Do you love watching movies during Christmas Holiday? In this article, we'll take a look at 5 Chinese Christmas movies that you can watch with your family and friends, describing their plot and giving you a trailer. That's something I absolutely love: to relax at home with your loved ones and watch something interesting and fun.
At some point of this article, we'll take a look at some interesting information about Christmas in China, some related vocabulary and how to learn more from Chinese movies and TV shows.
Let's start!
5 Chinese Christmas movies to watch this holiday season.
1.Merry Christmas.
Original title: 圣诞快乐 (Simplified) / 聖誕快樂 (Traditional) Shèngdàn Kuàilè
Director: Clifton Ko.
Year: 1984.
This is a romantic comedy starring Leslie Cheung, Karl Maka, and Paula Tsui. It's one of the earlier Hong Kong movies to mix a Western holiday with Hong Kong humor and sensibilities. It perfectly blends slapstick humor with family emotional moments, making a very enjoyable movie to watch with your loved ones.
The story centers around a middle-aged newspaper editor (played by Karl Maka) and his three children. The father is a widower and his children note that he's bored and needs a new partner. So, they decide to make him enganged with their neighbor, Paula, a singer and babysitter for his younger son. However, relationships are quite different in modern times and their children will teach him about them.
Read Also:
How to Say Merry Christmas In Chinese
2.City Scenes.
Original title: 都市风光 (Simplified) / 都市風光 (Traditional) Dūshì Fēngguāng
Director: Yuan Muzhi.
Year: 1935.
This movie is Yuan Muzhi's debut as a film director and it's considered a cult classic among Chinese filmography. Technically outstanding at the time, City Scenes captures the lights and movement of 1930s metropolitan Shanghai, alongside incredible music and interesting transitions and shot angles. It also comes with social commentary about poor and rich people in metropolitan areas, a problem that is relevant even today, making it timeless.
The story follows a young man called Li Menghua who moves to the city in search of work and opportunity. There, he falls in love with a pawn shop owner’s daughter called Zhang Xiaoyun. However, she has also two more suitors: Wan Yunsan, a tea businessman, and Xiaochen, his assistant. Things get crazy when Zhang decides to manipulate the men in order to obtain a new outfit for a Christmas ball and a friend's wedding, taking advantage of their love for her and how people treat each other in Shanghai.
3.Starry Starry Night.
Original title: 星室 Xīngshì
Director: Tom Lin Shu-yu.
Year: 2012.
This Taiwanese movie tells the story of Mei, a young girl with great imagination that feels her parents ignore her after moving to a new city. There, she meets Jay, a young boy, and together form a strong friendship that will make her imagination be even more stronger.
Starry Starry Night has won many awards in film festivals in America and Asia. It's a powerful and magical story told through marvelous visuals.
4.It’s a Drink! It’s a Bomb!
Original title: 圣诞奇遇结良缘 (Simplified) / 聖誕奇遇結良緣 (Traditional) Shèngdàn Qíyù Jié Liángyuán.
Director: David Chung.
Year: 1985.
This Hong Kong movie has lots of slapstick humor mixed with hilarious situations involving the Japanese mafia, weapons and martial arts that will make you laugh and have a great time while watching it.
The original title translates to "A Christmas Encounter Leading to a Happy Union". Two Japanese gangsters obtain a bomb disguised as a can of cola only to lose it soon after. A group of three innocent people get involved in the search of the bomb and the Japanese gangsters start to chase them, leading to hilarious and over-the-top situations.
5. Sophie's Revenge.
Original title: 非常完美 Fēicháng Wánměi.
Director: Eva Jin.
Year: 2009.
This Chinese-Korean movie is a must-watch during Christmas season, although the story has nothing to do with Christmas. It has great actors like Zhang Ziyi and the story is fun to watch.
Sophie (played by Zhang Ziyi) wants her ex-boyfriend Jeff back, but he's already dating Joanna and wants to forget Sophie. Seeing this, Sophie will create a crazy plan to bring him back to her side.
Do Chinese people celebrate Christmas?
Yes, Chinese people celebrate Christmas. Although it isn't a national holiday in China, some people like to celebrate Christmas, give presents to friends and family and Santa Claus is very well-known.
However, Christmas decorations aren't common inside people's houses, but in the street, shopping centers and hotels, especially in big cities. At this time of the year, you can see big Christmas trees, lights and Christmas songs like Jingle Bells being played.
One particular and curious thing about Chinese Christmas is that people give not only gifts, but also apples to their friends. Why apples? The word for "apple" in Chinese is píngguǒ 苹果 (Simplified) / 蘋果 (Traditional) and the word for "Christmas Eve" is Píng'ān yè 平安夜. Both word are similar in pronunciation, so people made the connection and retail brands helped with that. Christmas apples are given wrapped in paper and the more paper you use, the deeper your friendship with that person is.
Christmas vocabulary in Chinese.
Here is a list of words and phrases related to Christmas in Chinese with both Simplified (S) and Traditional (T) writings.
1.Shèngdàn 圣诞 (S) / 聖誕 (T) : Christmas.
2.Shèngdànshù 圣诞树 (S) / 聖誕樹 (T): Christmas tree.
3.Shèngdàn lǎorén 圣诞老人 (S) / 聖誕老人 (T): Santa Claus.
4.Píng'ān yè 平安夜: Christmas Eve.
5.Lǐwù 礼物 (S) / 禮物 (T): Gift, present.
6.Xùelù 驯鹿 (S) / 馴鹿 (T): Reindeer.
7.Xuě 雪: Snow.
8.Xuěrén 雪人: Snowman.
9.Líng 铃 (S) / 鈴 (T): Bell.
10.Tiānshǐ天使: Angel.
11.Shèngdàn Kuàilè 圣诞快乐 (S) / 聖誕快樂 (T): Merry Christmas.
Learn Chinese with Lingopie.
In this article, we took a look at 5 Chinese Christmas movies, we learned how is this holiday celebrated in China and we listed some vocabulary in Chinese (Mandarin) related to it.
Watching movies while learning Chinese is a great way to acquire new words and phrases and learn about Chinese culture. You can achieve this with Lingopie! Lingopie offers a wide range of great and real Chinese TV shows. You can learn lots of expressions from your favorite shows and review them with quizzes and flashcards!
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