1980s

  • Masaru Konuma – Joshû ori aka Female Prisoner Caged (1983)

    1981-1990ExploitationJapanMasaru Konuma
    Joshû ori (1983)
    Joshû ori (1983)

    Also known as “The Prison Heat”, this is one of the most notorious and sought-after titles in the so-called WIP or “women in prison” movie genre. Japanese cinema has produced many classic examples, such as the renowned “Scorpion” series. Here, the director of the infamous “Wife To Be Sacrificed” turns his hand to the genre and the result is a Grindhouse-style gem. Packed with many eye-opening and unforgettable moments, the movie tells the classic story of the innocent new fish who finds herself trapped in a world of brutality and exploitation. Fighting to preserve her sanity and her life, she soon finds that the very worst offenders are the ones who run the prison. With no one but herself to trust, she decides to fight back, with spectacular results.Read More »

  • Béla Tarr – Panelkapcsolat AKA The Prefab People (1982)

    1981-1990ArthouseBéla TarrDramaHungary
    Panelkapcsolat (1982)
    Panelkapcsolat (1982)

    A husband and wife, drifting apart, reflect on the events leading up to the worst argument of their marriage.

    Quote:
    “It’s the rawness of the film that makes us believe we are unquestionably seeing the truth.”
    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

    A heavy going realistic slice of life domestic drama that is filmed in black and white. It’s a followup to Béla Tarr’s other domestic strife tales Family Nest and The Outsider. This one keys in on marital strife. It’s about a struggling young couple’s confrontations and their own inability to freely communicate with each other. Tarr was evidently influenced by the works of Ranier Werner Fassbinder and John Cassavettes.Read More »

  • Andrei Tarkovsky – Nostalghia AKA Nostalgia (1983) (HD)

    Andrei Tarkovsky1981-1990ArthouseDramaUSSR
    Nostalghia (1983) (HD)
    Nostalghia (1983) (HD)

    Exiled from the USSR, consummate film poet Tarkovsky poured his stirrings of homesickness into this spectrally beautiful, metaphysical exploration of spiritual isolation and Russian identity. While researching the turbulent life of a 17th-century composer in the perpetually mist-shrouded Tuscan countryside, a soul-sick Russian poet (Yankvosky) forms an unusual kinship with an apocalypse-obsessed local madman (Josephson). Tarkovsky evokes the textures of dreams and memories through ravishing monochrome and sepia-toned reveries and flashbacks, while conjuring the hushed and haunted tone of a trance in this late-career masterwork.Read More »

  • Doo-yong Lee – Choihui jeungin AKA The Last Witness (1980)

    Doo-yong Lee1971-1980ActionCrimeSouth Korea
    Choihui jeungin (1980)
    Choihui jeungin (1980)

    Ji-hye, the daughter of an army captain, receives a treasure map from her father just hours before he is killed by communist guerillas in the mountains near their home. While the communists are defeated, several escape the battle and begin a quest to track down the map and make its secrets their own.Read More »

  • Anthony Spinelli – Aunt Peg (1980)

    Anthony Spinelli1971-1980EroticaUSA
    Aunt Peg (1980)
    Aunt Peg (1980)

    A Hollywood adult film producer tries to get by financially while having numerous sexual encounters to satisfy her insatiable lust for sex.Read More »

  • Masaru Konuma – Blue Rain Ôsaka (1983) (HD)

    1981-1990DramaEroticaJapanMasaru Konuma
    Blue Rain Ôsaka (1983) (HD)
    Blue Rain Ôsaka (1983) (HD)

    From director Masaru Konuma comes this tale of sorrow and nostalgia mixed with pop songs and feminine strength.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Mannen från Mallorca AKA The Man from Majorca (1984)

    Bo Widerberg1981-1990CrimeNordic NoirSweden
    Mannen från Mallorca (1982)
    Mannen från Mallorca (1982)

    In Stockholm, on St. Lucy’s feast day, a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight, two witnesses are dead. Two cops from vice squad, Johansson and Jarnebring, who were the first to the crime scene, pursue all leads and identify a suspect, an arrogant member of the elite secret police, a man assigned to guard the country’s Minister of Justice. Just as the beat cops think they’ve tightened the noose around the suspect, loose ends appear, witnesses lose their certainty, alibis crop up, and even the cops doubt what they’ve seen. Who’s protecting the suspect and why?Read More »

  • Yonfan – Shao nu ri ji AKA A Certain Romance (1984)

    1981-1990DramaHong KongYonfan
    A Certain Romance (1984)
    A Certain Romance (1984)

    Magy falls in love with a man she meets at the beach, while best friend Lily struggles with the fact that her single father has begun to show interest in another woman.Read More »

  • Halit Refig – Hanim AKA Madame (1988)

    Halit Refig1981-1990DramaTurkey
    Hanim AKA Madame (1988)
    Hanim AKA Madame (1988)

    Halit Refig’s film “The Lady” can be conceived as a thoroughly nostalgic film; the yearning for the city of Istanbul in old times was expressed in every part of the film. At first glance, the film was based on the story of a lonely old woman looking for a place for her cat before dying; yet, beyond this, within the structure of the film there existed a changing, disappearing, and even collapsing Istanbul and in parallel relation to the degenerating social connections in the city. In other words, the film reflected the degrading of the spatial characteristics of Istanbul and, human relations thereof. While Mrs. Olcay with an old residence on the shore house full of old furniture was the symbol of the old Istanbul, her helpless search for a safe place for her cat, on the other hand, revealed the new face of Istanbul with dehumanizing conditions of city life. Read More »

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