Published : Aug. 23, 2013 - 20:00
Now You See Me
Crime. Mystery. Thriller. Directed by Louis Leterrier.
Opened Aug. 22
Four magicians are invited to an obscure address for a meeting filled with secrets. One year later they return as the famous illusionists of the Four Horsemen and pull off a variety of daring heists against corrupt business leaders during their big performances. In the middle of their shows, the stolen goods are distributed among the audience. FBI officer Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) and Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) of Interpol are put on the case alongside professional illusion exposer Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), but the case proves to be a mesh of dark secrets and hidden agendas with the illusionists seeming to always be one step ahead of the law.
The GrandmasterAction. Directed by Wong Kar-wai.
Opened Aug. 22
Ip Man (Tony Leung) is a martial arts specialist who enjoys a peaceful life with his wife (Song Hye-kyo) and two children in southern China. While Ip is training, he is challenged to a duel by Gong Yutian, a martial arts master known for his 64-hands technique. Ip wins, much to Gong’s surprise. He later runs into Gong’s daughter, Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), who visits Ip to regain her father’s honor. The two form a special bond through an intense fight and part ways. The country then goes through chaotic times following the Japanese invasion. Ip and Gong Er lead separate lives but are somehow inexplicably connected by a series of unfortunate events.
The Flu
Drama. Action. Directed by Kim Sung-soo.
Opened Aug. 14
A deadly strain of the avian influenza virus H5N1 suddenly spreads, causing widespread panic in Bundang, a city of high-rise apartments outside of Seoul. The disease infects its victims through the respiratory system, taking only 36 hours for the infected to die. People are helpless against the airborne disease and the number of infected increases quickly, spreading chaos. As a precaution against the worst-case scenario, the government orders a complete shutdown of the city to protect the capital Seoul from the virus. As the people struggle to survive behind the walls, infectious disease specialist In-hye (Soo Ae) and rescue worker Ji-goo (Jang Hyuk) go into the abandoned city to find a cure to control the epidemic.
The Terror Live
Crime. Directed by Kim Byung-woo.
Opened Aug. 1
Due to an unsavory incident, star anchor Yoon Young-hwa (Ha Jung-woo) is pulled from TV news and is now hosting a radio show. One day during his live show, Yoon receives a phone call threatening to blow up a bridge in Seoul. At first, he takes it as a joke and tells the terrorist to proceed, but soon he realizes that the threat is real. Realizing this could be his one chance to get back to being a newscaster, Yoon broadcasts the phone call with the terrorist live on TV, unaware that the situation is about to quickly take a turn for the worse.
Snowpiercer
Action. Sci-fi. Thriller. Directed by Bong Joon-ho.
Opened Aug. 1
Based on the French novel “Le Transperceneige” by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, the film is set in a future where a failed global-warming experiment has killed off almost every living thing on Earth with the sudden onset of an Ice Age. Survivors live on the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine. As time passes, a class system evolves on the train: The elites inhabit the carriages in the front while the poor stay in the tail section. Those in the back start a revolution, attempting to kill the dictator Wilford (Ed Harris) and seize control of the engine, which the train’s elite consider “sacred.”