435 Films & TV Shows Set In Asia During The 1940s
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Cow
Shandong Province The 1930s The 1940sA Chinese peasant is given the responsibility of protecting his village's special dairy cow during a particularly harsh winter in 1940.
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The Priest
๐ฑ๐ป Latvia ๐ท๐บ Russia The 1940sFather Alexander is trying to maintain peaceful life for his church amidst the Nazi occupation during WWII.
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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
๐จ๐ณ China The 1940s The 3rd Century BCA New Evil Awakens. โ Archaeologist Rick O'Connell travels to China, pitting him against an emperor from the 2,000-year-old Han dynasty who's returned from the dead to pursue a quest for world domination. This time, O'Connell enlists the help of his wife and son to quash the so-called 'Dragon Emperor' and his abuse of supernatural power.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
New York Louisiana Florida ๐ซ๐ท France ๐ท๐บ Russia ๐ฎ๐ณ India The 1970s The 1980s The 1990s The 1960s The 1950s The 1940s The 1930s The 1920s The 1910s The 2000sLife isn't measured in minutes, but in moments. โ I was born under unusual circumstances. And so begins. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans, from the end of World War I in 1918 into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, Benjamin Button, is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.
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The Children of Huang Shi
๐จ๐ณ China The 1940s The 1930sWar made them orphans, one man made them legends โ About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
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Ip Man
Guangdong Province The 1940s The 1930sThe celebrated Kung Fu master of Bruce Lee. โ A semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the first martial arts master to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. The film focuses on events surrounding Ip that took place in the city of Foshan between the 1930s to 1940s during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Directed by Wilson Yip, the film stars Donnie Yen in the lead role, and features fight choreography by Sammo Hung.
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The Good, the Bad, the Weird
๐ฐ๐ท South Korea Jilin Province Liaoning Province The 1930s The 1940sA Fistful of Fun! โ The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a Bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.
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Dachimawa Lee
๐ฐ๐ท South Korea Jilin Province New Jersey The 1940sUnder Japanese imperialism, Korean national treasure Golden Buddha is stolen. More important to national security, the statue contains vital information concerning Korean freedom fighters and their whereabouts as well as their true identities. The interim Korean government appoints legendary Korean spy Agent Dachimawa Lee to recover the fabled statue and reveal the dark plot behind the theft.
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K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces
Tokyo Prefecture The 1940sIn an alternate version of 1949 Japan in which World War II never happened, the Japanese capital of Teito is home to both an ultra rich upper class and the dirt poor masses. The city is thrown into a state of panic when a phantom thief called โThe Kaijin (Fiend) with 20 Facesโ (K-20 for short) begins to use his mysterious abilities to steal from the rich and give to the poor. One day a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is framed for K-20โs crimes and becomes determined to clear his name. He teams up with K-20โs next target, a wealthy duchess named Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) and her detective fiancรฉ (Toru Nakamura), to take K-20 down once and for all.
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Philosophy of a Knife
๐ฏ๐ต Japan ๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930s to its demise in 1945, and the subsequent trials in Khabarovsk, USSR, of many of the Japanese doctors from Unit 731. The facts are told, and previously unknown evidence is revealed by an eyewitness to these events, former doctor and military translator, Anatoly Protasov.
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Once Upon a Time
๐ฐ๐ท South Korea The 1940sThe film is a heist comedy set in 1940s Korea, and stars Park Yong-woo and Lee Bo-young as a con artist and jazz singer who each plot to steal a valuable diamond from the Japanese authorities.
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Forever Enthralled
Beijing The 1930s The 1940sA biographical account of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star.
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Lust, Caution
Shanghai ๐ญ๐ฐ Hong Kong The 1940s The 1930sDuring World War II a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
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Katyn
๐ต๐ฑ Poland ๐ท๐บ Russia The 1940s The 1930sThe untold story of the crime Stalin could not hide โ On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.
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Nanking
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe true story of how a few brave souls saved the lives of thousands. โ The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Japanese army murdered over 200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese. In the midst of this horror, a small group of Western expatriates banded together to save 250,000. Nanking shows the tremendous impact individuals can make on the course of history.
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Black Belt
๐จ๐ณ China ๐ฏ๐ต Japan The 1930s The 1940sReal Fight, Real Karate, Real Japan. โ Set in 1932, amid the rise of militarism after the establishment of the Manchukuo colony in Northeast China, the story centers on a trio of karateka. Studying under their aging master in a small dojo in the woods of central Kyushu, Choei, Taikan and Giryu face a company of kempeitai military police come to requisition their dojo for use as a military base.
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Epitaph
๐ฐ๐ท South Korea The 1970s The 1940sLove is the kiss of death. โ Dr. Jung Nam finds a photo album dating back to his days as an intern at the Ansaeng Hospital. This triggers memories of his life. In 1942, as a young medical intern, Jung-Nam's arranged marriage ended when his fiancรฉe, whom he had never met, committed suicide. Later he was assigned to monitor the morgue late at night. There he fell in love with a corpse, which is later revealed as the body of his deceased fiancรฉe. Soon other mysterious events take place in the hospital, involving a young girl haunted by ghosts and a serial killer targeting Japanese soldiers.
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Yunagi City, Sakura Country
Tokyo Prefecture Hiroshima Prefecture The 1940sThirteen years afterward, I wonder if those who bombed Hiroshima are looking at me and saying: 'We did it! We were able to kill another person!' They should be," murmurs Minami (played by Kumiko Aso), one of the two leading female characters in Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni, as she lies dying in 1958, her life brought to a premature end by sickness resulting from her exposure to atomic bomb radiation. This is a story about those who at least initially survived the first U.S. atomic bombing of 1945 and their descendants in contemporary times. The film, based on a comic by Fumiyo Kono, jumps between the two time frames and quietly depicts the sorrow and mortification experienced through the everyday lives of laid-back and soft-spoken Hiroshima people. Only a few scenes of the bombing and the ensuing devastation are featured.
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Matouqin Nocturne
Hiroshima Prefecture The 1940sThe roundness of the top and bottom is the roundness of reincarnation. โ A baby, John, who was abandoned in the church with a horse-headed koto on his side. His grandfather was once a Morin Khuur player and died in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The brilliantly colored images have an avant-garde charm while hiding the sadness of the war, and will grab the viewer's heart.
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Letters from Iwo Jima
Okinawa Prefecture The 2000s The 1940sThe battle of Iwo Jima seen through the eyes of the Japanese soldiers. โ The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
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Black Book
๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel The 1950s The 1940sTo fight the enemy, she must become one of them. โ In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
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OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
๐ช๐ฌ Egypt The 1950s The 1940sSecret agent OSS 117 foils Nazis, beds local beauties, and brings peace to the Middle East.
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The Island
๐ท๐บ Russia The 1970s The 1940sSomewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future.
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The Go Master
๐จ๐ณ China The 1930s The 1940sThe Go Master is a 2006 biopic by director Tian Zhuangzhuang of renowned twentieth century Go master Wu Qingyuan, better known by his adopted name of Go Seigen. The film, which premiered at the 44th New York Film Festival, focuses on the life of this extraordinary player from his meteoric rise as a child prodigy to fame and fortune as a revolutionary strategic thinker, as well as the tumultuous global conflicts between his homeland and his adopted nation. The film also features a scene involving the Atomic bomb go game.
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ร Jerusalem
๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel The 1940sA tale of friendship between two men, one Jewish and the other Arab, as the state of Israel is being created.
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