The 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024
Get excited: These are the projects putting Asian and AA+PI talent on the screen this year
Ryo Nishikawa in “Evil Does Not Exist.”
Still frame from “Evil Does Not Exist”
Words by Guillermo De Querol
With 2023 now in the rearview mirror, it’s time to get excited about this year’s scheduled movie releases. Despite prolonged strikes and untimely production delays, last year’s slate still treated us with an array of cinematic offerings at the multiplex that proved cinema is well and alive after all. On the heels of a landmark year for AA+PI representation on-screen and with a new festival season about to kick off, we could not be more excited to see what 2024 has in store.
As usual, we have narrowed down our choices to 10 buzzworthy titles by our favorite Asian and AA+PI creators, which isn’t to say we're not as thrilled for new films from big-time directors like Jordan Peele, Ethan Coen, and Robert Eggers, as well as fresh installments in the Dune, Mad Max, Gladiator, and Alien series. Keep reading for our rundown of this year’s most promising highlights, including movies from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, China, and more.
Love Me
Sundance Film Festival premiere on Jan. 19
From left, Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun star in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi romance "Love Me."
Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival
Don’t expect to see Steven Yeun in spandex for his Marvel debut anytime soon, but for now, we could always use more movies with the Walking Dead alum in the lead. Fresh off Golden Globe and Emmy nods for Beef, the Korean American actor on the rise should find a compelling showcase to flex his dramatic chops starring opposite Kristen Stewart in the directorial debut of Sam and Andy Zucher.
A post-apocalyptic sci-fi romance about—wait for it—a shape-shifting buoy and an orbiting satellite falling in love over millennia sounds just like the type of bonkers, go-for-broke set-up that you couldn’t make up if you tried, but we’re here for it.
Twisters
Theater premiere scheduled for July 19
Director Lee Isaac Chung on the set of “Minari.”
Joe Rushmore/A24
It is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical about yet another belated sequel to a decades-old beloved classic, but director Lee Isaac Chung has earned enough faith from us to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. After receiving widespread acclaim and a treasure trove of accolades for Minari, the Korean American filmmaker appears to be switching gears and dipping his toes into the studio world for this summer blockbuster about a group of storm-chasing scientists getting swept by a deadly tornado in the Midwest.
Finding out in what ways Twisters expands on the silly premise of the 1996 original is exciting enough. But we’re even more intrigued about seeing the Oscar-nominated director try his hand at populist fare while getting a chance to wield an astronomical budget and powerhouse cast (led by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell) for the first time in his career. It’s quite an out-of-left-field turn for Lee but based on his track record we have reasons to believe this won’t be a mere cash grab.
Mickey 17
TBD 2024
The good news is that Bong Joon-ho finally has a new movie coming out, this time based on a sci-fi novel by Edward Ashton that sounds both high-concept and nutty enough to be right in his wheelhouse. The not-so-good news is that it looks like the wait will be a little longer than anticipated, as the film got shuffled off its original March 29 release date earlier this month.
But this is the director of Parasite we’re talking about, and we know the Korean maestro tends to knock it out of the park when he goes full sicko mode (Exhibit A: Okja). As such, we’ll be first in line opening night for his next trick: A dystopian thriller about an astronaut (Robert Pattinson) who’s sent on a deadly mission to colonize a frozen planet. Turns out, whenever our space explorer goes missing or dies, he’s replaced by a clone with his memories intact. We’re betting on twists and turns aplenty, thorny moral dilemmas to chew on, and solid performances across the board, with Steven Yeun, Toni Colette, and Mark Ruffalo rounding out the stellar cast.
Kinds of Kindness
TBD 2024
Hong Chau in “The Whale.”
A24
It’s no hyperbole to say that Vietnamese American actress Hong Chau is one of Hollywood’s finest. If you don’t believe me, just wait until the Oscar-nominated rising star shows up to chew the scenery in what is sure to be another awards juggernaut by Greek iconoclast Yorgos Lanthimos, who took home top honors at last year’s Venice Film Festival for Poor Things.
We still don’t know much about Kinds of Kindness other than that it will be a modern-day anthology feature with the same actors popping up in different roles. But if the quality of the script somehow matches that of its stacked A-list ensemble, with Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, and Keke Palmer all slated to star alongside Chau, then expect to hear an awful lot about it come awards time.
Materialists
TBD 2024
Writer and director Celine Song
Matthew Dunivan
Past Lives fans, rejoice: South Korean Canadian writer-director Celine Song has been working on a new movie for A24 that you’ll probably want to bring tissues for.
Her scorcher of a debut—a low-key but quietly devastating portrayal of nostalgic longing through the lens of the AA+PI diaspora experience—traveled far and wide in 2023, enraptured audiences and critics worldwide before securing a spot near the top of our year-end roundup list. So even though we’ve got only a vague idea what the indie sweetheart has in store for us next (rumor has it her next film is a rom-com set in New York City), we could not possibly be more revved up about her second stint in the director’s chair. It might be wishful thinking, but news that shooting will begin this spring gives us hope a late-2024 release is still in the cards.
We Shall Be All
TBD 2024
Chinese director Jia Zhangke joins forces with his wife Zhao Tao in "We Shall Be All."
Courtesy photo
With new projects on the way from Jia Zhangke, Zhang Yimou (Article 20), and Wong Kar-wai (Blossoms of Shanghai), 2024 is already shaping up to be a banner year for Chinese-language cinema. For those unfamiliar with Zhangke’s work, he’s made a remarkable career out of gritty, minimalist portraits of contemporary Chinese society that reflect broader social changes through the day-to-day life of the lower-middle class.
The world-renowned auteur has been mostly quiet since screening Ash is Purest White at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but he’s mounting a comeback with a decades-in-the-making passion project starring her wife, muse, and frequent collaborator Zhao Tao. Currently billed as a “dismantling of dystopia,” Zhangke’s upcoming film aims to capture how mainland China has changed over the past two decades through the eyes of an independent woman struggling to adjust to the country’s rapid modernization at the turn of the millennium. Sign us up.
Evil Does Not Exist
TBD 2024
Expectations are through the roof for Ryusuke Hamaguchi to deliver another doozy on par with Drive My Car after bursting into popular consciousness and carving out a place in cinema history by becoming only the third Japanese filmmaker to be nominated in the Oscars’ Best Director category.
Judging by the festival buzz for Evil Does Not Exist, which was picked up for U.S. distribution immediately after debuting at Venice to a whopping eight-minute standing ovation, we just might be in for another treat. If, like us, you responded to Hamaguchi’s 2021 Murakami adaptation, you won’t want to miss this cautionary tale about the dangers of corporate greed, in which the lives of the residents of a quiet village close to Tokyo are abruptly disrupted by the construction of a camping site for city tourists nearby. No U.S. release date has been set in stone, but we can expect the film to head stateside sooner rather than later.
Chime
TBD 2024
Mutsuo Yoshioka stars in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's psychological thriller, "Chime."
Courtesy of Roadstead
Despite quietly putting together what must be one of the most impressive directorial résumés in recent memory, modern Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is far from a household name in the States. But with two juicy projects already lined up for 2024, that could well be rectified very soon.
As if the prospect of a French-language adaptation of his 1998 classic nail-biter wasn’t a draw unto itself, the veteran genre filmmaker has given us a first look at a brand-new psychological thriller, this one centered on a schoolteacher who slowly loses his grip on reality after being woken by a chime. That’s about all you need to know other than the fact that Kurosawa’s latest, by his own admission, is poised to “shock the viewer and leave them with a strong sense of fear.” As of present, no theatrical rollout has been confirmed, but consider us intrigued.
In the meantime, just take our word for it and treat yourself to a double feature of Cure and Pulse if you’re looking for something that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
The Fountains of Paradise
TBD 2024
From left, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton in the set of "Memoria"
Sandro Kopp/The Match Factory
Contrary to what his almost mythic status as the patron saint of "slow" cinema might suggest, you don’t need to be a dedicated cinephile or have a bachelor’s degree in film studies to enjoy Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Granted, it may take a while for newcomers to fully tune into the Thai director’s singular wavelength—wherein conventional narrative development tends to play second-fiddle to the evocative imagery on display. But as long as you’re willing to give his work an honest try and perhaps resist the urge to doze off, almost every title in his back catalog is guaranteed to leave a firm impression by the time the credits roll.
Details remain scant on Weerasethakul’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to Memoria, beyond the fact that it was shot in Sri Lanka and loosely inspired by the work of sci-fi novelist Arthur C. Clarke. But if it’s anything like the director’s previous collaboration with Tilda Swinton, which resulted in arguably the single most radical and absorbing theatrical experience of the decade so far, watching it will be time well spent.
Kimi No Iro / Your Colors
TBD 2024
Last year, two Japanese animation titans in Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai returned to the spotlight to solidify their status among cinema’s greatest. Next in line is Naoko Yamada, who’s back in action six years after her last feature-length effort with this coming-of-age tale about a high-school student in Nagasaki who can perceive people's emotions as colors.
The core creative team behind the female director’s breakout hit A Silent Voice is back in the fold, with Reiko Yoshida penning the script and Kensuke Ushio composing the score. Their involvement leads us to believe that Kimi No Iro, which was supposed to come out last fall but was postponed to 2024, will not only be worth the wait but also stand a fair chance of bringing on the waterworks. We will be seated.
Published on January 19, 2024
Words by Guillermo De Querol
Guillermo is a freelance entertainment writer based in Madrid, Spain. His writing and festival coverage has been published across various outlets, including Little White Lies, Taste of Cinema, Film Cred, and Certified Forgotten. When he’s not watching or writing about films, he’s probably talking about them on Letterboxd or Twitter. Guillermo hopes to continue to provide valuable features at JoySauce.