Free · 117 films measured

Which Chinese movies can you understand?

Pick your HSK level. Every film’s subtitles are counted word by word, so you see how much of it you’d follow.

At HSK 7–9

The Second Woman 情迷 2012

你今天演得很好啊

A line from its subtitles as you’d hear it at HSK 7–9. You know every word.

At HSK 7–9 the words left are names, slang and rare words.

All 117 films at HSK 7–9

Share of the words each film says that are HSK 7–9 or below. Press one to see its line and words.

Now hear it in a real story

你想看电影吗？Do you want to see a film?HSK 2 · 1 minRead it free

How is each film counted?

From its own subtitles: the simplified Chinese subtitles of 117 films made in Mandarin, from OpenSubtitles. Our reader cuts every line into words and each word gets its level from the official HSK list (2025 syllabus); names are left out. A film’s share at a level is how many of all the words it says are on the list at that level or below, so a word said 300 times counts 300 times.

How much do I need to understand to enjoy a film?

Following a story with ease takes knowing about 95 to 98% of its words, and people pick up more new words from what they watch when they already follow more of it (Nation 2006; Peters and Webb 2018). With HSK 1–4, the easiest films here are at 88 to 90%; watched with Chinese subtitles and a dictionary for the rest, they are within reach.

Why are martial arts and history films the hardest?

They talk in older, formal words that the HSK list teaches late or not at all: titles, weapons, ranks and set phrases. Films about people’s lives today use the everyday words the list teaches first.

What should I do with the eight words?

Add them to your Backpack before you watch. They are the words the film says most that your level doesn’t cover, so knowing them takes you furthest, and Review brings each one back until you know it. When you hear them in the film, they will already be yours.

Where can I watch these films with Chinese subtitles?

They are on the usual streaming and rental services, which differ by country; turn on the Chinese subtitles, not the English. To start with something you can watch right now, our Chinese YouTube videos are graded the same way and play here with pinyin over every line.