Every month, we’ll tell you what upcoming movies are screening in cinemas islandwide, and which are the ones that you must watch.
Overview of December’s releases
There are enough new releases in December that you could watch one movie a day and still not finish watching all of them. Science fiction is the flavour of the month, with films like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Passengers” being released. Multiple franchises continue their instalments this month, like “Underworld: Blood Wars”, and the second half of the month sees an explosion of Chinese films. But the most eagerly anticipated film of all has to be “Assassin’s Creed”.
A Yellow Bird (8 December 2016)
Siva, a thirty eight years old convicted smuggler, is released from prison after eight years and begins a journey to locate his ex-wife and daughter who have left him without a trace. His quest leads him to a heinous truth. How far will he go in order to redeem from his guilt.
A film which features the underbelly of Singapore and examines the sensitive topic of cultural differences, this Singapore film is a spot of seriousness amongst the other December offerings. It takes a lot of courage to tackle such issues in film, but perhaps it’s a timely one given recent world events. And perhaps it takes another perspective to see what truly makes up the Singapore identity.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (15 December 2016)
Lucasfilm’s Rogue One, which takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, tells the story of unlikely heroes who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, and Forest Whitaker. “Rogue One” is directed by Gareth Edwards.
The one question on mind is: Why are we worrying about Death Star plans when we’ve already seen the Starkiller Base or even the Death Star II? We already know the Death Star will be built (as well as its successors), so let’s hope that this prequel does better than those other prequels. The story I really want to see, though, is how they built Starkiller Base without anyone noticing.
Assassin’s Creed (22 December 2016)
Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.
Although the “Assassin’s Creed” trailers have been less than inspiring, the fact that the games were so good gives us all hope that the film can capture that same spirit of excitement and adventure. Plus, it’s Magneto Michael Fassbender in the title role. Even if the action element doesn’t live up to our standards, he’ll be able to pull off an emotionally gripping performance.
1 December
Underworld: Blood Wars
Genre: Action horror
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Trent Garrett, Tobias Menzies, Lara Pulver, Bradley James
Incarnate
Genre: Horror
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Carice van Houten, Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Mazouz
Hide and Never Seek
Genre: Horror
Cast: Ryu Deok-Hwan, Jo Bok-Rae, Lee Soo-Pin
Nocturnal Animals
Genre: Drama
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney
Ants on a Shrimp
Genre: Documentary
Cast: René Redzepi, Thomas Frebel, Dan Giusti, Kim Mikkola
A Street Cat Named Bob
Genre: Dramedy
Cast: Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head, Bob
Yugioh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions
Genre: Animated action
Voice cast: Shunsuke Kazama, Kenjiro Tsuda, Hiroki Takahashi, Hidehiro Kikuchi, Kana Hanazawa
4 Love (爱在小红点)
Genre: Romantic comedy
Cast: Maxi Lim, Cheryl Wee, Jonathan Cheok, Silver Ang, Terence Then, Louis Wu, Shane Pow, Oon Shu An, Joshua Tan, Hayley Woo
Sky On Fire (冲天火)
Genre: Action
Cast: Daniel Wu, Joseph Chang, Amber Kuo, Zhang Jingchu, Eddie Cheung, Zhang Ruoyun
8 December
Office Christmas Party
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Kate McKinnon, Olivia Munn, Jamie Chung, Courtney B. Vance
A Yellow Bird
Genre: Drama
Cast: Sivakumar Palakrishnan, Huang Lu, Seema Biswas, Indra Chandran
Bleed For This
Genre: Biographical sports drama
Cast: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciaran Hinds, Ted Levine, Christine Evangelista
La La Land
Genre: Musical dramedy
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, J.K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt
Museum
Genre: Horror
Cast: Shun Oguri, Shuhei Nomura, Machiko Ono, Tomomi Maruyama, Masato Ibu, Tomoko Tabata, Mikako Ichikawa, Nao Omori
Sing
Genre: Animated comedy musical
Voice cast: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Tori Kelly, John C. Reilly, Taron Egerton, Scarlett Johansson
The Warrior’s Gate
Genre: Action adventure
Cast: Dave Bautista, Francis Ng, Mark Chao, Siena Guillory, Uriah Shelton,
Suddenly Seventeen (28岁未成年)
Genre: Romantic fantasy comedy
Cast: Wallace Huo, Ni Ni, Darren Wang Da-lu, Ma Su
9 December
Befikre
Genre: Romantic crime comedy
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Vaani Kapoor
15 December
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Genre: Science fiction action adventure
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen
Zero Days
Genre: Documentary
Cast: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton
Sword Master (三少爷的剑)
Genre: Action
Cast: Lin Gengxin, Peter Ho, Jiang Yiyan, Jiang Mengjie
10,000 Miles (一萬公里的約定)
Genre: Romantic drama
Cast: Sean Huang Yuan, Megan Lai, Darren Wang, Jack Noseworthy
Packages from Daddy (心灵时钟)
Genre: Family drama
Cast: Fann Wong, Li Li-Ren, Xie Fei, Ding Ning, Ryan Tang, Katrina Yu
22 December
Assassin’s Creed
Genre: Fantasy action adventure
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ariane Labed, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Khalid Abdalla
Ballerina
Genre: Fantasy action adventure
Cast: Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Maddie Ziegler
Passengers
Genre: Science fiction adventure
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne
23 December
See You Tomorrow (摆渡人)
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Angelababy, Eason Chan, Lu Han
29 December
The Great Wall
Genre: Mystery
Cast: Matt Damon, Andy Lau, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Lu Han, Jing Tian
The Space Between Us
Genre: Romantic adventure drama
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino
Arrival
Genre: Science fiction
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Michael Stuhlbarg, Forest Whitaker
Julieta
Genre: Drama
Cast: Adriana Ugarte, Michelle Jenner, Rossy de Palma
Why Him?
Genre: Comedy
Cast: James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoey Deutch, Keegan-Michael Key
Railroad Tigers (铁道飞虎)
Genre: Action
Cast: Jackie Chan, Huang Zitao, Wang Kai, Darren Wang
This article was also published on Yahoo!.
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
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