From the highly-anticipated third and final season of Netflix’s industry-defining Squid Game series, to the sequels for thought-provoking breakout shows like Taiwan’s The World Between Us and Indonesia’s Santri Pilihan Bunda, here are the shows out of Asia to look out for in 2025. Add your own thoughts and suggestions in the comments below.
‘Squid Game’ Season 3 (Netflix)
Korea
Even before the second season of Netflix’s most successful series premiered on December 26, the streamer announced that a third and final season of the Korean series is already in the works and will release in 2025. The second season of the drama sees Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), who was Player 456 in the first season, searching for the people behind the brutal survival game, three years after winning the ₩45.6 billion prize bounty. Who knows what Season 3 might entail. Though reviews have been mixed, another run so close behind is an exciting prospect.
‘Squid Game’ Season 3 (Netflix)
Korea
Even before the second season of Netflix’s most successful series premiered on December 26, the streamer announced that a third and final season of the Korean series is already in the works and will release in 2025. The second season of the drama sees Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), who was Player 456 in the first season, searching for the people behind the brutal survival game, three years after winning the ₩45.6 billion prize bounty. Who knows what Season 3 might entail. Though reviews have been mixed, another run so close behind is an exciting prospect.
- 12/28/2024
- by Sara Merican
- Deadline Film + TV
A trailer for Zero Day, a Taiwanese TV series portraying a Chinese attack on the island has stirred a tide of emotional response.
The nearly 18-minute teaser depicts China’s People’s Liberation Army (Pla) landing in Taiwan after a presidential election, where a “political power vacuum” has also left society vulnerable. China then creates a blockade in Taiwanese waters under the pretext of a search-and-rescue mission after one of the Pla’s “Y-8” planes reportedly goes missing.
The trailer has drawn more than 307,000 views on Youtube with nearly 3,500 comments.
The 10-episode series is partly funded by the Taiwanese government as part of the cultural ministry’s “1 plus 4-t-content plan.” The trailer’s release this week coinciding with annual air raid drills which aim to prepare Taiwan’s 23 million residents in the event of an invasion by the Chinese military.
Beijing has threatened to take over the self-ruled territory, using force if necessary.
The nearly 18-minute teaser depicts China’s People’s Liberation Army (Pla) landing in Taiwan after a presidential election, where a “political power vacuum” has also left society vulnerable. China then creates a blockade in Taiwanese waters under the pretext of a search-and-rescue mission after one of the Pla’s “Y-8” planes reportedly goes missing.
The trailer has drawn more than 307,000 views on Youtube with nearly 3,500 comments.
The 10-episode series is partly funded by the Taiwanese government as part of the cultural ministry’s “1 plus 4-t-content plan.” The trailer’s release this week coinciding with annual air raid drills which aim to prepare Taiwan’s 23 million residents in the event of an invasion by the Chinese military.
Beijing has threatened to take over the self-ruled territory, using force if necessary.
- 7/26/2024
- by Sara Merican
- Deadline Film + TV
Titles include ‘A Guilty Conscience’, ‘Everything Under Control’ and ‘Say I Do To Me’.
In Hong Kong, local films A Guilty Conscience and Everything Under Control are set to open tomorrow (January 21) on the eve of Chinese New Year while Donnie Yen’s Sakra and Kiwi Chow’s Say I Do To Me are also joining the festive race.
It marks the first year since 2020 that Hong Kong cinemas can open for business during the lucrative holiday period, following two consecutive years of blackout due to the Covid pandemic that led to cancellations both in the city and overseas markets that scheduled day-and-date releases.
In Hong Kong, local films A Guilty Conscience and Everything Under Control are set to open tomorrow (January 21) on the eve of Chinese New Year while Donnie Yen’s Sakra and Kiwi Chow’s Say I Do To Me are also joining the festive race.
It marks the first year since 2020 that Hong Kong cinemas can open for business during the lucrative holiday period, following two consecutive years of blackout due to the Covid pandemic that led to cancellations both in the city and overseas markets that scheduled day-and-date releases.
- 1/20/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Projects by Mag Hsu from Taiwan, Kiwi Chow from Hong Kong, and Japan’s Akira Ikeda were among those selected.
Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) has revealed a record 48 film projects, including projects by Mag Hsu, Chang Jung-chi and Lin Yu-hsien from Taiwan, Kiwi Chow, Chapman To and Jevons Au from Hong Kong, and Akira Ikeda and Yukinori Makabe from Japan.
The Fpp project market is one of the key events under the Golden Horse umbrella. Scheduled to take place from November 15-17 during the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, its attendance of international filmmakers and guests...
Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) has revealed a record 48 film projects, including projects by Mag Hsu, Chang Jung-chi and Lin Yu-hsien from Taiwan, Kiwi Chow, Chapman To and Jevons Au from Hong Kong, and Akira Ikeda and Yukinori Makabe from Japan.
The Fpp project market is one of the key events under the Golden Horse umbrella. Scheduled to take place from November 15-17 during the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, its attendance of international filmmakers and guests...
- 9/23/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Herman Yau tackles political and social issues, re-proposing the classic atmospheres and themes of Hong Kong Triade cinema in “The Mobfathers,” a gritty and satirical tale of power struggle and a nod to Hong Kong’s troubles with the China-manoeuvred elections.
on Amazon
The film begins immediately in full swing, with a violent brawl in which Chat (Chapman To), the head of the Metal gang, is arrested and locked up in Stanley prison, just as his beautiful wife discovers she is expecting a baby; an event that for wrong timing fails to divert the course of fate. In fact Chat, with a 5-year sentence, is going to miss the birth and early years of his son and has no other options than to leave his trusty lieutenant Luke (Philip Keung) in charge of the boys of the gang, and also to take care of his wife and child.
on Amazon
The film begins immediately in full swing, with a violent brawl in which Chat (Chapman To), the head of the Metal gang, is arrested and locked up in Stanley prison, just as his beautiful wife discovers she is expecting a baby; an event that for wrong timing fails to divert the course of fate. In fact Chat, with a 5-year sentence, is going to miss the birth and early years of his son and has no other options than to leave his trusty lieutenant Luke (Philip Keung) in charge of the boys of the gang, and also to take care of his wife and child.
- 8/9/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Film Review: Ting Che
Cannes, Un Certain Regard
CANNES -- Double parking evolves into a pert metaphor for Taipei's urban chaos and the obstacle-strewn nature of life in "Ting Che", a neat concept film by Chung Mong-Hong. Using a man's Kafkaesque attempts to get his car out as the narrative link, Chung devises a chain of bizarre encounters and confrontations that are by turns amusing and disquieting.
The film has gone down well with critics when it premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section. Making festival rounds will certainly generate more advantageous word of mouth, especially in Chinese-speaking markets, where leading Man Chang Chen and supporting actress Kuei Lun-mei rope in two distinct age groups.
"Ting Che" which means "Parking", begins its detour from quotidian life when protagonist Chen Mo (Chang Chen) buys a Tiramisu and quibbles about its "lack of dynamism" to the cake-maker's chagrin. The film is peppered with this kind of cryptic, quasi-philosophical banter which sustains a theatrically absurd air as Chen makes karmic connections with a one-handed barber, a mourning family, a tailor with a father complex, a triad boss and a pimp, while searching for the driver who double-parked outside the shop.
"Ting Che" echoes a recent spate of Taiwan films that weave together disparate stories, notably "The Most Distant Course" and "God Man Dog". Alejandro Inarritu's works makes a close western parallel. Chung's assured narrative skill is evident in his variation of mood and protagonists in each story, while keeping the episodic form in a tight time-frame (one night) and location (an old building). Yet, like his documentary "Doctor", he mistakes melodrama for profundity. Despite the range of characters and fetching performances by veterans Jack Kao, Chapman To and Leon Dai, plots are almost all implausible, with the ending most make-believe.
Chung has plenty of style to spare, but only a hint of substance. The highlight of the film is a toilet scene involving a wide-eyed fish head. A delicious visual joke, no doubt. But like the white paint artfully splashed on a tailor's torso, or the ending's flashy experimental shot of a centipede, they are devised more for aesthetic effect, than essential to the plot. Art direction is lush, with duskily lit 70s retro decors and cinematography of a mellow, velvety texture. The lyrical music features some violin pizzicato that sounds like the score of "In the Mood for Love".
Cream Production
Cast: Chang Chen, Jack Kao, Kwai Lun-Mei, Leon Dai, Chapman To, Peggy Tseng. Screenwriter-director-director of photography: Chung Mong-Hong; Producers: Shao-Chien Tseng, Jane H. Hsiao' Art director: Shih-Hao Chao; Music: An Dong; Costume designer: Editor: Shih-Jing Lo; Sales: Good Films Workshop.
No MPAA rating, 113 minutes.
CANNES -- Double parking evolves into a pert metaphor for Taipei's urban chaos and the obstacle-strewn nature of life in "Ting Che", a neat concept film by Chung Mong-Hong. Using a man's Kafkaesque attempts to get his car out as the narrative link, Chung devises a chain of bizarre encounters and confrontations that are by turns amusing and disquieting.
The film has gone down well with critics when it premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section. Making festival rounds will certainly generate more advantageous word of mouth, especially in Chinese-speaking markets, where leading Man Chang Chen and supporting actress Kuei Lun-mei rope in two distinct age groups.
"Ting Che" which means "Parking", begins its detour from quotidian life when protagonist Chen Mo (Chang Chen) buys a Tiramisu and quibbles about its "lack of dynamism" to the cake-maker's chagrin. The film is peppered with this kind of cryptic, quasi-philosophical banter which sustains a theatrically absurd air as Chen makes karmic connections with a one-handed barber, a mourning family, a tailor with a father complex, a triad boss and a pimp, while searching for the driver who double-parked outside the shop.
"Ting Che" echoes a recent spate of Taiwan films that weave together disparate stories, notably "The Most Distant Course" and "God Man Dog". Alejandro Inarritu's works makes a close western parallel. Chung's assured narrative skill is evident in his variation of mood and protagonists in each story, while keeping the episodic form in a tight time-frame (one night) and location (an old building). Yet, like his documentary "Doctor", he mistakes melodrama for profundity. Despite the range of characters and fetching performances by veterans Jack Kao, Chapman To and Leon Dai, plots are almost all implausible, with the ending most make-believe.
Chung has plenty of style to spare, but only a hint of substance. The highlight of the film is a toilet scene involving a wide-eyed fish head. A delicious visual joke, no doubt. But like the white paint artfully splashed on a tailor's torso, or the ending's flashy experimental shot of a centipede, they are devised more for aesthetic effect, than essential to the plot. Art direction is lush, with duskily lit 70s retro decors and cinematography of a mellow, velvety texture. The lyrical music features some violin pizzicato that sounds like the score of "In the Mood for Love".
Cream Production
Cast: Chang Chen, Jack Kao, Kwai Lun-Mei, Leon Dai, Chapman To, Peggy Tseng. Screenwriter-director-director of photography: Chung Mong-Hong; Producers: Shao-Chien Tseng, Jane H. Hsiao' Art director: Shih-Hao Chao; Music: An Dong; Costume designer: Editor: Shih-Jing Lo; Sales: Good Films Workshop.
No MPAA rating, 113 minutes.
- 6/12/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Isabella
Screened at the Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- "Isabelle" has a gentle, melancholy spirit as two characters look to the future while haunted by the past. During the chaotic, crime-ridden months before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, a rogue cop named Shing (Chapman To), already under suspicion of corruption, brings home an underage hooker picked up in a sleazy bar. Then the girl, Yan (Isabella Leong), hits him with a huge whammy: She claims to be his daughter by a long-ago lover, who recently died. Thus begins two people's odyssey, tracked through the shadowy, decaying back alleys of Macau, toward a relationship neither is certain is desirable.
This Berlin competition film makes a fine festival entry and could do well in Asia where it has several marketing hooks. For one thing, director Pang Ho-cheung, who has made five films in rapid succession since 1999, has emerged as one of the leading Hong Kong new-wave filmmakers. Here he collaborates with To in his partner's first outing as a leading man and producer. Meanwhile, the beguiling Isabella Leong has enjoyed success as a pop singer in Asia as well as an actress.
The film gets off to a misleading start as the time frame is fractured and events are fuzzy, leading one to anticipate an arty deconstruction exercise where things remain unclear for most of the film. However, once characters get sorted out and Yan drops her bombshell, the film heads down a fairly straight-forwarded narrative path.
Pang (working from a script he wrote with Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wang) concentrates on character and mood without overplaying the emotional content. Macau itself becomes a third character in the movie, a stubborn, decadent city in transition, as are the two people.
Yan has turned for help to her womanizing father -- whom she has studied from afar but never approached-- only due to a financial emergency. Since she is four months behind on rent, her landlord has padlocked the flat with her dog, Isabelle, inside. When Shing confronts the landlord, the man snorts that he threw the dog out on the street.
This launches an extensive dragnet of the neighborhood by the older man and young woman, searching for the missing canine. Meantime, the homeless girl moves temporarily into her father's one-bedroom flat.
The film's incidents are casual, even muted. Yan puts off a classmate (Derek Tsang) with a huge crush on her by insisting that Shing is her new lover. Fellow cops and crooks wander into Shing's path, offering oblique warnings about the corruption charges. (He's guilty but who wants to be a fall guy?) Flashbacks show Shing as a young man bringing Wan's mother (J.J. Jia) to an abortion clinic, and then abandoning her before she goes through with the procedure. The memory is still fresh for Shing.
One amusing sequence has Yan, assuming the role of Shing's live-in lover, turning away a succession of girlfriends who come to the door. One girlfriend proves her equal in deception: She insists that any girlfriend of Shing's must drink so challenges Yan to see who can drink whom under the table.
Cinematographer Charlie Lam has one of the world's greatest sets to work with -- the amazingly colorful/drab/vital/decaying back streets and alleys of Macau. Throw in Peter Kam's melancholy, Portuguese-influenced music involving piano and guitar and you get a wonderfully lyrical atmosphere for this modest but emotionally satisfying character piece.
ISABELLA
Media Asia Films/China Film group present a Not Brothers production
Credits:
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Writers: Pang Ho-cheung, Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wang
Story by: Pang Ho-cheung
Producers: Pang Ho-cheung, Chapman To, Jin Zhongqiang
Executive producers: John Chong, Yang Bu Ting
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Peter Kam
Costumes: Stephanie Wong
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Yan: Isabella Leong
Hua: J.J. Jia
Yan's suitor: Derek Tsang
Kate: Meme Tian
Shing: Chapman To
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
BERLIN -- "Isabelle" has a gentle, melancholy spirit as two characters look to the future while haunted by the past. During the chaotic, crime-ridden months before Portugal handed Macau back to China in 1999, a rogue cop named Shing (Chapman To), already under suspicion of corruption, brings home an underage hooker picked up in a sleazy bar. Then the girl, Yan (Isabella Leong), hits him with a huge whammy: She claims to be his daughter by a long-ago lover, who recently died. Thus begins two people's odyssey, tracked through the shadowy, decaying back alleys of Macau, toward a relationship neither is certain is desirable.
This Berlin competition film makes a fine festival entry and could do well in Asia where it has several marketing hooks. For one thing, director Pang Ho-cheung, who has made five films in rapid succession since 1999, has emerged as one of the leading Hong Kong new-wave filmmakers. Here he collaborates with To in his partner's first outing as a leading man and producer. Meanwhile, the beguiling Isabella Leong has enjoyed success as a pop singer in Asia as well as an actress.
The film gets off to a misleading start as the time frame is fractured and events are fuzzy, leading one to anticipate an arty deconstruction exercise where things remain unclear for most of the film. However, once characters get sorted out and Yan drops her bombshell, the film heads down a fairly straight-forwarded narrative path.
Pang (working from a script he wrote with Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wang) concentrates on character and mood without overplaying the emotional content. Macau itself becomes a third character in the movie, a stubborn, decadent city in transition, as are the two people.
Yan has turned for help to her womanizing father -- whom she has studied from afar but never approached-- only due to a financial emergency. Since she is four months behind on rent, her landlord has padlocked the flat with her dog, Isabelle, inside. When Shing confronts the landlord, the man snorts that he threw the dog out on the street.
This launches an extensive dragnet of the neighborhood by the older man and young woman, searching for the missing canine. Meantime, the homeless girl moves temporarily into her father's one-bedroom flat.
The film's incidents are casual, even muted. Yan puts off a classmate (Derek Tsang) with a huge crush on her by insisting that Shing is her new lover. Fellow cops and crooks wander into Shing's path, offering oblique warnings about the corruption charges. (He's guilty but who wants to be a fall guy?) Flashbacks show Shing as a young man bringing Wan's mother (J.J. Jia) to an abortion clinic, and then abandoning her before she goes through with the procedure. The memory is still fresh for Shing.
One amusing sequence has Yan, assuming the role of Shing's live-in lover, turning away a succession of girlfriends who come to the door. One girlfriend proves her equal in deception: She insists that any girlfriend of Shing's must drink so challenges Yan to see who can drink whom under the table.
Cinematographer Charlie Lam has one of the world's greatest sets to work with -- the amazingly colorful/drab/vital/decaying back streets and alleys of Macau. Throw in Peter Kam's melancholy, Portuguese-influenced music involving piano and guitar and you get a wonderfully lyrical atmosphere for this modest but emotionally satisfying character piece.
ISABELLA
Media Asia Films/China Film group present a Not Brothers production
Credits:
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Writers: Pang Ho-cheung, Kearen Pang, Derek Tsang, Jimmy Wang
Story by: Pang Ho-cheung
Producers: Pang Ho-cheung, Chapman To, Jin Zhongqiang
Executive producers: John Chong, Yang Bu Ting
Director of photography: Charlie Lam
Production designer: Man Lim Chung
Music: Peter Kam
Costumes: Stephanie Wong
Editor: Wenders Li
Cast:
Yan: Isabella Leong
Hua: J.J. Jia
Yan's suitor: Derek Tsang
Kate: Meme Tian
Shing: Chapman To
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 2/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Karma' big at H.K. Film noms
HONG KONG -- China Star's Running on Karma and Media Asia's Infernal Affairs II will slug it out for top honors at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Karma, directed by Johnnie To and Ka-fai Wai, goes into the final round of voting with 13 nominations, including best film and best director. Stars Andy Lau and Cecilia Cheung were nominated for best actor and best actress, respectively. Cheung was also nominated for her role in Tung-shing Yee's romantic drama Lost in Time. Cheung will be up against Kar-yan Lam (Floating Landscape), Carina Lau (Infernal Affairs II) and Sandra Ng Kwan Yue (Golden Chicken 2). Media Asia's Infernal Affairs II, the follow-up to 2002's boxoffice hit Infernal Affairs, received 12 nominations, including best film, best director, best actor for Francis Ng and best supporting actors for Man-chat To and Kai Chi Liu.
- 2/13/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.