News

Instability benefits art and there is no other place than the Chinese language world that this axiom is more evident, as the all the sociopolitical issues that are tormenting China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have actually have released the creative forces of local filmmakers in superlative fashion, even among the main voices regarding censorship. In that fashion, the quality of Taiwanese productions remained in the high levels it has gotten during the last few years, China added a number of rather interesting documentaries along the plethora of festival-appealing, European style movies and blockbusters, and Hong Kong ended up with a film that is truly worthy of the Golden Age of local cinema, even if as a whole, the industry took another step back.

Without further ado, here are the best Chinese Language films of 2021, in reverse order. Some films may have premiered in 2020, but since they mostly circulated in 2021, we decided to include them.

Based on the Japanese novel series “Onmyoji” by Baku Yumemakura, “The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity” is another link in the long chain of fantasy blockbusters that have been coming from China in the last couple of years, which implements though, a genre mashup approach that allows it to stand out from the plethora of similar titles.

Centuries ago, an Evil Serpent demon was born from the desires of human. Four masters from four different sects gathered together to seal the snake within the Imperial City. As the years pass, Four Guardians were constructed in order to prevent the Evil Serpent from escaping and wreaking havoc on the rest of the world. Since then, four different masters would travel to the Imperial City to awaken the Four Guardians to trap the snake. With the threat of the Evil Serpent rising once more, four different masters come together once more: Hongruo,...