Discover four international films releasing in Chinese cinemas this October, including family animation Peppa Pig, horror movie Resident Evil, deep-sea thriller Whalefall, and award-winning drama Happy Birthday.
Tags:By Billy Jiang
This year, however, the handful of international titles arriving in cinemas bring a surprisingly eclectic mix.
Peppa Pig: Perfect Holiday
October 1
Peppa Pig is coming to China—and this time, the Chinese mainland is getting the film ahead of its release in other parts of the world.
The story itself takes place in China, while the movie is also jointly created by British and Chinese teams, a pretty good indication of just how popular this little pink lady pig has become with Chinese audiences.
When Peppa discovers that the family is not going on holiday this year, she is understandably disappointed.
But Grandpa Pig and Granny Pig have a different idea: they decide to take Peppa and George on a hot-air balloon adventure.
Then a sudden storm sends the whole family flying all the way to China, where they encounter a Chinese dragon and embark on an unexpected adventure before eventually finding her way back to her family.
The Chinese setting is very much part of the fun.
The sweeping views of Hangzhou's West Lake and the Great Wall, high-speed trains racing through Shanghai, Peppa and George jumping in muddy puddles among bamboo forests, and even the family taking a dragon boat out onto the water.
But beneath all the Chinese scenery and colorful adventure, Perfect Holiday remains characteristically gentle.
There are no world-ending stakes here.
Instead, the film finds its warmth in the small things: staying optimistic when things go wrong, being excited by something new, and reminding each other that there is always another way forward.
When faced with difficulties, Peppa cheerfully insists, "We haven't lost yet," while her delight at new experiences leads to another wonderfully childlike declaration: "This is totally awesome!"
For children, it is simply a cheerful holiday adventure.
For the adults accompanying them, there may be something more familiar underneath: the importance of being seen, being encouraged, and giving each other the emotional support that keeps a family moving forward.
We spend so much of our lives rushing between work, responsibilities, and the endless business of being an adult that it is surprisingly easy to forget what companionship actually means.
Peppa's version of happiness is much simpler: a perfect holiday does not require everything to go perfectly.
Sometimes, having the people you love beside you is enough.
So if you are looking for a family film during the October Golden Week, Peppa may just help make your holiday a little more perfect.
*A Chinese-dubbed version will be the main option in most parts of the Chinese mainland, with only a limited number of English-language screenings each day. Be sure to check the language information when booking.
Resident Evil
October 5
An R-rated zombie movie based on one of gaming's most recognizable horror franchises is already making plenty of noise.
Directed by Zach Cregger, Resident Evil reportedly received a strong response following its September release in North America, with praise for its tight pacing, impressive creature effects, and ability to balance genuine horror with surprisingly natural humor.
Several international outlets have even described it as one of the strongest video game adaptations in cinema history.
Audiences have also responded positively to the film's accessibility.
Fans can look out for familiar references and Easter eggs, while newcomers can simply enjoy the horror without needing an encyclopedic knowledge of the games.
There is, however, an important distinction.
Despite carrying the Resident Evil name, this film has no direct connection to the previous seven Resident Evil movies.
It also has relatively little connection to the game's established storyline, with none of the familiar game characters appearing.
Think of it instead as a parallel-universe interpretation of the franchise.
The premise is deliberately simple: one ordinary person, 90 minutes of continuous escape, a city that has already fallen apart, and one road that has to be followed all the way to the end.
That stripped-down survival structure is also one of the biggest differences from previous Resident Evil films.
Rather than relying heavily on established characters and mythology, this one puts the audience directly into a city overrun by chaos.
However, the Chinese mainland release is 41 seconds shorter than the international cut.
Considering that Resident Evil is hardly known for being shy about blood, gore, and bodily destruction, it raises an amusing question: has the zombie apocalypse finally encountered something even scarier than zombies—the cinema censor?
We will find out when the lights go down.
Whalefall
October 16
Swallowed by a 24-meter whale.
One oxygen tank.
Sixty minutes to survive.
If you already feel uncomfortable in deep water, Whalefall may not be the movie for you.
Based on the novel of the same name, the film is written by author Daniel Kraus himself and follows Jay, a young diver searching the waters off the California coast for his missing father, an experienced diver who disappeared at sea.
His mission is simple: if he's alive, he wants to find him; if he's dead, he wants to find his body.
Instead, Jay gets swallowed by a gigantic 24-meter, 60-ton whale.
And just like that, the search-and-rescue mission becomes a survival countdown.
Outside, the deep-sea pressure is already extreme, while the whale is caught in a violent struggle involving a giant squid.
Every movement sends the darkness around him violently shifting, while his oxygen supply continues to disappear.
Now, he has to figure out how to stay alive.
The obvious question is whether a person could actually survive being swallowed by a whale.
There are rare real-life cases, including a 2021 incident in Massachusetts in which a commercial lobster diver was reportedly swallowed by a humpback whale for around 30 seconds before being spat back out.
But cinema, thankfully, is allowed a little more imagination than reality.
So the real question is: how exactly does Jay get out?
If the thought of spending an entire movie trapped inside a whale makes your palms sweat, consider yourself warned.
Happy Birthday
October 23
Egyptian cinema arrives in Chinese theaters with a film that has already made an impressive journey through the international festival circuit.
Happy Birthday premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won three awards, before later taking home audience awards at both the Mill Valley Film Festival and El Gouna Film Festival.
It was also selected as Egypt's official submission for the 2026 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category.
The film is the feature directorial debut of Egyptian-American filmmaker Sarah Goher, who previously worked as a producer and director on Marvel's Moon Knight.
Her starting point sounds almost deceptively simple: a child's birthday party.
But inside that seemingly innocent celebration, Goher gradually opens up a much larger story about class, poverty, friendship, and the social divisions of contemporary Cairo.
The central character is eight-year-old Toha, the daughter of a domestic worker in an upper-class household.
Toha is close friends with Nelly, the daughter of her mother's employer, and because Toha has never had a birthday celebration of her own, she decides to organize the perfect party for Nelly.
For Toha, this is more than a gift to her friend; it represents a child's uncomplicated idea of happiness—balloons, cake, friendship, and the possibility that everyone can simply enjoy the same beautiful moment together.
But as the party approaches, the invisible line between the two girls gradually becomes impossible to ignore.
Toha is eventually excluded from the celebration because, in the eyes of the adults around her, she is not really Nelly's friend.
She is the family's servant.
And she is a child who has already started working before she has even reached school age.
What makes Happy Birthday particularly affecting is that Goher does not turn the story into a straightforward social indictment.
Nor does she treat poverty as a spectacle designed to make audiences feel guilty.
Instead, she places the camera at the child's eye level and allows the audience to discover the uncomfortable reality alongside Toha.
Toha is not written as a tragic victim.
She is stubborn, curious, hopeful, and full of personality.
She never needs to announce that she is suffering for the audience to understand her situation.
That may be what makes the film so painful.
Nelly sees Toha as an equal friend.
The adults around them, however, continue to see her through the lens of her social position.
The story is also deeply personal, as it draws from Goher's own childhood experiences in her grandmother's home in Cairo, memories that stayed with her for years before eventually becoming the inspiration for this film.
It could have been a heartbreaking story.
But Goher ultimately protects something precious: the child's sense of wonder.
And perhaps that is what makes Happy Birthday so moving—even when the world around Toha refuses to be fair, the film refuses to take away her childhood.