A Tempest of Tea

A Tempest of Tea is a dark, stylized fantasy heist thriller directed by Park Chan-wook and written by Leigh Bardugo. Set in White Roaring, the gritty, gothic capital of the colonizing Ettenian Empire, the story follows Arthie Casimir (Avantika), a sharp seventeen-year-old criminal mastermind. By day, Arthie runs Spindrift, an upscale, elegant tea room catering to high society. By night, she flips a secret lever to transform it into an illegal, high-stakes bloodhouse for the city's hidden vampire underworld.When her beloved establishment is threatened with foreclosure by the ruthless Lady Linden (Courtney Ford), head of the capitalist Ettenia Joint Company, Arthie is forced to make a desperate deal with a wealthy elite contact, Penn Arundel (Dylan Kelly). To save her home, she must infiltrate the Athereum—the heavily guarded, impenetrable vampire palace—and steal an ancient, classified ledger that exposes the empire's darkest political secrets.To execute the impossible mission, Arthie assembles a ragtag crew of outcasts: her protective adopted brother and lethal marksman, Jin (Sean Lew); a proper but rebellious expert forge apprentice, Flick (Ava Telek); the brooding, aristocratic vampire Matteo (Jacopo Barzaghi); and a haunted vampire ally, Rose (Emilia Jones). Standing in their way are institutional gatekeepers Eleanore and Elise Thorne (Ashley Puzemis and Eloise Rakic-Platt), and Laith Sayaad (Adam Abbou), the fiercely dangerous, white-haired high captain of the Horned Guard who shares a tense, magnetic rivalry with Arthie.As the ticking-clock heist unfolds to a haunting, percussion-heavy gothic score by Ramin Djawadi, the crew must navigate blood-slicked ballrooms, deceptive political alliances, and deadly betrayals. Arthie soon realizes that they aren't just stealing a ledger—they are uncovering a massive, systemic conspiracy that could tear the empire apart and ignite a revolution.

Story added by nickienicks on May 27, 2026