Top 10 Chinese-Language Films of 2022 (Based on Chinese Internet Data)

-

 2022 was a year of resilience for Chinese cinema. The total box office reached 45.4 billion yuan, with domestic films contributing 84% of the total [citation:1]. It was a year of two halves — blockbuster-heavy Spring Festival and a long, quiet summer, followed by a modest recovery in the fall.

But despite the challenges, 2022 gave us several gems. From a Shanghainese romantic comedy that charmed audiences, to a gritty war film from Zhang Yimou, to a heartwarming drama about death that made us appreciate life.

Here are the Top 10 Chinese-Language Films of 2022, ranked by a combination of Douban scores, critical reception, and cultural impact.

No. 1: 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: 8.1
  • Box Office: 260 million yuan

Verdict: The year's most charming and sophisticated romantic comedy. 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. 2: Snipers (狙擊手)

  • Director: Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), Zhang Mo
  • Cast: Chen Yongsheng, Zhang Yi, Zhang Yu
  • Genre: War / Action
  • Douban Score: 7.7
  • Box Office: 607 million yuan

Verdict: Zhang Yimou proves that less is more. A taut, emotional sniper duel that rivals the best in the genre.

Unlike sprawling war epics, Snipers focuses on one small unit, one battle, one mission. Set during the Korean War, it pits a squad of elite Chinese snipers against a team of American marksmen. The film is stripped down, tense, and surprisingly intimate. Each shot matters. Each death carries weight.

Zhang Yimou, at 72, shows he still has the energy of a young director. The film's final act, where one soldier waits for his comrades while holding off the enemy, is as heartbreaking as any war movie moment in recent years.

No. 3: A Very (Un)necessary Spring Festival Gala (一場很（沒）有意義的春晚)

  • Director: Wang Yinglun (汪英倫)
  • Cast: Wang Saili, Li Can
  • Genre: Mockumentary / Comedy
  • Douban Score: 7.7

Verdict: The funniest Chinese film of 2022. A mockumentary that skewers everything about the cultural institution of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Made on a shoestring budget, this Canadian-Chinese co-production became an underground sensation. It follows a group of overseas Chinese trying to organize a Spring Festival gala in Vancouver, and everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

The film is packed with running gags, absurd characters, and pitch-perfect deadpan performances. A professor whose research on "second-dimensional culture" derails every conversation. A blind musician who isn't blind. A director who disappears halfway through. It's silly, clever, and surprisingly heartfelt about what "home" means for the diaspora.

No. 4: The Falls (瀑布)

  • Director: Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏)
  • Cast: Jia Jingwen (Alyssa Chia), Wang Jing
  • Genre: Drama / Psychological
  • Douban Score: 7.7

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. 5: Table for Six (還是覺得你最好)

  • Director: Chan Wing-sun (陳詠燊)
  • Cast: Dayo Wong, Stephy Tang
  • Genre: Romantic Comedy / Family Drama
  • Douban Score: 7.6

Verdict: The highest-grossing Hong Kong film of 2022. A screwball family comedy that proves Cantonese cinema is alive and well.

All set around a dinner table, Table for Six follows three brothers and their romantic entanglements. What begins as a lighthearted comedy gradually deepens into a meditation on family, loss, and moving on.

Dayo Wong, Hong Kong's beloved "king of stand-up," is in top form. But the film's secret weapon is its script — every line lands, every joke pays off, and by the end, you'll be wiping away tears. This is the kind of sophisticated, adult-oriented comedy that Hong Kong does best.

No. 6: Nice View (奇蹟·笨小孩)

  • Director: Wen Muye (文牧野)
  • Cast: Yi Yangqianxi (Jackson Yee), Tian Yu
  • Genre: Drama / Inspirational
  • Douban Score: 7.4
  • Box Office: 1.38 billion yuan

Verdict: From the director of Dying to Survive, a crowd-pleasing underdog story about a young man who refuses to give up.

Set in Shenzhen, Nice View follows a young factory worker trying to raise money to pay for his sister's heart surgery. Yi Yangqianxi continues to prove he is one of China's most talented young actors, carrying the film with a performance that is both vulnerable and determined.

Director Wen Muye has a gift for making you care about ordinary people. The film is sentimental, yes, but it earns its tears. When the final scene arrives — a reunion years later — you'll be glad you came along for the ride.

No. 7: Lighting Up the Stars (人生大事)

  • Director: Liu Jiangjiang (劉江江)
  • Cast: Zhu Yilong, Yang Enyou
  • Genre: Drama / Comedy
  • Douban Score: 7.3
  • Box Office: 1.71 billion yuan

Verdict: A surprise summer hit. A film about death that is actually about life.

Zhu Yilong plays a young ex-con who inherits his father's funeral business. Reluctantly, he takes in a scrappy orphan girl whose grandmother has just died. What follows is an unlikely father-daughter story that will break your heart and put it back together.

The film's central theme — "Nothing in life is more important than death" — is delivered without preachiness. Zhu Yilong and child actress Yang Enyou have incredible chemistry. This film became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, earning over 1.7 billion yuan.

No. 8: Song of Spring (媽媽！)

  • Director: Yang Lina (楊荔鈉)
  • Cast: Wu Yanshu, Xi Meijuan
  • Genre: Drama / Family
  • Douban Score: 7.5

Verdict: Two legendary actresses, 84 and 67, deliver the most moving performances of the year.

Wu Yanshu plays an 85-year-old mother caring for her 65-year-old daughter, who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Xi Meijuan plays the daughter — a retired professor who slowly forgets everything.

The film is tender, devastating, and unsentimental. It asks: when roles reverse, and the child becomes the parent, what is left? The answer, the film suggests, is love. Not romantic love. Something rawer, more elemental.

No. 9: Back to the Wharf (帶你去見我媽)

  • Director: Lan Hongchun (藍鴻春)
  • Cast: Zheng Runqi, Zhong Shaoxian
  • Genre: Drama / Romance
  • Douban Score: 7.5

Verdict: A modest, heartfelt Taiwanese film about family, tradition, and the courage to love.

A young man from Chaozhou brings his girlfriend home to meet his conservative mother. What follows is a clash of cultures, generations, and values.

The film is shot with a documentary-like realism. The performances are natural. The setting — the coastal town of Chaozhou — feels authentic. It's a small film, but it captures something universal: the difficulty of telling your parents who you really are.

No. 10: Home Coming (萬里歸途)

  • Director: Rao Xiaozhi (饒曉志)
  • Cast: Zhang Yi, Wang Junkai, Yin Tao
  • Genre: Action / Drama
  • Douban Score: 7.4
  • Box Office: 1.59 billion yuan

Verdict: A new kind of Chinese blockbuster — one that understands that less spectacle can mean more emotion.

Based on real events, Home Coming follows a team of Chinese diplomats trying to evacuate citizens from a war-torn North African country. Zhang Yi plays a tired, flawed, deeply human diplomat — not a superhero, just a man doing his job.

Director Rao Xiaozhi keeps the focus on character rather than explosions. The film's most tense scene is not a gunfight but a negotiation. And its most moving moment is the final shot: a Chinese passport, held up to a checkpoint, demanding safe passage home.

Special Mentions

The Water Gate Bridge (長津湖之水門橋) — Douban 7.2, Box Office 4.07 billion yuan. The highest-grossing film of 2022. A sequel to the record-breaking The Battle at Lake Changjin, it follows the same soldiers as they attempt to blow up a critical bridge.

Moon Man (獨行月球) — Douban 6.6, Box Office 3.1 billion yuan. Shen Teng plays an astronaut stranded on the moon in this sci-fi comedy that became the year's second-highest grosser.

Too Cool to Kill (這個殺手不太冷靜) — Douban 6.2, Box Office 2.63 billion yuan. Wei Xiang's breakout performance in this meta-comedy about a failed actor who becomes a real hitman.

Cold Detective (神探大戰) — Douban 6.7. The best Hong Kong action film of 2022, with a demented, brilliant performance from Sean Lau.

Warriors of Future (明日戰記) — Douban 6.0. Louis Koo's passion project, a HK sci-fi epic that pushed local VFX to new heights.

Final Thoughts

Looking back at 2022, several trends stand out:

The small film that could — B for Busy, made for a fraction of the budget of its blockbuster rivals, became the most critically acclaimed film of the year.

Zhang Yimou proves his range — At 72, the director delivered both a taut war film (Snipers) and a spectacular historical thriller (Full River Red, released in early 2023).

Hong Kong fights back — Table for Six, Cold Detective, Warriors of Future — Hong Kong cinema showed it still has stories to tell.

Death became a theme — Three of the top ten films dealt with death (Lighting Up the Stars, Song of Spring, Home Coming). Maybe, after two years of pandemic, we were all ready to think about what matters.

Which 2022 Chinese-language film is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

Tom De · The Movie Prince 🎬

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Like A Rolling Stone 出走的決心 (2024): Why You Should Watch This Chinese-Language (Mandarin) Film

-
Image
In the 2024 Chinese-language cinema landscape, one film made countless women cry in theaters. It wasn't a big-budget production. No special effects. No intense dramatic conflicts. It simply and quietly told a story — a 50-year-old woman, after enduring for most of her life, finally decides to live for herself. This film is  Like A Rolling Stone . Based on the true story of 50-year-old Auntie Su Min, who traveled alone across China in her car. After its release, its Douban score soared to 9.0, eventually settling at 8.8, with over 340,000 ratings. It ranked among the highest-rated Chinese-language films of 2024 on Douban. It's not a film that makes you feel "good." It's a film that makes you feel "awake." Today, I want to talk about this film — and why every adult should watch it. Part One: A 50-Year-Old Woman's "Departure" The protagonist is named Li Hong (Yong Mei). She was born into a family that favored sons over daughters. From childhoo...
Read more

Fight Back to School Trilogy 逃學威龍系列 (1991-1993): Why You Should Watch This Chinese-Language (Cantonese) Film

-
Image
  In 1991, a school bus stopped at the gates of St. Andrew's High School in Hong Kong. The door opened — and stepping out wasn't a student in uniform, but a man in a suit, sunglasses, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He was an elite member of the Flying Tigers. That man was Stephen Chow. That year,  Fight Back to School  grossed HK$43.82 million — breaking the all-time Hong Kong box office record, a record set just the year before by  All for the Winner . It also triggered a wave of school comedies across Hong Kong and Taiwan. The era of  mo lei tau  comedy had arrived. Thirty years have passed. Countless campus films have come and gone, but none has matched  Fight Back to School  — a film that makes you laugh until your stomach hurts, then suddenly reminds you of your own school days. Today, I want to talk about this trilogy and why it remains an insurmountable peak in Chinese-language school comedy. Part One: An Elite Officer, Forced Back to ...
Read more

The Great Buddha+ 大佛普拉斯 (2017): Why You Should Watch This Chinese-Language (Taiwanese/Mandarin) Film

-
Image
  In the landscape of 2017 Chinese-language cinema, one film made everyone sit up and take notice. It wasn't a big-budget production. It had no star-studded cast. Almost the entire film was in black and white. Yet it swept 10 nominations at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, ultimately winning 5 awards including Best New Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. On Douban, over 300,000 users have given it a remarkable 8.7, ranking it as the second-highest rated Chinese-language film of 2018. That film is The Great Buddha+ . The "Plus" in the title is significant — director Huang Hsin-yao had made a 22-minute short film called The Great Buddha in 2014. With the help of producer Chung Mong-hong, he expanded it into this feature-length masterpiece. This is a film about "voyeurism." The poor peek into the lives of the rich. The audience peeks into the world on screen. But as you watch, you begin to realize — you're actually peeking into yourself. T...
Read more