Highest-Rated Movies about 'Chinatown San Francisco'

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Ant-Man (2015), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Age of Adaline (2015), Big Eyes (2014), 48 Hrs. (1982), Frisco Jenny (1933) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Chinatown San Francisco movies.

#1. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Storyline: Based on a true story about a man named Christopher Gardner. Gardner has invested heavily in a device known as a "bone density scanner". He feels like he has it made selling these devices. However, they do not sell well as they are marginally better than x-ray at a much higher price. As Gardner works to make ends meet, his wife leaves him and he loses his apartment. Forced to live out in the streets with his son, Gardner continues to sell bone density scanners while concurrently taking on an unpaid internship as a stockbroker, with slim chances for advancement to a paid position. Before he can receive pay, he needs to outshine the competition through 6 months of training, and to sell his devices to stay afloat.

Plot Keywords: hippie, hit by a car, homeless shelter, hospital, rubik's cube, troubled marriage, unhappy marriage ...

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#2. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Storyline: Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. Bannister has a wife, Elsa, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his (Grisby's) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000 Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Elsa. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court.

Plot Keywords: hall of mirrors, chinatown san francisco, crooked lawyer, cross examination, crutch, double cross, drug overdose ...

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#3. Ant-Man (2015)

Storyline: Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Plot Keywords: heist, ant, sabotage, miniaturization, no opening credits, origin of hero, ex convict ...

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#4. 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, chinatown, 1980s, camera shot of feet, foot closeup, female stockinged feet, pantyhose ...

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#5. The Age of Adaline (2015)

Storyline: After miraculously remaining 29 years old for almost eight decades, Adaline Bowman has lived a solitary existence, never allowing herself to get close to anyone who might reveal her secret. But a chance encounter with charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones reignites her passion for life and romance. When a weekend with his parents threatens to uncover the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever.

Plot Keywords: aging, san francisco california, hospital, immortality, party, dog, lie ...

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#6. Big Eyes (2014)

Storyline: In San Francisco in the 1950s, Margaret was a woman trying to make it on her own after leaving her husband with only her daughter and her paintings. She meets gregarious ladies' man and fellow painter Walter Keane in a park while she was struggling to make an impact with her drawings of children with big eyes. The two quickly become a pair with outgoing Walter selling their paintings and quiet Margaret holed up at home painting even more children with big eyes. But Walter's actually selling her paintings as his own. A clash of financial success and critical failure soon sends Margaret reeling in her life of lies. With Walter still living the high life, Margaret's going to have to try making it on her own again and re-claiming her name and her paintings.

Plot Keywords: painting, abusive husband, artist, ex husband ex wife relationship, secret, 1950s, title spoken by character ...

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#7. 48 Hrs. (1982)

Storyline: Oddball cop and tough guy, Jack Cates is the only survivor of a cop shooting and in hunting down the murderer collects Reggie Hammond from jail for 48 hours. Hammond is oddly motivated to help. The killer is searching for his stash of cash. Cates and Hammond who have the Black-white, cop-crook thing to work out make surprisingly good partners as they navigate through the city looking for their suspect.

Plot Keywords: cop, buddy cop, tough cop, maverick cop, police detective, action violence, bar fight ...

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#8. 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: character name as title, prohibition, election, detention, accidental death, prostitution, building collapse ...

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#9. Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996)

Storyline: The Yosemite Valley Railroad, which runs through the breathtaking scenery and stunning vistas of the Merced River Canyon to its terminus at El Portal outside Yosemite National Park, is on the brink of failure. The grandson of a Chinese railroad laborer embarks on a romantic, but ultimately doomed, quest to save this railroad from being sold for scrap. His love of trains finds him working as a railroad-man, instead of at his father's profitable business. He manages to locate a wealthy eccentric investor to help him acquire the railroad, but its financial inviability makes this a quixotic reprieve, at best. The film also portrays the anti-Asian racism present in America at the conclusion of World War II.—Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

Plot Keywords: immigrant, ice cream truck, heart condition, grandfather grandson relationship, french, flowers, flask ...

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#10. Flame of Barbary Coast (1945)

Storyline: Duke falls for Flaxen in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Tito, goes home and PL: learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a fortune he opens his own place with Flaxen as the entertainer. The 1906 quake destroys his place.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: fighting, quick draw, robbery, violence, derringer, disarming someone, western town ...

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#11. The Hatchet Man (1932)

Storyline: San Francisco Tong hatchet man Wong must execute his boyhood friend Sun. Sun knew his time was up and wrote out his will just prior to Wong showing up at his door. When Sun realizes Wong is there to kill me he tries to set his friend's mind at ease by telling him he is the beneficiary of all Sun's worldly possessions and convinces Wong to promise to take care of Sun's young daughter, Toya San who Sun has bequeathed to become his wife. Years later, when she becomes of age, she marries Wong, now a powerful figure, though she loves evil Harry. When Wong learns Toya will be happier with Harry he allows them to leave. Still later Wong learns that Harry has been deported and since Toya could not prove she was married to someone else she too was deported to China. When Wong learns of this, he goes after them.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: hatchet, revenge, infidelity, buddhism, last will and testament, drug addiction, murder ...

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#12. Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)

Storyline: When a chemical manufacturer is killed after asking detective James Wong to help him, Wong investigates this and two subsequent murders. He uncovers an international spy ring hoping to steal the formula for a poison gas being developed by the first victim's company.

Plot Keywords: murder, poison gas, chinatown san francisco, investigation, held at gunpoint, golden gate bridge, secret formula ...

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#13. They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)

Storyline: San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs is called in to investigate when a liberal street preacher and political candidate is accused of murdering a prostitute. Tibbs is also battling domestic woes, including a frustrated wife and a rebellious adolescent son.—Marty McKee <mmckee@wkio.com>

Plot Keywords: preacher, sequel, crime investigation, murder investigation, drug pusher, dead woman on floor, drug dealer ...

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#14. Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

Storyline: A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to scrawl "Captain J" on a sheet of paper. She proves to be Princess Lin Hwa, on a secret military mission for Chinese forces fighting the Japanese invasion. Mr. Wong finds two captains with the intial J in the case, neither being quite what he seems; there's fog on the waterfront and someone still has that poison-dart gun...—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: psychotronic film, chinatown san francisco, princess, retribution, reprisal, stock footage, 1930s ...

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#15. The Presidio (1988)

Storyline: Jay Austin is now a civilian police detective. Lieutenant Colonel Alan Caldwell was his commanding officer several years before when he left the military police over a disagreement over the handling of a drunk driver. Now a series of murders that cross jurisdictions force them to work together again. That Austin is now dating Caldwell's daughter is not helping the relationship at all.

Plot Keywords: police, murder investigation, neo noir, military police, investigation, army, detective ...

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