8 Films & TV Shows Set In Asia During The 1840s
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Cloud Atlas
California Hawaii Scotland England 🇧🇪 Belgium 🇰🇷 South Korea 🇳🇿 New Zealand The 1970s The 1930s The 2010s The 1840sEverything is Connected — A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a distant post-apocalyptic future. Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Based on the award winning novel by David Mitchell. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.
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Marigold
🇮🇳 India The 1840sMarigold Lexton, an American actress who gets stranded in Mumbai and lands a minor role in a Bollywood musical. She meets Prem, the film's choreographer, and undergoes a personal transformation as she experiences Bollywood firsthand.
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Umrao Jaan
🇮🇳 India The 1840sBollywood film about the famous courtesan of the title. Aishwarya Rai stars in the lead role. The film is directed by J.P. Dutta and also stars Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan, Divya Dutta, Himani Shivpuri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. A remake of the original directed by Muzaffar Ali and released in 1981.
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The Opium War
🇨🇳 China The 1840s The 1830sThe story of the Opium War between China, in the waning days of the Qing Dynasty, and the British Empire, in the 1830s, and the subsequent takeover of Hong Kong by Britain; through the eyes of the key figures, fiercely nationalistic Lin Zexu, and opportunistic British naval diplomat Charles Elliot.
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Tai-Pan
🇭🇰 Hong Kong The 1840sSmuggler. Prince. Murderer. Father. Sinner. Saint. — The film begins following the British victory of the first Opium War and the seizure of Hong Kong. Although the island is largely uninhabited and the terrain unfriendly, it has a large port that both the British government and various trading companies believe will be useful for the import of merchandise to be traded on mainland China, a highly lucrative market.
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The House Where Evil Dwells
Kyoto Prefecture The 1980s The 1840sAn ancient curse has turned their lives into a nightmare of lust and revenge. — At the prompting of his diplomat friend, Alex, writer Ted Fletcher takes his wife, Laura, and daughter, Amy, on an extended working holiday. Alex finds a house for them in Kyoto, Japan, and the Fletchers move in, laughing off rumors that the place is haunted. But the ghost of 19th-century samurai Shigero turns out to be very real, and is intent on making the family re-enact an ancient murder-suicide.
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Umrao Jaan
🇮🇳 India The 1840sAmiran is sold to a brothel by a corrupt cop after her father testifies against him. Many years later, she grows up to be an accomplished poetess and a renowned courtesan, Umrao Jaan.
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Royal Flash
England 🇩🇪 Germany 🇦🇫 Afghanistan The 1840sNe'er-do-well Harry Flashman is coerced by Otto von Bismark into impersonating a prince. — Cowardly rogue Harry Flashman's (Malcolm McDowell) schemes to gain entry to the royal circles of 19th-century Europe go nowhere until he meets a pair of devious nobles with their own agenda. At their urging, Flashman agrees to re-create himself as a bogus Prussian nobleman to woo a beautiful duchess. But the half-baked plan quickly comes unraveled, and he's soon on the run from several new enemies who are all calling for the rapscallion's head.
