Best Chinese documentary movies

Born in China (2016)

Venturing into the wilds of China, "Born in China" captures intimate moments with a panda bear and her growing cub, a young golden monkey who feels displaced by his baby sister, and a mother snow leopard struggling to raise her two cubs.

24 City (2008)

As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru (2024)

Filmmaker Fang Li and his crew explore exhaustive historical investigation, as far as possible to find the core of the British, American, Japanese and Chinese parties and descendants, trying to infinitely close to the truth of the World War II "Death Ship" — "Lisbon Maru", which is 30 meters under the sea off the East Polar Island in Zhoushan, China.

Behemoth (2015)

Under the sun, the heavenly beauty of grasslands will soon be covered by the raging dust of mines. Facing the ashes and noises caused by heavy mining , the herdsmen have no choice but to leave as the meadow areas dwindle. In the moonlight, iron mines are brightly lit throughout the night. Workers who operate the drilling machines must stay awake. The fight is tortuous, against the machine and against themselves. Meanwhile, coal miners are busy filling trucks with coals. Wearing a coal-dust mask, they become ghostlike creatures. An endless line of trucks will transport all the coals and iron ores to the iron works. There traps another crowd of souls, being baked in hell. In the hospital, time hangs heavy on miners' hands. After decades of breathing coal dust, death is just around the corner. They are living the reality of purgatory, but there will be no paradise.

Extras (2001)

Extras is a 2001 fly-on-the-wall Chinese documentary film by director Zhu Chuanming. The documentary has been said to be tinged with social criticisms in its observations of the lives and dreams of China's poorly paid film extras.

Please Vote for Me (2007)

At Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China, a Grade 3 class learns what democracy is when an election for class monitor is being held. Three children are chosen by the teacher as candidates and they have a few days to campaign and convince their classmates to vote for them. The little candidates are seen at school and at home, where their parents do their best to make sure their child will win the election.

The Chinese Mayor (2015)

Once the thriving capital of Imperial China, the city of Datong now lies in near ruins. Not only is it the most polluted city in the country, it is also crippled by decrepit infrastructure and even shakier economic prospects. But Mayor Geng Tanbo plans to change all that, announcing a bold, new plan to return Datong to its former glory, the cultural haven it was some 1,600 years ago. Such declarations, however, come at a devastatingly high cost. Thousands of homes are to be bulldozed, and a half-million of its residents (30 percent of Datong’s total population) will be relocated under his watch. Whether he succeeds depends entirely on his ability to calm swarms of furious workers and an increasingly perturbed ruling elite. The Chinese Mayor captures, with remarkable access, a man and, by extension, a country leaping frantically into an increasingly unstable future.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony (2008)

The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest. It began at 8:00 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8) on August 8, 2008, as 8 is considered to be a lucky number in Chinese culture. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted over four hours and cost over $100 million USD to produce.

Under the Dome (2015)

Chai Jing's documentary about the massive smog problem in China. Chai Jing started making the documentary when her as yet unborn daughter developed a tumour in the womb, which had to be removed very soon after her birth. Chai blames air pollution for the tumour. The film, which combines footage of a lecture with interviews and factory visits, has been compared with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in both its style and likely impact. The film openly criticises state-owned energy companies, steel producers and coal factories, as well as showing the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.

The Planets (2019)

Professor Brian Cox explores the dramatic lives of the eight majestic planets/worlds that make up our solar system.

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003)

A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.

Four Springs (2019)

Four Springs is a documentary film that presented a family's daily life in the remote town of Dushan in the Guizhou province in southwest China. From a subjective angle, the camera induced the flow of life out of the screen: the quotidian toils, singing, excursions in nature, visits among friends and extended families, funerals, reunions and departures. It presented the state of being of the two main characters, the director's own parents, and their attitude when facing irretrievable loss in life.

2006年中央广播电视总台春节联欢晚会 (2006)

People's Republic of Desire (2018)

In China’s popular live-streaming showrooms, three millennials – a karaoke singer, a migrant worker and a rags-to-riches comedian – seek fame, fortune and human connection, ultimately finding the same promises and perils online as in their real lives.

Tough Out (2020)

In the suburbs of Beijing, a group of troubled teenagers learn to play baseball with a famous baseball coach, while struggling through their internal conflicts and the inability to play baseball games like professionals. When an accident took place in the winter of 2017, countless local residents got evacuated in Beijing, the baseball team, as well as their playfield were facing the unexpected obstacle—the relocation of their headquarter. With the World Series of the Little Pony League waiting around the corner, the whole team will have to pull themselves together and face the competition on the international stage.

Fortune Teller (2010)

Li Baicheng is a charismatic fortune teller who services a clientele of prostitutes and marginalized figures whose jobs, like his, are commonplace but technically illegal in China. He practices his ancient craft in a village near Beijing while taking care of his deaf and dumb wife Pearl, who he rescued from her family's mistreatment. Winter brings a police crackdown on both fortune tellers and prostitutes, forcing Li and Pearl into temporary exile in his hometown, where he revisits old family demons. His humble story is told with chapter headings similar to Qing Dynasty popular fiction.

'Til Madness Do Us Part (2014)

An insight into the everyday lives of 50 inmates of a mental institution in the Chinese province of Yunnan, who are there for killing someone, committing a crime against a public official, or have a developmental disability.

Plastic China (2017)

This film tells a story about an unschooled 11-year-old girl Yi-Jie, she's a truly global child who learns the world through the United Nations of Wastes while working with her YI minority parents in this recycle workshop thousand miles away from their mountain village home town

李宗盛：既然青春留不住 还是做个大叔好 (2013)

Will You Look at Me (2022)

As a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search for himself, a long due conversation with his mother dives the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love.

Remembering 1950 (2021)

In 2014, the remains of soldiers from the first 437 chinese volunteers who went to fight in Korea against the United States were returned to their homeland. Through the real-life narratives of veterans from different military branches and different periods, the film presents their youth and dreams in blood, and restores the most realistic battlefield, bringing a shock and resonance to the hearts of young people today. The best way to remember is not to forget.

The New World: Variations on Stay-Home Activities (2020)

In 2020, most residents on the planet were forced to live indoors for days and months due to the epidemic, which has influenced our usual work and life to some extent. In this isolation, people tend to create ways of self-entertainment and take limited exercise at home. As a result, a large amount of ordinary people emerged on the Internet and started to show the interesting bits of living indoors in their own way. They straddled the differences in time and space, and built vast webs of data in live form, in which they connected and influenced each other.

Beijing 2022 Olympic Opening Ceremony (2022)

On February 4, 2022, the opening ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium.

Inside the Wandering Earth Ⅱ (2024)

东瀛大宝荐：迷失东京 (2023)

Love Poem (2020)

What feels like an ordinary weekend outing, paying a visit to grandpa, a young couple gets into a heated argument exposing their resentments, past lies, an old lover, a missed birthday, a possible divorce and a death. But have they told each other everything?

IF only 如果 田馥甄巡迴演唱會 (2016)

The Shoe Shiner's Journey (2016)

挟刀揉手 (2017)

Yulu (2011)

The film uses a documentary approach to tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers, chosen from the fields of business and the arts. The protagonists reflect upon their life journeys against the backdrop of modern China.