Asian

  • Tadashi Imai – Bushidô zankoku monogatari AKA Cruel Tales Of Bushido (1963)

    Tadashi Imai1961-1970AsianDramaJapan
    Bushidô zankoku monogatari (1963)
    Bushidô zankoku monogatari (1963)

    PLOT:
    The attempted suicide of his fiancée prompts a Japanese salary-man to read his family chronicles and look back at the life of his ancestors. They were samurai, the military nobility caste who carried out acts of violence at the behest of feudal lords, but suffered even more so under their cruelty, often forced into ritual suicide (seppuku). The women were under constant threat of kidnapping and rape, and the men subjected to arbitrary disfigurement and homosexual slavery … In a radical departure from the usual romanticisation of the samurai, director Tadashi Imai – using period sets and sometimes graphic images – made a film fundamentally critical of medieval Japan’s feudal system and the inhumane samurai code called bushido. In addition, the final two of the eight episodes in the film draw parallels between that and kamikaze pilots of World War II, as well as Japan’s modern achievement-oriented society. Bushido zankoku monogatari was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival.Read More »

  • Sôkichi Tomimoto – Kajitsu no nai mori AKA Forest of No Escape (1965)

    1961-1970AsianDramaJapanSôkichi Tomimoto
    Kajitsu no nai mori (1965)
    Kajitsu no nai mori (1965)

    Adaptation of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel of the same name.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Shokei no heya AKA Punishment Room (1956) (HD)

    Kon Ichikawa1951-1960AsianDramaJapan
    Shokei no heya (1956)
    Shokei no heya (1956)

    Katsumi is a university student who has no respect for his hardworking parents, his professors, or even his friends. He helps one friend obtain a loan to finance a dance, by humiliating his father at the bank where he works. He drugs and rapes Akiko, one of the girls in his class. She becomes infatuated with him, even though he remains aloof. He enjoys goading a rival gang in the pool hall. Finally, when facing the gang, he goes too far in trying to prove his courage. Written by Will GilbertRead More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Nihonbashi AKA Bridge of Japan (1956) (HD)

    Kon Ichikawa1951-1960AsianDramaJapan

    Ichikawa’s 1956 adaptation of Nihonbashi was the first to take the work of Kyoka Izumi— until then regarded as a writer of common tragic melodramas—and re-evaluate it as a sanbi-ha work of decadence, aestheticism, and intrigue. Ichikawa’s film presents the tragic plot of the young geisha who is unable to enact her love for a man publicly in any way other than a histrionic story of torment, a heart-rending tale of lovers being crushed by fate. Instead Ichikawa shows the contest of wills that transpires as two geisha, Oko (Chikage Awashima) and Kiyoha (Fujiko Yamamoto) fight for the top spot in Nihonbashi, the pinnacle ot the Tokyo geisha world. Nihonbashi is an elegant, if steely, exposition of manners. The young doctor, Shinzo Katsuragi (Ryuji Shinagawa), is the object of affection for both women, but appears to be more the choice reward for the plotting and thieving of these two early modern superwomen, than a lover they swoon over.Read More »

  • Sun-Woo Jang – Ggotip AKA A Petal (1996)

    Sun-Woo Jang1991-2000AsianDramaSouth Korea
    Ggotip (1996)
    Ggotip (1996)

    Synopsis:
    A young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country’s takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.Read More »

  • Chang-dong Lee – Milyang AKA Secret Sunshine (2007)

    2001-2010AsianDramaLee Chang-dongSouth Korea
    Milyang (2007)
    Milyang (2007)

    Renowned Korean filmmaker Lee Chang Dong, the director of Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, and Oasis, returns to the director’s chair in 2007 with the critically acclaimed Secret Sunshine. This is his fourth film, and his first directorial work since his stint as Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004. In addition to Lee’s long-awaited return, Secret Sunshine attracted much attention with its pairing of two of the biggest names in Korean cinema – Song Kang Ho and Jeon Do Yeon, who was named Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for her amazing performance.Read More »

  • Ho Yim – Tian pu sa AKA Buddha’s Lock (1987)

    1981-1990AsianChinaDramaHo Yim
    Tian pu sa (1987)
    Tian pu sa (1987)

    The story about the arrest and enslavement of a crashed American airman by a backward tribe of the Yi people in central Sichuan during WWII.Read More »

  • Yasuzô Masumura – Koshoku ichidai otoko AKA A Lustful Man (1961) (HD)

    Yasuzô Masumura1961-1970AsianComedyJapan
    Koshoku ichidai otoko (1961) (HD)
    Koshoku ichidai otoko (1961) (HD)

    Fascinated with women from an early age, Yonosuke (Ichikawa Raizo) had his first sexual encounter at the age of seven. From that day on, he recklessly and forwardly pursues women, feeding his fascination and experience. As Yonosuke’s salacious behavior brings much cause for shame to the family, his father eventually breaks relations with him. Expelled from the family, 19-year-old Yonosuke embarks on a pilgrimage of lust, traveling far and wide to acquaint himself with women of all walks.Read More »

  • Sange Dorjee Thongdok – Crossing Bridges (2013)

    Sange Dorjee Thongdok2011-2020AsianDramaIndia
    Crossing Bridges (2013)
    Crossing Bridges (2013)

    Synopsis:
    Tashi, a man in his early thirties is forced to come back to his village in the remote northeast region of india after eight years when he loses his job in the city. As he stays in the village waiting for news of any new job in the city to go back to, he begins to experience the life and culture of his native place and his people. He gradually begins rediscovering his roots, which he had never paid attention to earlier. He meet and falls in love with a girl, Anila, a school teacher in the village who helps him in the process. The experience in the village begins to slowly change him and he decides to finally stay back in the village and not go back even after he gets the news that he has found himself a new job in the city.Read More »

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