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Good Chinese Movies?

TaranisTaranis Registered User regular
edited January 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
I just started learning Chinese (Mandarin) this semester, and I've been looking for some good Chinese movies to watch.

I've seen:

Legend of the Drunken Master (one of my favorite martial arts movies)
Hard Boiled (excellent)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (it was decent)
To Live (excellent but depressing)

I'll watch just about anything, but I'm not a fan of over-the-top martial arts movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (so Hero and House of Flying Daggers don't really appeal to me).

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Posts

  • CauldCauld Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Are you learning Cantonese or Mandarin?

    Cauld on
  • TaranisTaranis Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Cauld wrote: »
    Are you learning Cantonese or Mandarin?

    Mandarin

    Taranis on
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  • CauldCauld Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My wife recommends Huozhe. The word means 'alive' or something similar to it, but I don't know what the English name of the movie is.

    Cauld on
  • -SPI--SPI- Osaka, JapanRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Poop, that rules out all the excellent Hong Kong cinema.

    I'll suggest Emperor and the Assassin, a rather excellent historical epic. Also everyone should see The One Armed Boxer Vs. the Flying Guillotine.

    -SPI- on
  • ChenChen Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    The first movie to pop in my head is Infernal Affairs.

    Also anything by Johnnie To:
    The Mission
    Running Out of Time
    PTU
    Election
    Exiled

    If you're looking for a laugh there's of course Stephen Chow:
    God of Gamblers
    From Beijing with Love
    Sixty Million Dollar Man
    Shaolin Soccer
    Kung Fu Hustle

    Chen on
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  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Yeah, anything by Stephen Chow is generally awesome. Even CJ7.

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  • Page-Page- Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Infernal Affairs is good, good stuff. Better than The Departed, in my opinion. But I'm pretty sure it's Cantonese.

    Beijing Bicycle is good but depressing as fuck.

    Throw Down is awesome and . . . Cantonese.

    Same with all the other Johnnie To movies I know.

    Same with Flashpoint.

    Actually, when I think about it, Beijing Bicycle is like the only movie I can think of that's Mandarin. Although you could probably get most of them in Mandarin as well, couldn't you? It would make sense.

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  • UnderdogUnderdog Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Page- wrote: »
    Infernal Affairs is good, good stuff. Better than The Departed, in my opinion. But I'm pretty sure it's Cantonese.

    Beijing Bicycle is good but depressing as fuck.

    Throw Down is awesome and . . . Cantonese.

    Same with all the other Johnnie To movies I know.

    Same with Flashpoint.

    Actually, when I think about it, Beijing Bicycle is like the only movie I can think of that's Mandarin. Although you could probably get most of them in Mandarin as well, couldn't you? It would make sense.

    Yeah Infernal Affairs is a fun one and I'm pretty sure that whatever dvd you buy of it, it'll have mandarin as an option. Running Out of Time is also good.

    The Police Story series is fun, if a bit inane. Also rather racist at some points so be careful. Same applies to the Armour of God series.

    Haha the wacky movies of Mr. Vampire and all of its sequels and spawns were great fun to watch as long as you're not looking for anything serious. Essentially Chinese vampire hunters from the 80's. A Chinese Ghost Story is good too, as are the sequels.

    Ohh the Once Upon a Time in China series are nice. Good action and Jet Li's acting isn't hamstrung by his bad English. I mean it still isn't great but not as awful as the One.

    God of Gamblers. An absolutely silly series, especially if you take gambling seriously, but entertaining.

    Drunken Master 2 is good. The stunt with the hot coals, Jesus.

    I really liked Chungking Express. The last half of it (with Tony Leung and Fey Wong) is really my favourite bit to watch.

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  • matisyahumatisyahu Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Since you liked To Live:
    Yellow Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Earth
    Red Sorghum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sorghum

    Zhang Yimou did the cinematography in Yellow Earth, and Red Sorghum is his directorial debut. They're not much less depressing, though.

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  • Pipe DreamerPipe Dreamer Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Since you've watched CTHD, why not watch some of Ang Lee's other Mandarin-speaking works?

    Pushing Hands
    The Wedding Banquet
    Eat Drink Man Woman
    Lust, Caution

    None of them are martial-arts pictures, to boot. The first three are contemporary dramedies about Taiwanese society and culture, while Lust Caution is... an erotic WWII spy-thriller pseudo-romance? something like that.

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  • PeasPeas Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    John Woo's Red Cliff is pretty entertaining. If you like realistic and innovative fight scenes check out Donnie Yen in SPL and Flashpoint.

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  • WheezerWheezer Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Peas beat me to the punch, I was about to recommend Red Cliff but I'll just second it instead - it's also pretty recent.

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  • Seattle ThreadSeattle Thread Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Dammit, Wong Kar-Wai's films are in Cantonese... still recommend In the Mood for Love, though. Damn great movie.

    I would highly recommend Hero even if you're not a fan of martial arts, since you also didn't like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's not only gorgeous, but the story is well-written and engaging.

    Might want to scope out Zhang Yimou's other films, too... Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, Ju Dou, he's pretty stellar.

    Seattle Thread on
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  • HypatiaHypatia Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Seconding Eat Drink Man Woman!

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  • darkmayodarkmayo Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Tsui Hark films are pretty good, check out Time and Tide.

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  • ArtereisArtereis Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I liked The Promise. The colors looked great in HD.

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  • Zombie HeroZombie Hero Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I saw Raise the Red Lantern recently. Pretty good, and I think it was in mandarin. I will also third Red Cliff, the three kingdoms is always good fun.

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  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    If you like martial arts movies, you should watch Ip Man. I don't remember if it is Cantonese or Mandarin originally, but I think it should at least have a Mandarin dub if it wasn't. Even if not, you should watch it, because it is awesome.

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  • EskimoDaveEskimoDave Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Harvest best studio for kung-fu movies. They are filmed in Cantonese, but I'm sure there would be Mandarin tracks.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shaw_Brothers_Films You also have the Shaw Brother studio. They were originally Mandarin, but I'm not sure what later movies were done in. But they made classics such as; Five Deadly Venoms, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The House of 72 Tenants, Shaolin Daredevils, The One-Armed Swordsman. Now that I think about it, the later stuff was probably done in Cantonese. The 70s was when Hong Kong cinema started to switch.

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  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    The vast majority of Stephen Chow's movies are actually Cantonese. Which doesn't mean there aren't Mandarin dubs out there but they can be annoying/expensive to find. The only one I'm aware of that is Mandarin instead is CJ7 which is enjoyable.

    Quid on
  • RainbulimicRainbulimic Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    The Eye (The original film, the one the Jessica Alba film was based on) is a good one! It has Cantonese, Thai and Mandarin featured in it I think. It's also spooky!

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  • shadydentistshadydentist Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Quid wrote: »
    The vast majority of Stephen Chow's movies are actually Cantonese. Which doesn't mean there aren't Mandarin dubs out there but they can be annoying/expensive to find. The only one I'm aware of that is Mandarin instead is CJ7 which is enjoyable.

    Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer are not in mandarin, though they are both excellent movies.

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  • ChenChen Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    shadydentist wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    The vast majority of Stephen Chow's movies are actually Cantonese. Which doesn't mean there aren't Mandarin dubs out there but they can be annoying/expensive to find. The only one I'm aware of that is Mandarin instead is CJ7 which is enjoyable.

    Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer are not in mandarin, though they are both excellent movies.
    I can't remember the specifics, but both his love interests and two of the masters in Kung Fu Hustle are from the mainland, although one of them is mute, so once again I have no point.

    Most DVDs from Hong Kong have Mandarin audio tracks. All you'd need is a region free player.

    Chen on
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  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    shadydentist wrote: »
    Quid wrote: »
    The vast majority of Stephen Chow's movies are actually Cantonese. Which doesn't mean there aren't Mandarin dubs out there but they can be annoying/expensive to find. The only one I'm aware of that is Mandarin instead is CJ7 which is enjoyable.

    Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer are not in mandarin, though they are both excellent movies.

    Yeah. All the really big ones except for CJ7 are Cantonese as far as I know.

    It'll probably keep being that way until either China loosens up a bit on the regulation or forces Hong Kong to tighten up.

    Quid on
  • Funguy McAidsFunguy McAids Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Pingguo (Apple) is a damn fantastic modern, well acted, and awesome story-driven drama based in Beijing.

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  • defreakdefreak Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I second Ip Man, great movie.

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  • SliderSlider Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Cow looks good. Not sure if it's been recommended. Also, is Eat Drink, Man Woman and Shower Chinese movies?

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