Kar-wai · China / Hong Kong, China · biography, drama, action0.23
Film Comment year-end poll 2013 #20
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- 87
- 88Fengming, a Chinese Memoir2007 · Wang Bing · China · documentary0.18
Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #50
- 89
- 90Eat Drink Man Woman1994 · Ang Lee · Taiwan, China / United States · drama, comedy0.17
NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 91Boat People1982 · Ann Hui · China / Hong Kong, China · drama, documentary0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1113
- 92Last Hurrah for Chivalry1979 · John Woo · Hong Kong, China · action0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1174
- 93Police Story1985 · Jackie Chan · Hong Kong, China · comedy, action, crime0.16
Criterion Collection spine #971
- 94Rouge1987 · Stanley Kwan · Hong Kong, China · drama, romance, fantasy0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1129
- 95Police Story 21988 · Jackie Chan · Hong Kong, China · action, comedy0.16
Criterion Collection spine #972
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- 98Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress2002 · Dai Sijie · China / France · romance, drama0.16
Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #8
- 99
- 100The Emperor and the Assassin1998 · Chen Kaige · China · drama, romance0.15
Sarris's annual top 10 1999 #9
Chinese-language cinema is the one canon the political map keeps trying to split. Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have separate industries, separate histories and, for long stretches, separate governments — yet they share a written language, a pool of migrating talent, and a habit of answering each other's films across the strait. This page refuses the border. It treats the whole Sinophone field as a single body of work and lets the composite score decide who leads it, so that Wong Kar-wai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou and Ang Lee finally stand in one ranking rather than three.
Three industries, one language
The threads rarely ran in parallel. The mainland's Fifth Generation — Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou chief among them — broke through in the late 1980s with lush, historically wounded films; Farewell My Concubine (1993), our highest mainland entry at #108, won the Palme d'Or even as it was briefly censored at home for its treatment of the Cultural Revolution. Taiwan produced a quieter revolution in the same years, the long-take realism our subtitle calls the Taiwan New Cinema, whose monuments here are Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness (1989, #191) and Edward Yang's Yi Yi (2000, #88). Hong Kong ran hottest and most commercial — the heroic-bloodshed thriller of John Woo's The Killer (1989, #1447), and, at the art-house end, Wong Kar-wai. That the boundaries blur is the point: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, #247) was directed by the Taiwan-born Ang Lee with a pan-Asian cast, and no single flag really holds it.
How to read our list
Membership here is mechanical, not curatorial. We take every film whose country of origin is tagged as the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, pool them, remove duplicates by slug, and re-rank the survivors by our composite score — so the order is ours, never any external critics' poll. The list runs deep: 118 qualifying films, of which the top 100 are shown.
The top of the ranking belongs not to the historical epics but to a mood piece: Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000) leads the entire page at #20 with a score of 5.13, comfortably ahead of Farewell My Concubine (3.39). Because this page is a union of three regions, it deliberately overlaps with its neighbors — every film here also appears on the mainland-only, Hong Kong or Taiwan single-region page it belongs to. Read those for depth within one industry; read this one to see how the three canons rank when the strait is treated as an argument rather than a wall.