40 imported movies in 40 years

Chinese people have experienced a drastic improvement in their livelihoods in past four decades. The development of the movie industry, especially regarding imported films, is one of the epitomes of the change.

From white cloth to Imax, from black and white to 3D, from Charlie Chaplin's silent black and white film The Gold Rush to the science fiction 3D film Avatar, the foreign movies have enriched lives of Chinese audiences. Meanwhile the vision of Chinese people is getting broader and taste getting higher.

Manhunt, a Japanese film about a police detective who is falsely accused of corruption and goes on the run to clear his name, was one of the first foreign movies China screened after the reform and opening-up.

The film was a massive hit in China and the bell-bottoms that the actor Ken Takakura wears in the film quickly became all at rage that year.

Now China has more than 50,000 cinema screens, and the number is projected to surpass 80,000 within two years, nearly twice as many as the US.

Its box office sales are expected to hit 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) this year, and will likely top North America to become the world’s largest market in the near future.

China has become something the foreign filmmakers can no longer ignore.

Based on data from State Film Administration, film rating platform Douban, box office data collection site 58921.com and other reports, we have selected 40 foreign movies that China has screened since 1978 and compiled some of the best scenes into a video.

Which films have you seen? Which one impressed you most? Your comments are welcome.

The films are displayed in chronological sequence, along with the year in which each film was shown on the Chinese mainland.

(Guo Yitong, Jiang Yuge, Yao Xia and Zhao Tong contributed to the video)