Asian Cinema Round-Up (Muscle growth, Monster, Kaiju, Alien, and Element Transformations)

Thanks once again to Ian Ricky for curating this list of transformations in Asian superhero, horror, and supernatural films. He's also provided commentary on his selections.

快递侠 (Express Man, 2018)
"Sorry, I don't know much Chinese, so I will translate as much as I can. This is a mainland Chinese movie about ordinary civilians who have superpowers. Near the end of the movie an evil scientist mutates the genes of one of the protagonists, the security chief (played by actor Peng Yan; 彭禺厶), who then turns into a very hot muscular creature named 钢铁侠 (literally Iron Man)."



"Later, Express Man and friends teamed up to free the chief of his evil gene mutation and he reverts  to normal (I don't know why Express Man punched him twice afterward though)."

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"It's rare to find a movie where a man transforms into a Kaiju, but I've finally found one in the Japanese movie Ultraman the Next (2004). Takafumi Udo (played by actor Kenya Oosumi) has been possessed by a mysterious ball of blue light and starts progressively mutating into a monster after being shot by his fiancee. 

00:00 1st Form - Spiky and Scaly Skin.  00:52 2nd Form - Lizard.   01:09 3rd Form - Idorobia.

02:22 4th Form - Reputiria.  03:26 Normal Form - Human Revert (Shirtless Scene).  

05:06 1st Form - Growing Limbs.  06:05 1st Form - Growing mire Limbs 06:50. 

4th Form - Reputiria.  07:13 5th Form - Beruzebua. 08:30 6th Form - Beruzebua-Korone."

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Loser Vs. Aliens (小强大战外星人, 2019)
"An alien has terrorrized China! It begins when an alien possesses a man in the factory and then the police chief who captures him (Pujun Han). Then he begins infecting multiple citizens. Near the end, the protagonists finally face him and his mob of infected citizens. He mutates his arm into a crab-like claw and grabs the girl. A boy tries to rescue her by pouring water on the chief; he gets enraged and transforms into a bigger alien (06:20). The boy then decides to cure all the infected by making rain from a water tower. Everyone returns to normal."



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Cyclops (キクロプス, 1987)
The story of three struggling mutants; Miyuki, her older brother Kyo (Kazuhiro Sano), and a man in sunglasses, Michio Sonezaki (Kai Atô). Miyuki gets pregnant and Sonezaki tries to kill her baby in the hospital. He is confronted by Kyo. The two men turn into mutants and eventually fuse together. Miuyki is also a mutant; at the end she and her baby fuse together.




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Impossible (不可思异, China, 2015)
Memeda, an alien from outer space, possesses a depressed man named Tang Liguo (Wang Baoqiang) who just lost his daughter in a car accident. When gangsters threaten Liguo, he transforms into the alien. Sadly only the first part of the transformation occurs onscreen.

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"Mulawin vs. Ravena (2017)  is an Filipino fantasy television series about two races of winged humanoids; Mulawin and the evil Ravenas. Almiro (Derrick Monasterio) is a half-blood Mulawin  who has always been mocked for having a lump on his back. It turns to contain a pair of wings. He later becomes monarch of the Mulawin kingdom of Avila.
Next we see Rafael Montenegro (Kiko Estrada), a half-blood Ravena and the best friend turned nemesis of Almiro. He ends up in the hospital after painfully growing a back lump and future wings. He flies to the Ravena kingdom and becomes its monarch, until Almiro kills him."