1980s Chinese Movies

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The Tang emperor is betrayed by one of his generals, who installs himself as emperor in the East Capital. The son of one of his slave workers escapes to the Shaolin Temple, learns kung fu, and sets out to kill the traitor who killed his father.

In ancient China, Zhi Ming trains at the legendary Northern Shaolin temple to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a nefarious magistrate.

An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.

Photographer and adventurer Tong (Yu Rong-Guang) spots a mirage of a beautiful woman while on a mission and is obsessed by the beauty of her. Heading into Mongolia with best friend (Tsui Siu-Ming), the discovery of the woman and her true nature is anything but beautiful however as she's the leader of a gang of desert bandits.

Jet, a young soldier at the end of the Second World War must overcome some abusive Americans who are bullying him as well as the Chinese people.

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.

Set in the Shaanxi province of Northern China, In The Wild Mountains is a simple yet insightful tale of village life and how economic changes in the country affect even the most remote regions.

In 1949, a small Chinese fishing village populated almost entirely by women awaits the establishment of a government by the newly victorious communist regime. In addition to other worries, the villagers wonder how the government will react to their traditional customs, which decree that wives may only see their husbands three times a year, and the circumstances under which they are permitted to become pregant are very limited. In addition, those who are caught violating these rules are drowned. The almost exclusively female population of the village is explained by the fact that most of the male population died during an ocean storm. Winner of the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Film in 1989

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Romance blossoms between two rival families practicing Shaolin and Wudang kungfu respectively. despite familial opposition - until they overcome a gang of scheming bandits together.

This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China's vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.

In the spring and summer of 1949, the People's Liberation Army launched an offensive under the orders of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, they crossed the Yangtze River and Nanjing was liberated on April 23 which signaled the fall of the KMT regime, Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan; on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong standing on the rostrum of Tiananmen, solemnly declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China.

A Lijing City elementary school student takes credit for an insect collection that was not his.

Mount Yellow is the famous tourist attraction, the yellow mountain, in Anhui Province of China. In the early era of reforms, many peasants left their home and move to cities in search of jobs and better life, and many female migrant workers from the rural areas are from Anhui Province. Most of these female peasants found jobs as house maid and the protagonist in this movie is no exception. This film is about the experience of her and many like her, reflecting the reform from a personal perspective.

An poor shipyard worker falls in love with a girl from a cadre family, and their romance is strongly opposed by the older generation.

Said to be the first science-fiction film produced in China (and perhaps having its North American theatrical premiere in Future Imperfect?), Death Ray on Coral Island spares no bile, camp, or latent envy in portraying America as the cunning archenemy that will stop at nothing—industrial espionage, assassinations, even ballroom dancing—to steal China’s futuristic weaponry. The film occupies a pivotal moment in China’s modern history, representing a legacy of the Great Cultural Revolution and a harbinger of the nation’s ascension on the global economic stage. Courtesy of the China Film Archive and Shanghai Film Group.

investigation into the death of a Chinese mill worker

After Shi Ba -- a privileged youth turned con artist -- meets a fetching dancer named Yu Jing, he decides to go straight and leave his life of crime behind him. But his checkered past will come back to haunt Shi Ba when a blackmailer comes calling.

After the leader of Qingdao CPC was trapped by enemy, a new leader comes. He makes efforts to save the predecessor and find out the traitor.

In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.

Sixteen-year-old An-ran gets into repeated trouble because she refuses blind obedience to authority, openly challenging and correcting a teacher who makes a mistake in class. She is different.

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Centers around experiments on a disembodied, living female head. This is one of only a small handful of horror films produced by Mainland China in the 80s since genre films were banned there until the late 80s.

A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.

Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain is a 1984 Chinese film about the life of the soldiers in a PLA army company before, during and after the Sino-Vietnamese War.

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In August 1937, Japanese troops occupied Shanghai. Three leaders in Shanghai go their separate ways: Jinrong Huang never sees other people; Xiaolin Zhang makes a great fortune and Yuesheng Du leaves for HongKong. Japanese form The Traitors Agents Headquarters to kill Chinese people. The patriotistic people composes the assassination team.

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A young man leading an aimless life finds that he must change his outlook to life when he falls in love with a hard working letter carrier. As he tries to impress her by collecting and learning about postage stamps, he acquires a rich, diverse knowledge of China's history and accomplishments and even wins the top award in a national quiz competition among Chinese factories.

Set in the Anti-Japanese War, three different forces run into a complicated situation full of bloody conflicts. Who is fighting for country and who betrays?

Yuangong, the deacon, opened the shrine and exposed the holy book to the human world. He is now punished to guard the book for life by the jade emperor for breaking heaven’s law. In order to pass this holy book to human beings, he would have to get by the antagonist fox.

The tragic romance of Prince Kaisal and Mariyam from Uigur folklore.

A female orphan falls in love with an army platoon leader fighting Kazakh bandits but she is puzzled when he joins the bandits.

Director Zhang Junzhao's superbly tense revisionist war film (featuring striking cinematography from future Fifth Generation standard bearer Zhang Yimou) is widely considered to be the first work of Mainland Fifth Generation cinema.

When the villagers in Qingshuilian village along the Xiaoli River in northern Shaanxi have to evacuate to intruding forces of Hu Zongnan, only a stubborn grandfather is left behind.

It is the late 1920s when six-year-old Yingzi and her family move to Beijing. As Yingzi explores the busy streets and alleys, she befriends a widow who, driven mad by grief, stands vigil at the entrance of her hutong, waiting for her missing daughter to return.