75 Films of Ale: China, Hong Kong and Taiwan
First 25 are ranked, the rest in chronological order.
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- DirectorEdward YangStarsChang ChenLisa YangKuo-Chu ChangBased on a true story, primarily on a conflict between two youth gangs, a 14-year-old boy's girlfriend conflicts with the head of one gang for an unclear reason, until finally the conflict comes to a violent climax.
- DirectorJohn WooWu MaStarsDavid ChiangDanny LeeKuan Tai ChenA respected and well liked gang-boss is betrayed and killed. One of his three adopted sons are to take his place. One of them is the traitor.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsMaggie CheungHan ChinTony Ka Fai LeungBiopic of 1930s Chinese actress Lingyu Ruan.
- DirectorZhuangzhuang TianPeicheng PanStarsRigzin TseshangJiji DanDaibaA Tibetan man struggles to provide for his family.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsTien-Lu LiGiong LimKuei-Chung ChengPuppeteer Li Tian-lu tells his life story, and through it, the story of Taiwan in the first half of the 20th century.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsChin TsaiHsiao-Hsien HouI-Chen KoLung is a former member of the national Little League team who lives with his old childhood sweetheart Ah-chin, a traditional family woman. Although they live together, Ah-chin is weary of Lung's past liaison with another girl.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiJacky CheungWaise LeeWhen three close friends escape from Hong Kong to war-time Saigon to start a criminal's life, they all go through a harrowing experience which totally shatters their lives and their friendship forever.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsMaggie CheungLeon LaiEric TsangTwo Chinese-mainlanders living in Hong Kong form a close friendship. Over the years this grows into love, but there are obstacles.
- DirectorBo HuStarsYu ZhangYuchang PengUvin WangFour people in a Chinese city live through a complicated day as their lives intersect.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsNien-Jen WuElaine JinIssei OgataEach member of a middle-class Taipei family seeks to reconcile past and present relationships within their daily lives.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsAnnie Shizuka InohGiong LimJack KaoIntended as the concluding film in the trilogy on the modern history of Taiwan began with Beiqing Chengshi (1989), this film reveals the story through three levels: a film within a film as well as the past and present as linked by a young woman, Liang Ching. She is being persecuted by an anonymous man who calls her repeatedly but does not speak. He has stolen her diary and faxes her pages daily. Liang is also rehearsing for a new film that is due to go into production soon. The film, entitled Haonan Haonu, is about a couple Chiang Bi-yu and Chung Hao-tung who returns to China to participate in the anti-Japanese movement in China in the 1940s and are arrested as communists when they go back to Taiwan.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsBrigitte LinSally YehCherie ChungThe movie is set in chaotic 1920's China, when warlords fought each other for power while Sun Yat-Sen's underground movement tried to establish a democratic republic. The movie tells the story of three young women and two young men who are thrown together. One young woman grabs a box of jewels during the looting when one warlord takes Peking. A deserting soldier joins her, but the jewels end up at the Peking Opera. Here we meet the daughter of the head of the troupe, who dreams of being an actress. But even female roles are played by men in the opera. Soon, the daughter of the currently ruling warlord and a male agent of the democratic underground are involved.
- DirectorTian-Lin WangStarsGrace ChangYang ChangPo-Chien ChinGrace Chang seduces as Hong Kong's most sensual Carmen ever. The torrid passions of Bizet's famous opera gets a postmodern reading when it is transposed to the noir-like setting of Hong Kong's Wanchai district. One of the most exhilarating and energetic musicals in the Chinese language.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiChang ChenYun ZhouA female assassin receives a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in eighth-century China.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoTaishen ChengJue JingAn exploration on the impact of urbanization and globalization on a traditional culture.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangTao ZhaoLiang JingdongA theatre troupe from rural Fenyang struggles under the decline of communism and rise of popular culture in China in the 1980s.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsChow Yun-FatDanny LeeSally YehA disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiShu-Fen HsinSung-Young ChenThe story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChia-bao ChangNeng ChangChih-Chen ChenThe semi-autobiographical film on director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's childhood and adolescence, when he was growing up in Taiwan, living through the deaths of his father, mother and grandmother.
- DirectorWei TeA short film about a young girl who cares for a wise old scholar in exchange for guqin lessons.
- DirectorYonggang WuStarsLingyu RuanTian JianZhizhi ZhangStreet walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsHongwei WangHongjian HaoBaitao ZuoA small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungTony Leung Chiu-waiChang ChenA couple take a trip to Argentina but both men find their lives drifting apart in opposite directions.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChi-Kuang WangShu-Chen LiHsiu-Ling LinA coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister who spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.
- DirectorKing HuStarsPei-Pei ChengHua YuehChih-Ching YangBandits kidnap a governor's son and demand their imprisoned leader to be set free in exchange. The governor's daughter, a skilled martial artist, is sent to rescue him, but eventually finds herself overmatched and in need of assistance.
- DirectorMuzhi YuanStarsDan ZhaoHeling WeiXuan ZhouIn old Shanghai, two sisters, a prostitute and a singer, tried to escape from the local scoundrels with the help of a trumpet player and a newspaper seller.
- DirectorMu FeiStarsChaoming CuiWei LiYu ShiA lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.
- DirectorHan Hsiang LiStarsBetty Loh TiIvy Ling PoLi-Chu ChangThe story about the life of the students at a university in Hangchow. Chu Ying-Tai is a female who has to be disguised as a man in order to gain entry into the school.
- DirectorCheh ChangStarsJimmy Wang YuChiao ChiaoChung-Hsin HuangA noble swordsman, whose arm had been chopped off, returns to his former teacher to defend him from a villainous gang of rival swordsmen.
- DirectorKing HuStarsPolly Ling-Feng Shang-KuanChun ShihYing BaiWhen the children of an executed General are pursued in 1457 China, some heroic martial arts swordsmen intervene.
- DirectorShu Shuen TongStarsLisa LuRoy ChiaoHilda Chow HsuanA woman falls in love with a visiting cavalry captain, but chooses to suppress it for the sake of her daughter.
- DirectorBruce LeeStarsBruce LeeChuck NorrisNora MiaoA man visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuLieh LoYue WongA man studies kung fu at the Shaolin Temple to fight back against the oppressive Manchu government.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsJackie ChanSiu-Tin YuenJeong-lee HwangWong Fei-Hung is a mischievous yet righteous young man, but after a series of incidents his frustrated father has him disciplined by a master of drunken martial arts.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuYuka MizunoYasuaki KurataA Chinese man (Liu) marries a Japanese woman through an arranged marriage and manages to insult all of her Japanese martial arts family by issuing a challenge to her that is misinterpreted by the others. He must then prove how good Chinese Kung Fu really is through a series of duels with the seven Japanese martial artists who come to meet the challenge.
- DirectorJackie ChanSammo Kam-Bo HungStarsJackie ChanSammo Kam-Bo HungBiao YuenFighting against pirates at the turn of the 20th century, the Hong Kong navy are failing miserably. It's up to Sergeant Lung (Jackie Chan) to take matters into his own hands.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsBiao YuenHoi MangAdam ChengA Chinese soldier in an ancient civil war flees the battlefield and gets caught up in a fantastical quest to save the world from evil.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsXueqi WangBai XueQuiang LiuA communist soldier travels to Shanbei to collect folk songs for propaganda while visiting a poor peasant family, giving hope to the teenage daughter in escaping an arranged marriage.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuSheng FuLily LiMongols with the help of an insider, ambush the influential Yang Family, defenders of the dynasty. The Mongols must hunt down all Yang survivors so their insidious plot to overthrow the dynasty will not be uncovered.
- DirectorJackie ChanChi-Hwa ChenStarsJackie ChanMaggie CheungBrigitte LinA virtuous Hong Kong Police Officer must clear his good name when the drug lord he is after frames him for the murder of a dirty cop.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsCora MiaoLi-Chun LeeShih-Chieh KingA metaphysical mystery about the lives of three couples in Taipei that continually intersect over a span of several weeks.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsLung TiLeslie CheungChow Yun-FatA reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsLeslie CheungAnita MuiAlex ManFleur is the blue angel in one of Hong Kong's "flower houses" - bordellos and night clubs of the 1930s. A detached and beautiful performer, she falls in love with Twelfth Master Chan, heir to a chain of pharmacies. They agree to a suicide pact. 50 years later, in modern Hong Kong, Fleur's ghost appears in Yuen's newspaper office, wanting to place an ad to find Chan, who never arrived in the afterlife. Yuen, and his equally bewildered girlfriend, An Chor, are captivated by Fleur and her story.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChow Yun-FatNina Li ChiConan LeeA seasoned cop and his rookie partner are a pair of mismatched partners in this Hong Kong action-comedy in the style of 'Lethal Weapon'. The wacky twosome are up in arms as they try to solve the murder of a heroin trafficker.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsLeslie CheungMaggie CheungAndy LauA man tries to find out who his real mother is after the woman who raised him tells him the truth.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiJingwu MaSaifei HeChina in the 1920s. After her father's death, Songlian is forced to marry the wealthy Master Chen. With three wives already, each living in a separate house, there is fierce competition for his attention and the privileges that are gained.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsJet LiRosamund KwanBiao YuenLegendary martial arts hero Wong Fei-Hung fights against foreign forces' plundering of China. When Aunt Yee arrives back from America, Wong Fei-Hung assumes the role of her protector.
- DirectorJohn WooStarsChow Yun-FatTony Leung Chiu-waiTeresa MoA tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiPeiqi LiuLiuchun YangA peasant woman seeks justice after the headman of her village has kicked her husband in the groin.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsWang Yu-wenChen Chao-jungKang-sheng LeeWithin the urban gloom of Taipei, four youths face alienation, loneliness, and moments of existential crisis amidst a series of minor crimes.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsRongguang YuDonnie YenJean WangA martial artist/doctor steals from the corrupt authorities as a masked thief to give to the poor while another martial artist/doctor is forced to hunt him down. But a major threat unites them as a powerful and traitorous shaolin monk takes over the authorities.
- DirectorLik-Chi LeeStarsStephen ChowGong LiPak-Cheung ChanA scholar in search of true love. Disguising himself as a houseboy, he indentures himself to a rich family in order to pursue the ravishing servant girl who has stolen his heart.
- DirectorRonny YuStarsBrigitte LinLeslie CheungFrancis NgCho Yat-Hang, the unwilling successor to the Wu-Tang clan throne and the unsure commander of the clan's forces in a war against an evil cult, falls in forbidden love with Lien Ni-Chang, a killer for the evil cult.
- DirectorJohnnie ToStarsMichelle YeohAnita MuiMaggie CheungWhile one tough woman with an invisible robe has stolen 18 babies for her powerful master, two other tough women and the cops try to stop her.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsChen Chao-jungKang-sheng LeeKuei-Mei YangThree lonely young denizens of Taipei unknowingly share an apartment used for sexual trysts.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsLi-Mei ChenShiang-chyi ChenYi-Wen ChenAfter firing a colleague, the head of a PR company begins to question her lifestyle and values.
- DirectorXiaowen ZhouStarsLiya AiPeiqi LiuZhijun GeA woman gets obsessed with buying a television for her family.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsSihung LungKuei-Mei YangWang Yu-wenA senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsJieh-Wen KingKuei-Ying HsuAnnie Shizuka InohA glimpse at the lives of two petty criminals in Taipei.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsTsung Sheng TangChang ChenLawrence KoWhen a well known businessman goes missing, owing $100m to Taipei's underworld, two hoods decide to follow his son, the leader of a youth gang. A small group of trendy foreigners gets caught up in the action.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMichiko HadaMichelle ReisIn the "flower houses" (upscale brothels) of Shanghai, various interweaving stories of love, loyalty, and deceit play out subtly.
- DirectorYue LüStarsZhihua ZhangJingming ShiYi'nan ChenThe psychology in this triangle situation focuses on a Shanghai university professor, his factory worker wife, and a young female former student who becomes his mistress.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsZiyi ZhangHonglei SunHao ZhengPrompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.
- DirectorWan LaimingCheng TangStarsYue-Feng QiuRun-Sheng FuHans AlfredsonSun Wukong, the King of the Monkeys, sets off on his first adventure to gain a worthy weapon. This earns the attention of the Jade Emperor of Heaven.
- DirectorJohnnie ToStarsAnthony Chau-Sang WongFrancis NgJackie Chung-yin LuiTriad boss Lung, who has just escaped being killed in an assassination, hires five killers for his protection. Their grown solidarity is under compulsion when Lung gives a special order.
- DirectorStanley KwanStarsYe LiuJun HuHe DuA young, gay student has a relationship with an older, successful businessman. The handsome playboy-businessman must choose between his comfortable, yet closeted straight life, or an honest, yet subversive life with the student.
- DirectorTsai Ming-liangStarsKang-sheng LeeShiang-chyi ChenKiyonobu MitamuraOn a dark, wet night a historic and regal Chinese cinema sees its final film. Together with a small handful of souls they bid "Goodbye, Dragon Inn".
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsYo HitotoTadanobu AsanoMasato HagiwaraThe story revolves around Yoko Inoue, a pregnant woman in search of a cafe that was frequented by a Taiwanese composer whose life she is researching.
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsTakeshi KaneshiroXun ZhouJacky CheungA love triangle develops during the making of a musical in mainland China.
- DirectorHung-i ChenStarsYile ChangHsiuchin ChiPrince ChiuOverwhelmed by loss after her boyfriend mysteriously vanishes, overnight radio DJ, Vicky (Tseng Peiyu), drifts through her life like it's a dream, fixated on stories of the missing and the lost-stories she shares with her audience between moody selections of classical music. Stories like: "On Earth, a lot of bees have disappeared. The strange thing is we can't find the bodies of the dead bees, not even one." As she attempts to solve the mystery of her boyfriend's disappearance, she stumbles across an online community where her boyfriend, going by the handle "Dog," was a regular participant. The site is a digital sanctuary where users contribute lyrical evidence about all the things that have gone missing, from buildings to people. The conspiracy theory that binds them together is the belief that all these missing objects are slipping over into a parallel world.
- DirectorBi GanStarsYongzhong ChenFeiyang LuoLixun XieWhile travelling the countryside to locate his nephew, a small town doctor finds himself interacting with people from his past and future.
- DirectorBi GanStarsTang WeiJue HuangSylvia ChangA man went back to Guizhou, found the tracks of a mysterious woman. He recalls the summer he spent with her twenty years ago.
- DirectorZhangke JiaStarsTao ZhaoFan LiaoZheng XuA story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.