The Best Chinese Mainland Movies
The Fifth Generation's painterly epics, Jia Zhangke's documentary realism and beyond — Chinese mainland cinema ranked by our composite score (Hong Kong, Taiwan and the combined Chinese-language canon have their own pages).
Farewell My Concubine (1993) leads with a composite score of 3.39.
- 1Farewell My Concubine1993 · Chen Kaige · China · drama, romance3.39
Palme d'Or winner 1993 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1994 #2 · TIME All-TIME 100
- 2Still 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
- 3Crouching 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
- 4The 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
- 5Not 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
- 6Red Sorghum1988 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama, romance, war1.50
Berlin Golden Bear winner 1988 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1989 #3
- 7Lust, Caution2007 · Ang Lee · China / Taiwan, China / United States · crime, thriller, drama1.43
Venice Golden Lion winner 2007 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2008 #4
- 8A 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
- 9Devils on the Doorstep2000 · Jiang Wen · China · comedy1.25
Cannes Grand Prix winner 2000 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2002 #3
- 10The 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
- 11Platform2000 · 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
- 12To 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
- 13The 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
- 14Tie 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
- 15The 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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- 18Black Coal, Thin Ice2014 · Diao Yinan · China / Hong Kong, China · thriller, film-noir1.00
Berlin Golden Bear winner 2014
- 19City of Life and Death2009 · Lu Chuan · China · war, drama0.95
San Sebastián Golden Shell winner 2009 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #32
- 20The Road Home1999 · Zhang Yimou · China · drama, romance0.93
Sarris's annual top 10 2001 #1 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2000 #4
- 21Raise 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
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- 23An 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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- 26I Am Not Madame Bovary2016 · Feng Xiaogang · China · drama0.75
San Sebastián Golden Shell winner 2016
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- 28Unknown 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
- 29Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains2019 · Gu Xiaogang · China · drama0.67
Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2020 #7 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2021 #7
- 30In the Heat of the Sun1994 · Jiang Wen · China · drama0.63
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1997 #2
- 31I 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
- 32House 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
- 33Springtime 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
- 34Postmen in the Mountains1999 · Huo Jianqi · China · drama0.43
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2001 #4
- 35Hibiscus Town1987 · Xie Jin · China · drama, romance0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1988 #5
- 36Three Sisters2012 · Wang Bing · China · documentary0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2013 #5
- 37Mountains May Depart2015 · Jia Zhangke, Wang Jing · China / France / Japan · drama0.39
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2016 #5
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- 40Kung 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
- 41Suzhou River2000 · Lou Ye · China / Germany / France · film-noir, romance0.34
Sarris's annual top 10 2000 #6 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2000 #8
- 42Ju Dou1990 · Zhang Yimou, Yang Fengliang · China / Japan · drama, romance0.32
NYT Best 1,000 Movies · Siskel's annual top 10 1991 #8
- 43Ash Is Purest White2018 · Jia Zhangke · China / France · drama0.32
Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #8
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- 45Better Days2019 · Derek Tsang · China · drama, romance0.29
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 2021 #10
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- 47Long Day's Journey into Night2018 · Bi Gan · China / France · romance, drama0.26
Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #14
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- 49The Horse Thief1986 · Tian Zhuangzhuang · China · drama0.25
Hoberman's annual top 10 1987 #12 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
- 50Youth (Spring)2023 · Wang Bing · China / France / Luxembourg · documentary0.24
Film Comment year-end poll 2023 #17
- 51The Grandmaster2013 · Wong Kar-wai · China / Hong Kong, China · biography, drama, action0.23
Film Comment year-end poll 2013 #20
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- 54Fengming, a Chinese Memoir2007 · Wang Bing · China · documentary0.18
Film Comment year-end poll 2008 #50
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- 56Boat People1982 · Ann Hui · China / Hong Kong, China · drama, documentary0.16
Criterion Collection spine #1113
- 57Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress2002 · Dai Sijie · China / France · romance, drama0.16
Sarris's annual top 10 2005 #8
- 58The Emperor and the Assassin1998 · Chen Kaige · China · drama, romance0.15
Sarris's annual top 10 1999 #9
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Two generations of filmmakers do most of the work on this list, and they could not be less alike. The first painted history in wide, saturated frames; the second pointed a handheld camera at whatever the boom of the 2000s was leaving behind. Read the ranking below as the argument between them — the epic and the document, the studio and the street — with the composite score, not any editor, deciding who comes out ahead.
The Fifth Generation and its long shadow
The graduating class matters more here than in almost any national cinema. Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang all came out of the Beijing Film Academy's class of 1982 (access 2026-07-21), and they emerged with a shared appetite for allegory told in colour. Their run of festival wins is the reason this list has a top. Zhang's directorial debut Red Sorghum (1988) took the Golden Bear at Berlin; The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) won the Golden Lion at Venice and a Volpi Cup for Gong Li; and Chen's Farewell My Concubine (1993) became the first Chinese-language film to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes, sharing it with The Piano — then was pulled from mainland theatres and released only in a censored cut.
That last collision is the whole story of the era in miniature: the films the world decorated were often the ones Beijing distrusted.
Jia Zhangke and the return of the amateur
Against the Fifth Generation's lacquered epics came the so-called Sixth Generation, working after 1990 in what Wikipedia (access 2026-07-21) calls "the return of the amateur filmmaker" — 16mm and digital video, non-professional actors, long takes and ambient sound closer to Italian neorealism than to studio grandeur. Jia Zhangke is its center of gravity, and Still Life (2006), his Golden Lion winner set in a Fengjie being dismantled for the Three Gorges Dam, is exactly the counter-image to a Zhang Yimou tableau: history not as pageant but as demolition site. Wang Bing pushes the same impulse to its documentary limit.
How to read our list
Membership is by country-of-origin data (Wikidata P495 = People's Republic of China), re-ranked by our composite score — not by any external chart. Farewell My Concubine leads at 3.39, well clear of the field. The two entries directly behind it, Still Life (2.50) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, 2.44), show the seam in the method: the latter is Ang Lee's, a co-production whose origin field folds in the mainland, which is why a film often filed under the wider Chinese-language canon surfaces here. The same rule pulls in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin (2015). For the pan-Sinophone picture, and for Hong Kong and Taiwan on their own terms, see the sibling pages; this one is weighted toward the mainland's own two revolutions in looking.