Eight International Blockbusters to Look out for in 2015

Big-budget blockbuster filmmaking has never traditionally been reserved to Hollywood—Britain for one used to be pretty good at it, particularly in the heyday of directors like Richard Attenborough (A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi), Cy Enfield (Zulu), and David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia).

Likewise, directors such as Russia's Sergey Bondarchuk, Japan's Akira Kurosawa, and more recently China's Zhang Yimou have all brought spectacular battles of a sweeping scope to life on screen in the likes of War and Peace, Ran, and Hero respectively.

In celebration of the international talent that exists in epic filmmaking outside of the U.S., we have compiled a list of eight blockbusters not in the English language that any fan of blockbuster cinema (or frankly, anyone tired of the superhero slew) should check out over the next year.

Already winning rave reviews, Big Game is a callback to an old-school style of survival action cinema.

Samuel L. Jackson brings some added star power as the beleaguered U.S. President, who in a Most Dangerous Game-style setup, is being hunted for sport after Air Force One crash lands in the Finnish wilderness, and must rely on a young mountain boy named Oskari (Onni Tommila) to protect him.

It's an awesome premise, and promises similar cult status to other internationally-produced action movies such as Welshman Gareth Evans' The Raid series, or 2013's fantastic Bong Joon-ho directed Snowpiercer.

No UK release date is set as yet for Big Game, but it is due for U.S. release in June. Check out the trailer below.

The Crossing is a romantic Chinese war epic that chronicles the ill-fated journey of the steamboat Taiping, which collided with another ship in 1949 en route to Taiwan, killing over 1500 passengers and crew.

Directed by action maestro John Woo, and starring Asian mega stars Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Ziyi, The Crossing is a two-part release in a similar fashion to Woo's own Romance of the Three Kingdoms adaptation Red Cliff, which released as a duology in 2008 and 2009 (but was unfortunately cut into a lesser single film for Western release).

The Crossing Part One was released in Chinese cinemas in December 2014 to massive box office success, and the second part is due for release in its home country this May, so expect to hear news of a Western release later in the year.

Like John Woo's The Crossing, Baahubali will eventually be released in two parts, and is the most expensive Indian film project yet produced, with a budget of around 20 million U.S. dollars.

The story, which is taken from a 10th century text called the Adipurana, follows the conflict between the royal brothers Bharata, who wished to take rule of all the kingdoms of the land by force, and his brother Baahubali, who rose up to resist him, and promises massive practical sets and epic battle scenes utilising over 2000 extras.

Baahubali, which uses the two Indian languages Tamil and Telugu, has been a protracted and difficult production that has been the cause of local industry drama due to its scope—filming has taken place since 2013—but the film is now tentatively expected to release across India in May.

Unfortunately overshadowed in English-language media of late by news of 2016's upcoming Disney version starring Emma Watson, 2014's French release of Beauty and the Beast (which stars Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel in the titular roles) is a lavish affair featuring the fantastic production design that has become the hallmark of its director Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Silent Hill).

Filmed in Germany and scripted in French, the film did extremely well on home turf, with much praise for Gans' visualist direction and the leads' performances in particular. Interestingly, it also topped the box office on theatrical release in Japan.

There is no word yet on UK theatrical distribution for Beauty and the Beast, so a DVD or Blu-ray import might be a good bet for this one at the moment.

We're slightly cheating here as White God has already seen a limited UK release, but the chances are you've probably not seen it yet so it definitely deserves inclusion.

Taking equal inspirations from the likes of Hitchcock's The Birds, and Richard Adams' novels such as The Plague Dogs, White God set a world record for the most dogs used in a single production at 247. The story follows a girl named Lili and her attempts to recover her pet dog Hagen, who was abandoned by her father. Hagen meanwhile, decides to lead a revolt by freeing hundreds of captured and caged mongrel dogs in an attempt to get even with their abusers.

White God was Hungary's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars this year, and it's something of a shame it wasn't included as a nominee. Seek it out.

Studio Ghibli films are always a surefire bet for fairly large international distribution, and sure enough The Tale of the Princess Kaguya received an English language release last October in the U.S., and has just arrived in UK cinemas.

Directed by Isao Takahata, the older and more reclusive counterpart to his more prolific friend and co-worker Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), Kaguya is Ghibli's most expensive project to date, with a protracted development period and a budget of nearly 50 million U.S. dollars.

Animated in a painterly watercolour style, it's a beautiful adaptation of the old Japanese myth of the Princess Kaguya, a prototypical sci-fi tale of a girl who fell from the Moon to be raised on Earth. It is Takahata's first film as a director in 10 years, and could possibly be his last given that he is now 79 years old, as well as the fact that Ghibli has announced its intention to turn away from big-budget theatrical animation to focus on smaller projects.

Beyond the scope afforded by its 65 million dollar budget, the main attraction to Dragon Blade is its A-list international cast, which includes Jackie Chan, Adrien Brody, and John Cusack.

Another entry on this list from China, Dragon Blade is set during the Han Dynasty, and centres initially on the friendship between Chan's imprisoned Chinese commander Huo An and Cusack's Roman Legion deserter Lucius, as well as their conflict with Brody's ruthless and ambitious military official Tiberius, who seeks to become the leader of the Roman Empire in Parthia (ancient Iran).

Released last month in Chinese cinemas (including IMAX 3D), Dragon Blade has been a big success, and given the quality of the cast involved a Western theatrical release can probably be expected later in the year.

The Liberator chronicles Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar's attempts to gain South American freedom from Spain during the Latin American Wars of Independence in the 19th century. Played by Édgar Ramírez , who is also known for his work in Zero Dark Thirty and Wrath of the Titans, it is a return to a style of historical war epic that has fallen out of favour with American audiences in the last decade or so, and is a must watch for any fan of films such as Glory, Braveheart, or even Gladiator.

The Liberator received a screening at the Toronto Film Festival, but missed out on wider-scale distribution internationally. It has recently been released on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. however, so a UK release is likely to follow.