Top 25 Highest-Rated Movies on Douban
Ranked from Douban's Top 250 chart, China's most influential audience-rating list, this ranking covers the 25 best-reviewed films among Chinese-speaking viewers, with year, director, country of production, and Douban score.
Interesting Facts & Summary
The Shawshank Redemption tops both Douban and IMDb — one of the very few films where Chinese and Western audiences agree completely. Yet only three Chinese-language films make Douban's top 25: Farewell My Concubine, Infernal Affairs, and A Chinese Odyssey Part Two, with Farewell My Concubine at No. 2 on a 9.6 score. The list also exposes Douban's weighting: 1957's Witness for the Prosecution scores 9.6 but ranks only 19th, because it has an order of magnitude fewer ratings than Forrest Gump. Compared with IMDb, Douban leans far more toward family, coming-of-age, and feel-good stories — Hachi, The Chorus, and Flipped would not crack IMDb's top 100.
| Rank | Film | Year | Director | Country / region | Douban rating | Data date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Shawshank Redemption | 1994 | Frank Darabont | United States | 9.7 | 2026-05-31 | |
Farewell My Concubine | 1993 | Chen Kaige | Mainland China / Hong Kong | 9.6 | 2026-05-31 | |
Forrest Gump | 1994 | Robert Zemeckis | United States | 9.5 | 2026-05-31 | |
| 4 | Titanic | 1997 | James Cameron | United States | 9.5 | 2026-05-31 |
| 5 | Spirited Away | 2001 | Hayao Miyazaki | Japan | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 6 | Léon: The Professional | 1994 | Luc Besson | France | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 7 | Life Is Beautiful | 1997 | Roberto Benigni | Italy | 9.5 | 2026-05-31 |
| 8 | Interstellar | 2014 | Christopher Nolan | United States / United Kingdom | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 9 | Inception | 2010 | Christopher Nolan | United States / United Kingdom | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 10 | The Truman Show | 1998 | Peter Weir | United States | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 11 | Schindler's List | 1993 | Steven Spielberg | United States | 9.5 | 2026-05-31 |
| 12 | Hachi: A Dog's Tale | 2009 | Lasse Hallström | United States / United Kingdom | 9.4 | 2026-05-31 |
| 13 | The Legend of 1900 | 1998 | Giuseppe Tornatore | Italy | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 14 | 3 Idiots | 2009 | Rajkumar Hirani | India | 9.2 | 2026-05-31 |
| 15 | The Chorus | 2004 | Christophe Barratier | France | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 16 | WALL·E | 2008 | Andrew Stanton | United States | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 17 | Zootopia | 2016 | Byron Howard / Rich Moore | United States | 9.2 | 2026-05-31 |
| 18 | Infernal Affairs | 2002 | Andrew Lau / Alan Mak | Hong Kong | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 19 | Witness for the Prosecution | 1957 | Billy Wilder | United States | 9.6 | 2026-05-31 |
| 20 | A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella | 1995 | Jeffrey Lau | Hong Kong / Mainland China | 9.2 | 2026-05-31 |
| 21 | Silenced | 2011 | Hwang Dong-hyuk | South Korea | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 22 | The Godfather | 1972 | Francis Ford Coppola | United States | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 23 | The Intouchables | 2011 | Olivier Nakache / Éric Toledano | France | 9.3 | 2026-05-31 |
| 24 | The Pursuit of Happyness | 2006 | Gabriele Muccino | United States | 9.2 | 2026-05-31 |
| 25 | Flipped | 2010 | Rob Reiner | United States | 9.1 | 2026-05-31 |
Sources
- Accessed: 2026-08-04
- Accessed: 2026-05-31
- Accessed: 2026-08-04