30 Best Chinese Sci-Fi Movies You Need to Watch
Chinese movies are not so well known in the west, but there are a lot of gems you probably haven’t watched from the east. In this article, we will focus on the best Chinese sci-fi movies you can watch to further expand your sci-fi horizons.
Though in a lot of things are different than the movies from Hollywood, Chinese sci-fi movies often tell us some different and original stories. So, if you are a big sci-fi lover, and have watched most of the Hollywood sci-fi movies, or just want a taste of something different, check out our list of the best Chinese sci-fi movies below.
2046 (2004)
Chow is a writer of science fiction novels. In his novel, every hour a mysterious train leaves for 2046. Everyone who went there had the same intention: to recover lost memories. It was said that in 2046 nothing ever changes. No one knew for sure if that was true, because no one who went there came back – except him.
The film consists of four main stories about a writer of science fiction novels, his relationship with women and the temptations of the future. Chow, who lives in hotel room 2046, meets a prostitute and starts telling her stories from his love life. Each time about a different, short-term relationship.
Hidden Heroes (2004)
Office Yohji Ho meets a female android who comes from the future, in a drug raid. The android’s mission is to ensure the death of Yohji, the elder brother of the future “Father of electronic Chips”, so as to help the future scientist to become what he will be. In the meantime, Yohji is suspected for the murder of a police officer.
Scared and confused, Yohji flees and goes to Mei Ling, who looks identical to the android, for a fraudulent passport. Knowing Mei Ling is his brother’s future wife, Yohji decides to kill her to save his own life. Being pursued by the police and the android, Yohji runs away with Mei Ling and starts their adventure.
CJ7 (2008)
The entry of an unusual and interesting pet into the world of a poor worker and his son completely changes their lives. In the resulting comic chaos, he will learn a hard lesson about things that money cannot buy.
Ti is a poor construction worker who kills himself to ensure that his young son Dicky stays enrolled at an exclusive private school. But while Ti does everything possible to give her son the opportunities he never had, Dicky still feels like a class outcast because of his shabby clothes and lack of the latest toys. One day Ti discovers a mysterious orb and brings it straight to Dicky.
Although at first glance the “CJ7” appears to be just an unidentified oddity, it turns out to be much, much more when the boy starts playing with it. This is not your average action figure, but a living “pet” with miraculous powers. Dicky brings CJ7 to school to show off and have fun. But CJ7 has his own vision of fun, and not long after, the situation at school spirals hopelessly out of control.
I Love Maria (1988)
RoboCop as a woman… The Hero Gang is a nasty group of thugs terrorizing Hong Kong with their killer robots, Pioneers 1 and 2. While Pioneer 1 looks like an ordinary robot, Pioneer 2 has been modeled on Maria, the gang’s #2 thug.
When Pioneer 2 gets damaged during a mission to kill an outcast gang member, an inventor on the police force takes her and changes some of her programmings. This new code, plus a few injuries to her logic center, starts causing Pioneer 2 to develop her own personality.
Lost in the Pacific (2016)
A group of VIP elite passengers becomes stranded on a remote mysterious island after their luxury airliner makes an emergency landing. As they await and plan their rescue, they soon realize that the island may have an even darker deadlier secret that none of them will survive. Stars Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Russell Wong (Romeo must die) and Zhang Yu Qi (The Mermaid).
The Wandering Earth (2019)
As the sun is dying out, people all around the world build giant planet thrusters to move Earth out of its orbit and sail Earth to a new star system. Yet the 2500-year journey comes with unexpected dangers, and in order to save humanity, a group of young people in this age of a wandering Earth fight hard for the survival of humankind.
Warriors of Future (2022)
A meteorite brings extraterrestrial life to the earth. When powerful alien creatures threaten humanity, Commander Sing Lee’s elite forces are almost wiped out, and the surviving soldier Tai Loi discovers an even bigger conspiracy.
Iceman (2014)
An imperial guard and his three traitorous friends become buried and frozen in time. When they wake up 400 years later, they continue the battle they started centuries before.
Reset (2017)
In 2025, a scientist on the verge of making a major discovery related to time travel is suddenly put in peril when a rival kidnaps her young son and demands a hefty ransom: her entire research.
2002 (2001)
In Hong Kong, the special force of the police known as 2002 is composed of the twenty-two-year-old cop Chiu and his ghost partner and they fight against supernatural phenomena under the guidance of the mystic Paper Chan. When his partner reincarnates, the rookie policeman Fung applies for the position; but Paper Chan explains Chiu that the team is to be formed by a man and a spirit, and Chiu has a death star on his hand that dooms his friends to die.
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Meanwhile, Chiu falls in love with Nurse Danielle, but he avoids her to protect her life against the fate of the death star. When the fiend Water Ghost possesses Fung seeking revenge against Chiu, he has to battle against the evil spirit trying to protect also his friend.
Crazy Alien (2019)
A monkey trainer whose act goes wrong after alien crash land on Earth and injures his monkey. Desperate to perform the act, he attempts to train the alien instead, though is punished after the alien regains his powers.
Over the Moon (2020)
The film draws its inspiration from Chinese art and mythology, and the plot follows a smart 13-year-old girl Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) who wants to feel her mother’s presence after her death, so with a lot of effort, patience and knowledge, she will build a rocket for a trip to the moon.
There she wants to prove the existence of the legendary Moon Goddess that her mother told her about, so she goes on an adventure she never dreamed of! Of course, all with the help of friends.
The Mermaid (2016)
A playboy business tycoon, Liu Xuan, purchases the Green Gulf, a wildlife reserve, for a sea reclamation project, and uses sonar technology to get rid of the sea life in the area.
Unknown to him, the Green Gulf is the home of merpeople, and the sonar has caused many of them to succumb to illness or die. Xuan’s business ventures in the area are threatened when he crosses paths with the mermaid, Shan, who is sent to avenge her people.
Robotrix (1991)
A criminally insane scientist, Ryuichi Sakamoto (Chung Lin), transfers his mind into a cyborg and immediately commits a series of rapes and murders. Among his victims is female police officer Selena Lin (Chikako Aoyama).
The scientist Dr. Sara (Hui Hsiao-dan) transfers Selena’s mind into a cyborg named Eve-27, including Sara’s robotic assistant named Ann (Amy Yip), the cyborg-robot team joins the police force and pursues the criminal Sakamoto by investigating a series of murdered prostitutes. After Selena/Eve-27 has sexual relations with her policeman boyfriend Chou (David Wu), Ann becomes curious about human sexual activity, but without the human mind, Ann is not capable to know further…
Battle of Memories (2017)
A famous writer recovering from a painful divorce decides to erase a decade of his memories. But after he changes his mind and tries to recover his lost memories, he finds himself in the mind of a serial killer.
Bleeding Steel (2017)
Jackie Chan stars as a hardened special forces agent who fights to protect a young woman from a sinister criminal gang. At the same time, he feels a special connection to the young woman, like they met in a different life.
Story of Ricky (1991)
Riki-Oh, a young man who has superhuman strength, is incarcerated at a private prison, where inmates are treated like slaves, and is forced to use his unstoppable form of martial arts to destroy the corrupt officials and their lackeys.
Future Cops (1993)
In the year 2043, an evil crime lord (The General/M. Bison) is trying to take over the world. Only one government official stands in his way, and plans to send him to prison, so The General and his minions Kent (Ken), Thai King (Sagat), and Toyota (E. Honda) travel to the year 1993 to kill the official before he has a chance to get into office.
During a battle with The General’s minions, the Future Cops Lung (Ryu), Broom Man (Guile), Ti Man (Vega), and Ah-Sing (Dhalsim) hear of their evil plan and devise a plan of their own to travel back in time to protect the official.
Animal World (2018)
Drifting aimlessly through life, Kaisi has racked up debts of several million having borrowed money from his friends. Lured with the promise of writing it all off, Kaisi leaves his ailing mother and childhood sweetheart Qing to board the ship Destiny and attend a gambling party controlled by the mysterious Anderson.
All players join the game with stars. For each game they lose, their opponent captures a star. Everyone is holding daggers behind their backs plotting dirty means by which to overcome their opponents. The game quickly deteriorates into a slaughter and Kaisi must battle to save his own skin.
The Cat (1992)
An adaptation of the novel Old Cat, by Ni Kuang. A cat from outer space teams up with a young alien girl and her knight, along with an adventure novelist named Wisely, to fight a murderous alien that possesses people.
The Midnight After (2014)
A typical night on the streets of Hong Kong: amidst the bustle of night birds, cars and street vendors, a group of passengers board a minibus that will take them from Mongkok to Tai Po. The group is as diverse as the city itself: there is a young drug addict, a quarreling couple, a woman with prayer beads and a girl who has just fallen in love, while a chatty driver sits behind the wheel.
As the bus exits the tunnel, everything suddenly goes silent: the streets and buildings are deserted and there is no living soul, as if the earth suddenly swallowed everything. Only millions of neon lights are still flashing, as if nothing happened. An eclectic group of travelers seek shelter in an abandoned cafe and discuss what they should do.
Infra-Man (1975)
In 2015, Demon Princess Elzebub (also translated as Princess Dragon Mom) awakens from 10 million years of dormancy and plots to conquer the Earth. She destroys a few major cities in China to prove her power to humanity, who react in shock. Returning to her lair in Inner-Earth, she awakens her army of Skeleton Ghosts and various mutant humanoids to wreak havoc on the surface.
The head of the Science Headquarters, Professor Liu Ying-de, has completed the BDX Project, a potential countermeasure against Elzebub. In the HQ’s secret laboratory, he transforms Lei Ma, a high-ranking SH officer, into the bionic kung fu superhero Inframan. The solar-powered red & silver armored Inframan has both enhanced strength and combat weapons.
Once Inframan destroys the princess’s various monsters, she decides to steal the professor’s blueprints of Inframan in hope of discovering his weakness. Meanwhile, the professor introduces Thunderball Fists, gloves capable of destroying any substance known to man, as well as covering up Inframan’s weakness. The princess decides to coerce the professor.
Capturing the professor’s daughter, the princess blackmails the professor into creating an Inframan for her. The professor agrees to go to Mount Devil for a meeting. When the professor refuses to make another Inframan, he and his daughter are frozen. Inframan and the Science Patrol decide to rescue both which leads to the climactic battle between Inframan and Demon Princess Elzebub.
Wicked City (1992)
Based on the popular Japanese series of novels, The Wicked City is about a futuristic Hong Kong on the verge of a takeover by the Reptoids—ruthless monsters disguised as humans.
They work amongst us, they live within us, and their destiny is our demise. Packed with non-stop action and special effects, The Wicked City will glue you to the screen until the astonishing end.
The Mighty Peking Man (1977)
King Kong goes to Hong Kong as a giant Himalayan beast tries to save a sexy Russian Tarzanette from a sleazy show-biz promoter. The action, locations set in India, and interracial romance made Variety reach this verdict: “High camp, Chinese style.”
Shanghai Fortress (2019)
Based on Jiang Nan’s eponymous 2009 sci-fi novel, the film depicts the human race’s last stand in Shanghai fighting against aliens who try to seize a hidden energy source on earth in 2042.
The Soul (2021)
The founder of a corporation developing a futuristic cancer treatment is brutally murdered, and a prosecutor sidelined by the illness asks to lead the case, assisted by his newly pregnant detective wife.
My Alien Girlfriend (2019)
On the night of his Bachelor party, Joe has an Alien crash land in his backyard. With his fiancée becoming suspicious, can he get the Alien home before she finds out and cancels their upcoming wedding?
The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (2020)
Every few hundred years, the most powerful demon on earth—a snake demon—awakens, and the Yin-Yang Masters are summoned to the capital. Meanwhile, the Princess of the realm has her own plans, as she conspires to claim the demon’s power.
Dislocation (1986)
Engineer Zhao Shuxin has been promoted and clones a robot in his image to attend his meetings, resulting in comic situations.
Kung Fu Traveler (2017)
Aliens have invaded and overtaken the Earth. Trying to escape defeat, a Chinese General (Tiger Chen) is accidentally sent back in time while trying to devise a way to defeat the alien invaders. Stars Tiger Chen of “Man of Taichi” and “The Matrix”
