Elysium

Sci-fi. Action. Drama. Directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Opened Aug. 29

In the year 2154, people are divided into the wealthy and the poor, the former living in a floating luxurious space station Elysium and the latter living in an overpopulated, disease-stricken Earth. People on Earth are especially in need of the state-of-the-art medical care available on the spaceship. Max Da Costa (Matt Damon), an ex-convict living on Earth, is desperate to get into the Elysium, and reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission against the Elysium’s Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster). If he completes the mission, he could not only save his own life but also the lives of all the people on Earth.

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 Four Horsemen illusionists 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 (Melanie 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 Grandmaster

Action. 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 just south 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.


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.”