Random Asian Horror News 8.16.21

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I’ve once again rounded up some of the Asian horror (…and thriller/fantasy/sci-fi) news. I’ve decided to try to keep up with casting news however, it’s a bit harder for anything outside of Korea so it might not be as varied. A lot of film festivals are currently happening, and I expect that we’ll start to see more movies picked up for International release because of that. Check back at the end of the month for all the movies and dramas premiering in September.

CASTING

-Jin Ki Joo is confirmed for lead in the fantasy romcom, Showtime From Now, with Park Hae Jin. The kdrama is scheduled for the first half of 2022 about a police officer and a magician.

-The casting for the tvN kdrama, Monstrous and includes Koo Kyo Hwan, Shin Hyun Bin, Kwak Dong Yeon, Nam Da Reum, Kim Ji Young, and Park Ho San. The drama, scheduled for the first half of next year, and follows the various characters as they react to the town’s bizarre phenomena.

NEWS

-Since the release of the special Kingdom episode, Ashin of the North, there has been a lot more updates. Director Kang Yun Sung is reportedly directing a second special episode, Kingdom: The Crown Palace. There is still no confirmation for season 3, but writer Kim Eun Hee states: “It’s hard to say, as nothing has been confirmed yet regarding Season 3. However, if I’m to tell you my personal thoughts: if Season 3 does get made, I’ve already decided how I would like to conclude the story.” (source)

-The fantasy horror film starring SF9 member Chani titled, White Day: Broken Boundaries, will be released in theaters September. The film is tied to the video game, White Day: A Labyrinth Named School, which just had it's 20th anniversary. Chani will play Hee Min, the successor of a top exorcist. (source)

-The Taiwanese horror The Sadness has released a trailer, currently being screened in film festivals. The film follows a Taiwanese couple who attempt to reunite amidst a viral pandemic that turns people into bloodthirsty maniacs and is written and directed by Canadian animator Rob Jabbaz for his directorial debut.

-The 2019 Japanese horror film, Howling Village (written and directed by Takashi Shimizu - Ju-On) will be available on VOD starting tomorrow.

-The Korean fantasy-thriller Spiritwalker has won the Award for Excellence at NYAFF. Starring Yoon Kye Sang, the film follows a man who is unable yo remember his own identity and wakes up in a diffrent body every 12 hours. (source)

-The 2018 Indonesian film, Seven Angels (Tujuh Bidadari), is available in the US on VOD. It is about an all-girl band that travel to Australia and used as sacrifices to bring back a demon. (source)

-The Korean movie, Guimoon: The Lightless Door premieres on the 18th has released more detail for their multiple viewing formats including ScreenX, which provides a 270-degree viewing experience with multi-projection on three walls, whereas 4DX adds a multi-sensory experience to ScreenX with moving seats and water and wind effects.

-The upcoming Korean film, Scream of the Forest: People Who Disappeared, has released a trailer. Find it here. It is scheduled to be released in Korean theaters at the end of this month.

Scream of the Forest

-The Japanese psychological thriller drama, Alice in Borderland’s season 2 has begun filming and doesn’t expect to be done filming until late December because of Covid and Olympics delays. (source)

-The trailer for Cube, the Japanese remake of the 1997 Canadian sc-fi horror film, has been released. The movie will be in Japanese theaters October 22.

-Netflix’s Hellbound, starring Yoo Ah In and Won Jin Ah, will be the first Korean drama invited to Toronto International Film Festival. (source)

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Random Asian Horror News 7.19.21

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I’m back with what I guess is now my semi-regular roundup of all the Asian horror news and articles that I found around the web since the last post. You know how I said that I didn’t like finding news? I take that back, because I did enjoy focusing on finding all the Asian horror news I could find and here we are with more than enough for a post. Because of this, and because I haven’t personally found any place that only talks about the Asian horror news, I’m going to be doing these much more often than I had originally expected to. I’ll also be switching up the layout a bit and will try to keep these up to date with movies and dramas premiering soon in theaters, VOD, or for sale. Sort of a mashup of what I would do for monthly wrap-ups or the short-lived premiere posts. These will probably focus on more than horror, but will stay in the darker genres.

NEWS

-Fangoria magazine’s first movie to be produced under their newly established Fangoria Studios will be Sitora. It is inspired by the lost Malay film Sitora Harimau Jadian and will be directed by Diffan Sina Norman. The film centers on “a tyrannical shaman who puffs up the threat of a supernatural half-man, half-tiger as a means of preserving his feudal control”. (source)

-Not necessarily specific horror news, but news that will effect the type of content we see, Netflix has announced the plan to open a post-production studio in Mumbai with forty editing rooms for directors, editors, sound designers to help their interest in producing Korean content. I wrote about their See What’s Next conference that Netflix Korea held back in February which they announced their further plans for creating Korean content, and along with this push I think we’ll be seeing more of an upswing in Korean content very soon. (source)

-The international rights to the Korean horror film Ghost Door has been picked up by Finecut. It is scheduled to be released this year. (source)

-TVING announced the Korean drama, I'm Watching You, a crime drama using CCTV footage. To be released in August. (source)

-KBS (Korea) confirmed that four of their ten dramas for the 2021 Drama Special will be in the horror/thriller genre.

-Variety put out an article talking about the effect that COVID had on the South Korean film industry, and how the shift to digital because of it has made theater studios consider this shift to stay around as the industry rebuilds itself and the rise of foreign viewership as well as foreign streaming services (such as Disney Plus) enter the Korean market.

-Vietnamese thriller, Nguoi Lang Nghe: Loi Thi Tham (Listeners: The Whispering) continues to win awards at various film festivals, most recently the International New York Film Festival where it won best feature film with a budget under $250,000. (source)

-I talked about the joint Thai-Korean horror The Medium in my last post, but it continues to dominate news and is one of the most anticipated horror releases this summer. It’s currently no. 1 in Korean ticket pre-sales and has been bought by even more countries for streaming and viewing rights. (source) (source)

-A new Kingdom spin-off is rumored to be in production, Netflix has yet to confirm the information. (source)

COMING SOON

For this post I’m including some dramas and movies that premiered recently along with those that will premiere in the next two weeks.

-The 2019 Japanese comedy-horror, Ghost Master, arrived on VOD July 13th. An assistant director working on a rom-com’s horror screenplay comes to life and starts possessing the cast.

-Netflix released the Thai sci-fi/thriller DEEP on the 16th. I did a non-spoiler review of the film that you can read here.

-The TVING Korean drama, The Witch’s Diner, premiered on the 16th. Staring Song Ji Hyo, the fantasy drama is about people who come to eat a magical dish that grants them their wishes. It’s available now on VIKI.

-The 2020 Thai horror movie, The Maid, will be available for streaming July 20th,. Joy is hired as a maid by a wealthy family where she experiences odd occurences. The Blu-Ray will be onsale August 17.

-Korean horror-comedy I Can Only See will be released in Korean theaters July 21st. Starring former 2AM member Jung Jin Woon, the movie is about the appearance of a supernatural entity appearing at a film site and terrorizing the crew.

-Daum Kakao TV Korean drama, The Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim, premieres July 30th. Kim Sae Ron and Nam Da Reum play high schoolers who become involved in a series of mysterious incidents.

-Kingdom: Ashin of the North, premiers the 23rd on Netflix. It is a spinoff of the Korean zombie drama series, Kingdom and follows the mysterious character Ashin, who is shown in the second season.

-The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey, the sequel movie to the 2020 tvN Korean drama, The Curse, will be out on the 28th.

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Random Asian Horror News

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I wasn’t going to do a post today, but last night a good amount of news dropped in dramaland that I wanted to comment on, and with other news that came out earlier in the month I figured it was time to talk about it all in one post. I used to do a weekly wrapup where I talked about news, and since I don’t do that anymore (sans what we do on the podcast) I kind of miss it. I don’t miss having to find news to talk about when there isn’t a lot dropping or nothing that interests me, but I do find some stories that I want to talk about from time to time and it’s fun to do a roundup of specifically crime/thriller/horror content. Maybe I’ll make this a sporadic regular thing every time I feel like it? Sort of monthly? Or at least when I have enough to talk about. Let me know in the comments if that’s something you’re interested in. Most, if not all, of this list I’ve mentioned on Twitter so some of it might not be so new to you, but at the very least maybe you’ll find something that interests you that you didn’t catch when the news was first released.

MOVIES

Several movies will be dropping in July, all perfect for the summertime. There’s an upswing on the resurgence of movies getting back onto theater screens, and a lot of the movies that had been held for release from last year are all starting to appear.

Midnight - 미드나이트

Airing in both theaters and on TVing June 30th starring Jin Ki Joo. Kyung Mi (Jin Ki Joo) is hard of hearing. One night after leaving work she meets Do Sik, a serial killer (played by Wi Ha Joon), and tries to escape. The movie was filmed back in 2019, and was set to release in the beginning of 2020 but was pushed back due to Covid. I don’t know yet about the availability of this one, but hoping I’ll be able to catch it somewhere when it is released. It looks like it’s going to be a fun thriller, and I’ve loved Jin Ki Joo since she was in Come and Hug Me.

The 8th Night - 제8일의 밤

There are a lot of movies tied to exorcisms that will be coming out next month, and while exorcism movies aren’t necessarily my go-to in the genre, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t like them. Especially when they are super easy to watch, as this one will be coming to Netflix. Former exorcist Park Jin Soo (Lee Sung Min) is plagued by dreams when he realizes he needs to face a demon that has been freed. Another movie that was shot in 2019 and scheduled for 2020, it drops July 3rd.

The Cursed: Dead Man’s Prey - 방법: 재차의

Starring Uhm Ji Won, Jeong Ji So, and Sung Dong Il, The Cursed: Dead Man’s Prey is a sequel to the 2020 kdrama The Cursed. I haven’t seen the drama yet, but it had been on my list. It came out at a really bad time, I was in the middle of my busiest part of the season at work when it premiered, and it ended mid-March - right when the world was imploding and it’s just stayed in the back of my mind as a drama to pick up one day. In the original drama, a reporter (Uhm Ji Won) uncovers a violent case affiliated with an IT company and a spiritual consulting company. While investigating she meets someone who has been possessed by a spirit. The director, Kim Yong Wan, states that the movie will tell the after story of the drama.

The Medium - ร่างทรง

This movie has a solid lineup of people working on it. Well-known for the horror movie Shutter and the successful romcom Hello Stranger , Banjong Pisanthanakun directs this Thai-Korean joint project. The screenwriter is Ter Chantavit Dhanasevi, who directed the horror anthology ThirTEEN Terrors and previously worked with Pisanthanakun as the main role in Hello Stranger. Korean director/screenwriter, Na Hong Jin (The Wailing), is also attached to the movie as producer. A horrifying story of a shaman's inheritance in the Isan region of Thailand, where the spirit that appears to be possessing a family member might not be the benevolent goddess they believe it to be. The teaser for this looks phenomenal, and I suspect that out of all the movies I’ve listed this is already in the works for a US release soon, as it’s already been picked up for a French release. It is scheduled to be released in the theaters sometime in July. Out of all the movies I’ve listed, this is my top priority.

Kingdom: Ahsin of the North - 킹덤 외전: 아신

Not necessarily a movie, but it is a special and not a full season. If you haven’t seen the series, this will be a side sequel to season two, on the backstory of Ashin. The series is set in the Joseon period when a mysterious virus outbreaks (aka it’s a zombie period piece). Out on Netflix on July 23rd.

NEWS

Takashi Miike and Studio Dragon

Japanese director, Takashi Miike, will be teaming with production company Studio Dragon on what will be the first time a Japanese director has worked on a Korean drama. I can’t find anything on the drama, currently titled Connect, though I’m sure more will be coming out soon and is in the very early stages of production. Takashi Miike has worked on numerous films, but he’s most known (at least to me) for the horror movies Audition and Ichi the Killer, which makes me hope that this project will be a horror project. Because I need a good horror drama.

Oksu Station Ghost

Originally when I saw the news for this, it piqued my interest because of the announcement of Kim Jaehyun’s (N.Flying drummer) casting, and I had not known much about the production. Now that I’ve read more into it, it’s moved up in my interests. The horror movie is based on the webcomic of the same name and will be directed by Jung Yong Gi who previously directed the 2004 horror The Doll Master. He will be joined by Japanese screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi, known for his work on the Ring series. The story of the film revolves around the mysterious incidents that occur at the Oksu Station. Filming has just started for a 2022 release.

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