(dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien 侯孝贤) One of Taiwan’s most celebrated directors does his version of a wuxia film, and it’s just as idiosyncratic as you would imagine. Static or very slow panning shots, minimal dialogue, and flat performances make this more of a meditation than an action movie. The cinematography and scenery is exquisite, though, and you can understand why Cannes rewarded Hou with a best director award. ★★★★☆

(dir. Tsui Hark 徐克) Cementing Jet Li’s popularity and Tsui Hark’s box-office power, Once Upon a Time was so successful it led to five sequels and a TV series, all about the late-Qing kungfu master Wong Fei-hung. It blends slapstick comedy and anti-imperialism in an entertaining package, and the ladder fight with the main villain is a particular highlight. ★★★★☆

(dir. Derek Tsang 曾國祥) This film, about a bullied high-schooler and a drop-out, was delayed because of censorship issues, but thankfully finally released in China and abroad in 2019. Based on a popular young adult novel, In His Youth, In Her Beauty《少年的你，如此美丽》, it is an often harrowing depiction of the difficulties facing many young Chinese people. Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨 deservedly won the best actress award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, her co-star Jackson Yee 易烊千玺 won Best New Performer, and director Derek Tsang took home Best Film and Best Director. The film has been available on Netflix UK, and there is also an American blu-ray release. ★★★★★

(dir. Ang Lee 李安) Ang Lee’s first major film, this is the story of an elderly taiqi master who moves to America to live with his son and daughter-in-law. The dialogue-free first ten minutes sets up the tension in the suburban home wonderfully, and Sihung Lung 郞雄 is excellent throughout as the father. This, together with Ang Lee’s next two films, is available on blu-ray as his Father Trilogy. ★★★☆☆

(dir. Huang Bo 黄渤) Actor Huang Bo (known from films such as Crazy Stone 疯狂的石头 and Lost in Thailand 人再囧途之泰囧) directs and stars in this Lord of the Flies-type story about a tour group stranded on a deserted island. Wang Baoqiang 王宝强, as a bus driver-turned-despot, is the particular comic highlight. ★★★☆☆

(dir. Sung Hsin-yin 宋欣穎) An animated film about a Taiwanese woman coming back home from America. While the story treads familiar ground, the hand-drawn and painted animation is refreshingly idiosyncratic, and there’s a good amount of Taiwanese culture and history shown. The still above, for example, is a primary teacher teaching bopomofo and insisting that a sofa is a shāfā 沙发 (standard Mandarin), not a péngyǐ 膨椅 (Taiwanese dialect). ★★★☆☆

(directed by Yan Fei 闫非 and Peng Damo 彭大魔) This film, from the directors who made Goodbye Mr Loser 夏洛特烦恼, is a broad comedy about a hopeless goalkeeper who will inherit a fortune only if he can spend a large sum within a month (it’s based on the novel/film Brewster’s Millions). It stars Shen Teng 沈腾 and Vivian Sung 宋芸桦. Entertainingly silly, and did very well at the Chinese box office. ★★★☆☆

(directed by Lin Chun-Yang 林君陽) This ten-part TV drama examines social, legal, and media attitudes towards mental illness in Taiwan. It won a number of prizes at Taiwan’s Golden Bell Awards, and definitely has a better script than most Chinese dramas, even if it does heavily rely on melodramatic coincidence for the first few episodes. The story was inspired by the 2016 killing of a child by a schizophrenic man in Taipei. Mostly in Mandarin, with some other Chinese languages. The Taiwanese blu-ray set has traditional Chinese and English subtitles. ★★★☆☆

(directed by John Woo 吴宇森) I missed seeing this in the cinema, probably because I didn’t want to see the heavily-cut two hour version that reached the UK and States. The full five hour version was released later on DVD and Blu-ray, and is absolutely brilliant. A great cast, excellent action scenes, and fantastic music from Japanese composer Taro Iwashiro make this an outstanding version of this classic tale from Three Kingdoms. ★★★★★

(directed by Jill Culton and Todd Wilderman) It’s a Dreamworks animated film, but was co-produced by Pearl Studio 东方梦工厂 in Shanghai (they had previously done work on Kung Fu Panda 3). Beautiful versions of modern Chinese cities and south-west Chinese landscapes, even including a trip to the Leshan Buddha 乐山大佛. Well worth a watch with younger children. There are versions in mainland and Taiwanese Mandarin, and in Cantonese. The film caused some controversy across south-east Asia because the heroine’s map includes the nine-dash line 九段线 (actually the ten-dash variant, if you freeze-frame the film). ★★★☆☆

(dir. Rebecca Dobbs) This BBC programme, presented by Michael Wood (who made The Story of China in 2016), does a great job explaining the life and poetry of Du Fu 杜甫. Ian McKellen reads the poems beautifully and there are also appearances from Harvard’s Stephen Owen and Oxford’s TaoTao Liu.

(dir. Liang Xuan 梁旋 and Zhang Chun 张春) This charming film should be better known than it is. The influence of Studio Ghibli is clear, but that doesn’t detract from the beautiful animation and moving story. The version on Amazon and Netflix seems to be English-only, so to see it in the original Mandarin you’ll have to pick up the DVD or Blu-ray, which in the UK is released by mangauk.com.

(dir. Tian Xiaopeng 田晓鹏) A 3D animated film made in China, this used to be on Netflix with an English dub. I have a Hong Kong-produced DVD (with both Mandarin and Cantonese audio, and simplified, traditional, and English subtitles) from yesasia.com. I hope the Japanese blu-ray that’s also available uses a different source, as the DVD picture quality is atrocious. But anyway, this is suitable for 11+ viewers, and has Monkey King teaming up with a trainee monk to defeat a demon king. The child-eating demons make it a bit nastier than you’d expect from this kind of film. Not a masterpiece of storytelling, but will provide plenty of entertainment and some Chinese language input. ★★★☆☆