Mad Max 1 is a curio, but this is really the film in which George Miller’s dystopian imagination revs all the way up. Villians Wez and Lord Humungus are ridiculous but also terrifying, and the leather fetish aesthetic is taken to glorious excess. This still stands up as a great action movie. ★★★★☆

It’s a perfect gem of a film. A wonderful setting that the crafted cinematography gives you time to appreciate; loving attention to the cooking and food; believable and non-showy performances from the cast. The film even made the pretentious twit of a male protagonist endearing by the end. Sit back, slow down, and enjoy. ★★★★★

Fury Road was amazing so I wanted to see where it all started. It’s clearly a proto-version of Miller’s vision for a road apocalypse movie, but thankfully there are enough weirdnesses and idiosyncrasies to carry us through the more amateur moments. Mel Gibson does the charismatic sensitive psycho so well already it is no surprise that it ended up his ticket to global stardom in Lethal Weapon a few years later. ★★★☆☆

(directed by Wong Kar-wai 王家衛) Wong Kar-wai’s first film is nothing special in terms of plot, but the intensely likeable performances of Andy Lau 劉德華 and Maggie Cheung 張曼玉 and the beautiful cinematography elevate it beyond the Hong Kong gangster formula. ★★★★☆

(directed by Chen Kaige 陈凯歌, Tsui Hark 徐克, and Dante Lam 林超賢) The box-office champion of 2021, this war film united three of the most famous Chinese directors. The complexity of war, however, is undermined by battle scenes taken to action-film excesses and the political necessity of portraying the battle as a great success regardless of the cost. ★★☆☆☆

(dir. Wilson Yip 葉偉信) The final outing for Donnie Yen as Ip Man, this doesn’t reach the heights of its predecessors. Worth watching if you’re a fan of the series, but I found this an effort to finish. ★★★☆☆

(dir. Andrew Lau 劉偉強) This film, based on a real incident in 2018, was a massive hit in China. Made with the full cooperation of Sichuan Airlines, it is an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the Chinese aviation industry, and unironically employs every airplane-disaster movie cliché in the book. Hard not to think of Airplane! at moments, but nevertheless an enjoyable watch. ★★★☆☆

(dir. Edward Yang 杨德昌) Adults and children alike search for love and meaning in this Taiwanese film. Nien-Jen Wu 吳念真 is wonderfully understated as a father who is struggling with his marriage and career, and his interplay with Issey Ogata イッセー尾形 as Mr. Ota is a particular delight. ★★★★★

(dir. Stephen Chow 周星驰) I remember being underwhelmed when I saw this in Beijing on release, but now, having now seen much more of the kung fu cinema to which this pays loving tribute, I adore it. It’s the older actors who steal the show: Yuen Qiu 元秋 as the landlady and Bruce Leung 梁小龍 as the toad kung fu master amongst others are superb. ★★★★☆

(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 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. 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. ★★★☆☆