Chinese Movies on Netflix: 25 Mandarin Films Worth Watching (Sorted by Level)

沉浸 TeamSeptember 11, 20269 min read

Looking for Chinese movies on Netflix that you can learn from? Here are 25 Mandarin-language films (and a few series) that have streamed on Netflix, sorted from easiest to hardest for learners, with a note on what each one is good for. Quick answer for the impatient: start with Hi, Mom (你好，李焕英) or Our Times (我的少女时代) for clear everyday dialogue, save Hero (英雄) and Let the Bullets Fly (让子弹飞) for later, and skip anything filmed in a regional dialect until you're comfortable.

One honest warning before the list: Netflix catalogs differ by country and change every month. A film that streams in the US might not in the UK, and titles rotate in and out. Every movie below has been on Netflix in at least one region, but check your own app before you plan a movie night. If a title has moved, most are on other services or can be rented. This guide is part of our bigger Chinese immersion playbook, where watching film is one of the four daily habits.

How to pick a Chinese movie you can follow

Three things decide whether a film helps you or just washes over you:

Standard Mandarin, not dialect. Plenty of great Chinese cinema is in Cantonese, Sichuanese, or Shanghainese. Beautiful films, but a Mandarin learner gets almost nothing from them. Every film on this list is mostly Mandarin, and the ones with dialect are flagged.
Modern, everyday settings. A high-school romance uses the same words you learned in HSK 2 and 3. A period epic uses court titles and poetry. Start modern, go historical later.
Chinese subtitles, not just English. Netflix often offers a Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) subtitle track on Mandarin films. Turn it on. Reading the line while you hear it is where the learning happens.

Easier: clear dialogue, everyday life (roughly HSK 3 to 4)

These have simple settings, slow-ish speech, and words you already know. Even if you catch only half the lines, you'll follow the story.

你好，李焕英 (Nǐ hǎo, Lǐ Huànyīng) Hi, Mom (2021). A comedy about a daughter who travels back to 1981 and meets her mother as a young woman. Family words, jokes, and a lot of 妈 (mā, mom). Bring tissues.
我的少女时代 (Wǒ de shàonǚ shídài) Our Times (2015). A Taiwanese high-school romance. Clear Taiwan-accent Mandarin, teenage slang, and a plot you can follow without subtitles. One of the best first films for learners.
那些年，我们一起追的女孩 (Nàxiē nián, wǒmen yìqǐ zhuī de nǚhái) You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011). Another Taiwanese school story, funnier and a little cruder. Lots of classroom and friend-group vocabulary.
比悲伤更悲伤的故事 (Bǐ bēishāng gèng bēishāng de gùshi) More Than Blue (2018). A Taiwanese tearjerker with slow, emotional dialogue. Good for hearing feelings vocabulary: 爱 (ài, love), 难过 (nánguò, sad), 陪 (péi, to keep someone company).
后来的我们 (Hòulái de wǒmen) Us and Them (2018). A decade-long love story between two migrants to Beijing. Everyday speech, apartment hunting, train stations, and the Chinese New Year trip home. A Netflix release outside China.
夏洛特烦恼 (Xià Luò tè fánnǎo) Goodbye Mr. Loser (2015). A man dreams his way back to high school. Broad comedy, punchy short lines, and a lot of 1990s pop culture jokes you can look up as you go.
饮食男女 (Yǐnshí nánnǚ) Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Ang Lee's film about a chef and his three daughters, told over Sunday dinners. Slower older Mandarin and endless food vocabulary. Pairs well with our guide to Chinese snacks and food words.
喜宴 (Xǐyàn) The Wedding Banquet (1993). Half Mandarin, half English, which makes it a gentle on-ramp. The banquet scenes are a crash course in wedding customs.

Medium: faster speech, more idioms (roughly HSK 4 to 5)

少年的你 (Shàonián de nǐ) Better Days (2019). A serious drama about school bullying and the gaokao exam. Natural teenage speech at full speed. Heavy subject, excellent film.
我不是药神 (Wǒ bú shì yàoshén) Dying to Survive (2018). A shop owner starts smuggling cheap cancer drugs. Shanghai setting with a little dialect, but the main dialogue is Mandarin. You'll learn a lot of medical and money words.
唐人街探案 (Tángrénjiē tàn'àn) Detective Chinatown (2015). A loud detective comedy set in Bangkok. Fast, jokey, and full of the casual phrases you hear between friends.
消失的她 (Xiāoshī de tā) Lost in the Stars (2023). A twisty thriller about a missing wife. Modern, plot-driven, and heavy on 警察 (jǐngchá, police) and courtroom vocabulary.
阳光普照 (Yángguāng pǔzhào) A Sun (2019). A Taiwanese family drama, Netflix-distributed. Quiet, realistic dialogue with some Taiwanese Hokkien mixed in. Best watched with Chinese subtitles on.
谁先爱上他的 (Shéi xiān ài shàng tā de) Dear Ex (2018). A sharp Taiwanese comedy-drama about a widow, her son, and her late husband's boyfriend. Great for arguing vocabulary.
流浪地球 (Liúlàng dìqiú) The Wandering Earth (2019). China's big sci-fi blockbuster. Lots of shouting over engines, but also clear mission-briefing Mandarin. Try it once you know the science words.
一秒钟 (Yī miǎo zhōng) One Second (2020). Zhang Yimou's small film about a man desperate to see one second of newsreel footage. Slow and quiet. Rural setting, plain speech.

Harder: period settings, poetry, and dialect (HSK 5 and up)

卧虎藏龙 (Wòhǔ cánglóng) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Gorgeous, but the Mandarin is formal and several of the stars aren't native speakers. Watch it for the story, not for pronunciation models.
英雄 (Yīngxióng) Hero (2002). Stylized, poetic dialogue about the first emperor. You'll hear the classical rhythm behind many chengyu.
让子弹飞 (Ràng zǐdàn fēi) Let the Bullets Fly (2010). A 1920s bandit comedy that Chinese audiences quote endlessly. Dense wordplay, so save it for when you can catch puns.
满江红 (Mǎnjiānghóng) Full River Red (2023). A Song-dynasty mystery built around a famous poem. Rapid dialogue plus classical verse in the finale.
无名 (Wúmíng) Hidden Blade (2023). A spy film set in 1940s Shanghai, with Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Japanese. Advanced listening practice.
疯狂的石头 (Fēngkuáng de shítou) Crazy Stone (2006). A cult heist comedy in heavy Chongqing dialect. Fun, but almost useless for Mandarin learners. Included so you know to skip it for now.

Animated films (great for listening, any level)

Animation is dubbed clearly, and the plots are easy to follow even when the words aren't.

哪吒之魔童降世 (Nézhā zhī mótóng jiàngshì) Ne Zha (2019). A rebellious kid-god retelling with jokes and a lot of shouting. The biggest animated hit in China's history.
白蛇：缘起 (Báishé: yuánqǐ) White Snake (2019). A romantic prequel to the famous Chinese legend of the white snake. Clear voice acting and a slower pace.
罗小黑战记 (Luó Xiǎohēi zhànjì) The Legend of Hei (2019). A cat spirit road trip. Short lines, gentle humor, perfect for intermediate ears. If you like it, the web series is even easier.

Chinese shows on Netflix worth adding

Series give you more hours of the same voices, which is better for learning than one two-hour film. A few Mandarin series that have streamed on Netflix:

陈情令 (Chénqíng lìng) The Untamed. A fantasy epic with a huge fandom. Costume-drama vocabulary, but the fan community has translated everything.
苍兰诀 (Cānglán jué) Love Between Fairy and Devil. A romantic fantasy with clear studio dubbing (most Chinese dramas are dubbed in post, which makes them easier to hear than films).
开端 (Kāiduān) Reset. A time-loop thriller on a city bus. Modern speech, 15 tight episodes.
你是我的荣耀 (Nǐ shì wǒ de róngyào) You Are My Glory. A romance between a game star and an aerospace engineer. Everyday Mandarin with some work jargon.

How to learn from a movie instead of just watching it

Passive watching is fine for motivation, but it teaches slowly. This routine gets you far more per film:

First watch: English subtitles. Enjoy it. Know the story.
Second watch: Chinese subtitles. Pause on lines you nearly understood. Those are your best learning moments, because you already have the context.
Look up the words that keep coming back. Every film has 20 to 30 words that repeat. Our dictionary pages cover every HSK word (for example, 故事 gùshi, story), with audio and stroke order.
Shadow a few lines. Pick a scene and repeat the lines out loud with the actor. This is the single best thing film does for your tones.
Save the words. Add the repeaters to a flashcard deck so they show up again next week. On Chenjin, any word you tap in a story or on a dictionary page becomes a spaced-repetition card with one more tap.

Netflix itself doesn't let you click on subtitles. On YouTube, Chenjin's Video Study does: paste a link to a trailer or a scene from any of these films, and every subtitle word becomes tappable, with the clip and the sentence saved together as a flashcard. Trailers are a surprisingly good way to preview the vocabulary of a film before you watch it. A free account gets you the dictionary and flashcards right away, and the video tools on the Plus plan.

FAQ

Are Chinese movies on Netflix in Mandarin or Cantonese?

Both. Netflix labels the original language on each title page, so check for "Mandarin" before you press play. Hong Kong films are usually Cantonese. Everything on this list is mostly Mandarin except where noted.

How do I get Chinese subtitles on Netflix?

Open the subtitle menu during playback. If "Chinese (Simplified)" or "Chinese (Traditional)" isn't listed, that title doesn't have them in your region. Films from Taiwan usually ship Traditional subtitles; you can read either once you know the basics of simplified vs traditional characters.

What's the easiest Chinese movie for beginners?

Our Times or Hi, Mom. Both are modern, family and school-centered, and paced slowly enough that a learner around HSK 3 can follow most scenes with Chinese subtitles on.

Can I learn Chinese just by watching movies?

Not on its own. Film gives you listening practice and motivation, but you still need reading and a review system to hold on to words. Movies work best as one habit inside a bigger routine, which is what our how to learn Chinese roadmap lays out.