111 Films & TV Shows Set In China During The Middle Ages
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The Kingdom and the Beauty
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyThis is a musical about a young emperor who is lured via stories told to a place called Kiang-Nan by his royal tutor. The empress mother has the tutor go to Kiang-Nan to bring him back.
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The Tale of the White Serpent
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyThe adventures of a cute little panda, a dragon god and an evil serpent. — As a young boy, Xu-Xian is forced to free his pet, a small snake. Unbeknownst to him, the snake is actually a young snake goddess named Bai-Niang and she is in love with him. Many years later, when they are both adults, the princess is magically transformed into a human and sets out to find her love. But the local wizard believes her to be a vampire, and banishes Xu-Xian from the village in order to save him. Xu-Xian's pet pandas Panda and Mimi set out to save him and bring him, in the process becoming leaders of an animal gang.
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The Legend of the White Serpent
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyLavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.
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Princess Yang Kwei Fei
🇨🇳 China The 8th CenturyIn 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.
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The Black Rose
England 🇨🇳 China The 13th CenturyAn adventure that will blaze... A love that will flame... 'till the stars grow cold... — In the 13th century, Walter of Gurnie, a disinherited Saxon youth, is forced to flee England. With his friend, Tristram, he falls in with the army of the fierce but avuncular General Bayan, and journeys all the way to China, where both men become involved in intrigues in the court of Kublai Khan.
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Remorse at Death
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyThe story of two people who were forced to marry each without sincere feelings, resulting in a story of life and death.
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Princess Iron Fan
🇨🇳 China The 7th CenturyThe story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese folk tale Journey to the West. Princess Iron Fan is a main character. Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.
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Empress Wu Zetian
🇨🇳 China The 8th Century The 7th CenturyHistorical film based on the life of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history
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Mulan Joins the Army
🇨🇳 China The 6th CenturyThis movie is based on the famous Chinese folklore that is more than one and a half millennium old. The same folklore was what the Disney animation Mulan is based on, and similarly, it was what many Chinese movies/operas/plays based on.
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Two White Snake Ghosts
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyThe white snake demon transforms into a beautiful woman when she is attracted to a man named Khouw Han Boen. The two marry. Later, Han Boen finds out that his now-pregnant wife is the white snake demon in disguise.
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The Cave of the Silken Web
🇨🇳 China The 7th CenturyOne of the earliest cinematic adaptation of Chinese classic novel Journey to the West. When seeking for food alone, Tang Xuanzang was kept prisoner by seven spider monsters who took the form of seven beautiful women. The Monkey King and the other two of Xuanzang's disciples managed to rescue him with the help of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva/Guanyin. They renounced the desire for lust and continued the quest for Buddhist Scriptures.