SINGAPORE - The sequel to the 2016 smash, Train To Busan: Peninsula will lead the parade when cinemas open on July 13 after having been closed since March 27 in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The 2016 film is the highest-grossing South Korean title in Singapore.
But the summer blockbuster releases will only come in August (thriller Tenet, Aug 13; period drama Mulan, Aug 20).
Still, from horror to action, there will be a range of new and older films coming to screens on July 13.
ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA
July 13
Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee were arrested and imprisoned by the South African government in 1978 for taking part in anti-apartheid work. Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber play the two men who, after imprisonment in the Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, plan a breakout.
MR JONES
July 13
In the 1930s, intellectuals in Western Europe were entranced by news coming out of the Soviet Union about the improvements made in the lives of millions under the hand of leader Joseph Stalin. In this biopic of the man who would inspire George Orwell to write Animal Farm, Gareth Jones (played by James Norton) is a Welsh journalist who goes there and finds something other than a workers' paradise.
LOW SEASON
July 13
This Thai romantic comedy stars heart-throb Mario Maurer and tells the story of Lin, a broken-hearted woman who can see ghosts. She flees to a resort during its ghost "low season", when fewer spirits are around, where she finds a few persistent guests from another world and a handsome screenwriter who thinks her story will make for a great movie.
1917 AND OTHER RE-RELEASES
July 13
First released late in 2019, WWI drama 1917 starring George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman tells the story of two soldiers who have to march across the battlefields of France to deliver a crucial message, through visuals edited to look as if it were one continuous take.
Other re-releases coming to various cinemas from July 13 include dinosaur epic Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); action-science fiction film Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) and horror film The Invisible Man (2020).
At indie cinema The Projector, there will be re-releases of films from the highly regarded A24 studio from July 15. These include the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight (2016), the drama A Ghost Story (2017), the drama-comedy The Farewell (2019) and the psychological horror work The Lighthouse (2019).
TRAIN TO BUSAN: PENINSULA
July 15
The zombie action flick Train To Busan (2016) shattered box-office records for a South Korean film in Singapore and around the world. Featuring a new cast and story, the action here expands to the whole of the Korean peninsula, now a zombie quarantine zone that a desperate man must fight his way through to complete his mission. This is directed by the same director as the first film, Yeon Sang-ho, and stars Gang Dong-won.
FAMILY ROMANCE LLC
July 15, exclusively at The Projector
Oscar-nominated German director Werner Herzog was intrigued by the idea that in Japan, one can rent family members - husbands, wives, fathers and mothers - for social occasions. So he made this drama, selected for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, about a man who runs such a family-renting agency.
INCEPTION IN IMAX
July 30
To usher in Christopher Nolan's next project, Tenet, and to mark the 10th anniversary of its release, Inception (2010) is coming back. This story of bandits whose speciality is breaking into the dreaming mind to steal secrets will feature footage from Tenet, set to open in Singapore on Aug 13.
