10 Good Chinese Movies You Need to Watch, Plus a 2025 Pick

Good Chinese movies go far beyond kung fu. Start with Farewell My Concubine, In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs and Yi Yi, then try Still Life, The Blue Kite and Spring in a Small Town. For a recent blockbuster, Ne Zha 2 (2025) became the first animated film to cross $2 billion worldwide.

This list covers Chinese-language cinema from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most of these are award winners from Cannes, Venice or Berlin, and several have shaped Hollywood too. We have added the year and director for each, plus one new pick for 2026.

Good Chinese movies at a glance

10 good Chinese movies that you need to watch

1. Farewell My Concubine (1993)

Chen Kaige’s epic follows two Peking opera actors, played by Leslie Cheung and Zhang Fengyi, from their brutal training as boys to the Cultural Revolution. Gong Li plays the woman who comes between them. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1993 and is still the most famous Chinese film of its era.

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2. In the Mood for Love (2000)

Wong Kar-wai’s film is set in 1960s Hong Kong. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung play neighbours who find out their spouses are having an affair with each other. They grow close but refuse to become like their partners. The slow pace, the music and the costumes have made it one of the most loved films of this century.

3. Yi Yi (2000)

Edward Yang’s Taiwanese family drama follows three generations of the Jian family in Taipei over one year, starting with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Edward Yang won Best Director at Cannes for it. It is nearly three hours long, but it is warm, funny and very easy to relate to, even for Indian families.

4. Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)

Peter Chan’s romance stars Leon Lai and Maggie Cheung as two mainland migrants who meet in Hong Kong in 1986. They become friends, then lovers, but keep telling themselves it is not serious. The story follows them across ten years and two cities. Fans of slow-burn Bollywood romances will enjoy it.

5. Infernal Affairs (2002)

A cop goes undercover inside a triad gang, while a gang member works inside the police as a mole. Each side then hunts for the traitor. Tony Leung and Andy Lau lead this tight Hong Kong thriller, which Martin Scorsese remade as The Departed (2006), the film that won the Oscar for Best Picture.

6. The Blue Kite (1993)

Tian Zhuangzhuang tells the story of a Beijing family through the eyes of a young boy, from the 1950s to the Cultural Revolution. Each period takes a toll on the family. The film was banned in China, which only added to its reputation abroad.

7. City of Life and Death (2009)

Lu Chuan’s black-and-white war drama shows the Japanese capture of Nanjing in 1937 and the massacre that followed. It focuses on ordinary soldiers and civilians rather than heroes. It is a hard watch, but an important one.

8. In the Heat of the Sun (1994)

Actor Jiang Wen’s first film as director is a coming-of-age story about a group of teenage boys in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. With schools shut and parents away, they roam the city freely. Young lead Xia Yu won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role.

9. Spring in a Small Town (1948)

Fei Mu’s quiet drama is set in a ruined town after the war. Yuwen, an unhappy wife caring for her sick husband, meets her old love again when he visits as a guest. It is often ranked the greatest Chinese film ever made, and Tian Zhuangzhuang remade it in 2002.

10. Still Life (2006)

Jia Zhangke’s film follows two people searching for their spouses in a river town that is being torn down for the Three Gorges Dam. It won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, in 2006.

New pick for 2026: Ne Zha 2 (2025)

If you want something recent and big, Ne Zha 2 is the one. Directed by Jiaozi, the animated fantasy continues the story of the rebel boy-god Ne Zha from Chinese myth. It became the highest-grossing animated film of all time in early 2025 and the first to cross $2 billion worldwide. It also got a theatrical release in India.

Where to watch these Chinese movies in India

Streaming rights for older Chinese films change often in India, and most of these titles move between services and rental stores. Search the title on a guide such as JustWatch India before you plan a watch, and pick subtitled versions over dubbed ones wherever possible.

Want more picks? See our listicles, movies and reviews sections.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Wikipedia: Farewell My Concubine, Wikipedia: Infernal Affairs, The Statesman on Ne Zha 2.