15 Movies For Chinese New Year

On January 23^rd, it is Chinese New Year. People throughout East Asia (not just China, as people seem to assume) will officially be in the Year of the Dragon. Most regular New Year celebrations include one night of drunken revelry, but did you know that Chinese New Year has fifteen days of celebration? Granted, not all of these are counted as official holidays, but still... they certainly don’t do things by halves over there.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways you can join in with the celebration over here, which is why I’ve had a tradition of watching a Chinese movie whilst eating Chinese takeaway on Chinese New Year, but this year I thought I’d go the full fifteen days with movies from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thanks to the Lovefilm streaming service, I don’t even have to own all of these. Here’s what my itinerary will look like (yes, I’m sad enough to plan this far in advance).

Day One (January 23^rd): As Tears Go By (1988)

Cantonese, Mandarin
Starring: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung
Written & Directed by Wong Kar-wai

A crime drama that apparently draws inspiration from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, starring a young Andy Lau as a gangster from the city who falls in love with his cousin from the country, played by Maggie Cheung, at the same time as having to deal with his volatile best friend getting them into trouble.

Day Two (January 24^th): Police Story (1985)

Cantonese
Starring: Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung and Charlie Cho
Written by Jackie Chan and Edward Tang
Directed by Jackie Chan

The movie that put Jackie Chan firmly on the action movie map, by incorporating his now trademark mixture of slapstick and martial arts. For the first time in martial arts history, here was a protagonist who was in over his head. Who won mostly by accident, and got hurt... a LOT! The story isn’t up to much, but it does include some unforgettable set-pieces.

Day Three (January 25^th): Mad Detective (2007)

Cantonese, English
Starring: Lau Ching-Wan, Andy On, Lam Ka-Tung and Kelly Lin
Written by Wai Ka-Fei and Au Kin-Yee
Directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fei

A seemingly routine Hong Kong crime thriller except for the fact that the protagonist is a psychopath with supernatural powers. When our “hero” is forced into retirement after finally going too far, his visions that no longer serve any purpose haunt him... and then his friend comes to him for help on the case of a missing police officer.

Day Four (January 26^th): Ip Man (2008)


Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese
Starring: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Gordon Lam Ka-tung and Fan Siu-wong
Written by Edmond Wong
Directed by Wilson Yip

Donnie Yen stars as the Wing Chun master that would eventually train a young Bruce Lee. But before all of this, he lived a tumultuous life in mainland China during an era of constant unrest. Don’t take this as a documentary, however... this is a highly exaggerated and nationalistic story about how Master Ip single-handedly turned the tide in the Second Sino-Japanese War (more commonly referred to by people outside of Asia as part of World War II). It is a thoroughly entertaining martial arts movie of the highest order, though, and well worth a watch.

Day Five (January 27^th): Assembly (2007)

Mandarin, English
Starring: Zhang Hanyu, Deng Chao, Yuan Wenkang, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Liao Fan and Hu Jun
Written by Liu Heng
Directed by Feng Xiaogang

A war epic set in the Chinese Civil War between the Republican Kuomintang, and the Chinese Communist Party. It’s been praised as a Saving Private Ryan for the East.

Day Six (January 28^th): In The Mood For Love (2000)

Cantonese, Shanghainese, French
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung
Written & Directed by Wong Kar-wai

Romantic drama from Wong Kar-wai, which once again casts Maggie Cheung as the leading lady. This movie charts the relationships of two couples that share adjacent rooms in a tenement in 1962. The man from one relationship, and the woman from the other are both regularly away from home, which sets the stage for their spouses to grow closer. There’s a frankly bizarre sequel to this movie called 2046 that you should watch if you like to be confused.

Day Seven (January 29^th): House Of Flying Daggers (2004)

Mandarin
Starring: Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi
Written by Peter Wu, Bin Wang and Zhang Yimou
Directed by Zhang Yimou

This is one of my all-time favourite movies, and some of the music from it was even incorporated into my wedding ceremony last year. Zhang Ziyi stars as a gorgeous blind girl who just happens to be the daughter of the fallen leader of a terrorist group known as the Flying Daggers. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a policeman who hatches a plan with his boss – Andy Lau – to trick Ziyi into leading them to the Flying Daggers’ hideout. And if you haven’t seen the movie already, saying anything more than that will ruin it. But there are surprises, and there are some of the most glorious fight scenes ever filmed, that along with the perfect scenery and the attractive cast easily place this among the most beautiful movies ever made.

Days Eight & Nine (January 30th/January 31st): Red Cliff Part I (2008), Red Cliff Part II (2009)

Mandarin
Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Lin Chi-ling, Zhao Wei and Hu Jun
Written by John Woo, Chan Khan, Kuo Cheng and Sheng Heyu
Directed by John Woo

If you have the full version of Red Cliff, as opposed to the highly truncated version that condensed the full five hours into one two hour movie, this will require two days to watch. Retelling the story of a major battle fought during China’s Three Kingdoms era, these movies combine the historical Records Of The Three Kingdoms, and the fantastical Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. The Prime Minister Cao Cao launches an expedition to wipe out the kingdoms of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, who forge an alliance to put a stop to it. A huge number of characters use a combination of great tactics, technical ingenuity (one of the characters, Zhuge Liang is credited with inventing the repeating crossbow), espionage, battle prowess and seemingly mystical powers in one of the most truly epic of movies.

Day Ten (February 1^st): Aftershock (2010)

Mandarin
Starring: Zhang Jingchu, Chen Daoming, Lu Yi, Xu Fan, Zhang Guoqiang and Li Chen
Written & Directed by Feng Xiaogang

The most expensive movie in Chinese history tells the story of the aftermath for one family of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Li Yuanni is informed that only one of her twin children can be saved from the wreckage, and she must choose. The movie tells the story of how this decision affects the life of both herself and the child she saved.

Day Eleven (February 2^nd): 24 City (2008)

Mandarin, Sichuanese, Shanghainese
Starring: Joan Chen, Lu Liping, Zhao Tao and Chen Jianbin
Written by Jia Zhangke and Zhai Yongming
Directed by Jia Zhangke

The story of three generations over more than 50 years who work at a factory in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan province). Included interviews with real employees of the factory, as well as dramatisations of numerous events in characters lives and recent Chinese history.

Day Twelve (February 3^rd): Infernal Affairs (2002)

Cantonese
Starring: Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang
Written by Felix Chong and Alan Mak
Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak

Martin Scorsese won an Academy Award for The Departed, his remake of this Hong Kong movie. Scorsese’s movie has more well-rounded characters, and spends more time getting to know them instead of rushing through events. But this is still a great slice of Hong Kong action cinema.

Day Thirteen (February 4^th): Hero (2002)

Mandarin
Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Chen Daoming, Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen
Written by Feng Li, Bin Wang and Zhang Yimou
Directed by Zhang Yimou

A Nameless hero arrives at the court of the King of Qin to tell his tale of how he fought and defeated the three most dangerous assassins in all of China. What follows is a twisty-turny tale as multiple versions of the same events are shown to us. Each version is helpfully and gloriously colour-coded, and once again the fight scenes are beautifully shot and choreographed.

Day Fourteen (February 5^th): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Mandarin
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen
Written by Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus and Tsai Kuo-Jung
Directed by Ang Lee

Ang Lee’s masterpiece won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film back in 2000, for obvious reasons. Just one look at this movie and you can tell that this is a different kind of martial arts movie to the ones you got used to from watching years of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies. It’s more of a romantic epic than it is an action movie, though it features some of the greatest fight scenes the world has ever seen... whenever Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi are on-screen all eyes are on them, and when they fight... well, I shouldn’t need to tell you about that, because you should know how amazing it is already. An incredible movie.

Day Fifteen (February 6^th): Bullet In The Head (1990)

Cantonese, English, French and Vietnamese
Starring: Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee and Simon Yam
Written by John Woo, Patrick Leung and Janet Chun
Directed by John Woo

Thanks to his classics, A Better Tomorrow and The Killer in the 80’s, John Woo had already made a name for himself for his combination of insane gun-fights and melodrama. But this movie is the perfection of a formula that was Woo had invented. This was his last truly great movie before moving to Hollywood in the mid-90’s.