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I’m a sucker for a good vampire film, whether it features a sexy vampire like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or a nasty one like 30 Days of Night. But one of my personal favorite tales about bloodsuckers is an underrated 2010 release by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig titled Daybreakers. Boasting an all-star cast and an interesting twist on vampire lore, it didn’t make waves upon initial release. And yet, I still find myself banging the proverbial drum for this film, especially today, because the movie is now streaming for free on Vizio WatchFree+.

Daybreakers takes place in 2019 (ten years in the future upon the film’s initial release) where a plague has transformed a majority of the human population into vampires. But without any humans from which to feed, the vampires are now facing a food crisis. Ethan Hawke plays Edward Dalton, a hematologist working on creating a blood substitute to save humanity.

The Taiwanese crime series Victims’ Game once again delves into darkness with its sophomore season. Forensic investigator Fang Yi-Jen finds himself pulled back into his old life when a decades-old murder case is reopened. New evidence points to troubling revelations about the original investigation handled by Fang’s late mentor. But as disturbing murders begin occurring in the present, Fang soon becomes a prime suspect himself.

Now removed from active police work, Fang struggles to leave his past behind. But justice and truth are not so easily escaped. Along with journalist partner Hsu Hai-Yin and daughter Hsiao-Meng, Fang must venture back into the shadows to solve the mysteries entangling his life. What began as a quest for answers gradually exposed even deeper wounds that time could not heal.

Through it all, Victims’ Game retains its strengths of nuanced characters and suspenseful storytelling. Joseph Chang leads the cast with another outstanding performance as Fang,...

Screenworks Asia, the production subsidiary of Taiwan’s Catchplay, has acquired international sales rights to the horror anthology series Urban Horror and will present the show at this week’s Filmart in Hong Kong.

Directed by Jun-Hong Li, Bao-Zhong Chen, and Dan-Chi Huang, Urban Horror comprises 34 short episodes revolving around the mysterious, the unexplained, and the disturbed in six types of modern city scenes. Synopsis reads: In each episode, the audience will see a familiar face that could be an award-winning actor, a pop star, or an internet celebrity. They will discover the ultimate fear and thrill at places such as nightclubs, office buildings, and youth hostels, where you don’t see any ghosts, monsters, or supernatural powers.

The series will feature Austin Lin (Marry My Dead Body) and Ann Hsu (The Victims’ Game) alongside Meng-Po Fu (Taiwan Crime Stories) and Esther Liu (Light the Night...

Taipei-based Screenworks Asia has picked up innovative anthology series “Urban Horror” for international sales ahead of this week’s FilMart in Hong Kong.

Directed by Lee Chun-Hong, Chen Bao-Zhong and Huang Dan-Chi, a group of young and upcoming filmmakers, “Urban Horror” comprises 34 short episodes revolving around the mysterious, the unexplained and the disturbed.

They make use of six modern city settings, such as night clubs, office buildings, youth hostels and other places where ghosts and monsters are not normally found. The deliberately limited number of locations also enables the 34 short films to be re-packaged as six longer episodes.

In each episode, the audience will see a familiar face that could be an award-winning actor, a pop star, or an internet celebrity. These include Austin Lin (Taiwan’ Oscar selection “Marry My Dead Body”), Ann Hsu (“The Victims’ Game”) Fu Meng-Po (“Taiwan Crime Stories”) and Esther Liu (“Light the Night”).

The show,...

Global streaming giant Netflix has made a significant ongoing commitment to production of original content from Southeast Asia and in the Chinese language.

For 2024, Netflix has unveiled a slate of four Chinese-language series, all hailing from Taiwan. From Thailand, it detailed seven series and one film. From Indonesia, it has committed to five films and a series co-written and directed by the consistently successful Joko Anwar, marking his first partnership with the streamer.

Additionally, Netflix has confirmed the appointment of Maya Huang as its head of Chinese-language content.

The moves stand in sharp contrast to the mid-January happenings at rival global streamer Prime Video, which is cutting staff in the region and ending its brief experiment with Southeast Asian originals.

In Indonesia, Netflix says it is broadening its storytelling with a range of genres including comedy, action, fantasy, and sci-fi thrillers.

“Nightmares and Daydreams,” Anwar’s debut project for the company,...

Taipei Film Festival is aiming to shine an international spotlight on Taiwanese actors through a new initiative, Top Talents, that will showcase nine actors including major stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin.

Other actors selected for the initiative include Chen Yi-wen, who won a Golden Horse Award for A Sun; Taipei Film Award winners Hsu Wei-ning and Gingle Wang; Caitlin Fang who won best newcomer awards at both Golden Horse and Taipei Film Awards for American Girl; and Golden Bell Award regulars Hsueh Shih-ling, Esther Liu and Tseng Pei-yu.

Collaborating with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca), the festival drew up a longlist from more than one hundred actors who had won prizes at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, Golden Bell Awards, which focus on TV production, and Taipei Film Awards.

The final list was selected by a committee of seven filmmakers including Taipei Film Festival director Li Ya-mei, executive producer Lee Lieh,...

There is Rainbow Salon, a supplier of hair models and wigs. The body of the shop owner’s wife is also found beheaded in its basement. The shop owner is suspected to have committed the crime and has disappeared with his first love. As a reporter attempts to unveil the truth, another murder from the past is discovered to be involved with the case. How are these two murders related to each other? And who tells the truth if each speaks only for himself？(Source: Hope Marketing Ent on YouTube)

This murder mystery was Taiwanese writer-director Lou Yi-an’s third feature following A Place of One’s Own (2009) and TV movie The Losers (2013), before his award-winning 2022 release Goddamned Asura. White Lies, Black Lies stars Tiffany Hsu (Man in Love), Wang Bo-chieh (One Headlight) and Annie Chen (Terrorizers).

Chinese streaming giant iQiyi has announced a slate of 33 Chinese original productions, including Pledge Of Allegiance, a sequel to hit martial arts film Brotherhood Of Blades, and an adaptation of hot Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin’s Ball Lightning.

The streamer, which has been making a big push into Southeast Asian markets, has also struck a deal with Malaysian broadcaster Suke TV for exclusive rights to ten Malay variety shows to stream on its iQiyi International platform for audiences in Singapore and Malaysia.

The new Chinese content slate is divided across five genres – Epic Tales, Young Power, Mystery Adventures, Oriental Fantasy and Differentiated Romance.

Pledge Of Allegiance, a spin-off from 2014 hit Brotherhood Of Blades about a group of brutal secret police, falls under the Epic Tales banner, along with new seasons of hot period dramas, Nirvana In Fire 3 and Chinese Paladin 4. Brotherhood Of Blades grossed 14m (RMB93m) in Chinese...

Exclusive: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American VOD rights to Slater Brothers Entertainment’s horror-thriller, The Darker The Lake, with plans to release it across internet, cable, and satellite platforms on March 1, 2022.

The Australian AFM entry directed by Lok Kwan Woo tells the story of what happens when strange, supernatural murders suddenly become the talk of a peaceful, small town. As two local detectives struggle to solve a deadly game, the myth of this game begin to reveal secrets too close to home.

Lok, Z Zoccolante and Yang Yang penned the film, which stars stars Elyse Levesque, Veronica Ferres (The Unforgivable), Gina Stiebitz (Dark), Vladimir Burlakov (Kleo) and Wei-Ning Hsu (The Victim’s Game).

Lok also produced, with Udum Media’s Anni Hsu exec producing alongside Todd and Grant Slater of Slater Brothers Entertainment.

“I am thrilled to have partnered up with Entertainment Studios,...

Superstar Huang Bo teams up with director Leste Chan for the upcoming sci-fi mystery crime thriller Battle of Memories. Based on the recently released trailer, Battle of Memories boasts thumping action and impressive production values to go along the film’s intense story line.

Huang Bo (of The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel (2013), Journey to the West (2013) and Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015) fame) plays Jiang Feng. Feng is a renowned novelist who is coming out of a failed marriage. After the divorce, he decides to go under the operating table to erase a decade worth of his bitter memories. But when Feng gets second thoughts and tries to retrieve his wiped memories, he inadvertently uploads a memory from a vicious murderer. Set in 2019, Battle of Memories unravels as Feng grapples with his identity and sanity while finding himself inside the mind of a serial killer. According to ChinaDaily, director Leste...

Weddings can sometimes be rather predictable and boring – but not if you’re a Huang and really, really love the movie “Ghost.”

On the Season 3 premiere of “Fresh Off the Boat,” Gene (Ken Jeong) tied the knot with his fiancee Margaret (Ann Hsu) in Taiwan. During the reception, Gene presented the couple’s wedding video, introducing it with the sweet but rather prosaic words, “Please enjoy the story of how Margaret and I met and fell in love.”

And then this chyron appeared on the screen:

To the strains of “Unchained Melody,” a mini macabre melodrama unfolded that very loosely mimicked the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore 1990 supernatural romance “Ghost.” But this time it was Gene and Margaret as the loving couple, and Gene who was the victim of a drive-by stabbing. All this was presented with shoddy, circa-1990s VHS video quality.

Ghost Gene then haunted Margaret and even helped her with pottery until,...

If the Huang kids thought Orlando was a culture shock, wait until they hit Taipei.

On the Season 3 premiere of “Fresh Off the Boat,” the Huang family takes a trip to Taiwan, so that Louis (Randall Park) can mend fences with his soon-to-be-married brother Gene (Ken Jeong). While Jessica (Constance Wu) is excited to return to her home country, her boys aren’t so sure what to expect.

Read More: How ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ Tells the Untold Story of ‘90s Sitcom Moms

Creator Nahnatchka Khan told IndieWire about the importance of the Huangs making the trip. “For us it was really, the Asian-American, the Taiwanese-American experience,” Khan said. “That hyphen in there is really important because the kids were born in America. That is part of their identity. We really wanted to explore what that meant when they were going back to their parents’ country for the first time.