Genre: Drama Director: Sam Mendes Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour, Kathy Bates RunTime: 1 hr 59 mins Released By: UIP Rating: M18 (Some Sexual Scenes) Official Website: http://www.revolutionaryroadmovie.com/ Opening Day: 16 April 2009
Synopsis:
Based on the celebrated novel by Richard Yates, director Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" is the story of a young couple (Oscar nominees Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) trying to find fulfillment in an age of conformity. Trapped in a world of encoded convention, they dream without faith, as lies and self-deceptions build to explosive consequences.
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Action Director: Alan Mak and Felix Cheong Cast: Sammi Cheng, Eason Chan, Zhang Guoli, Kate Tsui, Chapman To, Liu Kai Chi, Wilfred Lau, Ritchie Jen, Michelle Ye, Michelle Loo, Lok Ying Kwang, Ricky Chan RunTime: 1 hr 31 mins Released By: Shaw Rating: PG Official Website: http://www.mediaasia.com/lcpc/ Opening Day: 1 January 2009
Synopsis:
John Fok (starring Eason Chan) is the kingpin of illegal red oil in Greater China. When an oil tanker explodes accidentally, he becomes the focus of investigation by Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese police and is forced to halt his business to wait things out. While his business rivals start closing in, a member of his household is planning to betray him. On the surface, John seems totally helpless, but in reality, he’s been staging a major comeback for months. Just as he is finally ready to turn his fortune around, his only son is kidnapped!
Senior Inspector Molline Szeto (starring Sammi Cheng) is the rising star of the Police force. She is praised for bursting crimes with her sangfroid and precision. However, in matters of love, she is totally at wits’ end. After dating the same man for more than ten years with no likely prospect of an imminent wedding, she is determined to cut the knot once and for all, before she becomes too old to give birth. Poised at the cross road of her life, she is thrilled to be assigned to investigate the kidnap of John’s son.
John dispatches his whole gang to ferret his son’s whereabouts, only to find out that his rivals are redeploying people in China to assail him. Just when he is about to order an all-out fightback, Molline suddenly arrives with her team to garrison his house. Spurning her at first, he soon finds her critical analysis of situation at hand both apt and useful. An unlikely cooperation between cops and crooks thus ensues, leading to conflicts and clashes galore at every step till the end.
Genre: Action Director: Marc Forster Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, Jesper Christensen, Joaquin Cosio RunTime: 1 hr 46 mins Released By: Columbia TriStar Rating: PG Official Website: http://www.007.com/ Opening Day: 5 November 2008
Synopsis:
Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M (Judi Dench) interrogate Mr White (Jesper Christensen) who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.
Forensic intelligence links an Mi6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman who has her own vendetta. Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organisation.
On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world's most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). Using his associates in the organisation, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.
In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene's sinister plan and stop his organisation.
In Mandarin and Japanese Genre: Action/Drama Director: Derek Yee Cast: Jackie Chan, Naoto Takenaka, Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Masaya Kato, Fan Bingbing, Toro Minegishi, Lam Suet, Hiroyuki Nagato, Jack Kao, Paul Chun, Yasuaki Kurata, Chin Ka-Lok RunTime: 2 hrs Released By: GV and Scorpio East Rating: NC-16 (Violence) Official Website: http://shinjukuincident.emp.hk/en_main.html Opening Day: 2 April 2009
Synopsis:
The Chinese migrant communities in Tokyo live shadowy lives. The Japanese neither acknowledge nor welcome them. They are shunned by the mainstream society, hounded by the yakuza, and go about their days under fear of being discovered and repatriated.
It is an alien world for Steelhead, an honest, hardworking tractor repairman from Heilongjian in northern China. Steelhead had decided to take the perilous journey to Tokyo after he lost contact with his girlfriend, who had arrived in the city earlier.
Trying to exist in the underbelly of Tokyo long enough to find Xiu Xiu, Steelhead has come to realize the migrants had to stand united if they wanted to go about their lives without fear of oppression by not only the Japanese underworld but also Chinese gangs.
In his search of a decent living, Steelhead unwittingly finds himself pit against the Japanese yakuza. Ironically he also discovers that Xiu Xiu has adopted a Japanese identity and married Eguchi, an ambitious up and coming yakuza chief.
Steelhead wins the respect of his friends by establishing a base for them and forms an uneasy alliance with Eguchi. When he helps Eguchi dispose of a rival, he is given the control of Shinjuku’s night establishments. But, uninterested in living a gangster’s life, Steelhead finds a new love and takes the chance to start a tractor repair business outside Tokyo. However, his peace is shortlived when word gets to him that his former compatriots were now being used by Eguchi to front the yakuza’s drug business.
Steelhead feels responsible for this turn of events and feels obligated to bring Eguchi down. He also has to bear in mind that if he goes after Eguchi, he would be destroying the newfound life of the woman he once loved. In any case, can one simple Chinese migrant take on the yakuza alone?
In Thai with English subtitles Genre: Horror/Thriller Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom Cast: Masha Wattanapanich, Ratchanoo Bunchootwong, Vittaya Wasukraipaisan RunTime: 1 hr 35 mins Released By: GV Rating: PG Official Website: www.faddthemovie.com Opening Day: 27 July 2007
Synopsis:
From the first moment she arrives back in Thailand Pim experiences extremely vivid flashbacks of painful memories that she has tried so hard to forget. The flashes conjure up a sense of innate warmth that is similar to the feeling of “someone” close to her… this is just the beginning of a horrifying realization that Pim will never be allowed to ever forget… what does not want to be forgotten!
In Japanese with English & Chinese Subtitles Genre: Drama/Animation Director: Hayao Miyazaki Cast: Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Jôji Tokoro, Tomoko Yamaguchi, Yuki Amami, Kazushige Nagashima, Akiko Yano, Shinichi Hatori, Tokie Hidari RunTime: 1 hr 41 mins Released By: Encore Films & GV Rating: G Official Website: http://www.encorefilms.com/ponyo Opening Day: 1 January 2009
Synopsis:
Sosuke is a five year old boy who lives on a cliff. One day, he rescues a strange looking goldfish and names her Ponyo after taking a great liking to her, and promises to protect her forever. Unknown to him, Ponyo is a magic fish and she decides that she wants to live with Sosuke. Unfortunately, Ponyo's decision to give up her underwater life creates a crack in an ancient magic spell and places the world in danger. Together, Sosuke and Ponyo must set things right.
Genre: War/Thriller Director: Bryan Singer Cast: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel, Thomas Kretschmann, Terrence Stamp RunTime: 2 hrs 1 min Released By: 20th Century Fox Rating: PG (Some Violence) Official Website: http://valkyrie.unitedartists.com/ Opening Day: 12 February 2009
Synopsis:
"Valkyrie" a suspense thriller based on the true story of the daring German officers’ plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Superstar Tom Cruise heads an international cast as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the heroic attempt to bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler’s bunker. Directed by Bryan Singer and written by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, “Valkyrie” reunites Singer and McQuarrie for the first time since their ground-breaking 1995 thriller "The Usual Suspects."
Genre: War/Action/Drama Director: John Woo Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hu Jun, Chang Chen, Zhao Wei, Zhang Fengyi, Lin Chiling, Shidou Nakamura RunTime: 2 hrs 20 mins Released By: Scorpio East Pictures, MediaCorp Raintree Pictures & GV Rating: PG Opening Day: 9 January 2009
Synopsis:
The story of RED CLIFF takes place in 208 AD in China during the Han Dynasty. Despite the presence of an emperor, Han Xiandi, China was then divided into many warring states.
The ambitious Prime Minister Cao Cao, by using the Emperor as his puppet, waged war on a kingdom in the west, Xu, ruled by the emperor’s uncle, Liu Bei. Cao Cao’s ultimate goal was to wipe out all the kingdoms and install himself as Emperor to a unified China. Liu Bei sent his military advisor Zhuge Liang as an envoy to the Wu Kingdom in the south, trying to persuade its ruler Sun Quan into joining forces. There he met Wu’s Viceroy Zhou Yu, and the two became friends amidst this uneasy alliance.
Enraged to learn that the two kingdoms have become allies, Cao Cao sent an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers and two thousand ships down south, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Cao Cao’s army set up camp at Crow Forest, across the Yangtze River from Red Cliff, where the allies were stationed.
With the food supply running short, and the army vastly outnumbered by Cao Cao’s, the allies seemed doomed. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang had to rely on their combined wisdom to turn the tide of battle. Numerous battles of wits and forces, on land and on water, eventually culminated into the most famous battle in Chinese history, where two thousand ships were burned, and the course of China’s history was changed forever. That was the Battle of Red Cliff.
Genre: Drama/Romance Director: David Frankel Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Arkin, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner RunTime: 1 hr 55 mins Released By: 20th Century Fox Rating: PG Official Website: www.marleyandmemovie.com/ Opening Day: 26 February 2009
Synopsis:
As the snow falls on their wedding night, newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (OWEN WILSON and JENNIFER ANISTON) decide to leave behind the harsh winters of Michigan and head south to begin their new lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. They obtain jobs as journalists at competing local newspapers, buy their first home, and begin to make their way through the challenges of a new marriage, new careers and, possibly, the life-changing decision to start a family.
Unsure of his preparedness for raising children, John confesses his fears to his friend and fellow journalist Sebastian, who comes up with the perfect solution: John should get Jenny a puppy. "There's nothing to it," says Sebastian. "You walk 'em. You feed 'em, you let 'em out now and then." Then came Marley.
Genre: CG Animation Director: Brad Bird Starring: Brad Bird, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Craig T. Nelson RunTime: 2 hrs 1 min Released By: Buena Vista International Rating: PG Opening Day: 18 Nov 2004
Synopsis:
The next animated blockbuster from the creative minds at Pixar animation studios. This film's story revolves around the dysfunctional family problems that come up when everyone works together as a superteam called the Incredibles. Specifically, the Incredibles are a family of superheroes trying to live a quiet life in the suburbs (placed there by the Witness Protection program to hide them from one of their supervillains) who find themselves called into action to save the world, led by the pater familias, Mr. Incredible, whose better days as a superhero appear to be behind him.
Genre: Comedy/Romance Director: Wei Te-sheng Cast: Van Fan, Chie Tanaka, Min-Hsiung, Ma Nien-Hsien, Ying Wei-Min, Shino Lin RunTime: 2 hrs 9 mins Released By: Festive Films Rating: PG Official Website: http://cape7.pixnet.net/blog Opening Day: 27 November 2008
Synopsis:
Aga left Hengchun for Taipei in the hope of becoming the singer in a band. After ten years of hard work, he returns home, his dream unfulfilled, and soon gets a job at the local post office. Tomoko is a Japanese model going down in popularity who is just asked to put together a local warm-up band for an upcoming Japanese super star beach concert to be held in Hengchun. However, recruiting the band members proves to be difficult a task as the search for the famous seven samurai. Still, seven ordinary Hengchun residents end up forming the band.
One day, Aga receives a parcel from Japan not meant for him – in fact, it was to have been delivered at Cape No.7., an address that doesn’t exist anymore… But even though he cannot find the address, Aga doesn’t return the parcel to Japan. Rather, he opens it to find love letters written some 60 years ago by a Japanese teacher and addressed to a Taiwanese girl he was deeply in love with, but had to leave behind Taiwan.
During the process of putting the band together, Aga and Tomoko are constantly at odds with each other, but thanks to the love letters, their conflict-ridden relationship slowly turns into love.
And even though they eventually find the lady the parcel was meant for, it seems that Aga and Tomoko are destined to follow the same footsteps as the girl and the teacher in their own love story… Tomoko must now decide whether she will stay together with Aga or go back to Japan alone
In Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles Genre: Action/Drama Director: Dante Lam Cast: Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung, Zhang Jing Chu, Liu Kai-Chi, Sherman Chung, Miao Pu RunTime: 1 hr 50 mins Released By: GV & Scorpio East Rating: PG Opening Day: 4 December 2008
Synopsis:
A traffic accident changed their lives forever. In capturing wanted criminal Cheung Yat-tung, Sergeant Tong Fei was involved in a gunfight and car accident that put the criminal in a coma. But in the process he also crippled an fellow officer, and mistakenly shot dead the elder daughter of public prosecutor and single mother Ann Ko. Unable to handle the guilt, Tong Fei succumbs to a fog of pain. Ann Ko, meanwhile, pours all her love and attention to her younger daughter Ling.
Three months later, the criminal Cheung Yat-tung awakens from his coma. Ann Ko, who had been working hard on bringing him to justice, insists he stand trial immediately. Professional killer Hung King completes his assignment of kidnapping Ann Ko's daughter Ling. Tong Fei attempts to cut him off, but fails to stop Hung King or to rescue the girl. Soon, Ann Ko gets a phone call, telling her that if she wants to see Ling again, she will drop all charges against Cheung Yat-tung. And if she goes to the police, they will kill Ling.
Tong Fei swears that he will rescue Ling, seeking to redeem himself from his past mistake. With assistance from a former colleague fondly known as Master Sun, Tong Fei gradually comes closer to locating Hung King's hideout, but the most important clue is the information in Ann Ko's cell phone. However, Ann Ko hates him so much that she refuses to let him have anything to do with the case. Tong Fei has no choice but to beg for help from former co-workers with whom he did not get along.
Ann Ko is backed into a corner, but she is determined to refuse help from Tong Fei. In a misguided attempt to save Ling's life, Ann Ko steals the case files.
1942. Malaya. Sgt. YASUO FUJII, a war cameraman, is huddled in a trench, waiting to film the Japanese 6th Army cross the Slim River on its way south to Kuala Lumpur. An enemy mortar shell lands in the trench and, in a heartbeat, Sgt. FUJII is running through the jungle for his life. Armed with nothing except his 8mm camera, the young soldier soon hooks up with remnants of the scattered 6th Army. Together with three soldiers, he must race against time to get a fatally wounded soldier back to the division in Kuala Lumpur. However, everything starts to go wrong and they get lost in the maze-like jungle. All their maps are wrong and their radio malfunctions. Sgt. FUJII starts sighting mysterious figures through his camera’s viewfinder, and a female ghost starts to haunt them. Survival is at stake and the ghost is hot on their heels. Will they make it to safety?
