Asian

Despite Kuang Hsu’s (Ti Lung) enthronement as the last reigning Emperor of China, his ability to rule effectively is overshadowed by the ever-present power of the Dowager Empress (Lisa Lu). When his attempts to reform the Imperial system are thwarted by the Dowager Empress, he attempts to curb her power. His efforts are not successful, and this failure leads directly to his own death and the end of Imperial rule in China. The Dowager Empress, though, ends her days comfortably and in peace.Read More »

Synopsis

Hirak Rajar Deshe is the second movie of the Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne series directed by Satyajit Ray. An unique aspect of the film is that most of the dialogues exchanged by the protagonists of the film are rhyming. Satyajit Ray was initially apprehensive whether this approach would be liked by people as it was a novel one but it was a great success.Read More »

Summary
A wealthy family from Calcutta is on the last day of their vacation in Darjeeling, a hill station at the foot of Mount Kanchenjungha, the second highest peak of the Himalayas. Until now, they have been unable to catch a glimpse of the peak Kanchenjungha.The family members are dominated by the father, Indranath (Chhabi Biswas), an industrialist. He wants his daughter to marry a man of his choice and hopes that the man will propose if they are left together alone for some time.Read More »

Sachi quits her job at a museum, starts working part-time at a café, and moves into an apartment recommended by a regular customer. Although she has started a new life, Sachi is still haunted by the memory of her partner whom she will never see again.Read More »

Synopsis
Taking place in the younger days of the famous monk, Tripitaka (known for bringing the sacred Bhuddist sutras from India to China), the film tells a fantastical adventure of the monk and his three disciples. On their way to the city of Shache, the monk narrowly escapes an attack from a group of demons. While trying to think of a way to rescue his disciples, he is captured by the king of reptiles and placed under the vigilance of Meiyan, an ugly demon who falls in love with the monk. Luckily, a princess from another galaxy rescues the monk, deeply affecting Meiyan, who pursues the two. In a twist of fate, the ugly Meiyan decides to help her beloved and teams up with the princess to rescue Tripitaka’s three disciples.Read More »

Based on a polemic novel by Amy Yamada, Bedtime Eyes is about the intense love relationship between a second rate Japanese jazz singer and a black American GI on the margins of the law.Read More »

A variation on Kim’s classic The Housemaid (1960). The lives of a composer and his wife, who live on a chicken farm, are thrown into turmoil when a femme fatale joins their household.Read More »

A yakuza member’s half-sister means much more to him, in a film that repeatedly depicts realities other than what normal societal rules allow. The overly protective and loving brother; however, soon has to contend with his sister falling for and dating her school teacher, but there is not much he can do about it if he is going to land in jail for stepping outside the bounds of the law.Read More »

Shun Nakahara directs this comic take on Sidney Lumet’s 1957 classic Twelve Angry Men. Just as in that earlier work, this film takes place in a jury room and takes place in real time. The film opens as the jury is about to acquit the defendant — a bar hostess who pushed her ex-husband path of an oncoming truck, supposedly in self-defense. Just as everyone seems to be in agreement over the woman’s innocence, one bespectacled juror (Kazuyuki Aijima) — no one is given names in this film — voices second thoughts. Slowly, like an inversion of Henry Fonda’s character in the earlier film, he sets about convincing his fellow jurors — a group of nice folks who don’t like thinking ill of people — that the defendant is in fact a cold-blooded killer. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie GuideRead More »