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1980s Mandarin-language Movies

Public list by WPS with 93 movies or TV shows/series

Related lists: 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | Mandarin-language Movies

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93 movies found (page 1/4):

The Last Emperor(1987)

PG-13
| 2h 43min | Drama, History
3.8/5 (with 712 votes)

A dramatic history of Puyi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci - With John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Ryuichi Sakamoto, ...
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Return to the 36th Chamber(1980)

1h 39min | Action
3.4/5 (with 59 votes)

The workers of a dye factory have their pay cut by 20% when the factory owner brings in some Manchu thugs to try and increase production. Desperate to reclaim their full wages, the workers hire an actor to impersonate a priest and kung-fu expert from the temple of Shaolin. The factory owner proves the actor a fraud, and punishes all those involved. The young actor feels he has let the workers down, and promises to atone. He sets out for Shaolin, determined to be accepted as a kung-fu pupil at the elite temple.

Directed by Lau Kar-leung - With Gordon Liu, Kara Hui, Wang Lung-wei
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Men Behind the Sun(1988)

1h 45min | War, History, Horror, Drama
3.1/5 (with 81 votes)

The film is a graphic depiction of the war atrocities committed by the Japanese at Unit 731, the secret biological weapons experimentation unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The film details the various cruel medical experiments Unit 731 inflicted upon the Chinese and Soviet prisoners at the tail-end of the war.

Directed by Mou Tun-fei

Five Element Ninjas(1982)

1h 47min | Action
3.4/5 (with 29 votes)

A young martial artist seeks revenge on the ninja who kills his martial arts brothers and teacher.

Directed by Chang Cheh
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Red Sorghum(1988)

1h 31min | Drama, War, Romance / Love
3.6/5 (with 81 votes)

An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.

Directed by Zhang Yimou - With Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Teng Rujun, Ji Chunhua

A City of Sadness(1989)

2h 39min | Drama, History
3.7/5 (with 51 votes)

The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror", mainland China's political repression that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government in the late 1940s.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Tony Leung, Jack Kao, Chen Sung-young, Li Tian-lu, Ho Ai-Yun, Hsin Shu-fen, ...

The Time to Live and the Time to Die(1985)

PG
| 2h 18min | Drama
3.7/5 (with 38 votes)

The semi-autobiographical film on director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's childhood and adolescence, when he was growing up in Taiwan.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Tien Feng, Fang Mei, Ai Hsiao, Tang Ru-Yun, You Anshun, Chen Shu-fang, ...
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Kids From Shaolin(1984)

PG-13
| 1h 43min | Action, Comedy
3.2/5 (with 13 votes)

Romance blossoms between two rival families practicing Shaolin and Wudang kungfu respectively. despite familial opposition - until they overcome a gang of scheming bandits together.

Directed by Cheung Sing-Yim - With Jet Li, Yu Chenghui, Gordon Liu

Taipei Story(1985)

2h | Drama
3.7/5 (with 42 votes)

A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.

Directed by Edward Yang - With Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Chin, Wu Nien-jen, Ko Suyun

Martial Arts of Shaolin(1986)

PG-13
| 1h 30min | Action, Comedy
3.1/5 (with 27 votes)

In ancient China, Zhi Ming trains at the legendary Northern Shaolin temple to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a nefarious magistrate.

Directed by Lau Kar-leung - With Jet Li, Yu Chenghui, Huang Qiuyan, Hu Jianqiang
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That Day, on the Beach(1983)

2h 46min | Drama
3.9/5 (with 15 votes)

Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.

Directed by Edward Yang - With Sylvia Chang, Wu Nien-jen, Hou Hsiao-Hsien

A Summer at Grandpa's(1984)

PG
| 1h 33min | Drama
3.7/5 (with 16 votes)

A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Edward Yang
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Shaolin Temple(1982)

1h 35min | Action
3.4/5 (with 51 votes)

The Tang emperor is betrayed by one of his generals, who installs himself as emperor in the East Capital. The son of one of his slave workers escapes to the Shaolin Temple, learns kung fu, and sets out to kill the traitor who killed his father.

Directed by Cheung Sing-Yim - With Jet Li, Yu Hai, Yu Chenghui, Ding Lan, Ji Chunhua

Disciples of the 36th Chamber(1985)

1h 29min | Action
3.2/5 (with 27 votes)

Monk San Te tries to support and protect Shaolin and her Fang Shih-yu who purposely attacks corrupt Ching officials.

Directed by Lau Kar-leung - With Hsiao Ho, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung
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Three-Head Monster(1988)

1h 26min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
1.0/5 (with 1 vote)

The film tells the tale of a one thousand year old living Ginseng and initially about the attempts to capture it. But the thousand year old living root is nearly impossible to corral. He is finally captured by a weird group of ninja like fighters led by Taiwanese beauty, Cynthia Khan. However, the group is followed by a small boy who has befriended the Ginseng King and needs him to save his mother. The gang takes Ginseng to an evil, ogreish three headed monster who intends to eat him in order to live forever. It turns out that Khan's warrior woman is an heiress and is under duress since triple dome is holding her mother hostage. She has a change of heart and decides to aid the young boy in destroying three heads and saving Ginseng. But is it already too late?

With Cynthia Khan

Hibiscus Town(1987)

2h 44min | Drama, History, Romance / Love
3.8/5 (with 15 votes)

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by Xie Jin - With Liu Xiaoqing, Jiang Wen, Xu Song-Zi, Zhu Shi-Bin

The Boxer's Omen(1983)

1h 44min | Action, Horror, Fantasy
3.3/5 (with 21 votes)

After suffering an injury in the ring, embattled boxer Zhen Wei enlists the aid of his brother, Zhen Xiong, to avenge him and find the key to an omen which may release their family from an ancient curse. Black wizards, Taoist monks, rampaging monsters, spooky apparitions, beastly crocodile skeletons, flying human heads, a sexy female zombie with long talons, and demonic bats lie in store for our hero.

Directed by Kuei Chih-hung

Dust in the Wind(1986)

1h 49min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.9/5 (with 31 votes)

A-yuan and A-yun are both from the small mining town of Jio-fen. They move to Taipei, where A-yuan is an apprentice by day and goes to night school, and A-yun works as a helper at a tailors. Everyone thinks they are meant for each other, and so do they. They fail to see time and fate are beyond their control.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Li Tian-lu
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Yellow Earth(1984)

1h 26min | Drama, Music, History
3.7/5 (with 19 votes)

A Communist soldier is sent to the countryside to collect folk songs for the Communist Revolution. There he stays with a peasant family and learns that the happy songs he was sent to collect do not exist; the songs he finds are about hardship and suffering. He returns to the army, but promises to come back for the young girl, Cuiqiao, who has been spellbound by his talk of the freedom women have under Communist rule and who wants to join the Communist Army.

Directed by Chen Kaige - With Wang Xueqi, Liu Quiang, Bai Xue, Tuo Tan

The Sandwich Man(1983)

1h 45min | Drama
3.5/5 (with 9 votes)

Composed of three separate stories, the film vividly portrays Taiwan during the cold war period when the country developed its economy with help from the United States.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Wan Jen, Tseng Chuang-hsiang
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Old Well(1986)

2h 10min | Drama
3.5/5 (with 4 votes)

A married village worker teams up with an old girlfriend to try to dig a well for his water-starved village. The well collapses and they are trapped. Their enforced confinement leads to them exploring their feelings for each other and those around them.

Directed by Wu Tianming - With Zhang Yimou, Liang Yujin, Lü Liping, Niu Xingli

The Emperor and His Brother(1981)

1h 41min | Action, Drama
3.0/5 (with 5 votes)

A young boy betrays his family who hides a refugee and tells the pursuer where the hiding-place is - just because he wants a valuable telescope for reward. His father decides to kill the boy in order to restore the honor of the family.

Directed by Chor Yuen - With Ti Lung, Lo Lieh, Ku Feng
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Killer Constable(1980)

1h 38min | Action, Adventure, Drama
3.6/5 (with 6 votes)

2 million taels in gold has been stolen from a vault within the Forbidden City. The Empress wants the money returned within 10 days. Chief Constable Leng Tian-Ying is hired to bring back the gold robbers, dead or alive- and Leng's earned a reputation of never bringing anyone back alive.

Directed by Kuei Chih-hung - With Chen Kuan-tai
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Secrets of the Heavenly Book(1983)

1h 10min | Animation, Fantasy
3.9/5 (with 11 votes)

Yuangong, the deacon, opened the shrine and exposed the holy book to the human world. He also carved the contents of the book on the stone wall of white cloud cave in the mountains. He is now punished to guard the book for life by the jade emperor for breaking heaven's law and betraying the holy secret to human. In order to pass this holy book to human beings, he would have to get by the antagonist fox.

Directed by Wang Shuchen, Qian Yunda

Lovable You(1980)

1h 30min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.2/5 (with 14 votes)

The daughter of a wealthy man takes French lessons so she can go to France with her fiancée, but ends up falling for a poor man who studies civil engineering.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Kenny Bee, Anthony Chan, Feng Fei-fei

The Boys from Fengkuei(1983)

1h 38min | Drama
3.5/5 (with 21 votes)

Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Doze Niu, Chang Shih

A Terra-Cotta Warrior(1989)

1h 50min | Romance / Love, Fantasy, Adventure
3.3/5 (with 9 votes)

China 3000 years ago. It's the time of the Qin dynasty. The emperor seeks immortality by busily letting his alchemists search for a formula and building the famous terracotta army from the bodies of outlaws and the condemned. This is the time Mong Tiang Fong and court lady Twon fall deeply in love. Such a thing is not tolerated at the court and when their relationship is discovered both are sentenced to death. In the meantime the alchemists have discovered the formula of immortality, but decide to destroy their work. However Twon gets possession of one immortality pill which she manages to give to Tiang Fong before he's made a terracotta warrior too. China 1930. While on location a film crew discovers parts of the grave of emperor Qin guarded by the terracotta warriors. Tiang Fong, being immortal, awakes...

Directed by Ching Siu-tung - With Zhang Yimou, Gong Li, Yu Rongguang, Wu Tianming, Lu Shuming

The Brave Archer and His Mate(1982)

1h 40min | Action, Drama
2.1/5 (with 2 votes)

Guo Jing and Huang Rong return to Peach Blossom Island and are shocked to see that Guo's first martial arts teachers, the "Seven Freaks of Jiangnan", have all been murdered except for Ke Zhen'e. Guo Jing is tricked into believing that Huang Rong's father, Huang Yaoshi, is responsible for the murders and he attempts to avenge his teachers by fighting Huang Yaoshi. The intelligent Huang Rong eventually uncovers the truth and reveals that the murders are actually part of a plot masterminded by Ouyang Feng and Yang Kang. Ouyang and Yang want to make Guo Jing and Huang Yaoshi kill each other and Yang can learn Ouyang's newly mastered skills from the fake copy of the Nine Yin Manual.

Directed by Chang Cheh - With Alexander Fu Sheng, Philip Kwok
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Daughter of the Nile(1987)

1h 31min | Drama, Crime
3.5/5 (with 8 votes)

Lin Hsiao-yang tries to keep her family together while working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken and going to night school. With no mother and her father currently working out of town, it is up to Lin Hsiao-yang to take care of her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien - With Jack Kao, Li Tian-lu, Yonfan, Yang Lin

Growing Up(1983)

1h 40min | Drama
3.5/5 (with 6 votes)

The story follows a young man as he changes from an intelligently aware youth, to a teenager with much less confidence than he once had, and finally, to a stable adult.

Directed by Chen Kunhou - With Doze Niu
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Tags: #movies #language #mandarin #1980
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