Best movies like The Great Magician
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In the early 1920’s, on the streets of Beijing, the nation’s most talented performers have gathered to show off their most spectacular skills. One day, a challenge is set: 50 silver dollars to whoever can reproduce the incredible magic trick “Eight Immortals’ Treat”. Zhang Xian appears amidst the waiting crowd and decides to try his hand at it.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: captivating, atmospheric, humorous, scenic, exciting, serious, suspenseful, stylized
Best tv shows and movies like The Great Magician (2011):
Similar in 81%
Shanghai Affairs (1998)
Plot Summary:
A Shanghai doctor named Tangsan, is trying to help the town's poor people. Meanwhile, he has the murderous Axe Gang to deal with as well as his feelings for the gang leader's sister.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic, scenic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 80%
Chaos and Desire (2002)
Plot Summary:
Suspecting that the cecassion of the tides may indicate an impending earthquake, Seismologist Alice arrives in her hometown of Baie-Comeau, Quebec to commence her investigation. Soon confronted by numerous figures from her past, the unusual weather and inexplicable behavior of the citizens lead Alice to believe that something beyond her comprehension is occurring to her old hometown.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, captivating, serious, emotional
Similar in 82%
Tokyo Raiders (2000)
Plot Summary:
When a private eye, a jilted bride and a mysterious stranger join forces to track down an elusive mobster, there's more than trouble in the air.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: humorous, stylized, semi serious, captivating, fast
Similar in 82%
The Big Empty (1997)
Plot Summary:
A woman hires P.I. Lloyd Meadows to investigate her husband, a respectable social worker. What seemed to be a simple case of adultery turns into an ugly mess fast.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: neo noir, independent film, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty, cynical, gloomy, detective
Similar in 84%
Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
Plot Summary:
Dangerous Liaisons is a Chinese film by Hur Jin-ho based on the novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: China, South Korea, Singapore
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, captivating, emotional, period piece, sensual, gloomy, sexual, costume drama
Similar in 81%
Rare Birds (2001)
Plot Summary:
A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure luminaries to their small Newfoundland town.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: stylized, touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, clever, offbeat, realistic, erotic, funny
Similar in 90%
Peking Opera Blues (1986)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1913 Beijing, during Yuan Shikai's presidency of the Republic of China. It depicts the adventures of a team of unlikely heroines: Tsao Wan, a patriotic rebel who dresses as a man; Sheung Hung, a woman in search of a missing box of jewels; and Pat Neil, the daughter of a Peking Opera impresario.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Action
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, feel good, humorous, realistic, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Gone with the Bullets (2014)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1920s Shanghai, Ma Zouri and Xiang Feitian establish a notorious beauty pageant called the Flowers Competition. All of the city's elite attend the gala event, but when Wanyan Ying unexpectedly wins, it sets into motion a series of tragic events that change their destinies.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: China, USA, Hong Kong
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, exciting, tense, humorous, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized
Similar in 81%
For Lovers Only (2011)
Plot Summary:
FOR LOVERS ONLY is a story of a MAN and a WOMAN in love. After seeing each other for the first time in years while on separate work assignments in Paris, the LOVERS flee together and travel by train, car and motorcycle, as their love affair takes them across France-from Normandy to St. Tropez. Throughout their trip, both characters experience long periods of carefree bliss and unrepentant joy punctuated by brief moments of guilt and confusion. The final outcome of the affair is left open to interpretation.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, black and white, captivating, light, humorous, sexy, offbeat, independent film, sentimental
Similar in 79%
A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009)
Plot Summary:
Wang is a gloomy, cunning and avaricious noodle shop owner in a desert town in China. His neglected, sharp-tongued wife is involved in a secret affair with Li, one of Wang’s employees. A timid man, Li reluctantly keeps the gun his lover has bought to kill her husband. But Wang is watching their every move. He bribes patrol officer Zhang to murder the illicit couple. It seems like a perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel, bloody but satisfying end… or so he thinks. The equally wicked Zhang has an agenda of his own. As the plot twists, more blood will flow, and ever greater violence will erupt….
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, semi serious, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, dark comedy, exciting, stylized, detective, remake of american film
Similar in 87%
Love for All Seasons (2003)
Plot Summary:
May is a martial artist and Chinese medicine practitioner who resides in a temple in Omei mountain. Under the threat of her lovelorn master, Misery, she decides to seek the help of infamous womanizer, Tiger Hung, who she had helped earlier, in order to experience heartbreak and master the "Heartbroken Sword" technique to defeat her.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 496
Genere: Comedy, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, feel good, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
The Bullet Vanishes (2012)
Plot Summary:
One rainy night in an arms factory near Shanghai, a young female worker accused of stealing a box of bullets from the ruthless Boss Ding (Liu Kai Chi) is violently killed in a game of Russian roulette. Half a month later, a series of inexplicable deaths takes place in the factory, where the victims are shot but no bullets are found. Rumors of a deadly curse begin to spread in the factory, terrorizing the workers there. So, eccentric police inspector Song Donglu (Lau Ching Wan) and his hot-blooded, gunslinging partner Guo Zhui (Nicholas Tse) are sent in to investigate the mystery of the phantom bullets.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, stylized, realistic, detective
Similar in 82%
Triple Tap (2010)
Plot Summary:
Champion competitive marksman Ken comes across an armored van robbery. He sees a policeman held hostage and shoots and kills four of the robbers. One of the robbers escapes and the policeman survives. The case is handled by Jerry Chang, whom Ken knows from having recently beaten him in a shooting match. Ken is found not guilty in court. Soon after, Ken is attacked by the escaped robber Pang Tao. Their confrontation reveals a very different background story and brings about a myriad of lies and traps and changes in relationships as Jerry and Ken try to outsmart each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, realistic, tense, sincere, crime drama
Similar in 77%
The Tender Hook (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story is about Iris's rise to the apex of a love/power triangle that includes her roguish English lover, McHeath, and Art, an earnest young boxer. Within the flawed moral landscape, each character struggles to establish their sovereignty.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 599
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, stylized, neo noir, sexual
Similar in 90%
Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
Plot Summary:
Set in China during the Warlords Period of the1920s, notorious bandit chief Zhang descends upon a remote provincial town posing as its new mayor, an identity that he had hijacked from Old Tang, himself a small-time imposter. Hell-bent on making a fast buck, Zhang soon meets his match in the tyrannical local gentry Huang as a deadly battle of wit and brutality ensues.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Drama, Western
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspenseful, semi serious, realistic, stylized, heroic, clever, humorous, epic
Similar in 89%
Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012)
Plot Summary:
According to demon lore, it takes hundreds of years to attain human form. Even then, lacking a human heart, a demon cannot experience the true pains and passions of existence. However, there is a legend that if a pure human heart is freely offered to a demon, it can become a mortal and experience true life. Sequel of Painted Skin (2008).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: stylized, serious, psychotronic, tense, captivating, disturbing, romantic, costume drama, exciting, epic
Similar in 77%
My Lucky Star (2003)
Plot Summary:
Yip is attractive but for some strange reason, no man has ever been interested in her. Yip meets Lai, a famous feng shui expert and she thinks that Lai can change her luck. But Duen, also a famous feng shui expert continually cast all kinds of spells on Yip. A fierce battle of feng shui and horoscope techniques ensues. Will Lai and Yip live happily afterwards?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 527
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: humorous, feel good, captivating, light, offbeat, realistic, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 86%
Painted Skin (2008)
Plot Summary:
Painted Skin is based on one of Pu Songling's classic short stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Zhou Xun stars as Xiao Wei, a fox spirit that feasts on human hearts in order to maintain her lovely, youthful appearance. When General Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) 'rescues' her from a band of bandits and brings her home, trouble brews as the demon falls in love with the general.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong, Singapore
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, rough, serious, stylized, epic, psychotronic
Similar in 82%
The Silent War (2012)
Plot Summary:
An espionage thriller set in the 1950s and adapted from the novel "Year Suan/Plot Against" by May Jia. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a blind man who works for a piano tuner. He is recruited for a spy mission because of his exceptional hearing.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, captivating
Similar in 89%
Temptress Moon (1996)
Plot Summary:
Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: stylized, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, epic, erotic, atmospheric, sexy
Similar in 82%
Women Who Flirt (2014)
Plot Summary:
When Zhang Hui is told by long-time best friend Xiao Gong that he has a new girlfriend, she is determined to learn new tricks to gain him back. Based on the novel written by Luo Fuman, "Everyone Loves Tender Women".
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 919
Genere: Comedy
Country: China
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, light, romantic comedy, sentimental, realistic
Similar in 85%
Suzhou River (2000)
Plot Summary:
A tragic love story set in contemporary Shanghai. The film stars Zhou Xun in a dual role as two different women and Jia Hongsheng as a man obsessed with finding a woman from his past.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, China
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, atmospheric, serious, stylized, sad, clever, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Zhou Yu's Train (2002)
Plot Summary:
Zhou Yu, a ceramic artisan in China's rural Northwest, has a deep rapport with Chen Qing, a shy sensitive poet. Taking a long train ride every weekend just to make mad passionate love with him, her longing seems insatiable. Until one day, she meets the hedonistic vet Zhang Qiang and begins a torrid affair, which takes her to another train station, and another level of lust. Driven by the locomotive of love and desire, she hustles through a dark tunnel of no return.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, contemplative, realistic, surprise ending, non-linear
Similar in 81%
A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella (1995)
Plot Summary:
This sequel to "Pandora's Box" continues director Jeffrey Lau's adaptation of the Buddhism saga "Journey to the West". Stranded five centuries in the past, Joker Monkey King must battle a variety of monsters, seductive women and super-powered villains to save the dying Pak Jing-Jing.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: dorama, exciting, offbeat, epic, serious, stylized, semi serious, spoof, parody, campy
Similar in 79%
Chungking Express (1994)
Plot Summary:
Two melancholy Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 93000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, artsy, art house, non-linear, visual, surreal, stylized, cult classic, ambiguous ending, captivating
Similar in 76%
Love in the Buff (2012)
Plot Summary:
When old flames reunite, will it be second time's the charm or a case of once bitten twice shy? Jimmy and Cherie, two ex-lovers from Hong Kong, cross paths in Beijing and can't seem to forget each other, despite being involved with someone else. Torn between fidelity towards their new partners or following their hearts, they explore the struggles, doubts and fears that exist among modern young couples.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: feel good, touching, humorous, light, captivating, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Beginning of the Great Revival (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the events that led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: China
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, factual, banned
Similar in 86%
The Golden Era (2014)
Plot Summary:
The story of writer Xiao Hong comes alive through memories of her great love affair, literary influence and escape from China during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, psychological, captivating, romantic drama, touching, realistic, stylized
Similar in 81%
Afula Express (1997)
Plot Summary:
David is a garage electrician, who dreamt all of his life of becoming a magician, but had no luck in it. His girlfriend Batya wants an ordinary life, but David is still looking for his dream, so he links up with Romanian immigrant Shimon, who is an expert magician.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Israel
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 77%
Love is Not Blind (2011)
Plot Summary:
Xiaoxian’s life is right on track. She has a steady job at an upscale wedding planning company, a cute apartment, and most importantly, a loving boyfriend of 7 years. Any day now, Xiaoxian is sure that he’ll pop the question. But everything comes crashing down when she discovers that he’s actually cheating on her— with her best friend. How could things go so wrong? Dumped and heartbroken, Xiaoxian is a total mess. It doesn’t help that she has to face perky brides every day. Things go from bad to worse until her sassy, but jaded, co-worker Jian intervenes. It’s not that Jian really cares. It’s more that he’s sick of witnessing her pathetic decline. Xiaoxian seriously needs to get a grip. 33 days into her breakup, Jian’s brand of tough love is working, but Xiaoxian still can’t help wondering: will she ever get a chance at love again?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, light, captivating, sentimental, semi serious