Streaming Sneaks: Dune and Citadel prequels, Gong Yoo-Seo Hyun-jin star power in November

SINGAPORE – In this monthly column, The Straits Times’ recommendations for November include a space opera, a South Korean mystery about fake marriages, an Asian-American satire and spies with a shared past.

Dune: Prophecy

Premieres on Max on Nov 19

Set 10,000 years before the events of the 2021 and 2024 Dune films starring Timothee Chalamet, this prequel series explores the origins of the fearsome Bene Gesserit, a religious order.

It explains how founding member Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) ignites a fateful feud between two noble families, House Harkonnen and House Atreides.

Co-starring Olivia Williams, Mark Strong and Chris Mason, it also dives into the intricate mythology of the beloved science-fiction franchise, which began with Frank Herbert’s Dune novels.

Why watch it: For Dune fans, there will be plenty of dramatic foreshadowing. For newcomers, this promises to be a visually spectacular introduction to an iconic space opera.

The Trunk

Premieres on Netflix on Nov 29

This South Korean mystery melodrama stars Seo Hyun-jin – who headlined the 2016 romantic comedy Another Miss Oh – as In-ji, an employee at a company that brokers marriages of convenience. Her job has her living with a different “contract husband” every year and feeling jaded as a result.

Her latest fake marriage is with Jeong-won, played by Gong Yoo (Squid Game, 2021 to present). And this is at the instigation of his former wife Seo-yeon (Jung Yun-ha), whose motives are unclear.

Embarking on this loveless union, In-ji arrives at her glamorous new home with a mysterious trunk in tow – and the relationship takes a dark turn.

Why watch it: A-listers Seo and Gong bring star power and chemistry to an intriguing premise that looks like a strange blend of romance, psychological drama and crime.

Interior Chinatown

Premieres on Disney+ on Nov 19

In this satirical drama, Jimmy O. Yang is Willis Wu, an Asian-American actor relegated to bit parts in a police procedural show.

He feels like a background player in his own life too, but that changes when he witnesses a real crime, and detective Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet) enlists his help in an investigation that leads straight to Chinatown’s criminal underbelly.

Based on showrunner Charles Yu’s acclaimed 2020 novel praised for its interrogation of Asian stereotypes, the series is directed by New Zealand film-maker Taika Waititi.

The director helmed the 2017 and 2022 Thor superhero films and won a screenwriting Oscar for war comedy Jojo Rabbit (2019).

Why watch it: Waititi has a knack for blending humour and pathos, and the comic timing should be impeccable with stand-up comedians Yang (Silicon Valley, 2014 to 2019) and Ronny Chieng (Crazy Rich Asians, 2018) – who plays Willis’ friend Fatty Choi – on deck.

Citadel: Honey Bunny

Premieres on Prime Video on Nov 7

The newest spin-off of globe-trotting espionage series Citadel (2023) moves the action to India.

The original show starred Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden as romantically entangled spies working for Citadel, a stateless, Mission Impossible-style intelligence agency.

The plan was then to make several non-English-language spin-offs set in different parts of the world, the first being the Italian series Citadel: Diana, which premiered in October, and now Citadel: Honey Bunny, set in 1990s India.

Here, stuntman Bunny (Varun Dhawan) recruits struggling actress Honey (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) for a job that plunges them into the world of espionage.

Years later, their past catches up with them and they must join forces to protect their young daughter Nadia, whom Chopra plays as an adult in Citadel.

Why watch it: Film-making duo Raj & DK bring Bollywood flair to the Citadel universe, but the slick action and production values still bear the fingerprints of executive producers Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed Marvel Cinematic Universe hits such as Avengers: Endgame (2019).