Chinese detective movies

List of the best Chinese detective movies selected by visitors to our site: The Witness, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Three-Body, Detective Chinatown 3, The Soul, Kaili Blues, The Great Hypnotist, Cold War II, Black Coal, Thin Ice, The Looming Storm.

In the top there are new films of 2023, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Markimdb: 5.9
Genrethriller, crime, detective
CountryChina, South Korea
Duration01:22

A blind woman and a delivery boy attempt to solve a hit-and-run case the police have been unable to solve.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genreaction, fantasy, adventure, detective
CountryChina, Hong Kong
Duration02:03

An exiled detective is recruited to solve a series of mysterious deaths that threaten to delay the inauguration of Empress Wu.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genrefantastic, thriller, drama, detective
CountryChina

Focuses on humans dealing with the incoming invasion of a highly-advanced alien civilization called Three-Body.

Markimdb: 5.6
Genreaction, comedy, detective
CountryChina

Following the excitement of first Bangkok and then New York, a big murder case takes place in Tokyo. Chinatown master detectives Tangren (Wang Baoqiang) and Qinfeng (Liu Haoren) are invited to take up the mystery. Adding to the excitement are the other detectives on the CRIMASTER international detective list as well as the current top rank, Q. Yet another hilarious battle of wits is set to take place...

Markimdb: 6.6
Genrefantastic, thriller, fantasy, crime, detective
CountryTaiwan, China

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.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, detective
CountryChina

In the subtropical province of Guizhou, Chen Sheng embarks on a journey to find his nephew.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, drama, detective
CountryChina
Duration01:44

The famous psychologist Xu Ruining has a raising career, when he met the troublesome patient Ren Xiaoyan. The meeting is not easy as feeble-looking Ren is point by point against him.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genreaction, thriller, crime, detective
CountryHong Kong, China
Duration01:27

Picking up some time after the events in the first movie, Sean Lau is now the Commissioner of Police after the successful rescue operation. However, things turn bad when his wife and daughter are kidnapped. Sean has to seek help from former rival and retired DCP, Waise Lee, to return to his job to help save Sean`s wife and child.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrethriller, crime, detective
CountryChina
Duration01:50

Two former cops start investigating the series of murders that tanked their careers when the killings begin again.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genredrama, crime, detective
CountryChina

Yu, a self-assured factory guard, fancies himself a detective and begins poking his nose into a murder investigation.

Markimdb: 5.1
Genreaction, fantasy, comedy, adventure, family, detective
CountryChina, USA, India, Nepal, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Iceland
Duration01:19

Chinese archeology professor Jack teams up with beautiful Indian professor Ashmita and assistant Kyra to locate lost Magadha treasure. In a Tibetan ice cave, they find the remains of the royal army that had vanished together with the treasure, only to be ambushed by Randall, the descendent of a rebel army leader. When they free themselves, their next stop is Dubai where a diamond from the ice cave is to be auctioned. After a series of double-crosses and revelations about their past, Jack and his team travel to a mountain temple in India, using the diamond as a key to unlock the real treasure.

Markimdb: 4.4
Genrecrime, detective
CountryChina, Hong Kong
Duration01:33

The police investigate the murder of a young woman whose corpse was frozen and dressed up like a doll.

Markimdb: 5.7
Genreaction, crime, detective
CountryHong Kong, China

ICAC Investigator William Luk and JFIU Chief Inspector Lau Po-keung both hit a dead end in their investigation of a bribery case and a money laundering case. In the meantime, William Luk was suspended when model Eva Ng went to Inspector Kenny Ching of ICAC’s Internal Investigation Group L, to file a report against him for accepting a $12M bribe. Lau discovered Luk was set up and whoever framed Luk was connected to his case. He began to suspect the bank manager Thomson Yau was assisting a gangster, Wong Hoi-wo in money laundering activities. When Director Hong Liang of China’s Anti-Corruption & Bribery Bureau (ACBB) provided Lau with important intelligence, it became clear the money laundering activities were connected to a corrupted Vice-Ministerial Level cadre. To clear his name, William Luk put everything on the line…

Markimdb: 7.1
Genremelodrama, drama, detective, film noir
CountryChina, France
Duration01:25

Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, the hometown from which he fled many years ago. He begins the search for the woman he loved, and whom he has never been able to forget.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective
CountryChina

On a dark night, Xueming hits a pedestrian with his car and flees the scene. Desperate to escape his feelings of guilt, he decides to approach the dead man's wife, Mrs. Liang. Meanwhile, the body is discovered—riddled with bullets. Chen, the detective in charge of the investigation, becomes obsessed with the case. Years later, all three remain caught in a tangled web of memories and lies, desperately searching for a truth that refuses to be revealed…

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, biography
CountryUSA, Italy, United Kingdom, China
Duration02:08

The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrethriller, comedy, crime, detective
CountryChina

When a murder occurs in a small town in Southeast China, a local mechanic, known for his honesty, comes under suspicion. When the police target him to take the fall, he’s forced to try and exonerate himself, uncovering a number of disturbing facts, most much bigger than the initial crime.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrefantastic, action, thriller, crime, detective
CountryChina, USA
Duration01:55

    Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He's framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.

    Markimdb: 5.9
    Genrethriller, crime, detective
    CountryChina
    Duration00:55

    A man lives in a lovely apartment with his wife and 2 children. He is obsessed with cleanliness, has strange dreams and struggles with a mystery in his past. He goes to a bad part of town hunting for a long lost brother, leaving his wife and children in their car. As he tries to get cooperation from neighbors, the wife finds her children are missing. A stranger wearing a dark motorcycle helmet appears, frightening her. As the story unfolds this stranger follows them becoming more and more threatening.

    Markimdb: 6.5
    Genrethriller, detective, history
    CountryChina

    A pawn tries to get rid of a traitorous minister, Qin Hui, when he leads an army to the border for talks with a Jurchen mission.

    Markimdb: 6.4
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, detective, military
    CountryChina, USA
    Duration01:43

    An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.

    Markimdb: 6
    Genreaction, thriller, crime, detective
    CountryHong Kong, China
    Duration02:07

    The details of undercover police officers are deleted from a police database and a senior officer is left struggling to know who are the undercover officers and who are the criminals.

    Markimdb: 7.6
    Genredrama, detective
    CountryChina, Hong Kong

    Drawing on remarkable true stories, Peter Chan delivers a moving drama about child abduction in China. Huang Bo stars as a father whose young son disappears in the streets of a big city. He sets out on a search across China, stopping at nothing to find him. In this star-studded cast, Zhao Wei plays the role of a mother from a poor rural area.

    Markimdb: 4.6
    Genrehorror, drama, detective
    CountryChina
    Duration01:27

    A killing spree takes place in a northern China's hospital, an old elevator goes to the 18th floor - underground.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genreaction, detective, history
    CountryChina
    Duration01:42

    An imperial guard searches for the truth behind a conspiracy that framed him and his partners. The proof of his innocence lies with a wanted woman named Bei Zhai... but will she reveal what she knows? In this intense prequel to BROTHERHOOD OF BLADES, the only thing he can truly trust is his sword.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective
    CountryChina

    Northern China, 2004. When miner Zhang Baomin returns to his home, a small and isolated mining village, his wife tells him that their son has mysteriously disappeared while shepherding his small flock.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genrehorror, thriller, detective
    CountryChina
    Duration01:30

    When art student Kangsheng returns to his remote hometown village with his classmates to search of ancient murals, they are witness to a fatal car accident. Kangsheng's girlfriend Wangzhi unintentionally interrupts the local witchcraft ritual for the deceased. Horrified, the group flee the scene and settle at the inn owned by Kangsheng's mother. The following day, out searching for murals, the group find instead a mysterious hand-painted sign in a cave. The surprises are only beginning.

    Markimdb: 6.9
    Genrecomedy, documentary, detective, history
    CountryUSA, Taiwan, China

    From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genrefantastic, thriller, drama, detective
    CountryUSA, China
    Duration02:09

    In a series of escalating encounters, security guard David Dunn uses his supernatural abilities to track Kevin Wendell Crumb, a disturbed man who has twenty-four personalities. Meanwhile, the shadowy presence of Elijah Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, history
    CountryHong Kong, China
    Duration02:00

    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.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genreaction, thriller, detective
    CountryUnited Kingdom, China, USA, India
    Duration02:12

    Quan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love – his teenage daughter – dies in a senseless act of politically-motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

    Markimdb: 5.5
    Genreaction, thriller, fantasy, drama, adventure, crime, detective
    CountryHong Kong, China, USA
    Duration01:55

    Wanted criminal "Helios" and his assistant stole a quantity of uranium and plan to produce weapons of mass destruction. They are planning to trade with a terrorist organization in Hong Kong. Chief Inspector Lee Yinming and Inspector Fan Kaming lead the Counter Terrorism Response Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force. Along with a Chinese senior official, a physics professor, and two South Korean weapon experts, they hope to defuse a crisis sufficient to destroy the world.

    Markimdb: 5.4
    Genreaction, thriller, fantasy, comedy, crime, detective
    CountryUSA, China, Canada
    Duration02:02

    In a world where human beings and puppets live together, when the members of the cast of a children's television show aired during the 1990s begin to get murdered one by one, puppet Phil Philips, a former LAPD detective who fell in disgrace and turned into a private eye, takes on the case at the request of his old boss in order to assist detective Edwards, who was his partner in the past.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genrethriller, fantasy, melodrama, drama, detective
    CountryChina, USA

    PALI ROAD is a mysterious and thrilling journey in search for true love between two different worlds. Lily, a young doctor, wakes up from a car accident and discovers she is living a completely different life. Now married to her boyfriend’s rival, Dr. Mitch Kayne, and a mother to a 5-year-old son, she has an established life she remembers nothing about. Everyone around her denies that her boyfriend Neil ever existed. As Lily begins to doubt her own sanity, memories of Neil resurface, causing her to encounter unexplainable incidents. While desperately searching for the truth of her past life, she questions her entire existence; but in the end, she discovers the meaning of true love.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genreaction, thriller, detective
    CountryUSA, Germany, Czech Republic, France, China
    Duration02:17

    The most dangerous former operative of the CIA is drawn out of hiding to uncover hidden truths about his past.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrefantasy, melodrama, detective, biography, history
    CountryChina, Japan, Hong Kong
    Duration02:03

    During the Late Tang Dynasty, a manor is invaded by a demon cat and a sense of unrest befalls the capital of Changan. A poet is charged with investigating the case and meets up with a monk. The two work together and pull apart the thread of clues to reveal a history of truths leading to the events.

    Markimdb: 5.7
    Genrefantasy, comedy, adventure, detective
    CountryJapan, China
    Duration01:48

    A young girl named Kiki (Fuka Koshiba) must leave her home for a year to begin training in witchcraft. She leaves on her broom, but first says goodbye to her friends and family. Kiki then begins her new life with her trusted cat Jiji.

    Markimdb: 6
    Genrehorror, drama, detective
    CountryAustralia, USA, China

    When Edna—the elderly and widowed matriarch of the family—goes missing, her daughter and granddaughter travel to their remote family home to find her. Soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna.

    Markimdb: 6.8
    Genrehorror, thriller, comedy, detective
    CountryUSA, China, Japan
    Duration01:56

    Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

    Markimdb: 6.9
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective
    CountryChina

    The murder of a to-be step-mom is being prosecuted with apparently clinching evidence. The father holds his accused daughter innocent. The faithful driver and his seemingly sly, amorous wife are involved. Further differing evidence spouts.

    Markimdb: 5.1
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective
    CountryUnited Kingdom, USA, China, Sweden, Japan
    Duration02:36

      Detective Harry Hole investigates the disappearance of a woman whose pink scarf is found wrapped around an ominous looking snowman.

      Markimdb: 5.3
      Genrehorror, thriller, fantasy, detective
      CountryChina

      A haunted theatre, filled with the vengeful spirits of a tragically-trapped performance troupe murdered in a fire 13 years ago, waits for the once-grand palatial playhouse to re-open with a new show - and bring in new victims.

      Markimdb: 8.8
      Genreaction, fantasy, drama, detective
      CountryChina

      In a land dominated by the mighty Wen clan, a young man named Wei Wuxian strikes up an unconventional friendship with justice-loving Lan Wangji. When the duo unexpectedly stumbles across evidence implicating the Wen clan’s chief in a plot to bring mayhem to the inhabitants of their land, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji decide to intervene. However, the pair’s attempts to foil the Wen clan boss’s wicked plans go wrong. In the confusion that follows, Wei Wuxian disappears – with many fearing the worst for him. Sixteen years later, Wei Wuxian returns out of the blue. He is soon reunited with Lan Wangji, just as a spate of mysterious murders has broken out. The duo joins forces once more to investigate, determined not to fail this time… Can the pair get to the bottom of the intrigue? Will they solve the murder cases? And just who is the dastardly secret figure pulling the strings behind the evildoings now blighting the land?

      Markimdb: 6
      Genremelodrama, drama, detective
      CountrySouth Korea, China, Singapore
      Duration01:50

      Dangerous Liaisons is a Chinese film by Hur Jin-ho based on the novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

      Markimdb: 5.9
      Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, detective
      CountryHong Kong, China
      Duration02:08

      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.

      Markimdb: 7.3
      Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime, detective
      CountryHong Kong, Singapore, China
      Duration01:59

      In this prequel to Mou gaan dou (2002), Chan Wing Yan has just become an undercover cop in the triads while Lau Kin Ming joins the police force. Both the triads and the police find an enemy in a rival crime boss.

      Markimdb: 6.2
      Genrefantastic, action, thriller, fantasy, comedy, adventure, family, cartoon, crime, detective
      CountryUSA, Italy, United Kingdom, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, China, West Germany, Japan, France, Hong Kong
      Duration01:27

      After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City.

      Markimdb: 4.5
      Genreaction, comedy, detective
      CountryChina
      Duration01:32

      When a spate of eerie murders erupts across HK two troub/emaking cops are assigned to the case. Young maverick Wang and grizzled vet Huang who is fed up with his reckless younger partner always landing them in hot water. Reaching a dead end after discovering all the victims were former boyfriends of aspiring starlet Liu, the detectives must play a deadly game. One of them must go undercover as Liu’s lover to lure the killer out.

      Markimdb: 6
      Genrehorror, thriller, drama, detective
      CountryUSA, China, Canada, Australia
      Duration02:29

      A nanny, working for a family whose son has just passed away, finds herself put in charge of caring for a lifelike doll that the couple treat as a real child.

      Markimdb: 7.3
      Genredrama, crime, detective, biography
      CountryUSA, China, Hong Kong
      Duration02:30

      Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.




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