Animation

In an alternate 1941, France stagnates under Napoleon V, with technological progress frozen in the 19th century. April Franklin, a young scientist, discovers her parents’ research on an invincibility serum—work they were close to finishing before their sudden disappearance. With her talking cat, Darwin, and a rogue ally named Julius, April embarks on a perilous journey through a world dominated by steam and coal.

In a city in southern China, driver Xiao Zhang steals a bag containing a million yuan to help his girlfriend. His act draws multiple individuals, each with personal motives, into a violent struggle to claim the money. The pursuit triggers a chain of events that entangles all parties in escalating conflict.

A zealous filmmaker plans an “original” project: animated segments set to classical music. After learning a similar idea already exists, he proceeds anyway, using an orchestra of older women and an animator kept confined. As various musical pieces come to life on screen, the animator quietly works out a way to escape.

Back in Japan's Sengoku era, orphan Kotarou and his dog Tobimaru were surviving by stealing, until assassins from China's Ming Dynasty started targeting them for some mysterious reasons. The ronin Nanashi saved them, and in exchange for a gem, the two hired him as their bodyguard. Their adventure takes a dangerous turn when the Ming sends a scary swordsman to capture Kotarou and fulfill a dark prophecy.

The Assassin, a gas-masked figure, descends into a nightmarish underworld of filth, grotesque monsters, and psychological torment in a surreal, stop-motion vision by Phil Tippett. Guided by a map, he traverses a decaying, post-apocalyptic labyrinth toward a sinister tower, embodying humanity’s descent under the gaze of a Mad God.