Best movies like Empress Wu

The action-packed and captivating tale of Dee Renjie's beginnings in the Imperial police force. His very first case, investigating reports of a sea monster terrorizing the town, reveals a sinister conspiracy of treachery and betrayal, leading to the highest reaches of the Imperial family.

Hong Kong student Ben Lee becomes friends with his mainland Chinese classmate Chang Chih while studying abroad in Japan. Ben is unmotivated to study and only cares about money and on the other hand, whenever Chih encounters a Chinese person, he would ask whereabouts of his childhood sweetheart. Ming is also from Hong Kong and in order to elevate his social status, he becomes involved with a bar hostess and owner Yuriko, hoping to become Yakuza leader Yamada Ishikawa's brother in-law.

A female assassin receives a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in eighth-century China.

Crown Prince Wu Luan is in love with Little Wan but left heartbroken when she marries his father, the emperor. The emperor's brother, Li, kills him and Wu Luan tries to avenge his father's death.

Korean War, winter 1950. In the frozen and snowy area of Changjin Lake, a bloody battle is about to begin between the elite troops of the United States and China.

The lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.

An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.

During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.

Having defeated the best fighters of the Imperial Japanese army in occupied Shanghai, Ip Man and his family settle in post-war Hong Kong. Struggling to make a living, Master Ip opens a kung fu school to bring his celebrated art of Wing Chun to the troubled youth of Hong Kong. His growing reputation soon brings challenges from powerful enemies, including pre-eminent Hung Gar master, Hung Quan.

Dee, the detective serving Chinese empress Wu Zetian, is called upon to investigate a series of strange events in Loyang, including the appearance of mysterious warriors wearing Chiyou ghost masks, foxes that speak human language and the pillar sculptures in the palace coming alive.

When the future empress Wu Zetian's two courtiers die in a mysterious fire, she gets Di Renjie, a former detective and rebel, released from prison to solve the mystery of the fire.

In December 1937, during the Second Japanese-Sino War, a Chinese doctor, his Japanese pregnant wife, their teenage daughter and their young son travel from Shanghai to Nanjing seeking shelter in the Capital during the Japanese invasion. The family faces the Rape of Nanking by the Imperial Japanese Army, with rapes, mass murder of prisoners of war and civilians including women, children and elders, and disrespect of international conventions.

Epic drama about China's first emperor (221 BC) who struggles to make his childhood best friend, now China's greatest composer, succumb to his will and compose a grand anthem to his exploits.

A person's life is destined to be shorter than that of a city. Having spent her whole life in Shanghai, Qiyao has her moments of prosperity and her fair share of loneliness. She finally fades and disappears but Shanghai remains a metropolitan city. Shanghai in the 1930s is glamorous and seductive.

The world renowned “Invincible Hand” Ken could identify not only mahjong tiles, but also cards with his fingers which had made him a legend. Upon his retirement as the Chief Security Consultant in Las Vegas, Ken returned to his hometown Macau, where he met his old friend Benz, and Benz’s son Cool and nephew Karl. Both Cool and Karl wanted to follow Ken. Ken claimed that if Cool could successfully cheat him once or win over him, he would then accept Cool as his protégé. Cool’s step brother Lionel, an undercover agent, had disguised his identity in an international gambling mafia which had planned to form an alliance with mafias in illegal gambling from all over the world to control the result of soccer matches. Lionel had recorded the entire conference, with the criminal evidence kept in an imitated eye. The eye was coincidentally given to Rainbow, Ken’s only daughter, which put her in danger. The retired Ken was forced to use his “Magic Hand” once again to uncover the evil plan…

In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets. The ministers misuse their power so much that there is a popular revolt against the Yangs, fueled by An Lushan.

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.

The mythological tale of a quest from China to India to bring back Buddhist scriptures, famous for the adventures of Sun Wukong, the notorious Monkey King.

Near the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in 7th century China, General Shi Yan-sheng is tricked into leaving the crown prince unguarded. The crown prince is murdered by one of his brothers who then becomes emperor. Shi retreats to a monastery, perhaps to hide, perhaps to plan a coup. When his loyal troops as well as the princess he desires are slain, he seeks refuge in a remote, abandoned monastery where an aged abbot schools him with practical, earthy teachings. The emperor's forces pursue Shi: first a woman, then a general seek to overpower him with lust and might. Over the course of the film, the reds of battle give way to blues of meditation.

Samurai and Smiling Sam are two famous martial arts masters in Central China. On the night before the big martial arts competition, someone murders the Empress, and the two swordsmen are framed for the crime. Determined to clear their name, they soon uncover a heinous plot that must be stopped. Meanwhile, a third swordsman, Big Knife, tries to track the pair down so he can join their fight.

Disguised as a Holy Monk of the Golden Light Temple, Tian Yuan challenges the high priest of Shaolin for ultimate rule of the holy place. But just as combat ensues, Emperor Tang's guards overrun the temple, killing all in their path (except a small group of priests who escape with the venerated - and magical - holy robe). The evil emperor will lose power if he can't locate the robe. But the monks aren't giving it up without a helluva fight!

After the death of her father, a woman is forced to take over as empress and fight to save her kingdom.

China's most famous martial arts film is a spellbinding blend of kung fu action and Buddhist mythology. Set in the first century in India, a prince is troubled by visions and a desire to master the ways of Buddha. After his father dies, he forsakes the throne to become a monk and, after studying Buddhism for sixty years, travels to China to preach Zen and teaches the Shaolin monks the exercises that become the foundation of

An Iron Bodyguard called Wang Wu meets a scholar and forms a strong friendship with him after they fight some villains together. The scholar is a member of the reformists - a group of scholars pressing for social reform in China towards the end of the Qing dynasty. The Emperor is actually all for reforms, and appoints this group to run the country. This doesn't suit the Empress Dowager though, as she has no intention of losing her power. She orders the reformists to be arrested, and Chen Kuan Tai hence gets drawn into politics despite having no real political views himself.

Wong Fei Hong (Wong Kwan) must fight against slave trader Master Eleven (Ji Chun Hua) and Prefect Wu to stop the Chinese being sold as slaves work in the gold mines in America.

Han Hsiang Li's lush epic re-creates the fascinating life and times of Tzu Hsi, the Manchu Qing dynasty empress who rose from the ranks of Emperor Xianfeng's many concubines to become the de facto ruler of China for nearly 50 years.

Perhaps the most notorious concubine in Chinese history, Yang Guifei set a pudgy standard of beauty in her days of glory during the Tang dynasty. The Emperor Minghuang was so besotted with the woman that when An Lushan stages his rebellion against the empire, the ruler takes Yang Guifei along with his imperial entourage in an escape to the mountainous area of modern-day Sichuan, and sanctuary of sorts. But the concubine had roused the jealousy of the court and unfortunately for her and to the great sorrow of the king, her brother and others among the king's retainers demanded she be strangled to death while they were still in the mountains. This is the story told in this interesting Taiwanese adaptation by director Li Han-hsiang (Li Hanxiang).

About a woman who disguises herself as a man to take her father's place in the army.

The Soong family was a political dynasty in China that reached the highest levels of power. This film follows the lives of the three Soong daughters, who were educated in America and returned to China. Ai-ling married a wealthy and powerful businessman. Ching-ling married Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary founder of modern China. Mei-ling married Chiang Kai-shek, China's leader during World War II. The sisters captured the world's fascination for their brilliant marriages and their strong influence on their nation.

There were three women lived with Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, during 1922 and 1924. Wan-jung, the Queen, ended up with being insane. Tan Yuling died. Wenxiu, a concubine, was eliminated from the Royal family. This is the story of the fate of three women, including the wife and cousin of who have a lesbian relationship

Love knows no limits in the grand period romance, Lady Jade Locket. A young fighter inadvertently falls for the spirit of a beautiful woman, who died years earlier avenging her own father's murder. The beautiful ghost is in fact the sister of his fiancee. Experienced as an actor in many such romances, director Yen Chuan keeps the tone perfect. Plus, with period specialist Li Li-hua in the lead and the attractive and acclaimed Li Ching playing the ghost girl, he really can do no wrong.

Previously known as "Repeat, I Love You", "Shadows of Love" is a modern-day Cinderella romance starring Cecilia Cheung ("Legendary Amazons") and Kwon Sang-woo ("Stairway to Heaven") as a rivals who eventually fall for each other. The film revolves around three interrelated love stories with the one played by Kwon and Cheung as the core. Cheung plays two contrasting roles in the film, one as a refined lady, and the other as a determined young woman with quick temper.

During the day, Hu Tien lives as a respectable office employee, but when night falls, he unashamedly plunges headlong into an exciting world of lust and sex as a high-class Hong Kong pimp! Thanks to his uncanny knack for setting up prostitutes with "sugar daddies," Hu Tien starts living the high life. Things take an even more dramatic turn when the drop-dead gorgeous Irene (Betty Pei Ti from The Delinquent and Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan) enters the fray. Thanks to Hu Tien's involvement, this rough and tumble new vixen soon finds herself being the center of attention among all the wealthy sugar daddies. But is his relationship with Irene merely business or is there more to it?

Wu Jia-qian (played by Kelly Lin) opened a marketing company which is struggling to survive in Shanghai. Once she had deals with a upstart entrepreneur Mr Zeng Tian-gao, Mr Zeng employed Miss Wu to re-package and design his personal image to produce results a change of himself in pursuit of a female model Fang-na (Hong Xiao-ling) who dislike his vulgar. Miss Wu made a full upgrade for Mr Zeng not only improves the taste of his dress, but also changed his artistic accomplishment. Miss Wu take full advantage of her marketing strategy, making Mr Zeng famous one night after long-time training and Fang-na fell into love with Zeng when they met again. But this time Mr Zeng felt his real love is Miss Wu.

The tragic love triangle of early 20th century Peking Opera star Chiu Hai-tang, his beautiful stage partner, and the warlord who forces himself between them, has been a favorite with Chinese audiences for decades.