In 2005, China made over 260 feature films, most of which received no theatrical release. Despite this, there are gems in this astonishing number. I don’t want to claim I’ve seen all the 200-plus films, but based on what I’ve seen and read about, I selected Top 10 Chinese films of 2005. No. 1 is the best of the 10:

1.    Dam Street (Hong Yan), d. LI Yu.

Despite a few technical flaws, this film is really a gem that comes out of the direction of a promising young female filmmaker who has great potential in art-house productions. I saw the film in Shanghai during the traditional Spring Festival with a group of Shanghai film critics. Some of us lingered at theater and were so overwelmed by the power of the film that we went to a nearby bar and discussed the film and its freshly presented but sometimes twisted mother-son and mother-daughter relationship. We all thought the film is another evidence that Chinese cinema is on its right track toward another period of "glory" that rivals the "golden" period of the 1930s.

2.    Electric Shadows (Dianying wangshi), d. XIAO Jiang.

Again, a small film with a touching story that rivals Cinema Paradiso.  Remember Jiang Wen's award-winning film In the Heat of the Sun? Electric Shadows has certain feel of that film, but is told with a female sensibility. Cinema is closely connected to our inner self as well as our memory of the past, and this film is a proof of that. Besides the memory of the Cultural Revolution it invokes, isn't it true that the film also bring forth the lost memory we had about our childhood, when the friendship, love, and human interaction were supposedly purer and more delightful? Strangely, like the case of Dam Street, many people in China have never heard of such a good film.

3.    Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Qianli zou danqi), d. ZHANG Yimou.

This is not the best of Zhang’s amazing filmography, but the well-controlled pace and TAKAKURA Ken’s performance give the film a great lift. I saw the film at the 25th Hawaii International Film Festival and was amazed by Zhang's perfection in making non-professionals so natural and unforgetable. The tour guide, for example, is a Beijing Film Academy teacher who happens to be very good at Japanese. Some people say that Zhang achieved this because he has money to shoot a scene as many times as he wants. This might be a fair argument, but a mediocre can never achieve this degree of success even he has miles-long celluloid.

4.    Perhaps Love (Ruguo ai), d. Peter CHAN.

Chinese musicals rarely resemble their Hollywood counterparts, with the exception of this film. Amazing singing and dancing sequences plus excellent cinematography make it one of the best that may lead to the revival of musicals in China. This film is not for everyone, since some people are instictly against musicals, and others will be simply turned off by the film's extended distance to the everyday-ness of contemporary China. But perhaps it's time for Chinese cinema to diverse its look and really make rooms for a variety of genres? I just finshed an essay on Chinese musicals, and was quite surprised during the research process that there are very few "musicals" in the 100-year history of Chinese cinema.

5.    Shanghai Dreams (Qing Hong), d. WANG Xiaoshuai.

Like Riding Alone, this is not Wang’s best, but the love-turn-to-tragedy story again shows Wang’s talent in finding the balance between grand history and individual life.The film's bleak ending is as powerful as some of the scenes in Zhang Yimou's To Live. Wang is one of the key figures of the so-called "Six Generation" filmmakers of China, and his "undergraound" spirit used to be the selling point when his films were marketed in the West, but no longer does this work, because the film, surprisingly, passed the Chinese censors and had a limited release in China. The film didn't do well in the Chinese box-office, however. Perhaps Wang needs to cast away his combative attitude and re-position himself in the Chinese film market?