Highest-Rated Movies about 'Chinatown', Sort by Popularity

Chinatown (1974), La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998), The Cameraman (1928), Alice (1990), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Pi (1998), Big Trouble in Little China (1986) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Chinatown movies.

#1. Chinatown (1974)

Storyline: In 1937 Los Angeles, private investigator Jake 'J.J.' Gittes specializes in cheating-spouse cases. His current target is Hollis Mulwray, high-profile chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, whose wife suspects him of infidelity. In following Mulwray, Gittes witnesses some usual business dealings, such as a public meeting for construction of a new dam to create additional water supply for Los Angeles, as fresh water is vital to the growing community during the chronic drought; Mulwray opposes the dam. Eventually Gittes sees Mulwray meeting with an unknown young woman who isn't his wife. Once news of the supposed tryst between Mulwray and this woman hits the media, additional information comes to light that makes Gittes believe that Mulwray is being framed for something and that he himself is being set up. In his investigation of the issue behind Mulwray's framing and his own setup, Gittes is assisted by Mulwray's wife Evelyn, but he thinks she isn't being ...

Plot Keywords: detective, widow, father, sister, private investigator, wife, disturbing ...

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#2. La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998)

Storyline: 1900. Danny Boodmann, a stoker on an American passenger liner, Virginian, finds a baby abandoned on the ship. He names the child Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred '1900' and raises the child as his own until his death in an accident on the ship. The child never leaves the ship and turns out to be a musical genius, especially when it comes to playing the piano. As an adult he befriends a trumpet player in the ship's band, Max Tooney. After several years on the ship Max leaves, and tells the story of 1900 to the owner of a music store.

Plot Keywords: genius, mentor, religious person, businessman, mathematician, suspenseful, dense ...

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#5. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Storyline: Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco's Chinatown. An ancient Chinese prince and Chinatown crime lord has kidnapped a beautiful green-eyed woman, who is the fiancee to Jack's best friend. Jack must help his friend rescue the girl before the evil Lo Pan uses her to break the ancient curse that keeps him a fleshless and immortal spirit.

Plot Keywords: truck driver, best friend, fiancé, magician, amusing, campy, outlandish ...

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#6. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Storyline: Cosmo Vitelli owns the Crazy Horse West, a strip joint in Los Angeles. He's laconic, vet, and a gambler. When we meet him, he's making his last payment on a gambling debt, after which, he promptly loses $23,000 playing poker. The guys he owes this time aren't so friendly, pressuring him for immediate payment. When he's not able to do so, they suggest he kill a Chinese bookie to wipe away his debt. Vitelli and the film move back and forth between the double-crossing, murderous insincerity of the gamblers and the friendships, sweetness, and even love among Vitelli, the dancers, a dancer's mother, and the club's singer, Mr. Sophistication.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: club owner, mobster, stripper, singer, bookie, thug, dark ...

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#7. Pi (1998)

Storyline: In NYC's Chinatown, recluse math genius Max (Sean Gullette) believes "everything can be understood in terms of numbers," and he looks for a pattern in the system as he suffers headaches, plays Go with former teacher Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), and fools around with an advanced computer system he's built in his apartment. Both a Wall Street company and a Hasidic sect take an interest in his work, but he's distracted by blackout attacks, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions..

Plot Keywords: genius, mentor, religious person, businessman, mathematician, suspenseful, dense ...

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#8. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Storyline: Truck driver Jack Burton arrives in Chinatown, San Francisco, and goes to the airport with his Chinese friend Wang Chi to welcome his green-eyed fiancée Miao Yin who is arriving from China. However she is kidnapped on the arrival by a Chinese street gang and Jack and Wang chase the group. Soon they learn that the powerful evil sorcerer called David Lo Pan, who has been cursed more than two thousand years ago to exist without physical body, needs to marry a woman with green eyes to retrieve his physical body and Miao is the chosen one. Jack and Wang team-up with the lawyer Gracie Law, the bus driver and sorcerer apprentice Egg Shen and their friends and embark in a great adventure in the underground of Chinatown, where they face a world of magicians and magic, monsters and martial arts fighters.

Plot Keywords: truck driver, best friend, fiancé, magician, amusing, campy, outlandish ...

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#9. Gremlins (1984)

Storyline: Minature green monsters tear through the small town of Kingston Falls. Hijinks ensue as a mild-mannered bank teller releases these hideous loonies after gaining a new pet and violating two of three simple rules: No water (violated), no food after midnight (violated), and no bright light. Hilarious mayhem and destruction in a town straight out of Norman Rockwell. So, when your washing machine blows up or your TV goes on the fritz, before you call the repair man, turn on all the lights and look under all the beds. 'Cause you never can tell, there just might be a gremlin in your house.

Plot Keywords: salesman, creature, son, monster, inventor, dark, creepy ...

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#10. Bad Lieutenant (1992)

Storyline: A police Lieutenant goes about his daily tasks of investigating homicides, but is more interested in pursuing his vices. He has accumulated a massive debt betting on baseball, and he keeps doubling to try to recover. His bookies are beginning to get agitated. The Lieutenant does copious amounts of drugs, cavorts with prostitutes, and uses his status to take advantage of teenage girls. While investigating a nun's rape, he begins to reflect on his lifestyle.

Plot Keywords: police officer, nun, storekeeper, thug, mobster, bookie, shocking ...

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#11. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016)

Storyline: After the 2008 financial crisis that nearly destroyed the world economy, none of the American financial institutions faced prosecutions for their shady dealings that contributed to this debacle, except one. Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a small Chinese-American bank that catered to the neglected market of their community, was indicted on fraud charges and loan falsifications. As the bank disputed these accusations, many in the mainstream news media noticed that far larger competitors appeared to have committed similar misdeeds without legal consequence; likely because they were "too big to fail." This film explores the history of Abacus and its legal battle for survival against this hypocritical, and likely racist, application of the law that seemed to determined to punish them as a scapegoat for crimes that much larger felons deserve to face.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Plot Keywords: banker, politician, detective, prosecutor, brooding, disturbing, emotional ...

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#12. Frisco Jenny (1933)

Storyline: Frisco Jenny was orphaned by the 1906 earthquake and fire and has become the madame of a prosperous bawdy house. She puts her son up for adoption and he rises to prominence as district attorney dedicated to closing down such houses. When her underling Dutton proposes telling the DA that Frisco Jenny is his birth mother, she kills the underling not to cause trouble for her son now the successful DA, she must face execution.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: young woman, son, prostitute, district attorney, lawyer, madam, incredible ...

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#13. Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

Storyline: In 1922 New York City, Millie Dillmount (Dame Julie Andrews) and Miss Dorothy Brown (Mary Tyler Moore) are just two of the girls living at the Priscilla Hotel for Single Young Ladies run by Mrs. Meers (Beatrice Lillie). Orphaned, Miss Dorothy, just recently arrived, is a naive, old-fashioned girl from a seemingly privileged background who has aspirations to be a stage actress. From more modest means, Millie, in New York City for three months, used to be old-fashioned, but now has a new modern sensibility and look to match, complete with bobbed hair and dresses with hemlines above the knee. Included in this new modern sensibility is Millie's goal of getting a job as a stenographer, with a quick promotion to being her wealthy boss' "Mrs." Love is not to factor into the equation. She believes she's found the right employer in the form of chisel-jawed Trevor Graydon (John Gavin) of the Sincere Trust Insurance Company. Millie's pursuit of Mr. Graydon is despite the fact that Mr. Graydon sees her as one of the boys, he has old-fashioned sensibilities, and Millie has a mutual attraction to another boy named Jimmy Smith (James Fox). Although she likes Jimmy, Millie feels that Jimmy, as a paper clip salesman with an overwhelming happy-go-lucky attitude, is not driven enough to be husband material. That doesn't stop Jimmy's pursuit of Millie. In her association with Jimmy, Millie meets flamboyant wealthy Renaissance woman Muzzy Van Hossmere (Carol Channing). Jimmy's father once worked as Muzzy's gardener. Originally from humble means much like Millie, Muzzy tries to convince Millie that true love will lead to happiness, as that is what happened when she met the now deceased Mr. Van Hossmere, who she had no idea was rich. In other goings-on amongst this new circle of friends, Miss Dorothy leaves New York City without a word to anyone except Mrs. Meers. Thinking this situation rather odd, Millie connects Miss Dorothy's leaving with that of other girls previously living at the Priscilla Hotel. With Mr. Graydon's help, Jimmy and Millie try to find out what happened to Miss Dorothy.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: secretary, orphan, salesman, boss, manager, kidnapper, madcap ...

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#14. Year of the Dragon (1985)

Storyline: Chinatown, New York City. There has long been an unofficial agreement that the NYPD will leave the traditionally run Chinese triad alone to manage the crime issue in the neighborhood, the triad who is the face of organized crime of Chinatown. The triad also has an unofficial agreement with the Italian mafia, still seen as the major player in organized crime in the city, to be cooperative in a win-win situation in their illegal activities. However, the Chinese youth gangs are disregarding these unofficial agreements, being another violent player in the crime scene in Chinatown, they who take a stand by killing Jackie Wong, the head of the triad. To deal with the matter, the NYPD reassign Captain Stanley White from Brooklyn to Chinatown. Stanley, of Polish heritage, is not averse to slinging slurs toward his adversaries, most of those of a racial nature. This reassignment will not help the already deteriorating marriage he has to his long suffering wife, Connie. While Stanley is ...

Plot Keywords: police officer, police chief, journalist, wife, gangster, rookie cop, suspenseful ...

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#15. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Storyline: Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, after escaping death from the previous movies are put on a hit list by The Triads. When blood thirsty mercenaries are on their tail they team up again with Leo Getz and Lorna Cole, a newcomer (Chris Rock) to finally put an end to the Triads for good.

Plot Keywords: police detective, partner, daughter, girlfriend, private detective, mobster, engaging ...

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