When she was young, Hotaru was once lost when she played in the forest near her uncle's place that she visits every summer. There, she had a fateful encounter with a spirit, who helped her even though he would disappear if a human being touches him. She began to visit him every summer, even as she grows; while he waits for the summer to come, for their time together to flow again.
In this anime trilogy, a salvage ship crew happens upon a haunted vessel in Magnetic Rose; a cold tablet turns a lab worker into a biological weapon in Stink Bomb; and an urban populace carries on an endless war with an unseen foe in Cannon Fodder. Three years in the making, the thought-provoking anthology features eye-popping action and directorial work by a trio of genre geniuses: Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura and Katsuhiro Ôtomo. "Memories" is made up of three separate science-fiction stories. In the first, "Magnetic Rose," four space travelers are drawn into an abandoned spaceship that contains a world created by one woman's memories. In "Stink Bomb," a young lab assistant accidentally transforms himself into a human biological weapon set on a direct course for Tôkyô. The final episode, "Cannon Fodder," depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unseen enemy.
Set in the beginning of the 20th century Japan, the film follows the bright and eccentric Kenji from his late student years through his adulthood. Kenji suffers the tragedy of being an artist who's art isn't recognized during his lifetime. Based on the life of the author Kenji Miyazawa, the film depicts his brief but intense existence.
In the second installment of the Death Note film franchise, Light Yagami meets a second Kira and faithful follower Misa Amane and her Shinigami named Rem. Light attempts to defeat L along with Teru Mikami (a Kira follower) and Kiyomi Takada (another Kira follower) but in the end will Light win? or will a Shinigami named Ryuk make all the difference in Light's victory or his ultimate death?
In the suburbs of Tokyo some time ago, there lived a clumsy boy about 10 years old. There appeared in front of him named Sewashi, Nobita's descendant of four generations later from the 22nd century, and Doraemon, a 22nd century cat-type caretaker robot who helps people with its secret gadgets. Sewashi claims that his family is suffering from the debts Nobita made even to his generation, so in order to change this disastrous future, he brought along Doraemon as Nobita's caretaker to bring happiness to his future, although Doraemon is not happy about this. And so Sewashi installed an accomplishment program into Doraemon forcing him to take care of Nobita. Unless he makes Nobita happy, Doraemon can no longer go back to the 22nd century. This is how the life of Doraemon and Nobita begins. Will Doraemon succeed this mission and return to the 22nd century?
This final installment of the recent Gamera trilogy begins with schoolgirl Ayana discovering a large egg in a cave that, according to legend, houses demons. The egg hatches into a small monster, which Ayana decides to raise and quickly develops as psychic bond with. As Ayana's monster, named Iris, grows to adulthood, the flying turtle Gamera begins to take an interest in this new potential threat. Who will be the victor in the final battle, and how much of Japan will be left standing at the end?
Magic Tree House is a 2011 Japanese anime drama film based on the American children fantasy series of the same name. The film is directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori, and the film's screenplay was adapted from the Japanese version of the novel series Magic Tree House by Ichiro Okouchi. The film stars actress Keiko Kitagawa as Jack, and also stars child actress Mana Ashida as Annie. Magic Tree House debuted at the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival on 23 October 2011. It was subsequently released in Japanese cinemas on 7 January 2012.
When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours -- in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down.
"The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die." After making the hardest decision ever, another serious case confronts L. There are only 23 days left and without his best partner Watari (Shunji Fujimura), L has to solve the case all by himself for the very first time.
Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura are executing their mission of delivering a lost pet to a certain village. However, right in the midst of things, troops led by the mysterious knight, Temujin, attack them. In the violent battle, the three become separated. Temujin challenges Naruto to a fight and at the end of the fierce battle, both fall together from a high cliff...
This is the film adaptation of four stories from the book "Kwaidan: Stories and studies of strange things" by Lafcadio Hearn and is actually a collection of Japanese ghost stories, taken from various sources, some even stemming from China.
As the perpetually lecherous Ataru and his friends prepare for a carnival at Tomobiki High School, they gradually realize the days are literally repeating themselves. Any effort to break the pattern dumps them back where they started. They later discover their town has been reduced to a circle of land a few miles across, poised on the back of a gigantic sea turtle--a reference to "Urushima Taro," a Japanese Rip Van Winkle story.
Explore Cinderella's "happily ever after" life as a princess in 3 stories, with help from the Fairy Godmother. First, Cinderella's awkward first days at the palace, when she tried so hard to fit in that she forgot to be herself. Second, how Jaq felt so left out that he wished to be a human. Third, how Cinderella taught one of her nasty step-sisters how to smile which leads to her own true love.
The reincarnation of a 10th century Japanese general haunts 1920s Tokyo
Horus, a kid living in a unnamed Scandinavian/Eastern Europe culture of the Iron Age, recovers the Sword of the Sun from the rock giant Moog and learns from his dying father that he must returns to his ancestral territory. In the process, he defends a village from the attacks of Grundewald, a warlord/ice demon and befriends the enigmatic Hilda, a lonely and beautiful girl who sings haunting songs (and who hides a terrible secret).
A young boy with a troubled home life becomes "chosen," and he stumbles into the middle of a great spirit war, where he meets a group of friendly spirits who become his companions through his journey. Now he must fight to protect his friends and free the world of the spirits from oppression. The creatures and ghosts are taken directly from Japanese folklore and range from the cute and silly to the disturbing. Written by Seikima
A young girl had her voice magically taken away so that she would never hurt people with it, but her outlook changes when she encounters music and friendship.
In a world of fake castles and anthropomorphic rodents, an epic battle begins when an unemployed father's sanity is challenged by a chance encounter with two underage girls on holiday.
The Star of Cottonland is an anime movie adaptation of a shōjo manga by Yumiko Ōshima. The story is about an abandoned kitten called Chibi-neko (drawn as a small girl with cat ears and tail) who is adopted by a young man named Tokio and grows up believing she is human.
Urumi also known as Urumi: The Warriors Who Wanted to Kill Vasco Da Gama is a 2011 Malayalam historical fantasy film. It stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, who was also one of the producers of the film, as Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar, Prabhu Deva as Vavvali, Robin Pratt as Vasco da Gama, Alexx ONell as Estêvão da Gama, Genelia D'Souza as Princess Aysha of Cannanore, Amol Gupte, Jagathy Sreekumar, Nithya Menon, Vidya Balan, whilst featuring Arya and Tabu in guest roles. Background score and songs were composed by Deepak Dev, lyrics were by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri, Rafeeq Ahammed and Engandiyur Chandrasekharan.
Patterned after Japanese art and silk screens, Taro, The Dragon Boy is an animated feature about Japanese mythology and cultures, focusing on Taro, a young boy who has to make a voyage to a distant lake to save his mother, who has been turned into a dragon.
Oshare (Gorgeous) is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Oshare decides she will be going to her aunt's house in the country instead. She brings with her her friends from school - Fanta (who likes to take pictures, and daydreams a lot), KunFuu (who has very good reflexes), Gari/Prof (who is a major nerd), Sweet (who likes to clean), Mac (who eats a lot), and Melody (a musician). However, the girls are unaware that Oshare's aunt is actually dead and the house is actually haunted. When they arrive at the house, crazy events take place and the girls disappear one by one while slowly discovering the secret behind all the madness.
In the Ming Dynasty, there lives four orphans, Ying, Sao, Yuanlong and Niehu. Raised in Taoyuan Village, the four are as closed as brothers. Their exceptional martial arts skills allows them to reach the highest rank within the imperial guards. After the four successfully killed the Japanese troop leader, the Emperor orders Ying to escort the Golden Wheel of Time from Sindu (now India) back to the capital, which is said to have the power of time travel and foresee into the future. Now in 2013, Squire Tang, funded by a mysterious financer, digs up three ancient icemen from the outskirt of China; they are Ying, Sao and Niehu. As he is transferring the icemen to Hong Kong for further studies, the vehicle involves in a traffic accident which, unexpectedly, defrosts Ying...
A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.
Through round after round of extensive plastic surgery and vigorous maintenance, Ririko has become the absolute manifestation of beauty, and becomes a wildly successful model, actress, and singer. However, soon, her body, unable to withstand the burdens of surgery, begins to crumble, and along with it so does her mind, as she plummets towards a frightening and inevitable end.
As a young boy, Xu-Xian is forced to free his pet, a small snake. Unbeknownst to him, the snake is actually a young snake goddess named Bai-Niang and she is in love with him. Many years later, when they are both adults, the princess is magically transformed into a human and sets out to find her love. But the local wizard believes her to be a vampire, and banishes Xu-Xian from the village in order to save him. Xu-Xian's pet pandas Panda and Mimi set out to save him and bring him, in the process becoming leaders of an animal gang.
Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mom, Babe realizes that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hogget knows it. With the help of the sheep dogs Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be.
Sakura Kinomoto, a Card Captor, wins a game of chance and is awarded a trip to Hong Kong, along with her best friend Tomoyo and her rival, Syaoran Li. It turns out that the ancient rival of Clow Reed, the creator of the mysterious and powerful Clow Cards, summoned them, and she's out for revenge. A battle ensues, and secrets are revealed about Clow Reed's shady past and Sakura's connection to him.
Based on a classic fairytale "Cinderella" brilliantly adapted by Yevgeni Shvarts.
A retelling of the classic Dickens tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, miser extraordinaire. He is held accountable for his dastardly ways during night-time visitations by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and future.
Yukio is your average high school student who spends his days going to class and avoiding bullies. That is until he meets Ryusuke, a guitar prodigy. Together with Taira, Chiba, and Saku they form the rock band BECK. As their popularity increases so does the danger as Ryusuke's past catches up with him.
The story is set in a rural area around Madurai, in the village called Parithiyur. Paruthiveeran (Karthi) is a country brash, He is often arrested for petty crimes. His one ambition in life is to gain enough notoriety to be on TV news and to be thrown into Madras Jail. He often bullies Paruthiyur villagers for money, women and fun. He lives with his doting uncle Chevvaazhai (Saravanan) who pampers and accompanies him in every misbehavior to keep him happy. His cousin Muththazhagu (Priyamani) is the daughter of a caste fanatic who is a prominent person in the village's council. Muththazhagu loves him more than her life, but he remains unmoved and keeps her at bay.
Two years after the events of the Fourth Great Ninja War, the moon that Hagoromo Otsutsuki created long ago to seal away the Gedo Statue begins to descend towards the world, threatening to become a meteor that would destroy everything on impact. Amidst this crisis, a direct descendant of Kaguya Otsutsuki named Toneri Otsutsuki attempts to kidnap Hinata Hyuga but ends up abducting her younger sister Hanabi. Naruto and his allies now mount a rescue mission before finding themselves embroiled in a final battle to decide the fate of everything.
Shindo has given us a strange meditation on male lusts and women's struggle for independence. It is like a play in that the action takes place almost exclusively in a small cabin in a deserted region of Western Japan. A mother and daughter are stranded in a ghost town and are starving to death. They hit on a plan to get them out of their plight which involves exploiting the few men who stray into their cabin. They offer sexual services and then bump off the happy customers. All goes well until a local cop shows up and, then, a relation of theirs from way back.
Asako, a comic book artist in her early forties, is devastated by the death of her precious cat, Ca Va, which kept her company for over 15 years, as her assistant Naomi watches on with concern. Naomi is a young woman in her early twenties, who has her set of worries about love and future. Then one day, Asako meets a new cat, Gou-gou, which brings new joy and vitality to her life. What is more, she finds potential for love in a man named Seiji. Like Asako, Naomi, too, embarks on a new life plan.
When she was young, Hotaru was once lost when she played in the forest near her uncle's place that she visits every summer. There, she had a fateful encounter with a spirit, who helped her even though he would disappear if a human being touches him. She began to visit him every summer, even as she grows; while he waits for the summer to come, for their time together to flow again.
The story follows a Roman architect named Lucius, who is having trouble coming up with ideas. One day, he discovers a hidden tunnel underneath a spa that leads him to a modern Japanese bath house. Inspired by the innovations found there, he creates his own spa, Roma Thermae, bringing in the modern ideas to his time.
His goal is to help the weak and defenseless, but his saving a mouse makes him the most wanted in all the land. On the run from incessant, dim-witted mice, Perro befriends a young miller's boy, Pierre; together, they decide to seek fame and fortune. When they cross paths with the lovely Princess Rosa, Perro determines to get Pierre hitched to Her Royal Highness.
Groundbreaking director Mamoru Oshii continues to push the boundaries of art and anime with this universally acclaimed cyber thriller following cyborg detective Batou as he tries to unravel the reasons for a murderous robot revolt in the year 2032. A quest for a killer that becomes a mind bending search for the meaning of life.
In this anime trilogy, a salvage ship crew happens upon a haunted vessel in Magnetic Rose; a cold tablet turns a lab worker into a biological weapon in Stink Bomb; and an urban populace carries on an endless war with an unseen foe in Cannon Fodder. Three years in the making, the thought-provoking anthology features eye-popping action and directorial work by a trio of genre geniuses: Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura and Katsuhiro Ôtomo. "Memories" is made up of three separate science-fiction stories. In the first, "Magnetic Rose," four space travelers are drawn into an abandoned spaceship that contains a world created by one woman's memories. In "Stink Bomb," a young lab assistant accidentally transforms himself into a human biological weapon set on a direct course for Tôkyô. The final episode, "Cannon Fodder," depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unseen enemy.
We’ve heard all the insane rumours and scandals attached to the ill-fated 1996 remake of H.G. Wells’ THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project only to be fired after four days of shooting and replaced by John Frankenheimer and how headliner Marlon Brando impacted on that decision. Now for the first time the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong. Stanley spills the juicy beans, stars Fairuza Balk and Rob Morrow give revealing interviews, New Line head Robert Shaye, producers Ed Pressman and Tim Zinnemann chime in and numerous crew from both versions add their reminiscences. David Gregory’s epic documentary is also a veritable encyclopaedia of behind the scenes footage, concept art and storyboards, creature designs, makeup tests and candid photos to illustrate the shocking tale of eccentric artist vs. Hollywood machine.
Impersonating an Imperial Army officer by wearing a "red lion's mane", a poor servant returns to his village after 10 years of absence to end the village's suffering caused by corrupt officials and businessmen. Written by Alex Ebora
An intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival held in Bethel, NY in 1969, from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.
Based on the eponymous manga for girls by cartoonist Kiriko Nananan, the pic follows the ups and downs of four female friends in Tokyo looking for love and trying to cope with the responsibilities in their lives. The main characters, impeccably played by four powerful actresses, are modern, self-sufficient women and their stories are told with mild irony and a dash of melancholy. The result is a movie that is lighthearted at times, a little sad at others, crazy and sometimes serious, but always special, that investigates the psychology of its characters and offers an accurate depiction of urban Japan, thanks to its director’s know-how. While many overly ambitious directors struggle to tell even one fairly comprehensible story, Yazaki skillfully weaves a powerful depiction of not one, but four women, creating an indissoluble and moving whole that doesn’t succumb to sentimentalism.
Two young women with differing views on love find themselves with three suitors. Sowmya (Tabu) attracts the attention of aspiring film director Manohar (Ajith), while wounded Captain Bala (Mammootty) falls for her younger, hopelessly romantic sister, Meenu (Aishwarya Rai) but hesitates because he is much older than she. Meanwhile, Meenu meets and falls for a businessman with a passion for poetry, Srikanth (Abbas). Manohar goes to Madras to make a film and prove himself worthy of Sowmya, and Srikanth's business collapses, and he also departs to find someone who will lend him the money to pay off his investors.
An unlikely team of activists and innovators hatches a bold mission to save endangered species.
Dangerous Liaisons is a Chinese film by Hur Jin-ho based on the novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It has been adapted five times to date, including the eponymous Hollywood film (1988) and Untold Scandal from South Korea (2003).
Uma loses her husband at a very young age and faces many hardships. The only support she gets is from her brother-in-law.
Set in the beginning of the 20th century Japan, the film follows the bright and eccentric Kenji from his late student years through his adulthood. Kenji suffers the tragedy of being an artist who's art isn't recognized during his lifetime. Based on the life of the author Kenji Miyazawa, the film depicts his brief but intense existence.
Some time after the Mousekewitz's have settled in America, they find that they are still having problems with the threat of cats. That makes them eager to try another home out in the west, where they are promised that mice and cats live in peace. Unfortunately, the one making this claim is an oily con artist named Cat R. Waul who is intent on his own sinister plan.
Duke Red has overseen the construction of a massive Ziggurat to extend his power across the whole planet. Tima, a robot-girl built in the image of his deceased daughter, is at the core of these plans. However, after escaping the Duke's clutches in a laboratory fire, she meets and befriends Kenichi, a boy who's traveled to Metropolis with his detective uncle in search of a scientist wanted for organ trafficking. Will her relationship with Kenichi, and the realization of the truth of her existence, change her destiny?
After young Midori loses her parents, she takes refuge in a freak show with living mummies, human torsos, and sexual degenerates. She is beaten, raped, and exposed to hideous displays of exhibitionism and cruelty. Her savior is Mr. Arashi, a dwarf who imprisons himself in bottles and escapes confinement like a vapor.
Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training.
Mikio Naruse's second adaptation of a novel by Fumiko Hayashi stars Hideko Takamine, the director's frequent muse, as bus conductress Kiyoko Komori, the youngest daughter in a family of squabbling half-siblings. All the children are products of different fathers, though they share the same mother: a tragically weak-willed woman named Osei (Kumeko Urabe). The familial tension only increases when the husband of one daughter dies and leaves behind a substantial insurance policy, so Kiyoko abandons them to their quarrels and makes a go of it on her own, though she finds she can't leave her mother behind so easily.
Director Lal Jose is all ready with Neela Thamara, a remake of the 1979 hit by the same name, that was scripted by M.T. Vasudevan Nair and directed by Yusaf Ali Kechery. The film has had its shoot at various locations as Pattambi, Malamalkavu, Chamravattam, Kuttippuram and Thavanur.
This is the story of a young self-reliant girl called Ai, who one day, moves into the Animal Village. While working at Tom Nook's shop "Nook's Cranny" she begins living her life away from her family. To begin with, she doesn't know left from right, but under the guidance of Mayor Tortimer, the angry but correct Mr. Resetti, and the wandering musician K.K. Slider among others, she is eventually accepted as a member of the village. One night as she walked along the beach, she finds a message in the bottle. It sets her off on a quest of planting pine trees around the village to fulfill a miracle on the eve of the Winter Festival
As the human city development encroaches on the raccoon population's forest and meadow habitat, the raccoons find themselves faced with the very real possibility of extinction. In response, the raccoons engage in a desperate struggle to stop the construction and preserve their home.
During WWII, a human heart taken from Dr. Frankenstein's lab and is kept in Japan where it gets exposed to the radiation of the bombing of Hiroshima. The heart grows in size, mutates and eventually becomes an indestuctable humanoid. Later, a reptilian monster goes on a rampage. Eventually the Frankenstein creature and the reptile face off in a terrible battle.
A young journalist interviews an elderly woman about being forced into prostitution in Borneo at a brothel called Sandakan No. 8.
In the second installment of the Death Note film franchise, Light Yagami meets a second Kira and faithful follower Misa Amane and her Shinigami named Rem. Light attempts to defeat L along with Teru Mikami (a Kira follower) and Kiyomi Takada (another Kira follower) but in the end will Light win? or will a Shinigami named Ryuk make all the difference in Light's victory or his ultimate death?
1942, Nanjing (Nanking). Following a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government, the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?
Sara's mental growth stops in childhood, and returns to the embryonic stage. Sara enters a coma for several long years, due to psychological problems resulting from harsh conditions that she experienced in the process of childhood. By fate a young doctor (Hassan) decides to enter the clinic for treatment of mental illness where she is being treated, and tries to wake her from her trance. Sara wakes up from the coma and begins to retrieve her life. However, her greedy brother try to exploit her condition. Love blossoms between Sara and Dr Hassan, but the law forbids a relationship as she is deemed mentally incapable.
When Bussan learns he has less than a year to live, he decides to continue his life as usual. He spends his time with his friends, a band called Kisarazu Cat's Eye. Their funny adventures range from playing gigs to solving a mystery surrounding counterfeit money, but Bussan's impending death is never far away.
Till Agaton Sax stora förvåning anländer de båda storförbrytarna Octopus P. Scott och Julius Mosca till Byköping och kommer till honom för att be om hjälp mot Scotland Yard. De utger sig för att vara oskyldiga dubbelgångare till storförbrytarna. Dessa förbrytares plan är att kidnappa Agaton Sax. I Byköping har det byggts ett nytt, stort höghus. Det ska invigas med en stor middag till vilken de viktigaste personerna i Byköping är inbjudna (Agaton Sax var naturligtvis bjuden). Då har skurkarna tänkt slå till. (I filmen hålls festen i borgen Byköpingshus; jämför Nyköpingshus.) För att krångla till det ännu mer kommer de riktiga dubbelgångarna, Absalom Nick och Charlie MacSnuff, till Byköping. Dit anländer också Lispington som griper alla som liknar en förbrytare.
After terminally ill Bussan finally passes away he misses hanging out with his still living friends and decides to return to Kisarazu. In his ghost form however only his most trusted friends can see him, and his meddling in the lives of the living results in the return of Ozzy and a long dead team of American baseball players who drowned off the shores of Kisarazu. It's down to Bussan and the Cats to save the day and restore the town to order, but can Bussan bring himself to say bye-bye once and for all?
Snehmoy (Rahul Bose) and Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) are pen friends who exchange wedding vows through letters. Fifteen years pass but they never meet. Yet the bond of marriage is strong between them. This unusual relationship comes under a cloud when a young widow, Sandhya (Raima Sen), comes to stay with Snehmoy along with her eight-year-old son Poltu. Snehmoy and the little boy bond and the arithmetic teacher discovers the joy of palpable bonds and fatherhood. There develops an inexplicable thread of understanding with Sandhya too. But Snehmoy remained loyal to his unseen Japanese wife. When Miyage was ill from cancer, he took a long leave from his school and tried his best to find a cure for the illness. Meanwhile, malaria took a toll on him and he died. Coming of Miyage in a white sari to Sunderbans after his departure was really touching.
Cats is a pop-cultural phenomenon that has been performed on stage for more than 50 million patrons in 26 countries for almost 18 years, resulting in more than two billion dollars in ticket sales. Now that Cats has finally made it to the small screen, attention must be paid not just by fans of this critic-proof show, but also by those entertainment mavens who have somehow avoided it until now.
Su-ok, a young teacher, moves into an isolated mountain village whose inhabitants are all related except for a mysterious dimwitted vagabond.
The story has been adapted from the Sir Arthur Wing Pinero play. The title means nothing more than the mid-channel of married life, through a character in the feature likening the roughness of the English channel in the center of the trip across from London to Paris to the woes married folks meet in their wedded life.
A Japanese tourist, Tokio, meets a 15-year-old Hong Kong girl and her grandmother left behind in Hong Kong while their family emmigrates to Canada.
The filmed account of a large Canadian rock festival train tour.
A love-lorn script writer grows increasingly desperate in his quest to adapt the book 'The Orchid Thief'.
Franco Elica is a film director casting a remake of a pious melodrama in Rome. He's melancholy, heading south for a break. On a beach, he meets a man who films weddings and is roped into helping film the wedding of the daughter of a severe and imperious prince. The wedding is one of convenience - the prince needs money, the groom is a mama's boy. Elica is attracted to the bride, Boda, and tries to convince her not to marry. No matter how outrageous his behavior, the prince keeps Elica on as the wedding director. As the wedding approaches, what's real blurs with Elica's imagination. Is he mad?
“Showrunners” is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.
A TV program selects people at random to kill one another for fame and their freedom. Ever seen the show "Survivor" and wished they would just start killing each other?? Series 7 literally gives its contestants the guns. The film is not merely a satire on reality TV. It is an example of just how far people will shamelessly go for fame. 6 contenders are pitted against each other in a no holds barred, kill or be killed contest. The reigning champ is Dawn, a hard-nosed, mother-to-be. We go back and forth between Dawn and the other 5 contenders to see if someone can dethrone Dawn and become the new Champion. What is the prize? How are the contestants picked? These questions are not as important as asking yourself how shameless has our society become?
When a Japanese family moves in next door, Per and Shin, the same age, instantly become friends. But after the boys cut school, each set of parents' blames the other, causing a rift between neighbors. What will it take for the two families to reconcile their differences?
Andrew Lloyd Weber's timeless tribute to TS Eliott.
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever in this atmospheric thriller featuring a star-studded cast.
Peigang, his family's only son for three generations running, is to be executed on account of larceny, but not without the intervention of his grandmother.
Founded in 2004, the Festival originated in Wisconsin and Minnesota by Joe Pickett, Nick Prueher and Geoff Haas, childhood friends from Wisconsin. While still in high school, Pickett and Prueher began collecting videos from garage sales, training videos from odd jobs, and copies of tapes from a video production house. The friends would then play selections from this collection for entertainment at parties. In 2004, Pickett and Prueher quit their day jobs to focus on production of their first feature documentary, Dirty Country. They started the touring Found Footage Festival show to fund the production of the documentary. In addition to its regular touring schedule, the Festival has appeared at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival, Just For Laughs (the Montreal comedy festival), the New York Comedy Festival, the Impakt Festival in the Netherlands, and the Central Standard Film Festival in Minneapolis, MN. The Festival is currently based out of New York City.
There still stands a famous apartment building where such prominent manga artists as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked, and shared experiences.
This psychological mystery/thriller, adapted from Barbara Vine aka Ruth Rendell's novel of the same name, depicts a family on the edge. Two sisters, the elder, obsessive Vera, and the younger, manipulative Eden, cut a path of secrecy and jealousy that leads to disaster.
Set in Miami, a dancer arrives from Caracas determined to make her name as a film director.
As a writer named Mike struggles to shepherd his semi-autobiographical sitcom into development, his vision is slowly eroded by a domineering network executive named Lenny who favors trashy reality programming. The irony, of course, is that every crass suggestion Lenny makes improves the show's response from test audiences and brings the show a step closer to getting on the air.
Survivor Series (1989) was the third annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1989 at the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois. This was the first Survivor Series event to feature team names. It was also the first Survivor Series to feature four-on-four tag matches instead of five-on-five. The main event was a four-on-four Survivor Series match where The Ultimate Warriors (WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior, The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) and Jim Neidhart) defeated The Heenan Family (Bobby Heenan, Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku) and Arn Anderson). The undercard also featured Survivor Series matches.
Against the background of an Australian desert landscape, so much space and so few people, Sandy, a geologist, and Hiromitsu, a Japanese businessman, play out a story of human inconsequence in the face of the blistering universe. The end of the journey leaves no-one capable of going back to where they started from.
When a professor develops a vaccine that eliminates human allergies to dogs, he unwittingly upsets the fragile balance of power between cats and dogs and touches off an epic battle for pet supremacy. The fur flies as the feline faction, led by Mr. Tinkles, squares off against wide-eyed puppy Lou and his canine cohorts.
The heir to a family fortune discovers that a curse has been placed on it, put there centuries before by a band of samurai warriors. Adaptation of novel by Seishi Yokomizo
Evan 'Bullet' James and his father are very close. After a disastrous new show pitch to a television network, the father tragically dies, leaving 'Bullet' alone in the world. 'Bullet' wants justice and seeks the help from the gang of his youth to exact revenge on the business world of Hollywood that he believes killed his father.
A cowboy is wrongfully accused of murder. He winds up in Harlem, where he assumes the identity of a preacher-turned-gangster who looks like him. He infiltrates the gang to catch the men who framed him.
Marina and her cousins, Tito, Tato and Tete, live in a colorful and tropical valley from the Huasteca Tamaulipeca. One day, the fair arrives to town. There they’ll find the stone boy who has that condition because of his anger with life. Marina and her cousins will embark on a fantastic journey, travelling around the country of senses, where their citizens would help the stone boy to recover his human form.
The movie is based on true events that occured in Croatian city of Karlovac in 1941. In order to save the imprisoned high ranking member of the resistance movement, the group of Partizans are conducting daring raid in the very center of the enemy stronghold.
The sequel to the 1987 cult hit The Lost Boys takes us to the shady surf city of Luna Bay, California, where vampires quickly dispatch anyone who crosses their path. Into this dark world arrive Chris Emerson (Hilgenbrink) and his younger sister, Nicole (Reeser). Having just lost their parents in a car accident, the siblings move in with their eccentric Aunt Jillian and become new prey...
A team of softball players get lost in the woods after their bus breaks down. They get attacked, beaten, raped and murdered by some psychotic men. The women fight back with baseball bats and bows and arrows.
Wang Shuangli is Deputy Director of the local Cultural Centre, and hopes to be appointed Director. However Old Ma is brought in from the country and installed as Director. This starts a long train of events with Wang's cronies using the bureaucracy to try to oust the new director. At home, Wang has problems because his father wants Wang to have a son to carry on the family name. However, because of the one-child policy, Wang cannot have any more children unless his young daughter is certified infirm.
Jutka, a young woman who works in a factory, falls in love with Andras, a university student. She pretends to be a student, to him and to his parents, and begins to live a lie. Finally she rebels against Andras and his demands and the social conventions that forced her to live a lie.
Prostitute Dolly co-finances the purchase of a Vermeer painting with art expert Eddy Cremer. When they find out the painting is fake, she returns to the red light district, where conditions have worsened over time.
Called “the most famous cat on the Internet,” the wide-eyed perma-kitten Lil Bub is the adorable embodiment of the Web’s fascination with all things cats. Join Lil Bub and her owner on wild cross-country romp as they meet the Internet’s most famous cat-lebrities. Chock full of adorable kitties, hilarious videos and the dedicated cat enthusiasts who love them, Lil Bub & Friendz is a fun and hip peek behind the memes we know and love. Includes Mike "The Dude" Bridavsky, Ben Lashes, Grumpy Cat, Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat.
STILL BILL is an intimate portrait of soul legend Bill Withers, best known for his classics “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean On Me,” “Lovely Day,” “Grandma’s Hands,” and “Just the Two of Us.” With his soulful delivery and warm, heartfelt sincerity, Withers has written the songs that have – and always will – resonate deeply within the fabric of our times. Filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack follow Withers and offer a unique and rare look inside the world of this fascinating man. Through concert footage, journeys to his birthplace, interviews with music legends, his family and closest friends, STILL BILL presents the story of an artist who has written some of the most beloved songs in our time and who truly understands the heart and soul of a man.
Sinners are invited to a theme park where they endure the repetition of their transgressions. What chances do a conniving kleptomaniac, a gullible teenager, and an obsessed father stand when facing their own moral failings? Lucifer and his colorful cast of singing carnies invite you to grab a ticket to The Devil’s Carnival to find out!
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events - in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. Yet, despite all the things he has attained, his one true love eludes him. 'Forrest Gump' is the story of a man who rose above his challenges, and who proved that determination, courage, and love are more important than ability.
A Crime is a Thriller from French director Manuel Pradal and is a French-American co-production about a risky three person relationship.
In this standard Hungarian drama, the effects of sterility and jealousy on a marriage are played out against a backdrop of World War II and the rising Nazi persecution of Jews. Director Marta Meszaros usually focuses on issues like pregnancy, middle-age, and other topics without questioning the broader picture. In this drama, Sylvia (Lili Monori) cannot have children, and she convinces married Jewish woman Irene (Isabelle Huppert) to have a child and then give the child to her for adoption. The plan works but it also backfires. The way in which the child was adopted causes friction between Sylvia and her husband, and to make matters worse, Sylvia's husband falls in love with Irene. A crisis looms when he asks his jealous wife to give Irene her identity papers because Jews are being deported and Irene will die without their help.
Combat has taken its toll on Rambo, but he's finally begun to find inner peace in a monastery. When Rambo's friend and mentor Col. Trautman asks for his help on a top secret mission to Afghanistan, Rambo declines but must reconsider when Trautman is captured.
In "Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever," Grumpy Cat is a lonely cat living in a mall pet shop. Because she always gets passed over and never gets chosen by customers, this kitty develops a sour outlook on life until…one day during the holidays, a very special 12-year-old girl named Chyrstal enters the pet store and falls in love with Grumpy Cat. A unique friendship is formed between the two when Chyrstal finds she is the only person who can hear this unique feline talk. In the middle of the holiday rush, Grumpy reluctantly thwarts the kidnapping of an expensive exotic dog she can’t stand and rescues Chyrstal after the mall closes on Christmas Eve. Will Grumpy Cat learn the true meaning of Christmas, or will it be in Grumpy’s words, “Worst. Christmas. Ever?”
On their last night of Thanksgiving break, four old friends, now all college freshmen, realize their small town has more meaning than they ever imagined.
Kismath (English: Destiny) is a 2016 Indian Malayalam romantic drama film written and directed by debutante Shanavas K Bavakkutty. It stars Shane Nigam and Shruty Menon as two star-crossed lovers from different religious backgrounds. It is produced by Shailaja Manikandan under the banner of Pattam Cinema Company, and in association with LJ FIlms and Akbar Travels. The film narrates the real-life story of a Ponnani couple - a 28-year-old scheduled caste woman and a 23-year-old Muslim man - who faced backlash from society for their relationship in 2011.
Young adults become fascinated by the events of the three missing filmmakers in Maryland, so they decide to go into the same woods and find out what really happened.
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
When Ted’s beloved cat dies, the trauma triggers a terrible mental breakdown. His broken brain prompts him to bring his feline friend back – all he needs is nine human lives. Ted dons vicious deadly cat claw gloves and a creepy cat mask, and goes on a murderous rampage. As the butchery escalates, a twisted romance blossoms between Ted and Claire, a young woman who has also recently lost her cat in a horrifying incident.
The executive producers of High School Musical keep the good times rolling with this upbeat musical comedy set in the one place every American teenager's home away from home - the local shopping mall. Ally (Nina Dobrev) is an optimistic adolescent singer/songwriter whose hard working mother owns the mall music shop frequented by every teen in town. When Ally shares her music with Joey (Rob Mayes), a janitor in the mall who harbors rock star ambitions, she is thrilled to find someone who can truly relate to her songs as well as her heart. Trouble looms on the horizon, however, in the form of the mall owner's spoiled rotten daughter Madison (Autumn Reeser). Madison is the kind of girl who's used to getting whatever she wants, and what she wants now could prove disastrous for both Ally's ambitions, and her mother's popular music store.
Yugoslav partisans grimly crop the hair of a village quintet of women believed to have consorted with the occupational Nazis. Four, for various reasons, have indeed - and their seducer is a lone, swaggering sergeant whom the partisans briskly emasculate. Escorted out of town by the sheepish Nazis, the forlorn ladies link up, patriotically and romantically, with a band of tough mountain guerrillas. Written by alfiehitchie
An efficient gang enters a Manhattan bank, locks the doors, and takes hostages. They work deliberately, without haste. Detective Frazier is assigned to negotiate, but his mind is occupied with the corruption charges he is facing. With an army of police surrounding the bank, the thief, the cop, and the plutocrat's fixer enter high-stakes negotiations. Why are the robbers asking for a plane, if they are so competent and they know they won't get one? Why aren't they in more of a hurry?
Noboru Tanaka returned to direct the third of Nikkatsu's pinku eiga melodramas examining prostitution in various Japanese cities. This one focuses on modern-day Osaka, and although it is still a softcore film, is the most outrageous of the lot. The casting is almost demented, with classical ballerina and staunch feminist Genshu Hanayagi smoking a cigarette with her privates, poet Sakumi Hagiwara blowing up some gangsters by suicidally detonating a gas-filled love doll, and similarly peculiar appearances from notorious druggie Meika Seri and genre icon Junko Miyashita. Highly recommended for pinku eiga aficionados, this one must be seen to be believed.
Horror/ comedy that explores what happens when a terrible situation is dropped into the laps of the two people least equipped to deal with it. The Brothers Mugg can either step up to the plate and finally grow up, or they can wait and clean up the mess as a mysterious creature eats every living thing in the building, one by one.
Walter Weed is an unassuming desk jockey at the FBI when the Bureau uncovers a plot to assassinate him. A team of degenerate, psychotic assassins dispatched by mystery man Hal Leuco to win a huge bounty includes a resourceful beauty who has a unique method of killing her prey, a power-tool wielding psychopath and a deadly master of disguise.
Mafia hitman Tommy Spinelli (Joe Pesci) is flying to San Diego with a bag that holds eight severed heads, which he's bringing to his superiors to prove that some troublesome rival mobsters are permanently out of the picture. When his bag gets accidentally switched at the airport, Tommy must track down his duffel bag and the 8 heads it contains.
It's not the crime, it's the cover-up. In small-town, hard-scrabble New Hampshire, foul-mouthed all-talk slacker John "Rugged" Rudgate fancies himself a criminal. When a local plumber stares him down at a pub, Rugged vows revenge, pouring brake fluid in the man's water supply. When the man dies from unrelated causes, Rugged and his side-kick, the even dimmer Jeff, try to cover up what they think i
Former high school friends run into each other years later and drunkenly decide to make good on their promise to marry each other if they're both still single by 30 - only to discover too late all the things they liked about each other when they were younger have changed.
End of the World Brothers is a story of adventure, friendship and fellowship that goes to the heart and is directed towards the whole family. It is the story of "Pato" (Topa) and Pirucha (Muni), which together with a famous band called Gang of Sun join forces to save the children from eviction "Home at the End of the World". The film advance by adventures, songs and stories up to an emotional, surprising and spectacular final.
Directed by Tony Award-winner and frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine, SIX BY SONDHEIM is a highly personal profile of a great American artist as revealed through the creation and performance of six of his iconic songs. Told primarily in Sondheim’s own words, this feature documentary weaves together dozens of interviews with the composer, rarely seen archival material spanning more than half a century (including newly discovered footage of Ethel Merman performing “Gypsy”) and re-stagings of three songs produced especially for the film.
In Center Stage: On Pointe, Jonathan Reeves (Gallagher) is tasked with infusing more contemporary styles and modernism into the American Ballet Academy, and enlists his his top choreographers Charlie (Radetsky), Cooper (Stiefel) and Tommy (Wormald) to recruit dancers to compete at a camp where the winners will be selected to join the Academy. Bella Parker (Muñoz), who has always lived in the shadow of her hugely successful sister Kate, finally gets her chance to step into the limelight as one of the dancers recruited for the camp. Chloe Lukasiak plays Gwen, a talented dance prodigy who competes at the camp. - Denise Petski
"High Noon" spoof. Kid Bolha and Ciscocada, two clumsy swindlers, arrive at a violent Old West town called Citydown where, by mistake, one of them is appointed Sheriff. They're intent on facing the dreaded Jesse Gordon, a gunman who kills for pleasure.
Luc and his English friend Chris take a taxi to go home after partying hard all evening in Paris. At destination, they run away without paying the fare. They got the wrong driver for this... The taxi goes immediately into hunting mode, chasing them all night, wherever they go. But does he only want his money back?
Yamakasi - Les samouraïs des temps modernes is a 2001 French movie written by Luc Besson. It demonstrates the skills of the Yamakasi, a group of traceurs who battle against injustice in the Paris ghetto. They use parkour to steal from the rich in order to pay off medical bills for a kid injured copying their techniques.
A multicultural band of acrobatic do-gooders take on gangsters of three great nations in this action-packed sequel to the French box-office smash Yamakasi. The Yamakasi are a team of crime fighters who can scale buildings and urban towers with the ease of a fly walking up the wall; after leaving their home base in Paris to set up operations in England, the men decide to set up a satellite facility
Three young women sharing a room in a boarding house owned by a very strict matron dream of becoming famous in show busines
The sophisticated thief Mão Leve and his simple-minded accomplice Jonjoca take from the rich to give to the poor. Their new mission is raising funds in order Mão Leve's brother can study abroad. But great care must be taken lest the honest boy discovers the origin of the money.
The rise and fall of a violent gangster.
Inya, a heroine of the Philippine resistance against the Japanese during World War II, recalls events involving her husband Edilberto and their childhood friend Ignacio, a transvestite who, masquerading as a woman also named Inya, becomes the lover of the local Japanese commander, Ichiru, and is caught between a duty to be a spy for his country and friends and his reluctant but growing love for Ichiru.
Since the birth of the male review in the late 1970s, the greatest male strippers in the world can all be traced back to one club... La Bare Dallas. La Bare gives you a behind the curtains look at the lives, loves, laughs, and loss of the current crop of dancers as well as the man that’s been going strong for over three decades since the club’s inception, Randy “Master Blaster” Ricks.
A young woman and her pilot are stranded on a remote island after they crash land their plane. The two are contentious at first, but grow affectionate as they work together to survive. But when their rescue arrives, they are instantly brought back to the real world, where they're both in committed relationships.
A girl is granted a magical stone by an angel to become the superheroine Darna to combat evil and would later battle Valentina, her future nemesis.
An all-new favorite romantic movie.
Three strong-willed sisters face tough choices.
The story of the Filipina domestic who was hanged in Singapore for allegedly killing her fellow maid is chronicled in a film which operates on various personal, social and political levels. Both controversial and critically acclaimed, it has brought Nora Aunor numerous citations for her intense portrayal as the fallen heroine of the story.
When Annie sets her sights on her co-worker Ron she gets a few drinks in him at an office party and then has her way with him in car. A few weeks later she's expecting and is ready to set up housekeeping. Only problem? Ron's boyfriend Nick doesn't like the idea
Ana (Nora Aunor), is a mute woman living in a remote mountain area with father, Badong (Ray Ventura). Badong is sick and is searching for a man that will marry his daughter. He finds Michael (Albert Martinez), a man who expresses interest to wed Anna, because of the land he could inherit from her father. In the absence of her traveling husband, Ah meets Mayang (Glydel Mercado), with whom she forms a great friendship. Soon, Ana discovers that Mayang is also married to Michael.
A woman who falls under the sway of a crime boss plots to bring him down after a horrible betrayal in this drama from the Philippines. Azun (Elizabeth Oropesa) is a wife and mother living in a dangerous neighborhood in Manila, where she peddles goods on the street. Azun's husband Roque (Bembol Roco) becomes involved in a burglary that goes awry, leading to a lengthy jail sentence. With few options, and needing safety and support, Azun becomes involved with Timo (Christopher De Leon), leader of a local crime syndicate. But Timo's protection does not extend to Azun's teenage daughter Ada (Angelu De Leon); Timo rapes Ada, then forces her to leave her boyfriend (Jomari Yllana) and start dancing in his strip club. When Azun learns what Timo has done to Ada, she makes plans to get her revenge.
Rex and Rica are G.I. babies born to American fathers they never knew. Raised by a rich, gay adoptive father, Rex grew up feeling worthless and alone. Rica was brought up by an arrogant aunt who always makes her feel like she's a good for nothing bitch. One day, his foster father is killed, and Rex is accused of the crime. Rica, on the other hand, flees from her cruel aunt. Their paths cross as they both try to escape their predicaments. Crime and passion draw them to each other, and the thrill of it all drives them to yearn for more. But truth has its way of signifying itself: the day comes when they both learn that they have the same father
Assunta de Rossi plays Vanessa, a poor girl trying to survive in a shanty town in the Philippines. She is interested in the cab driver Oliver (Wendell Ramos), but she starts up a relationship with the abusive bodyguard Uno (Jay Manalo). After her mother dies, she’s expected to take on guardianship of her vulnerable and mentally disabled little sister Nikka (Alessandra de Rossi). Hubog was shown at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival as part of the Contemporary World Cinema program.
In 2004, singer-songwriter Matsumoto Tetsuya wrote an autobiography that included a section about his relationship with his troubled mother. Writer-director Nakamura Daisuke adapts that story to film with Shiwase Come On, his directorial debut. The film covers the marriage of Tetsuya's mother and yakuza father, his mother's drug habit, his stay at an orphanage and his reconciliation with his mother after becoming an adult. In addition to writing and performing the film's theme song, Matsumoto Tetsuya also composed the score to this touching film. In 2011, Shiawase Come On won Grand Prix at the 2011 Okuradashi Film Festival, a film festival dedicated to screening unreleased Japanese films.
Based on the Japanese Manga (Comic) series by Shinji Wada for Hana To Yume (Flowers and Dreams) Comics, Sukeban Deka (Female Juvenile Cop) was a series destined to be adapted for TV. The story of a young high school delinquent being recruited by a special police unit investigating juvenile crimes. This cop had a special weapon, a solid steel yo-yo that she would throw with the most deadly of accuracy to pummel her enemies and assailants.
A depressed ex-boxer (Yosuke Kubozuka) self-medicating for the injuries that ended his career finds a stray cat that brightens his day, but she is snatched up by a comical grungy mechanic (Kenji Furuya). Calling each other by the competing names they gave the cat, Maru and Lily, the odd pair is abruptly sucked into a political conspiracy with Saeko (Yui Ichikawa) and her son at the center. Witnessing another injustice in which the economic and social elite prey on the vulnerable, the two strays set off on the road to redemption, or at least peaceful cat ownership. (Fun fact: in addition to acting together in Alley Cat, Yosuke Kubozuka and Kenji “KJ” Furuya released the single “Soul Ship” in 2017. Kubozuka performs as Manji Line and Furuya in the band Dragon Ash.) -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
Magic Tree House is a 2011 Japanese anime drama film based on the American children fantasy series of the same name. The film is directed by Hiroshi Nishikiori, and the film's screenplay was adapted from the Japanese version of the novel series Magic Tree House by Ichiro Okouchi. The film stars actress Keiko Kitagawa as Jack, and also stars child actress Mana Ashida as Annie. Magic Tree House debuted at the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival on 23 October 2011. It was subsequently released in Japanese cinemas on 7 January 2012.
Directed by Jack Conway and Harold S. Bucquet, this 1944 film adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel, about a Chinese village invaded by Japanese soldiers, stars Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon (an Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress for her role), Agnes Moorehead, Turhan Bey, J. Carrol Naish, Hurd Hatfield, Frances Rafferty, Henry Travers and Akim Tamiroff.
In the early 1990's, a little known Japanese Samurai/Detective Series was syndicated to public access TV in Australia and became a cult success. In Japan, it was titled "Ronin Suiri Tentai" (roughly translating to “Deductive Reasoning Ronin”), but soon came to be known in the West as "Top Knot Detective". The original Japanese series was legendary in in its home country as being a cultural train-wreck, led by its insane writer/director/producer/lead actor Takashi Tawagoto. He couldn't act. He couldn't fight. He had no idea how to write a TV show. But, through various underworld connections, he had the money to make himself into a star... or so he thought...
Released a decade after Hausu, Hyôryu Kyôshitsu is a live-action adaptation of Kazuo Umezu’s manga of the same name, which was serialised between 1972 and 1974. The story in both the manga and the film concerns the mysterious transportation of an entire Japanese grade school—and all within—to a foreboding desert wasteland. As the story unfolds, the diminishing student body weathers this apocalyptic crisis while searching for clues about their surroundings, and dealing with psychological breakdown and dangerous exterior forces. (from: http://waxmask.blogspot.de/2010/07/drifting-classroom-hyoryu-kyoshitsu.html)
Ajin is a live-action adaptation of a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gamon Sakurai. Kei Nagai dies in a car accident, but realises he is a type of immortal known as Ajin (demi-human). Hunted by humans, Ajin is eventually found by the government and used as a subject in cruel experiments. He finds fellow demi-humans along the way as he escapes and goes on the run.
Love Letter (恋文 Koibumi) is a 1953 black-and-white Japanese romance film, the first film directed by the actress Kinuyo Tanaka, who was the first woman to have a career as a film director in Japan. It was entered into the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.
The live-action live-action adaptation of the Japanese science fiction manga series Inuyashikii will be directed by Shinsuke Sato and is set to premiere in 2018.
The Star of Cottonland is an anime movie adaptation of a shōjo manga by Yumiko Ōshima. The story is about an abandoned kitten called Chibi-neko (drawn as a small girl with cat ears and tail) who is adopted by a young man named Tokio and grows up believing she is human.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer is a 1992 Japanese science fiction/horror film directed by Shinya Tsukamoto. It is a bigger-budget reworking of the same director's 1989 movie Tetsuo: The Iron Man, utilizing similar themes and ideas to the earlier film (a Japanese salaryman, played by cult actor Tomorowo Taguchi, finds his body transforming into a weapon through sheer rage after his son is kidnapped by a gang of violent thugs.) It was not as well received as its predecessor but it did win the Critic's Award at the 3rd Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1992.
Meryl Streep stars as Alice in this production of Elizabeth Swados' musical, which was adapted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Based on the acclaimed New York Shakespeare Festival production by Joseph Papp, Alice at the Palace follows Alice's surreal adventures with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, The Queen of Hearts, and The Cheshire Cat, among many others.
BENJAMIN SMOKE is the highly acclaimed documentary by directors Jem Cohen (FUGAZI: INSTRUMENT) and Peter Sillen (SPEED RACER) on legendary underground musician Benjamin. BENJAMIN SMOKE follows the crooked path of this fringe-dweller, speed-freak, occasional drag-queen and all-around renegade living in the hidden Atlanta neighborhood called "Cabbagetown," and playing with his band Smoke. This moving, heart-breaking and often funny portrait premiered at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival, won the First Prize Juror's Award at the 2001 Doubletake Documentary Film Festival and had a national theatrical release by Cowboy Pictures, garnering acclaim from critics throughout the country. The DVD edition includes over forty minutes of outtakes and interviews with Benjamin, bonus live footage of Smoke, and performances of unreleased tribute songs by Cat Power and Vic Chesnutt.
The Whole Family Works, Mikio Naruse's adaptation of a Sunao Tokunga novel, feels more of a piece with the writer/director's quietly observant and psychologically charged later work. For the Naruse-familiar, it is an anomaly only in its placement within his filmography—indeed, this could be a film made by the elder, stasis-minded Naruse momentarily inhabiting, through a metaphysical twist of fate, his stylistically exuberant younger self. Set in depression-era Japan around the time of the Sino-Japanese War (which the director evokes, during a brief dream sequence, by dissolving between children's war games and actual adult warfare), The Whole Family Works gently observes a family coming apart at the seams. Ishimura (Musei Tokugawa) is the jobless father of nine children.
LENCHO, a 30-year-old artist and graffiti writer, is back in Guatemala after living a decade in New York. Eager to bring artistic expression to his home country silenced by over 30 years of terror, Lencho assembles a collective of artists to produce public art projects of social impact. As its first activity, the group organizes an art festival in Rabinal, a small, indigenous village in the Guatemalan highlands. The group's work comes of interest to the director of a secret "social cleansing" program of the national police designed to quash dissension and organizing among the youth. As Lencho labors to coordinate the music, poetry and muralism components of the festival, he finds himself increasingly haunted by memories of the death of his father, a journalist during the civil war. "El Regreso de Lencho" portrays one man's journey to self-knowledge and action: can Guatemala do the same?
Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, director Masahiro Takada's coming of age drama follows five Hama Art College students as they prepare to venture out into the real world on a great voyage of self-discovery.
Set amongst the Italian peasantry of WW2, Caccia Tragica (Tragic Chase) is set in motino when a truck loaded with money targetted for farming projects is stolen by bandits. The local villagers set aside their petty political and personal differences, banding together to capture the outlaws and recover the loot. The story takes a romantic detour by concentrating on the romance between two young people caught in the middle between the pursuers and the pursued. At the time of its release, Caccia Tragica was perceived as a Communist tract (it was produced by the left-leaning National Association of Italian Partisans). This didn't prevent the film from winning an award at the 1947 Venice Film Festival, quite a coup for first-time director Giueseppe De Santis.
Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.
French novelist Henri-Francois Rey adapted his novel Les Pianos Mecaniques with director Juan Antonio Bardem for this French/Italian/Spanish co-production, set in Spain. Vincent (Hardy Kruger) is recovering from a nervous breakdown in a seaside village on the Costa Brava. He enters into an affair with nightclub owner Jenny (Melina Mercouri), but their relationship changes when she falls for alcoholic author Pascal Regnier (James Mason), who is struggling to resume his writing career. Vincent eventually returns home, leaving Jenny to stay on with Pascal and his young son Daniel (Didier Haudepin). Their love enables him to start writing again.
Welcome to the remote village of El Escondido and its too tight-knit community of idiot lumberjacks, over-age prostitutes, lascivious café owners and senile witches. But something is about to happen to make the residents turn on each other, something so primal it will shatter their unsettling closeness forever. You don’t have to go to Texas for a bloody massacre, try Argentina instead in this grisly and grossly funny black comedy from the director of MEMORY OF THE DEAD selected for the ‘Blood Window’ gala strand of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival that plunders both John Waters and Dario Argento.
1942, Nanjing (Nanking). Following a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government, the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.
Hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher present an all-new collection of unintentionally hilarious videos found at thrift stores and garage sales across the country. From pool hustlers to public access TV weirdos, from exercising celebrities to toilet training cats, Found Footage Festival: Volume 3 puts them all on display in a loving tribute to the golden age of VHS. Recorded live at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco.
Known as the girl who will not die, Tomie is the main character in a Japanese manga series. First, Tomie rises from the dead out of jealousy when an opportunistic young woman jumps at the chance to rekindle a relationship with Tomie's newly single boyfriend. In the second vignette, Tomie meets a man in the park and conjures memories in his mind of a girl he once knew. Lastly, Tomie becomes a coroner's object of obsession.
Born to atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima, Mamoru Samuragochi, a self-taught classical composer with a degenerative condition causing deafness, was celebrated as a "Japanese Beethoven" for the digital age. However, just prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics, where Samuragochi's "Sonatina for Violin" was to accompany figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, part-time university lecturer Takashi Niigaki revealed that he had served as the composer's ghostwriter for 18 years, that Samuragochi couldn't notate music and, in fact, could hear perfectly. As Samuragochi's recordings were pulled and performances cancelled, Niigaki enjoyed success on TV talk shows. Filmmaker Tatsuya Mori finds Samuragochi in his small Yokohama apartment with his wife and cat, ready to tell his side of the story. A mesmerizing character study skewering media duplicity and constructions of ability/disability, in which Samuragochi's career has collapsed, taking fact and fiction with it.
Future "first couple" Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convincing that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen.
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?
Mako and her girl friends enter a dispute with rival street gangsters The Eagles, a band of racist macho pigs led by the evil Baron, who hate half-breeds (descendents of afro-American and Japanese couples). When one of the girls start dating a half-breed, they start a terror campaign to take all of them out of town. Mako and her gang fight back, helping their new friend Kazuma find his long gone sister.
Two Japanese men help a Vietnam war deserter escape from Japan for Sweden. They plan to fund the escape by selling LSD pills. After word of the drug deal gets spread around they find themselves fending off rival gangs.
Aishah (Diana Danielle) is a young woman living during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, who, after being knocked unconscious while escaping from the clutches of the Japanese Army, wakes up in a quiet, sleepy village, seemingly untouched by the war. The villagers give her shelter and she begins a new life there. But soon it becomes clear that the village hides other secrets as well. Aishah is haunted by the presence of a young deformed girl whom no one else can see and she discovers that an unknown evil lurks in the surrounding woods nearby the village, an ancient creature that makes the villagers its prey, a demon known only as Azazil. The villagers keep an uneasy peace with the demon through offerings but the moment Aishah enters the village, the attacks inexplicably begin again.

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