211 Films & TV Shows Set In Asia During The Middle Ages
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Genghis Khan
🇲🇳 Mongolia The 13th Century The 12th CenturyDuring the 12th Century a boy is born to a tribal chief. He is named Temujin, which means "blacksmith." Nine years later, his father is murdered by the Tartars After a long struggle, just when Temujin reclaims tribal chief status, the Merkit tribe kidnaps his wife. In order to fight against the Merkits, Temujin has to use his mother as a pawn in exchange for troops from ally tribes. Temujin manages to rescue his wife only to realise that she is pregnant with the enemy's child. Enduring tremendous anguish, Temujin throws himself into battle against the Tartars and slaughters the leader of the intruders. He eventually takes his wife back and accepts her child. Later on, he begins a campaign to unify all Mongolian tribes. By the age of 40, he is bestowed the title "Genghis Khan", which means "oceanic ruler".
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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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Forbidden City Cop
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturySet in Imperial China, Stephen Chiau plays Ling Ling Fat, one of the elite Emperor's guards in the Forbidden City. However unlike his colleagues he doesn't know anything about Kung Fu or other martial-arts, but instead uses his time to make futuristic inventions. So when the emperor is kidnapped and the world most beautiful geisha comes to town Fat has to use his brain to get things done.
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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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Ashes of Time
🇨🇳 China The 13th Century The 12th CenturyOuyang Feng is a heartbroken and cynical man who spends his days in the desert, connecting expert swordsmen with those seeking revenge and willing to pay for it. Throughout five seasons in exile, Ouyang spins tales of his clients' unrequited loves and unusual acts of bravery.
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Tai-Chi Master
Henan Province The Middle AgesFalsely accused for cheating in a martial arts competition, two boyhood friends are banished from their Shaolin Temple and go their separate ways. As adults, they join opposing sides in a civil war. When one betrays the other, they settle their differences mano-a-mano.
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Flirting Scholar
🇨🇳 China The 15th CenturyA scholar in search of true love. Disguising himself as a houseboy, he indentures himself to a rich family in order to pursue the ravishing servant girl who has stolen his heart.
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Green Snake
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyA mischievous snake who assumes human form interferes with the romance between her reptilian sister and a hapless man.
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The Eagle Shooting Heroes
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyA power struggle between the Queen’s treasonous lover and a princess occurs amid musical numbers, slapstick battles, and martial arts acrobatics.
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The Invincible Constable
Henan Province The 11th CenturyA confusing little period film in which 5 brothers and a sister all seem to have considerable kung fu skills and live on a secluded island. The younger brother for reasons unexplained keeps going to the mainland to challenge the constable to a fight. The constable is a good guy though and at some point during the film the brothers and sister and constable all team up to battle the real evil doer.
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Temptation of a Monk
🇨🇳 China The 7th CenturyNear the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in 7th century China, General Shi Yan-sheng is tricked into leaving the crown prince unguarded. The crown prince is murdered by one of his brothers who then becomes emperor. Shi retreats to a monastery, perhaps to hide, perhaps to plan a coup. When his loyal troops as well as the princess he desires are slain, he seeks refuge in a remote, abandoned monastery where an aged abbot schools him with practical, earthy teachings. The emperor's forces pursue Shi: first a woman, then a general seek to overpower him with lust and might. Over the course of the film, the reds of battle give way to blues of meditation.
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All Men Are Brothers - Blood of the Leopard
🇨🇳 China The 12th CenturyBased on parts of the classic Chinese novel The Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh).
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New Dragon Gate Inn
🇨🇳 China The 15th CenturyIn the desert, only the strong survive. — During the Ming Dynasty, Tsao Siu-yan, a power-crazed eunuch who rules his desert region of China as if he were the Emperor, ruthlessly thwarts plots against him and sets a trap for one of his enemies at the Dragon Gate Inn.
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Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
England 🇮🇱 Israel The Middle AgesSometimes the only way to uphold justice...is to break the law. — When the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham murders Robin's father, the legendary archer vows vengeance. To accomplish his mission, Robin joins forces with a band of exiled villagers (and comely Maid Marian), and together they battle to end the evil sheriff's reign of terror.
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An Eternal Combat
🇭🇰 Hong Kong The 10th Century1000 years before our time: Master Cho-Lo, a Taoist priest (Lam Ching-Ying) and his two understudies (Parkman Wong and Shing Fui On) go on a quest to fight an evil Japanese demon. When the Taoist priest and his two helpers impose a ritual on the demon, they're all thrown into a time vortex and finally find themselves in modern day Hong Kong. Now the fight continues – in a different time and with many new problems ...
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Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights
🇮🇶 Iraq The 9th Century The 8th CenturyWith Doraemon's "Storybook Shoes" gadget, he and Nobita go to different stories to watch them. Nobita asks Doraemon to allow him to share this gadget with Shizuka and Doraemon agrees.
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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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The Silk Road
🇨🇳 China The 11th CenturyIn 1026, students in western China are shanghaied into the forces of crown prince Li Yuanhao of Xi Xia, who wants to control the length of the Silk Road. One student is Zhao Xingde, who becomes the favorite of his commander, Zhu Wangli. While sacking a fortress, Xingde discovers Tsurpia, princess of the Uighur. He hides her; they fall in love. When he's sent away to study Xixian, he leaves Tsurpia in Zhu's care, but returns to find her engaged to Li. Tragedy follows, and he and Zhu enter a pact to take revenge when Li arrives at Dun-Huang, the region's seat of learning and culture. Against overwhelming odds, they find a surprising way to leave a monument to their life and love.
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Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Journey to the West
🇨🇳 China The 7th CenturyNobita, Gian, Shizuka, and Suneo is preparing for a school play on the "Journey to the West". As they are arguing about who should play the role of the monkey king, Nobita suggested that the real monkey king should play the role. Because the monkey king is only a legend, Nobita and Doraemon have decided to go back in time using the time machine and make a fake one and show Gian, Shizuka, and Suneo to prove that they are right. Unfortunately, Doraemon's machine allowed the fictional monsters to come to the real world and defeated the entire human races, thus turning the future (Nobita's time) into a demon-ruled world. In order to reverse the change, Doraemon and gang needed to return to the past and capture the demons back into the machine. On the way, they have met the real monk and rinrei (a child). At the end, they have either returned the demons back to the machine or destroy them with Dorami's help, thus turning the future back to normal.
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The Diary of King Yonsan
🇰🇷 South Korea The 15th CenturyA historical drama about the life of Prince Yeonsan of Joseon,.
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Shinran: Path to Purity
🇯🇵 Japan The 12th CenturyIn the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time.
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King and Emperor
🇨🇳 China The 14th CenturyThe King meets the Emperor — Set in the 14th century, a brewing friendship between the Chinese Emperor Yong Le and the King of Sulu, Paduka Pahala is forged upon the latter's visit to China.
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Superfantozzi
Hiroshima Prefecture England The 1940s The Middle AgesSuperfantozzi (1986) is an Italian film from 1986. It is the fifth film in the saga of the unlucky clerk Ugo Fantozzi, played by its creator, Paolo Villaggio. In this film, Fantozzi is portrayed in a surreal historical journey, from Genesis to 1980s.
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