Most Anticipated East Asian Films of 2016!!

Most Anticipated East Asian Films of 2016

It is surprising that January has already come to an end. With 2016 just beginning, Lights, Camera, Asia wanted to share some of the up and coming films from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and China to be on the look out for this year!  Let's Begin!

**The lists are not in order of popularity**

Plot descriptions from Asian Wiki & IMDB

SOUTH KOREA

1. The Handmaid 아가씨

Director: Park Chan Wook 

Set in the 1930's in South Korea and Japan. Story revolves around 4 people: a noble lady (Kim Min-Hee) who has inherited a fortune, a swindler count (Ha Jung-Woo) who is after the noble lady’s fortune, a young female pickpocket (Kim Tae-Ri) hired by the swindler count and the noble lady’s uncle (Cho Jin-Woong) who is her guardian. Based on the novel "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters.

2. Secret Agent 밀정

Director: Kim Jee Woon

Movie follows the activities of the Heroic Corps, an anti-Japanese independence organization that existed under the Japanese colonial period in South Korea. The group used violent means to achieve Korean independence.

3. Sea Ice 해빙

Director: Lee Soo Youn

Seung-Hoon (Cho Jin-Woong) is a physician. He opened a clinic in Gangnam, Seoul, but the clinic went bankrupt. He then lands a job at a hospital run by his friend in a satellite city of Seoul. Seung-Hoon then becomes involved in a series of murder cases. The murder cases are connected when a woman's severed body comes out from the melting Han River.

4. Melody to Remember 오빠 생각

Director: Han Lee

Second Lieutenant Han Sang-Yeok (Si Wan) leads his platoon during the Korean War in the early 1950s. During the war, Sang-yeok encounters a children's choir who have lost everything due to the war. Emphasising with their plight, he tries to protect the children.

5. Under the Knife 

Director: Josh Hoffman

Beverly travels to South Korea to get plastic surgery, but ends up unknowingly getting a computerized implant from a surgeon who maniacally turns his patients into beautiful killing machines.

6. Chasing 잡아야 산다

Director: Oh In Chul

Seung-Joo (Kim Seung-Woo) is a CEO and Jung-Taek (Kim Jung-Tae) is a detective. They have known each other for 20 years. One night, Seung-Joo loses his cellphone to four male high-school students and Jung-Taek loses his gun to the same high-school students. The cellphone and gun are very valuable to Seung-Joo and Jung-Taek. The two men must get their items back from the high school students.

7. Operation Chromite인천상륙작전

Director: John H. Lee 

General Douglas MacArthur (Liam Neeson) of the U.S. Army and 8 South Korean troop members led by a South Korean Navy Lieutenant (Lee Jung-Jae) carry out the covert "X-ray" operation. The "X-ray" operation must succeed in order to carry out "Incheon Landing Operation."

JAPAN

1. Godzilla: Resurgence シン・ゴジラ

Director: Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi

Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster.

2. Death Note 2016 デスノート 2016

Director: Shinsuke Sato

In 2016, cyber terrorism runs wild and the world has experienced mega growth as an information society. A fierce battle surrounds 6 Death Notes as only 6 Death Notes are allowed to exist in the human world.

3.  Terra Formars テラフォーマーズ

Director: Takashi Miike

Due to depleting natural resources and overpopulation, humans look to Mars as their next habitat. Terraforming is the project to change Mars' environment to accommodate humans. For this project, cockroaches are sent to Mars and mutated to walk. In the year 2599, 15 poor Japanese are sent to Mars to take out the cockroaches. They are unaware of what they are up against. 

4. Sadako Vs. Kayako 貞子vs伽椰子

Director: Koji Shiraishi

A battle takes place between Sadako, known to jump out of television screens, and the violent Kayako.

5. Too Young to Die! 若くして死ぬ

Director: Kankuro Kudo

High school student, Daisuke (Ryunosuke Kamiki), has a crush on his classmate Hiromi. On the way to a school trip, the bus Daisuke is on has an accident. When Daisuke wakes up, he finds himself in Hell. Daisuke meets Killer K (Tomoya Nagase), who leads the rock band Heruzu from the Hell Agricultural High School. To return to the living and confess his feelings to Hiromi, Daisuke's hell rounds begin under Killer K's special training.

6. Mitsu No Ahare 蜜のあわれ

Director: Gakuryu Ishii

Akago (Fumi Nikaido) is a red goldfish able to change into a girl. She possesses a pure and sensuous side. She lives with an old male writer (Ren Osugi) whom she calls  “Ojisama.”One day, the ghost of Yuriko Tamura (Yoko Maki) appears. She is a woman the writer knew in the past.

7. Your Name 君の名は。

Director: Shinkai Makoto

The story is set one month after a comet has fallen for the first time in a thousand years in Japan. Mitsuha, a high school girl living in the countryside, wants to live in the city because she is tired of life in the country. Then, there's Taki. He's a high school student living in Tokyo with his friends while working as a part-timer at an Italian restaurant. He also has a strong interest in fine arts involving architecture. One day, Mitsuha dreams of herself as a young man. On the other hand, Taki also has a dream where he is a female student attending high school in the countryside. What's the secret behind their dreams? 

HONG KONG / CHINA

1. Journey to the West 敢问路在何方

Director: Zhang Jinlai

Journey to the West is an upcoming 3D Chinese-American action fantasy film based on the classic novel Journey to the West byWu Cheng'en.

2. The Monkey King 2 西游记之孙悟空三打白骨精

Director: Cheang Pou-soi

The Monkey King 2 is an upcoming Hong Kong action fantasy film based on the classic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. It is a sequel to the 2014 box office hit The Monkey King with Cheang Pou-soi returning as director and Sammo Hung as action director, whom replaces Donnie Yen's role from the previous installment.

3. The Great Wall

Director: Zhang Yimou

A mystery centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China.

4. The Bombing 大轰炸

Director: Xiao Feng

During the World War II, five different Chinese people fight their way through Japanese air force attacks to protect important military machine in Chongqing, 1940.

5. Railroad Tigers 

Director: Xiao Feng

A railroad worker in China in 1941 leads a team of freedom fighters against the Japanese in order to get food for the poor. 

6. From Vegas to Macau III 賭城風雲III

Director: Andrew Lau & Wong Jing

An upcoming 2016 Hong Kong-Chinese action comedy film. Starring Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Nick Cheung and Li Yuchun, with special appearances by Jacky Cheung and Carina Lau. The film is the third installment of the From Vegas to Macau series. 

7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny 卧虎藏龙：青冥宝剑

Director: Yuen Woo-ping

An upcoming American-Chinese martial arts film, based on the novel Iron Knight, Silver Vase by Du Lu Wang. It is also a sequel to the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film stars Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, Harry Shum, Jr., Jason Scott Lee, Roger Yuan, Eugenia Yuan, JuJu Chan, Chris Pang, Shuya Chang and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. 

8. The Mermaid 美人鱼

Director: Stephen Chow

Hin's real estate project involves reclamation of the sea. This threatens the livelihood of the residents who rely on the sea to make a living. Shan is dispatched to stop Hin and this encounter soon leads to them falling for each other. Out of his love for Shan, Hin plans to stop the reclamation. Unfortunately, Shan gets injured in an accident and vanishes into the sea.

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Of course, this is not every film that is to be released, but we hope you found some films that have interested you! Let us know in the comments below, which films you are most excited about!

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