Jia Wu Da Hai Zhan (2012)
Drama | War
Set during the turbulent Qing Dynasty, the film is an epic war drama, and tells the story of Deng Shichang, a navy officer fighting against the Japanese invader in the War of Jiawu.
Starring: Yi Lu, Lixin Yang, Yu Xia, Haiying Sun, Liping Lü, Jiaming Guo, Guang-ze Ma
Director: Xiaoning Feng
Audition / Ôdishon (1999)
Horror | Mystery | Thriller
A widowed TV producer is encouraged by his teenage son to remarry before he gets too old. Unable to find anyone suitable, he decides to hold auditions for a false movie in order to test out potential wives. He thinks he may have found the one he is looking for when he auditions a former ballerina, but she seems too good to be true and an investigation into her past reveals a horrific secret.
Starring: Eihi Shiina, Ryo Ishibashi, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi
Director: Takashi Miike
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The Law of Attraction / Wan You Yin Li (2011)
Drama | Romance
Businessman Gao Yuan (Wen Zhang) misses his flight due to the fault of the airport security detectors and he puts the blame on the officer in-charge, Shi Xiao Lin (Bai Bai He). After a series of disputes and misunderstandings, Xiao Lin remembers clearly of his previous trips at the Beijing Airport Terminal 3. And soon it opens up the love between the two. Mathematician Wang Yong (Guo Tao) and his wife Xue Lian (Zhang Jing Chu) are trying hard to conceive a baby until they need to see different doctors to check the fertility of their sperm and ovum respectively. They even tried yogas, assisted reproductive recipes, and even different sex positions. After unsuccessful first few attempts, eventually Xue Lian manages to get pregnant. Ah Mei (Karen Mok) is travelling with an unidentified lover until they got an accident on an intersection. Both managed to survive. What Ah Mei did not know is that the accident was staged as a motive of revenge by her husband Zhou Yun Shan (Leon Dai), as a method of punishment for his unfaithful wife. At the same time both are trying hard to save their crumbling marriage. Hai Qiao (Bowen Duan) and Jia Xin (Huang Huan) are childhood parachute jumping partners. As an adult Jian Xin is forced to quit parachute jumping due of drug use. As a result of this Hai Qiao is depressed and is changing his own way to persuade her to quit drug taking. She manages to quit and both become parachute jumping partners once again with a new beginning.
Starring: Baihe Bai, Leon Dai, Bowen Duan, Karen Mok, Jingchu Zhang, Tao Guo, Zhang Wen, Huan Huang
Director: Zhao Tianyu
Connected / Bo chi tung wah (2008)
Action
Bob (Louis Koo)'s life isn't going well at all. A single father in a dead-end job as a debt collector, he's trapped in a job that goes against his usual easy-going helpful nature and he's under tremendous pressure to be a better dad, a better brother, a better worker, even a better person. While dealing with all this and his sister (Flora Chan)'s threat to move to China with his son to force him to clean up his act, Bob receives a call out of the blue. It's a stranger called Grace (Barbie Hsu) who claims a mysterious kidnapper (Liu Ye) is keeping her against her will and begs him to save her and her young daughter. Is it just a heartless prank? The detective (Nick Cheung) he tried reporting the call to seems to think so but Bob's instincts tell him that he may just be the only thing standing between them and a painful death. But does he have the mettle to rise above his own self-centred concerns and risk everything – including his own son – for two people he has never met and who may not even exist?
Starring: Louis Koo, Barbie Hsu, Nick Cheung, Ye Liu, Siu-Wong Fan, Siu-Fai Cheung, Beibi Gong
Director: Benny Chan
Castle in the Sky / Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986)
Action | Adventure | Animation | Family | Fantasy | Romance
An orphan named Sheeta eludes the clutches of a secret agent named Muska while trying to discern her family's history. After her first escape from Muska, Sheeta meets up with a young boy named Pazu, whose father, a photographer, was disgraced after he took a picture of the legendary flying island of Laputa and had it dismissed as a hoax. When the two realize that a family heirloom Sheeta carries allows them to levitate, the two begin a search for the lost island, trailed by Muska, who is also searching for Laputa.
Starring: Barbara Goodson, James Van Der Beek, Lara Cody, Cloris Leachman, Mike Reynolds, Michael McShane
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Hansel & Gretel / Henjel gwa Geuretel (2007)
Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery
When Eun-soo gets lost in a country road, he meets a mysterious girl and is led to her fairytale ike house in the middle of the forest. There, Eun-soo is trapped with the girl and her siblings who never age. Eun-soo finally discovers a way out which is written on a fairy tale book. But the book tells a story of none other than himself!
Starring: Jeong-myeong Cheon, Young-nam Jang, Ji-hee Jin, Kyeong-ik Kim, Hee-soon Park, Eun-kyung Shim, Eun Won-jae
Director: Pil-Sung Yim
IMDb Info
Ballad / Ballad: Na mo naki koi no uta (2009)
Action | Drama | Romance
A movie examining a young boy's first encounter with true fear in his endless pursuit of courage.
Starring: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Yui Aragaki, Akashi Takei, Michitaka Tsutsui, Yui Natsukawa
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
April Snow / Oechul (2005)
Drama | Romance
A man and a woman meet in the hospital after their respective partners are involved in a car accident. After learning that their spouses have been having an affair, the two begin one of their own.
Starring: Yong-jun Bae, Ye-jin Son
Director: Jin-ho Hur
IMDb Info
Joyful Reunion / Yin shi nan nü – Hao yuan you hao jin (2012)
Comedy | Romance
Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, the present day. Master chef Tang Shizhe (Kenneth Tsang) tells his two daughters, the careerist Wa'er (Huo Siyan) and teenage Xiaolan (Jiang Mengjie), that he has decided to sell his upscale vegetarian restaurant, the centre of his life for 30 years. Wa'er manages a luxury health resort and is dating Chang Chuan (Blue Lan), a computer-games designer from Taiwan. Chang Chuan goes to Taipei to visit his aunt, Pai Ping (Rose Kuei), who effectively raised him, and she ends up accompanying him back to Hangzhou, where she originally grew up but hasn't re-visited since leaving for Taiwan in her teens. Pai Ping meets Wa'er but her forthrightness often proves embarrassing in the sophisticated circles Wa'er moves in. Pai Ping notices, however, that Bei Ming (Chang Hsiao-chuan), general manager of the luxury health-resort group, is also romancing Wa'er, who feels neglected by Chang Chuan in favour of his work. One day Pai Ping tells Wa'er her story – how she was born in Hunan province, moved when young to Hangzhou where she worked in the restaurant business, and finally moved to Taiwan – and the two women bond. When Shizhe reveals the real reason for selling his restaurant, Wa'er resigns from her job to help him out and be with him. Meanwhile, Shizhe, who has not yet met Pai Ping, decides to cook a special meal to welcome her.
Starring: Hsiao-chuan Chang, Siyan Huo, Ya-lei Kuei, Cheng-Lung Lan, Kenneth Tsang
Director: Jui-Yuan Tsao
The Raid: Redemption / Serbuan maut (2011)
Action | Crime | Thriller
A swat team arrives at a rundown apartment block with a mission to remove its owner, a notorious drug lord named Tama. The building has never been raided before, never been touched by police. Seen as a no go zone it has since become a sanctuary to killers, gangs, rapists and thieves seeking accommodation in the one place they know they cannot be touched.
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah
Director: Gareth Evans
The Soul of Bread / Ai De Mian Bao Hun (2012)
Comedy | Romance
A love triangle between a handsome young baker and a local bread maker.
Starring: Han Dian Chen, Michelle Chen, Anthony Neely
Director: Pin-Chuan Kao
Love Exposure / Ai no mukidashi (2008)
Action | Comedy | Drama | Romance
Three emotionally abused individuals from the fringes of society get locked in a convoluted love triangle. Yuu, a Catholic boy searching for true love ends up taking "panty shot" photos of women in public until he discovers Yoko, whom he sees as his Virgin Mary. Yoko, an anti-family, misandrist girl finds that her foster mother will be marrying Yuu's father. Koike, an "original sinner" and the regional leader of a brainwashing cult, co-ordinates a plan to convert Yuu's family to her cult. Under her careful direction, their lives come crashing together in one fateful street fight.
Starring: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Andô, Yutaka Shimizu, Hiroyuki Onoue, Tasuku Nagaoka, Sô Hirosawa
Director: Shion Sono
Dancing Queen (2012)
Comedy | Drama | Family
The next mayor of Seoul candidate's wife becomes a dance singer in this movie as Hwang Jeong-min. She takes on the role of a poor lawyer turned politician and Uhm Jung-hwa as the wife who makes an attempt at singing without her husband knowing at first.
Starring: Jeong-hwa Eom, Jeong-min Hwang
Director: Seok-hoon Lee
IMDb Info
Ishaqzaade (2012)
Action | Drama | Romance
Rising from the ashes of hooliganism and small town wars, comes a passionate love story ignited by hatred. A story of two people who were born to hate but destined to love. One kingdom. One throne. Two wild animals. One totally unpredictable and the other… ferocious! A battle… deafened by the sounds of hate, revenge, bullets and deceit. A story about two fiery bloods played by Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, and their fight for power and supremacy. A love story brewing in a small town… burning with hatred.
Starring: Meeta Bandhu, Akash Bathija, Pravin Chandra, Parineeti Chopra, Aradhana Dhawan
Director: Habib Faisal
Nameless Gangster / Bumchoiwaui junjaeng (2012)
Crime | Thriller
On the verge of being fired, a corrupt customs official finds a haul of drugs and teams up with a vicious gangster to become the most powerful crime partnership in Busan.
Starring: Min-sik Choi, Jung-woo Ha
Director: Jong-bin Yun
IMDb Info
Himizu (2012)
Crime | Drama
Sumida and his schoolmate Keiko are 14 year old school kids living a dystopian existence where each of their parents' hopes and encourages them to die. Set in tsunami-hit areas of Japan about May 2011, which is used as a backdrop, the story follows roughly that of the manga of the same name wherein Sumida fights frequently with his father, is abandoned by his mother and tends to reject friendly advances of others. Eventually, he kills his father and then, assuming his life is ruined, attempts to improve society by killing "bad" people. Although not immediately obvious, what instead happens is that he attacks psychotic and violent characters, while he instead learns from Keiko and the Yakuza and people who befriended him that he himself has become "sick", eventually breaking free of the cycle of violence, but without a complete resolution of the issues raised during the movie before its end.
Starring: Shôta Sometani, Fumi Nikaidô, Tetsu Watanabe, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Megumi Kagurazaka, Ken Mitsuishi, Makiko Watanabe
Director: Sion Sono
IMDb Info
Clash of the Families / Wi-heom-han Sang-gyeon-rye (2011)
Comedy | Romance
When cartoonist Hyun-joon (Song, Sae-Byeok) falls in love with Da-hong (Lee, Si-young), one of his fans, it sets up the archetypal battle between their two families, who are from rival regions. Hyun-joon comes from the politically liberal Honam region (North and South Jeolla) while Da-hong comes from the conservative Yeongnam region (North and South Gyeongsang). When the two declare their intention to marry, they are confronted with a seemingly endless number of barriers that threaten their happiness.
Starring: Sae-Byeok Song, Si-young Lee, Yun-shik Baek, Su-mi Kim, Eung-soo Kim
Director: Jin-yeong Kim
Fairy Tale Killer / Zui hung (2012)
Crime | Thriller
One Day, a medium built stammerer, Jun confesses five murders at police station, but he fails to illustrate the details, after long oral examination the police believes Jun is mentally disorder and his mentioned murder cases do not come from the fact. Soon after, a cold-blooded murder unveils a series of mysterious murders in the district where Detective Han stations in. Each of the victims is executed by different but equally brutal way. Han knows that he is dealing with a serial killer. Instinct tells him Jun is the suspense after he goes over all recent statements. His team goes and rummages around in Jun's apartment, except a pile of old fairy tale books, no criminal evidence is found in the messy apartment.
Starring: Ching Wan Lau, Baoqiang Wang, Elanne Kwong, Yee-Man Man, Ken Lo, Suet Lam
Director: Danny Pang
Floating City / Fu Cheng (2012)
Drama
In the early 1990s, Bo Wah Chuen, merely 40 years old, has already been promoted to the top management position of the British East India Company in Hong Kong, then a crown colony. Looking back over his beginning, he was raised in a poor, boat-dwelling family of Tanka fishermen – although he doesn't look anything like pure Chinese – and had not received proper education until he reached adulthood. Coming from such humble background, Chuen was met with a great deal of ridicule and discrimination due to class and racial biases. But through his own hard work, the lowly office assistant strove to climb up the ranks and eventually became the multinational trading giant's first ever Chinese taipan. Still, despite his extraordinary achievements, Chuen is confused where his root truly lies…
Starring: Aaron Kwok, Charlie Yeung, Josie Ho, Seth Leslie, Annie Liu, Hee Ching Paw, David Peatfield
Director: Ho Yim
IMDb Info
My Way / Mai wei (2011)
Action | Drama | History | War
Inspired by a true story. Jun Shik works for Tatsuo's grandfather's farm while Korea is colonized by Japan, but he has a dream to participate in Tokyo Olympics as a marathon runner. Tatsuo also aims to become a marathon runner, so the two are in rivalry. But war breaks out and they both are forced to enlist in the army. Tatsuo becomes the head of defense in Jun Shik's unit and he devises a scheme but fails. Jun Shik and Tatsuo are captured by the Soviets. They run away but soon are captured by Germans and forced to separate. In 1944, they meet again at the shores of Normandy.
Starring: Dong-gun Jang, Jô Odagiri, Bingbing Fan, In-kwon Kim, Seung-hyeon Han
Director: Je-kyu Kang
IMDb Info
