Liang Po Po, Kung Fu and Blades Of The Guardians: 10 CNY movies to watch in 2026

SINGAPORE – This top 10 list of mostly Mandarin movies, some with a sprinkling of dialect, will help anyone get in the Chinese New Year mood.

It comprises the traditional seasonal-themed comedies about reunions and dinners – from Singapore and elsewhere – but also includes fantasy and action. Some feature familiar characters such as Liang Po Po or are adaptations of novels, but most are original movies. Restored classics round off the list.

New releases

A Good Fortune (opens on Jan 29)

This Singapore production is a heart-warming tale of redemption over the Chinese New Year period.

Kai Xin (Xixi Lim) is an influencer who, after landing in trouble, escapes to Malaysia with her mother (Liu Lingling). There, she meets old flame Zi Hao (Wang Weiliang). Together, they participate in a pineapple tart-baking competition with a prize that could fix all their problems.

A Good Fortune is billed as a film about second chances, filled with notes about appreciating the small things and grounded in symbols of Chinese New Year and current headlines like scams.

It also features Thai breakout star Usha Seamkhum, the titular grandmother from the hit Thai tearjerker How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024). Other local talent in this production, the feature film debut of director Jason Lee, are actor-comedians Patricia Mok and Henry Thia.

Blades Of The Guardians (opens on Feb 17)

One commenter says excitedly under the YouTube trailer for this wuxia thriller: “This movie has everybody.”

The cast of the Chinese period martial arts fantasy Blades Of The Guardians includes China-born action icon Jet Li, who has been dealing with health issues lately. Here, he makes a rare movie appearance, alongside China’s Wu Jing and Hong Kong’s Nicholas Tse and Tony Leung Ka Fai.

The director is famed Hong Kong action master Yuen Woo Ping, who choreographed The Matrix trilogy (1999 to 2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003 to 2004).

Set in 607 AD, the famed swordsman Dao Ma (Wu) has to escort a wanted man across a wasteland plagued by bounty hunters and mercenaries eager to cash in on the reward. Tse and Leung appear as a fighter and a high official respectively, while Li is a figure with mysterious loyalties.

3 Good Guys (opens on Feb 12)

Continuing a trend begun by the comedies Follow Aunty La (2025) and Ah Girls Go Army (2022), this Thai-Singapore romantic comedy has key roles played by social media personalities from both countries and beyond.

They include Singaporean influencers Simonboy (Simon Khung) and Mayiduo (Kelvin Tan) and local entrepreneurs Tommy Wong and Germaine Chow. They are joined by Thai fitness enthusiast Fah Chatchaya (Chatchaya Suthisuwan), with local actor Mark Lee making a guest appearance.

Director Boi Kwong (Geylang, 2022) helms this story about Jeremy (Simonboy), a poor man whose hopes of marriage are foiled by the objections of his beloved’s mother. His friends Mike (Wong) and Ah Bao (Mayiduo) are dealing with relationship woes of their own. But after a visit to a Thai shrine favoured by the lovelorn, the trio enter a wacky, gender-flipped reality.

Kung Fu (opens on Feb 13)

Action coordinators from Taiwan and South Korea come together on this fantasy-tinged thriller that blends martial arts choreography with ambitious visual effects.

It features a cast of Taiwanese stars, including singer-actor Kai Ko as Yuan, a high-school loser who helps a homeless man. The vagrant claims to be Huang Jun (Leon Dai), a 500-year-old warrior.

Under the older man’s tutelage, Yuan, his friend Ah-yi (Berant Zhu) and classmate Yi-jing (Gingle Wang) become skilled fighters. They meet Huang’s ancient foe, Lan Jin (Liu Kuan-ting), a demon who embarks on a city-wide killing spree.

Taiwanese director Giddens Ko (You Are The Apple Of My Eye, 2011) adapts his own web novel Urban Horror Disease, an online sensation when it was published in 2001. Ko was then a sociology student at Tunghai University in Taiwan.

Night King (opens on Feb 16)

Fans of early to mid-2000s Hong Kong movies, lock in.

This drama-comedy is a nostalgic return to that era, not just in its 2012 setting, but also in the pairing of Hong Kong comedy icon Dayo Wong and Cantopop queen Sammi Cheng.

They were in the 2010 fourth chapter of the Chinese New Year comedy franchise All’s Well, Ends Well (1993 to 2020), but shared few scenes together, leaving fans eager for more.

The setting is Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui, a district once famed for its boisterous nightclubs but had entered a decline by the early 2010s.

Into this milieu steps Foon Gor (Wong), a veteran manager struggling to keep his club afloat. Its new owner installs a no-nonsense chief executive, V Jie (Cheng), who, by unlucky coincidence, is Foon Gor’s ex-wife. A power struggle ensues – one that covers not just the club’s future, but also the tensions left over from their marital split.

Liang Po Po Vs Ah Beng (opens on Feb 17)

Two beloved comedy characters, each from one side of the Causeway, join forces for the first time in this cross-border production. Singapore actor-director Jack Neo is in drag as his energetic granny Liang Po Po, and Malaysian DJ-actor Jack Lim is Ah Beng, an impulsive security guard.

When young Xiao Yun (Ivory Chia) is kidnapped, Ah Beng, who adopted her, embarks on a rescue. He and Liang Po Po become unlikely partners as they battle an organ-trafficking syndicate.

Two edits of the film will be released – the Singapore version will contain more Mandarin, while the Malaysian cut will feature more Cantonese.

Singapore actors Terence Cao and Gurmit Singh make guest appearances, with Malaysians Danny Lee and Jestinna Kuan taking on supporting roles.

Luck My Life (opens on Feb 17)

As the title suggests, this local drama-comedy has to do with the perennial Chinese New Year topic of good fortune.

The story follows Tian Cai (Richie Koh), a wealthy young man who has enjoyed a winning streak in mahjong all his life. When his luck vanishes, he is plunged into an identity crisis.

The now-humbled gambler is forced to relearn the basics of mahjong, leading to a climactic showdown at the gaming table during Chinese New Year.

This is Singapore-based music producer and director Eric Wong’s second feature after the Christmas-themed drama Hi Noel (2024).

Singapore-based talent playing supporting roles include actor Tay Ping Hui, actress Cynthia Li and cosplayer and online media personality Rurusama.

Oldies but goodies

Yi Yi (opens on Feb 17 at Filmhouse)

Screened in a restored 4K format, this 2000 drama – the final feature of acclaimed Taiwanese film-maker Edward Yang – is not about Chinese New Year directly, but handles many of its themes, such as family obligations and parent-child relationships.

Covering three generations of the Jian family, the story deals with NJ (Wu Nien-jen), a father and electronics company executive who becomes melancholic after reconnecting with his first love. His wife Min-Min (Elaine Jin) suffers from an emotional block that stops her from speaking to her ailing mother. Other family members deal with repressed feelings, regrets and the yearning for human connection missing from their lives.

Now seen as one of the greatest films of the 21st century, Yi Yi’s awards haul includes Best Director at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and Best Film at the 2001 National Society of Film Critics Awards.

So Close (opens on Feb 17 at Filmhouse)

A landmark movie in the Hong Kong “girls with guns” genre, this stylish 2002 crime thriller stars a trio of the most popular actresses of the Chinese-speaking world of the early 2000s – Shu Qi, Zhao Wei and Karen Mok.

Lynn (Shu Qi) and Sue (Zhao) are assassin-hackers pursued by the smart, relentless cop Kong Yat-hung (Mok). Following a betrayal, the story evolves from chase thriller to revenge drama.

The film, directed by Hong Kong action master Corey Yuen, was dismissed as a disposable flick upon its release, but has since earned a cult following for its 2000s techno-futuristic aesthetics. While the story may have been wrong about white pantsuits being a trend, it was prescient about 24/7 surveillance.

Eat Drink Man Woman (opens on Feb 18 at Filmhouse)

For those who love this 1994 Taiwanese drama about food and family, the opening shots showing Master Chef Chu’s (Lung Sihung) knifework are indelible. They express the widower’s love for both the culinary arts and his three daughters (Yang Kuei-mei, Wu Chien-lien and Wang Yu-wen), who gather every Sunday for dinner.

The film covers a series of dinners, each with revelations that address familiar Chinese New Year themes such as filial obligations and reunions.

His daughters’ life-changing decisions cause Chu to rethink his patriarchal ideas of harmony and tradition.

Directed by Ang Lee, Eat Drink Man Woman won several awards, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1995 Academy Awards and Golden Globes.