Top 10 Chinese-Language Films of 2021 (Based on Chinese Internet Data)

2021 was a year of recovery and surprises for Chinese cinema. The total box office reached 47.29 billion yuan, with domestic films contributing approximately 40 billion yuan, accounting for 84.8% of the total.[citation:4]

It was the year a mother-daughter comedy became a cultural phenomenon. The year an animated film about lion dancing captured the nation's heart. The year a low-budget "script-killing" mystery became a word-of-mouth sensation.

Here are the Top 10 Chinese-Language Films of 2021, ranked by a combination of Douban scores, box office performance, and cultural impact.

No. 1: I Am What I Am (雄獅少年)

• Director: Sun Haipeng
• Genre: Animation / Drama / Action
• Douban Score: 8.4[citation:6]
• Box Office: Approximately 250 million yuan

Verdict: The year's most acclaimed animated feature. A groundbreaking realist animation about a left-behind child who dreams of becoming a lion dancer.

This is not your typical Chinese animated film. No gods. No demons. No fantastical powers. Instead, it tells the story of a scrawny village boy named Awu who wants to learn lion dancing. He is mocked as a "sick cat." He has no resources, no training, no hope. But he has heart.

The film's visual language is extraordinary — the lion dancing sequences are animated with breathtaking fluidity. But what makes it unforgettable is its emotional core. Awu's journey from poverty to self-respect is universal.

The final leap — the "jump toward the flower" — is one of the most cathartic moments in any film this year. If you only watch one Chinese animated film, make it this one.

No. 2: Hi, Mom (你好，李煥英)

• Director: Jia Ling (賈玲)
• Cast: Jia Ling, Zhang Xiaofei, Shen Teng
• Genre: Comedy / Drama / Fantasy
• Douban Score: 7.8[citation:6]
• Box Office: 5.41 billion yuan[citation:1]

Verdict: The highest-grossing film of 2021. A directorial debut that turned a daughter's grief into a national conversation.

Jia Ling's debut film is a love letter to her late mother — a woman who died in an accident before Jia Ling could become successful enough to take care of her. In the film, a young woman travels back to 1981 and befriends her mother, trying to change her fate.

What makes Hi, Mom remarkable is its sincerity. Behind the jokes and the 80s nostalgia is a raw, unpolished ache. You can feel Jia Ling's grief in every frame.

The final twist — when the daughter realizes that her mother was also traveling back in time — is devastating. Audiences across China cried. Some went back to watch it again, with their own mothers. This film became not just a box office phenomenon, but a cultural touchstone.

No. 3: The Falls (瀑布)

• Director: Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏)
• Cast: Jia Jingwen (Alyssa Chia), Wang Jing
• Genre: Drama / Psychological
• Douban Score: 8.1[citation:3]

Verdict: Taiwan's official Oscar submission. A haunting pandemic-era drama about mental illness, isolation, and mother-daughter bonds.

Set in a Taipei apartment during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Falls follows a mother who begins to lose her grip on reality. Jia Jingwen delivers a career-best performance as the unraveling matriarch. Wang Jing, as her daughter, is equally powerful.

Director Chung Mong-hong captures the suffocation of quarantine — the blue tarp over the window, the muffled sounds of the outside world, the slow collapse of a family under pressure. The "waterfall" of the title is the final, cathartic release. It's a film that stays with you, long after the credits roll.

No. 4: White Snake: Afloat (白蛇傳·情)

• Director: Zhang Xianfeng (張險峰)
• Cast: Zeng Xiaomin, Wen Ruqing
• Genre: Opera / Romance / Fantasy
• Douban Score: 8.1[citation:6]

Verdict: A groundbreaking Cantonese opera film that became an unlikely sensation.

Who knew that a Cantonese opera film would become one of the most talked-about movies of 2021? This is not your grandparents' opera film. Using state-of-the-art CGI, the filmmakers freed traditional Cantonese opera from the stage and placed it into lush, painterly landscapes.

The story is the familiar legend of the White Snake — a snake spirit who falls in love with a human man. But the execution is anything but familiar. The film's use of color, its ethereal beauty, and its commitment to preserving Cantonese opera for a new generation won over young audiences. Many went in skeptical. They came out transformed.

No. 5: Classmates Minus (同學麥娜絲)

• Director: Huang Xinyao (黃信堯)
• Cast: Shi Mingshuai, Zheng Renshuo, Nadow
• Genre: Drama / Comedy
• Douban Score: 7.9[citation:6]

Verdict: A Taiwanese existential comedy about four middle-aged men trying to make sense of their lives.

Director Huang Xinyao's follow-up to the acclaimed The Great Buddha+ is, in many ways, just as strange and wonderful. The film follows four childhood friends as they navigate careers, relationships, and the slow disappointment of adulthood.

One is a struggling insurance salesman. One is a paper-zuthon artist who can see ghosts. One is an aspiring director who gets sucked into politics. One is a lovelorn romantic who reconnects with his high school crush — who has become a prostitute.

The film is funny, sad, and deeply human. The director himself appears as a narrator, sometimes interrupting the story to comment on his own characters. It's meta. It's messy. It's unforgettable.

No. 6: B for Busy (愛情神話)

• Director: Shao Yihui (邵藝輝)
• Cast: Xu Zheng, Ma Yili, Wu Yue, Ni Hongjie
• Genre: Romantic Comedy / Drama
• Douban Score: 8.3[citation:8]
• Box Office: 260 million yuan

Verdict: The year's most charming film. A pure Shanghainese-language film that captures the city's essence like no other.

This film is a love letter to Shanghai — its laneways, its cafes, its complex social codes. Director Shao Yihui crafts a world of middle-aged romance that is witty, urbane, and deeply human. The three female leads (Ma Yili, Wu Yue, Ni Hongjie) are magnetic, and Xu Zheng delivers one of his most refreshing performances.

What makes B for Busy special is its refusal to judge. It presents messy, complicated adults navigating love and friendship without moralizing. It's sophisticated yet accessible, literary yet laugh-out-loud funny. After a long year, this film felt like a warm hug.

No. 7: Cliff Walkers (懸崖之上)

• Director: Zhang Yimou (張藝謀)
• Cast: Zhang Yi, Yu Hewei, Qin Hailu
• Genre: Spy / Thriller
• Douban Score: 7.6[citation:6]
• Box Office: 1.19 billion yuan[citation:4]

Verdict: Zhang Yimou proves he can still make a taut, gripping thriller at 71.

Set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, Cliff Walkers follows a group of communist spies who have been betrayed. They must complete their mission while being hunted by the puppet regime's secret police.

Zhang Yimou brings his signature visual style to the spy genre — the snow-covered streets of Harbin, the shadowy interiors, the sense of constant danger. But what makes the film stand out is its performances. Zhang Yi is heartbreaking as a spy who must leave his children behind. Yu Hewei is mesmerizing as the double agent working from the inside.

The film's most famous scene — a spy being tortured while his comrade watches, unable to help — is almost unbearable to watch. This is grown-up filmmaking.

No. 8: Reclaim (吉祥如意)

• Director: Da Peng (大鵬)
• Cast: Wang Jixiang, Liu Lu
• Genre: Drama / Documentary
• Douban Score: 7.7[citation:6]

Verdict: The year's most innovative and emotionally complex film. Da Peng's experimental blend of fiction and documentary broke all the rules.

Da Peng is known for making raucous comedies. Reclaim is something else entirely. The film has two parts. Reclaim is a drama about a family reuniting for the New Year. Reclaim is a documentary about the making of the drama — and about the real-life family tragedy that inspired it.

The central figure is Da Peng's real uncle, Wang Jixiang, who has brain damage and can only say one word: "Reclaim." The film is about memory, family, and the impossibility of capturing reality on film. It's strange. It's daring. It might be Da Peng's masterpiece.

No. 9: The Silent Forest (無聲)

• Director: Ke Zhennian (柯貞年)
• Cast: Chen Yanfei, Liu Ziquan, Liu Guanting
• Genre: Drama / Crime
• Douban Score: 7.8[citation:6]

Verdict: The Taiwanese Silenced. A devastating film about sexual abuse in a school for the deaf.

This is not an easy film to watch. Set in a school for deaf children, The Silent Forest exposes a horrifying cycle of abuse — one where the victims are silenced not only by their disability but by a system that refuses to listen.

Director Ke Zhennian handles the material with extraordinary sensitivity. The film is never exploitative. Instead, it asks hard questions: when the abuser is also a child, who is responsible? When speaking out means destroying your community, do you still speak?

The young actors — many of whom are deaf — give raw, unforgettable performances. This film stayed with me for weeks.

No. 10: Be Somebody (揚名立萬)

• Director: Liu Xunzimo (劉循子墨)
• Cast: Yin Zheng, Deng Jiajia, Yu Entai
• Genre: Mystery / Comedy
• Douban Score: 7.5[citation:6]
• Box Office: 925 million yuan[citation:8]

Verdict: The surprise hit of the year. A "script-killing" mystery that became a word-of-mouth phenomenon.

A group of washed-up filmmakers are invited to adapt a sensational murder case into a screenplay. They gather at a lavish mansion to brainstorm — only to discover that the killer is in the room with them.

Be Somebody is a love letter to the filmmaking process. It's a mystery. It's a comedy. It's a tragedy. And it's surprisingly meta. The final reveal — which recontextualizes everything you've just watched — is genuinely moving.

Made on a modest budget, the film earned nearly 1 billion yuan at the box office. It proves that Chinese audiences are hungry for smart, well-written original stories.

Special Mentions

Detective Chinatown 3 (唐人街探案3) — Douban 5.6, Box Office 4.51 billion yuan. The highest-grossing Chinese film of the year for much of 2021. Flawed but fun.[citation:1]

The Battle at Lake Changjin (長津湖) — Douban 7.4, Box Office 4.04 billion yuan (as of October 2021, still in theaters). A sprawling war epic that became the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time.[citation:4]

The Last Duel (緝魂) — Douban 6.9. A Taiwanese sci-fi thriller with a twist that nobody saw coming.

Raging Fire (怒火·重案) — Douban 7.2, Box Office 1.32 billion yuan. Benny Chan's final film — a thrilling love letter to Hong Kong action cinema.[citation:4]

A Little Red Flower (送你一朵小紅花) — Technically a 2020 release, but it dominated early 2021 box office with 1.196 billion yuan. A moving drama about young cancer patients.

Final Thoughts

Looking back at 2021, several trends stand out:

The rise of the female director — Jia Ling's Hi, Mom became the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman worldwide. Shao Yihui's B for Busy proved that sophisticated, adult-oriented romantic comedies have an audience.

Animation finds new ground — I Am What I Am proved that Chinese animation can do realism. White Snake: Afloat proved that traditional opera can be reborn through technology.

Hong Kong fights back — Raging Fire, Reclaim, The Silent Forest — Hong Kong and Taiwanese cinema showed they still have urgent stories to tell.

The return of the mid-budget film — Be Somebody earned nearly 1 billion yuan without stars or spectacle. Good writing still matters.

Which 2021 Chinese-language film is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

Tom De · The Movie Prince 🎬