Daniel Hong Thriller ‘Dead End’ Lands at EST N8

International sales and financing outfit EST N8 has secured worldwide rights to “Dead End,” a Taiwanese action crime thriller from director Chan Chun-hao, and has launched the title to global buyers at the Cannes Film Market.

The film centers on Lin Sheng-yi, a former baseball star whose career collapsed under a game-fixing scandal. Returning to his hometown years later, he discovers that locals are wagering money on the exact hour his terminally ill father will die. With sunrise as his deadline, he races to dismantle the syndicate behind the scheme while reckoning with his own troubled history. The story draws from real-world reports of underground death-betting circles documented in Taiwan.

Daniel Hong, a double Golden Horse nominee recognized for “Miss Shampoo” and the Cannes-selected “Mongrel,” leads the cast. He is joined by Ng Ki-pin, a Golden Melody Award winner whose recent credits include “G Precinct,” and Yao Yi-ti, a Taipei Film Award winner and Golden Horse nominee known for “Dead Talents Society.”

Chan is a Golden Horse Film Academy graduate whose work “Viatical Settlement” received seven Golden Bell Award nominations. His 2025 series “The Outlaw Doctor” won Best Asian Contents at the Global OTT Awards in Busan and swept major categories at the Golden Bell Awards.

“‘Dead End’ is a relentless thriller that marks the arrival of Chan Chun-hao as a major voice in Asian genre cinema. By grounding this story in a shocking real-world subculture, he has created something that feels both incredibly urgent and deeply human. We are eager to leverage this momentum as we head into the Cannes market with our mission to elevate sophisticated Asian stories onto the international stage,” said Sophie Shi, head of studios at EST N8.

“With ‘Dead End,’ I wanted to explore the cost of a second chance when time is literally running out. Having the team at EST N8 champion this film at Cannes is a proud moment, as they truly understand the nuances of bringing bold, contemporary Taiwanese stories to a global stage,” Chan added.

The feature is produced by Taipei-based inJECT Films, whose projects have received backing from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and TAICCA. The deal was negotiated by Shi and Cathy Ni for EST N8, and by producer Vincent Chen for inJECT Films.

“‘Dead End’ is a story born from the shadows of our society, and we can’t wait for global audiences to experience this journey,” Chen said.

“Dead End” slots into an EST N8 Cannes lineup that includes Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s IFFR Big Screen Award-winning “Master”; Awi Suryadi’s “Danur: The Last Chapter,” the conclusion of a landmark Indonesian horror franchise and the country’s highest-grossing film of 2026; and Kimo Stamboel’s “Janur Ireng,” a prequel to the 2023 box office hit “Sewu Dino.” Also on the slate are Tetsuya Mariko’s “Dear Stranger,” starring Hidetoshi Nishijima and Gwei Lun-Mei; the Raindance-selected “The Invisible Half”; and Julie Pacino’s Fantasia-premiered “I Live Here Now.”

EST N8 was formed through the combination of EST Studios – founded in 2022 by Jaeson Ma and Eric Tu – and N8, the Bangkok-based studio launched in 2023 by Kris Eiamsakulrat and Rachel Y. Wu.