43 Films & TV Shows Set In Asia During The 16th Century
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Elcano & Magellan: The First Voyage Around the World
🇪🇸 Spain 🇵🇭 Philippines The 16th CenturyHaul anchors! Hoist sails! — The first journey around the world began under the command of Ferdinand Magellan and was concluded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Five boats left Seville on September 20, 1519. Storms, famine, tribes… Three years later, only one made it back. An incredible adventure around the planet whose roundness was finally proven.
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Kung Fu Monster
🇨🇳 China The 17th Century The 16th CenturyIn the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, the Bruneian Empire offers a rare creature to the nation as a gift. Ocean, a member of the Imperial Secret Police, has been tasked to tame the beast. Though the furry beast appears ferocious on the outside, Ocean discovers that it is kind by nature. Not wanting to turn the beast into a killing machine on the battlefield, Ocean secretly releases the beast into the wild and elopes with Frigid, the daughter of a man executed on false charges.
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Flower and Sword
Kyoto Prefecture The 16th CenturyIn the late 16th century, after the death of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi takes power. The age of war is about to end, but Hideyoshi Toyotomi's rule makes life difficult for the people. Monk Senko Ikenobo is a master of flower arrangement. He prays for peace in the world and tries to give hope to the people with flower arrangement. He becomes good friends with Rikyu. Rikyu is a monk and a politician. He has the most profound influence on chanoyu. Rikyu is forced to commit hara-kiri by Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s order. Monk Senko Ikenobo challenges Hideyoshi Toyotomi.
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God of War
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyDuring the 16th century, pirates rule the Chinese coastline, pillaging the small villages and terrorizing the citizens. When maverick leader Commander Yu enlists the help of a sharp young general, they devise a plan to defeat the pirates. A violent clash of wit and weapons will decide who will rule the land.
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Honnouji Hotel
🇯🇵 Japan The 16th Century The 2010sIn Kyoto, Mayuko (Haruka Ayase) stands at a crossroad in her life. She's thinking about marriage with her boyfriend Kyoichi (Hiroyuki Hirayama). By an accidental opportunity, Mayuko stays at Honnouji Hotel. There, she meets historical figure Nobunaga Oda (Shinichi Tsutsumi) who is attempting to unify Japan.
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Mr. Peabody & Sherman
New York Texas 🇬🇷 Greece 🇮🇹 Italy 🇹🇷 Turkey Ancient History The 18th Century The 16th CenturyHe's Leaving His Mark On History — A young boy and his dog, who happens to have a genius-level IQ, spring into action when their time-machine is stolen and moments in history begin to be changed.
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The Floating Castle
🇯🇵 Japan The 16th CenturyIn the year 1590, the mighty warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi is close to fulfilling his ambition of unifying all of Japan under his banner when he comes across unexpected resistance in the form of a floating fortress known as Oshi Castle. Narita Nagachika, a frivolous hedonistic fellow and unlikely candidate for the position of rebel general, finds himself in charge of defending the castle. His odds? An army of 500 men to combat Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army of 20,000.
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Nova Zembla
🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇷🇺 Russia The 16th CenturyGerrit de Veer, a novice writer on a 16th-century Dutch merchant vessel, chronicles the daring mission to discover a trade route across the North Pole to Asia. But the heroic journey turns into tragedy when the ship gets stuck in the relentless, penetrating ice. The men are forced to spend the winter on the frozen, arctic wasteland of Nova Zembla, fighting polar bears, hunger and lethal temperatures. Their chances of making it until the following spring are virtually zero.
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Blades Of Blood
🇰🇷 South Korea The 16th CenturyDestiny is drenched in blood. — In the 16th century in Chosun dynasty, HWANG Jung-hak and LEE Mong-hak create the “Grand Alliance” with the united dream of a better world. While the new leader LEE dreams of eradicating this world of all its corruption and becoming king himself, the legendary blind swordsman HWANG who had once been his comrade goes after him with the loss of his good friend at the hands of LEE. Just as the king abandoned his kingdom from Japanese invasion, the two come face-to-face inside the empty palace and begin their last battle they were destined to fight.
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The Adventure Of The King
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyFrom the director of “72 Tenants Of Prosperity” comes a period comedy movie about an emperor (Richie Ren) who disguises himself as a commoner and later falls in love with Phoenix (Barbie Hsu), the lady boss of an inn.
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Sauna
🇫🇮 Finland 🇷🇺 Russia The 16th CenturyCleanse Your Sins — It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in an age with no use for such men. They find themselves in the swampy interior, demarcating the new border with a unit of sadistic Russians.
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Tsar
🇷🇺 Russia The 16th CenturyIn 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men. A grand-scale film with excellent leading roles by Mamonov and Yankovsky. An allegory of Stalinist Russia
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King Naresuan 1
🇲🇲 Myanmar 🇹🇭 Thailand The 16th CenturyThe film concerns the life of King Naresuan, who liberated the Siamese from the control of Burma. Born in 1555, he was taken to Burma as a child hostage; there he became acquainted with sword fighting and became a threat to the Burmese empire.
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Heaven's Soldiers
🇰🇵 North Korea (DPRK) The 2000s The 16th CenturyModern day soldiers travel back in time and meet Admiral Lee, the greatest soldier of all time, and motivate him to drive out invaders.
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Ashura
🇯🇵 Japan The 16th CenturyAdapted from the successful play, the film takes place in 19th-century Japan, where a war between demons and their slayers is fought. Izumo, a kabuki actor with a demon-slaying past, meets and falls in love with Tsubaki. However, something is not right, as mysterious marks appear on her body as time progresses. At the same time, it is announced that Ashura, the queen of all demons, will be resurrected and bring destruction to the universe.
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One Stone and Two Birds
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyDuring the reign of Emperor Jia Jing of the Ming Dynasty, the evil court official Yan Song relies on the emperor favoritism towards him, becoming overbearing and domineering. An honest official Zhang Ying Long impeaches Yan Song with a Ten Cimes Five Deceits against him. But instead he gets flogged 30 times, and banished to a far off frontier Guizhou.
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Chinese Odyssey 2002
🇨🇳 China The 16th CenturyThe Emperor (Chang Chen) is desperate for the free-spirited life of a wanderer, and tries to escape from the royal palace with his sister, the Princess (Faye Wong). He's caught and returned to his angry mother by the royal guards, but the Princess, disguised as a man, manages to escape. Meanwhile, King Bully (Tony Leung) has returned to his hometown, where he is widely despised for his bullying ways, to run a restaurant with his tomboy sister, Phoenix (Vicki Zhao). They have a very close relationship. In fact, King Bully mistakenly believes that he can read his sister's mind. When the Princess arrives in town, King Bully finds himself drawn to her, but, believing she's a man, decides that his attraction is some kind of empathy with Phoenix.
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Lapu-Lapu
🇵🇭 Philippines The 16th CenturyA film showing the struggles of Lapu-Lapu and how he defended Mactan, Cebu from the invading Spanish forces.
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The Legend of Suriyothai
🇲🇲 Myanmar 🇹🇭 Thailand The 16th CenturyDuring the 16th century, as Thailand contends with both a civil war and Burmese invasion, a beautiful princess rises up to help protect the glory of the Kingdom of Ayothaya. Based on the life of Queen Suriyothai.
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Story of Kikuchi Castle: Song of the Defenders
Kumamoto Prefecture The 16th Century The 7th Century The 5th CenturyKikuchi-jo Monogatari: Sakimori-tachi no Uta is a 2001 Japanese historical drama directed by Takashi Miike. It is one of three historical films included in the 2002 DVD compilation, Kumamoto Monogatari. The other two are Zuiketsu Genso: Tonkararin Yume Densetsu and Onna Kunishuu Ikki, both also directed by Miike.
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Princess Mononoke
🇯🇵 Japan The 16th Century The 15th Century The 14th CenturyThe Fate Of The World Rests On The Courage Of One Warrior. — Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.
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Othello
🇨🇾 Cyprus 🇮🇹 Italy The 16th CenturyEnvy, greed, jealousy and love. — The evil Iago pretends to be friend of Othello in order to manipulate him to serve his own end in the film version of this Shakespeare classic.
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Highlander III: The Sorcerer
New York Scotland 🇯🇵 Japan 🇲🇦 Morocco The 1990s The 18th Century The 16th CenturyThroughout time they have hunted each other fulfilling the prophecy, that there can be only one. — Starts off in the 15th century, with Connor McLeod training with another immortal swordsman, the Japanese sorcerer Nakano. When an evil immortal named Kane kills the old wizard, the resulting battle leaves him buried in an underground cave. When Kane resurfaces in the 20th century to create havoc, it's up to McLeod to stop him.
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Rikyu
Kyoto Prefecture The 16th CenturyLate in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan's most powerful warlord, unifying the country. Rikyu, through the tea ceremony and floral arrangements, tempers his lord, helping Hideyoshi focus on a single flower or be in a simple room where the shape of a cup is of most importance. But other forces fuel Hideyoshi's ambitions: the Portuguese bring a globe and guns, and he believes he can conquer Korea and China. When Rikyu raises doubts about invading China, Hideyoshi demands an apology, and Rikyu himself must find courage in the way of tea.
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Boris Godounov
🇷🇺 Russia The 17th Century The 16th CenturyZulawski tackles Modest Mussorgsky’s famous opera about the bloody battle for ascendancy to the throne of Russia in the 17th-century! With a score conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, Zulawski adds extra layers of devilish meta-textual embellishment by composing the film’s imagery as though we are watching a theater piece of a film crew making a movie about the opera of “Boris Godounov”! As well, the picture is full of delightful anachronisms that mock the then-contemporary Russian government, alongside jabs at other 20th-century dictatorships. So incensed was Rostropovich by Zulawski’s juiced final product — one that took liberties with the narrative’s sexual thrust, amongst other things — that he (unsucessfully) took Zulawski to court for “the violation of the Russian soul”! “Impressive in its use of whirling camera movements as well as mega close-ups of the contracted faces of its singers, ‘Boris Godounov’ is one of the most original opera movies ever made”
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