HIKAYAT MERONG MAHAWANGSA (The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines )

HIKAYAT MERONG MAHAWANGSA
(The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines ) (Malaysia)

The Story:
Based loosely on the 16th century historical document entitled ‘The Malay Annals’, ’The Chronicles of Merong Mahawangsa’

The year is 120 AD, the Roman Empire is at the height of its power, during the reign of Hadrian, one of the Five Good Emperors. Meanwhile in China, the Han Dynasty is cementing its control as the ruling empire in Central Asia... one hundred years before the period of the Three Kingdoms. As the Roman fleet makes repairs in Goa, they ask Merong Mahawangsa (Stephen Rahman-Hughes) to escort a Roman prince to Southeast Asia, to wed a beautiful Chinese princess from the Han Dynasty.

The Prince and Princess are to meet halfway and be married on neutral ground. However, the pirate nation of Geruda has other plans. En route to the meeting point Merong’s fleet is attacked by Geruda’s forces. They kidnap the princess and hold her as ransom.

Will Merong Mahawangsa be able to rescue the Princess and re-unite her with her betrothed in a marriage that is set to bring together two great civilisations from the East and West? 

Starring:
Stephen Rahman-Hughes, Jing Lu, Gavin Stenhouse, Craig Robert Fong, Eric Karl Henrik Norman,Keith Chong, Keith Chong, W. Hanafi Su, Dato' Rahim Razali, Khir Rahman, Ummi Nazeera, Nell Ng, Jehan Miskin, Umi Aida, Kuswadinata, Mano Maniam, Ravi Sunderlingam


Directed By:
Yusry Abdul Halim

Release:
2011

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I SAW THE DEVIL

I SAW THE DEVIL (악마를 보았다) (South Korea)

The Story:
A woman named Joo-Yun (Oh San-Ha) is stranded in her broken down car on a snowy night. She talks to her fiance on her cellphone while she awaits for a tow truck. Her fiance is So-Hyun (Lee Byung-Hun), an agent for the National Intelligence Service.

Meanwhile, a yellow van stops in front of the woman's broken down car. A man named (Choi Min-Sik) gets out of the van and knocks on the woman's window. He offers to help her get the car started. The preoccupied fiance Soo-Hyun, still on the phone with Joo-Yun, advises her to stay in the car until the tow truck arrives and gets called away on business matters. Joo-Yun tells the creepy man that she will wait for the tow truck and raises her window shut. Moments later, the creepy man named Kyung-Chul smashes the passenger window open with a sledgehammer and beats Joo-Yun unconscious. Kyung-Chul takes Joo-Yun to his home and decapitates the woman.

A few days later, an ear is found in a plastic bag by children playing near a river. When the police arrive, they later find Joo-Yun's head in the river. At this moment So-Hyun arrives at the crime scene and witnesses his fiance's decapitated head.

At the funeral for Joo-Yun, Soo-Hyun apologizes to her for not being there to protect her and also promises to inflict pain 1,000x worse to the man responsible for her death.

When Soo-Hyun tracks down his fiance's killer he beats the man severely. The killer awakens the next day bloodied, but still alive. There is also an envelope with money left on his belly. Soo-Hyun's plan for vengeance is just beginning...

Starring:
Byung-hun Lee, Gook-hwan Jeon, Choi Min-sik, Ho-jin Jeon

Directed By:
Ji-woon Kim

Release:
2011

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X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

The Story:
The epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

Starring:
James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Edi Gathegi, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt, Morgan Lily, Zoe Kravitz, Bill Bilner

Directed By:
Matthew Vaughn

Release:
2011

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ORANGES AND SUNSHINE

Oranges and Sunshine

The Story:
Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson), a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals of recent times: the deportation of thousands of children from the United Kingdom to Australia.

Almost single-handedly, against overwhelming odds and with little regard for her own well-being, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and drew worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice. Children as young as four had been told that their parents were dead, and been sent to children’s homes on the other side of the world. Many were subjected to appalling abuse. They were promised oranges and sunshine: they got hard labour and life in institutions.

Starring:
Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham

Directed By:
Jim Loach

Release:
2011

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THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA

THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA

The Story:
When Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. As Captain America, Rogers joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to wage war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving)

Starring:
Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci

Directed By:
Joe Johnston

Release:

2011

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THE CONSPIRATOR

THE CONSPIRATOR

The Story:  

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken (James MacAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt: her own son.

Starring:
Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Johnny Simmons, Toby Kebbell, Tom Wilkinson, Norman Reedus, Alexis Bledel, Kevin Kline, Danny Huston

Directed By:

Robert Redford

Release:

2011

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