211 Films & TV Shows Set In Asia During The Middle Ages
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Oh Islam
๐ฆ๐ฟ Azerbaijan ๐ช๐ฌ Egypt ๐ฎ๐ท Iran ๐ธ๐พ Syria The 13th CenturySet in the 14th century. Under their leader Timur, the Tartar hordes invade the Middle East and take over areas as widespread as Persia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and Syria. A lowly woman from a harem (Lubna Aziz) rises to lead the Egyptians against the invaders.
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Mughal-e-Azam
๐ฎ๐ณ India The 16th CenturySet in the 16th century AD, the movie brings to life the tale of the doomed love affair between the Mughal Crown Prince Saleem and the beautiful, ill-fated court dancer, whose fervor and intensity perpetrates a war between the prince and his father the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, and threatens to bring an empire to its knees.
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Journey to the West
๐จ๐ณ China The 7th CenturyDuel of the Prehistoric Beasts! Summit Meeting of the Monsters! โ Alakazam is a young and brave monkey who has been encouraged by all the other monkeys to become their king. After attaining the throne, he becomes rude and dictatorial, and does not believe that human beings are greater than he is. Then he tricks/forces Merlin the magician to teach him magic (reluctantly on Merlin's part, who warns Alakazam that the powers he acquires now will bring him much unhappiness later). Alakazam becomes so arrogant that he abuses his magic powers, and chooses to go up to Majutsu Land (the Heavens), to challenge King Amo. He is defeated by King Amo. For his punishment, he is sentenced to serve as the bodyguard of Prince Amat on a pilgrimage; in order to learn humility, mercy and to fight with wisdom. Ultimately, he learns his lesson and becomes a true hero.
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Parthiban Kanavu
๐ฎ๐ณ India The 7th Century7th century AD. Parthiban, the Chola King, dies in battle leaving incomplete his desire to be free from the yoke of the Pallavas. His son Vikraman (Gemini Ganesh) is determined to fulfill his father's dream. He is arrested by the Pallava king, Narasimhavarman and exiled to an island where he is chosen the king
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The Kingdom and the Beauty
๐จ๐ณ China The 16th CenturyThis is a musical about a young emperor who is lured via stories told to a place called Kiang-Nan by his royal tutor. The empress mother has the tutor go to Kiang-Nan to bring him back.
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The Tale of the White Serpent
๐จ๐ณ China The 12th CenturyThe adventures of a cute little panda, a dragon god and an evil serpent. โ As a young boy, Xu-Xian is forced to free his pet, a small snake. Unbeknownst to him, the snake is actually a young snake goddess named Bai-Niang and she is in love with him. Many years later, when they are both adults, the princess is magically transformed into a human and sets out to find her love. But the local wizard believes her to be a vampire, and banishes Xu-Xian from the village in order to save him. Xu-Xian's pet pandas Panda and Mimi set out to save him and bring him, in the process becoming leaders of an animal gang.
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Black Cat Mansion
๐ฏ๐ต Japan The 20th Century The 16th Century The 15th CenturyThe descendant of the servant of a cruel and vicious samurai returns to the town where she was born, only to find that a cat who is possessed by the spirits of those murdered by the samurai is trying to kill her.
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Omar Khayyam
๐ฎ๐ท Iran The 11th CenturyRiding high with spectacular action and excitement ! โ Omar Khayyam was one of the greatest Persian poets. He was also a brilliant mathematician. Though his quatrains were written in the 11th century, they are still popular the world over. The details of his life are unknown, so this movie invents a biography for him and includes in it his real achievements - the invention of a new calendar and the penning of those epigrammatic poems. This film has him romancing a sultan's bride and foiling the assassin sect's plot to kill the sultan's son.
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The Conqueror
๐ฒ๐ณ Mongolia The 12th CenturyGENGHIS KHAN! The world trembled at his name! โ Mongol chief Temujin battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai. Temujin becomes the emperor Genghis Khan.
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The Legend of the White Serpent
๐จ๐ณ China The 12th CenturyLavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.
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Princess Yang Kwei Fei
๐จ๐ณ China The 8th CenturyIn eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets. The ministers misuse their power so much that there is a popular revolt against the Yangs, fueled by An Lushan.
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Theodora, Slave Empress
๐น๐ท Turkey The 6th CenturyMistress Of A Barbaric Empire - Master Of An Unconquerable Emperor! โ Teodora, a Roman courtesan and former slave girl, marries the Roman emperor Justinian and assumes the throne as Empress of Rome. But the divide between nobility and slave is too great. Teodora seeks justice for her people, and revolution and armed conflict erupt in both Byzantium and Rome.
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Gate of Hell
๐ฏ๐ต Japan The 12th CenturyThe most honored screen import in a decade! โ Japan, 1159. Moritล, a brave samurai, performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Kesa during a violent uprising. Moritล falls in love with her, but becomes distraught when he finds out that she is married.
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The Veils of Bagdad
๐ฎ๐ถ Iraq The 16th CenturyFor gold ! For glory ! For wild pagan lips ! โ Antar is sent by Suleiman, head of the Ottoman Empire, to Bagdad to prevent Hammam, Pasha of Bagdad, from purchasing the services of local leader Mustapha to unite the hill tribes and overthrow the emperor. The intrigue mounts as Antar falls in love with dancer Selima, who tries to avenge her father's death against Hammam's right-hand-man Kasseim, whose wife Rosanna has fallen in love with Antar!
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Othello
๐จ๐พ Cyprus ๐ฎ๐น Italy The 16th CenturyOrson Welles' magnificent screening of Shakespeare's immortal tragedy โ When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.
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Rashomon
Kyoto Prefecture The 8th CenturyThe husband, the wifeโฆ or the bandit? โ Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.
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The Black Rose
England ๐จ๐ณ China The 13th CenturyAn adventure that will blaze... A love that will flame... 'till the stars grow cold... โ In the 13th century, Walter of Gurnie, a disinherited Saxon youth, is forced to flee England. With his friend, Tristram, he falls in with the army of the fierce but avuncular General Bayan, and journeys all the way to China, where both men become involved in intrigues in the court of Kublai Khan.
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Genghis Khan
๐ฒ๐ณ Mongolia The 12th CenturyTemujin, who later became Genghis Khan is wise, or sometimes cunning. He goes through several heroic episodes; competing at the Man of Men contest, falling in love with the enemy commander's daughter, and struggling to restore his demolished hometown. Meanwhile his steps guide him to be a great conqueror. Khan's witty, humorous side in his adolescent years before he takes the throne.
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Felipe de Jesรบs
๐ฏ๐ต Japan The 16th CenturyBiography of the first Catholic Saint to be born in Mexico.
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Remorse at Death
๐จ๐ณ China The 12th CenturyThe story of two people who were forced to marry each without sincere feelings, resulting in a story of life and death.
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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail
Ishikawa Prefecture The 12th CenturyYoshitsune Minamoto, disguised with his retinue as monks, must make do with a comical porter as their guide through hostile territory en route to safety.
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Princess Iron Fan
๐จ๐ณ China The 7th CenturyThe story was liberally adapted from a short sequence in the popular Chinese folk tale Journey to the West. Princess Iron Fan is a main character. Specifically, the film focused on the duel between the Monkey King and a vengeful princess, whose fan is desperately needed to quench the flames that surround a peasant village.
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The King of the White Elephant
๐น๐ญ Thailand The 16th CenturySet in the Ayutthaya Kingdom of the 16th century, King Chakra is going about his usual palace duties, granting audiences to his advisers, including his Lord Chamberlain, who is keen to see the king fulfill his royal duty of taking 366 wives, including, hopefully among them, the chamberlain's own daughter. Based on a novel and produced by Pridi Banomyong and released before Thailand's involvement in World War II, the English-language film carried a propaganda message from anti-war interests in Thailand, that Thailand should remain neutral, and only go to war to defend its sovereignty against foreign invaders.
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Empress Wu Zetian
๐จ๐ณ China The 8th Century The 7th CenturyHistorical film based on the life of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history
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