5 Chinese Movies that Help to Improve Your Chinese!

As we all know, there are plenty ways to practice Chinese listening skills: taking Chinese classes, speaking to native speakers, watching TV shows...

However, today I would like to recommend you to watch some Chinese movies. Why do I recommend movies?

First of all, with many accents and dialects throughout China, learning mandarin alone is sometimes not enough. Getting used to many accents by watching Chinese movies from different parts of China will help a lot with encountering people across China! You might find your favorite accent, too.

What's more, It can help you understand better about the logic of how Chinese people behave. For example, what's Chinese people's reaction to certain things and what is considered as polite or rude, funny or boring. You will feel less confused while socializing with Chinese people in daily life.

Also, I know many of you are busy and prefer watching movies compared to TV dramas/shows, so here are the ones for you! I believe the comparatively short duration and pithy storyline can make it really efficient and educational at the same time! Just regard watching every movie as an entertaining and relaxing Chinese class!

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Detective Chinatown / 唐人街探案}

"Excluding all the impossibilities, no matter how unbelievable the remaining one is, it's the truth."

Channel to watch:

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_{The Wandering Earth / 流浪地球}

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_{Our Times / 我的少女时代}

Successful white-collar Lin fell into a deep memory of her girlhood. It turns out that this ordinary girl has a hilarious but sweet first love memory. She really loved the school hunk Ouyang, but she was always defeated by the charm of the school belle Minmin. An accident made her form a "Lovelorn Front Alliance" with the school bully Xu. They were determined to win their love by using each other's help. However, their feelings about each other are gradually changing...

Channel to watch:

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_{Kung Fu Hustle / 功夫}

The famous Chinese actor Stephen Chow directs and stars in this hilarious action-packed, martial art movie. Sing (Chow) is a petty thief who aspires to be part of the sophisticated and ruthless Axe Gang. He stumbles into a slum ruled by eccentric landlords who turn out to be some of the greatest kung fu masters in disguise. They hide themselves in order to avoid any unnecessary fights in the society. But an unavoidable fight is happening, and Sing (Chow) gradually comprehends the true meaning of kung fu.

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_{Ne Zha / 哪吒之魔童降世}

The Primus extracts a Mixed Yuan Bead into a spirit bead and a demon bead. The spirit bead can be reincarnated in human to help King Zhou establish a new dynasty, but the demon bead will create a devil and harm human. Ne Zha is the one who should be spirit bead hero but becomes a devil incarnate instead because the spirit bead and the demon bead is switched. "Am I good or evil? I will decide for myself."

Channels to watch:

Some of you might already been watching Chinese movies for years, but how to make your watching process more valuable for practicing Chinese?

• Get a brief idea about the plot of the movie before you watch it.

• Separate the movie into parts to watch and choose some parts you like to watch repeatedly.

• Note new words and unfamiliar expressions you encounter. You can review them when you have chance!

• Try to share the storyline of the movie, the specific plots which impress you the most, and your thoughts about the whole movie in Chinese with your Chinese friends. Use the movies as topics to practice your speaking!
  

• Try to not depend on the subtitles too much if you can understand most of the conversations. Practice your listening skill.

• Select different themes of movies to watch so you can get exposed to different contexts.