Theme: Chinese Cinema

Chinese Cinema has been with us since the beginnings of cinema itself. The majority of early films are either not available or were mundane productions made by the Chinese Communist state and do not fall under purview of discussion here.

Chinese cinema started to emerge onto the world stage in the 1980s with a series of lavish colour productions. There was the major worldwide success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which popularised Chinese Cinema as its own entity. Following this, there have been a number of expensive, lushly made Wu Xia films produced.

China also produces a number of thrillers, romantic films, dramas and historical films for local consumption, although many genres popular in Western circles such as superhero and action films are not as common. There are some horror films, although the government officially disapproves of supernatural themes, and a small amount of science-fiction.

Chinese film audiences are one of the largest in the world and have a sizeable domestic box-office. Since the mid-2000s, Hollywood has attempted to court the Chinese box-office to the extent of importing Chinese actors and/or shooting scenes in China.

Hong Kong has a vibrant cinema of its own, which is discussed under Hong Kong Cinema, although all Hong Kong-made films after 1997 are classified as Chinese Cinema unless otherwise indicated.