Drama

  • Shion Sono – Ai no mukidashi AKA Love Exposure (2008)

    2001-2010AsianDramaJapanQueer Cinema(s)Shion Sono

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    Plot:Yu is a high school boy who lives with his father who became a priest after Yu’s mother died. But one day, a woman, Kaori, falls for Yu’s father although she knows that he is a priest. Yu is completely against this because he does not like Kaori’s eccentric presence intruding into the father and son’s peaceful life, and even more because she brings with her Yoko, the girl he fell in love with at first sight. He does not want the girl of his dreams to become a step-sister! One day, religious cult member Koike finds this so-called family an interesting group and kidnaps three of its members, leaving Yu behind on purpose hoping he will join the cult soon. He will not fall for Koike’s tricks, but instead will do anything to save the love of his life, Yoko, from this cult.Read More »

  • Shion Sono – Himizu (2011)

    Drama2011-2020AsianJapanShion Sono

    Set after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, all 14-year-old Yuichi Sumida (Shota Sometani) wants to become is a regular boy and live a decent life. His environment though repeatedly drags him into the mud. He runs his parent’s rental boat business, which is located next to a nondescript lake. His mother frequently comes home with different men and soon she leaves him entirely. His father only comes around looking for money. Whenever Yuichi’s father is drunk he tells Yuichi “I wish you were dead.”Read More »

  • Fei Mu – Kong Fuzi AKA Confucius (1940)

    Drama1931-1940AsianChinaMu Fei

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    Confucius (Chinese: 孔夫子; pinyin: Kǒng Fūzǐ) is a 1940 Chinese film directed by Fei Mu. Produced during the war, the film was released twice in the 1940s before being thought lost. In 2001, the film was rediscovered when an anonymous donor sent a damaged copy of the print to the Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA). The HKFA then spent seven years restoring the print which was finally screened to modern audiences at the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival in April 2009.
    The film depicts Confucius’s later life, as he traveled across a China divided by war and strife in an ultimately futile effort to teach various warlords and kings his particular philosophy.
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  • Vasili Shukshin – Kalina krasnaya AKA The Red Snowball Tree (1973)

    1971-1980DramaUSSRVasili Shukshin

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    Quote:

    Drama of a man who tried to live a new life. Yegor Prokudin (Vasili Shukshin) is a child of a street who grew up in a criminal gang. While he was free, he did not lose his innocent, joyful heart, but many years in prison have taken away his joy in living. The film opens on the occasion of his release from prison. Soon, he discovers love with a village peasant girl, Lyuba (Lidia Fedoseeva-Shukshina), who was lettering him in jail and restores his will to live and fills him with an enthusiasm for rural life. There are dark shadows on his way for better being – his past and his old mother he never visited from childhood times. (Actually, the scene where Lyuba talks to his mother was shooted with non-acting old village women) Their idyll is short-lived, as his former associates will not leave him alone.
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  • Pascale Ferland – Ressac (2013)

    2011-2020CanadaDramaPascale Ferland

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    After searching in vain for a job in the small seaside town where he was born, Édouard is forced to head off to the big city. He reluctantly leaves behind his mother-in-law Dorine, his wife Gemma and his beloved daughter Chloé. The weight of his absence is felt by all three women. Soon the news arrives of his unexplained death.

    Beyond the confusion, guilt and anger that accompany such an event, there is the love, hope and idealism of youth, unfulfilled desires and the dreams they share of a better future … but when Gemma discovers the unusual legacy left by her late husband, she thinks she’s finally found the key to happiness. But what is happiness in the eyes of others? And how do we achieve it?Read More »

  • Icíar Bollaín – También la lluvia AKA Even The Rain (2010)

    2001-2010DramaIcíar BollaínPoliticsSpain

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    Quote:
    The politics of the past and present begin to merge during the making of a motion picture in this drama from director Icíar Bollaín. Spanish movie director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and his producer Costa (Luis Tosar) have arrived in Bolivia to shoot a picture about Columbus’ exploration and exploitation of the New World. While Sebastián has come to Bolivia for realistic scenery, Costa has chosen the location for the cheap and abundant supply of labor. An open casting call for extras attracts far more people than the picture needs, but when Costa tries to send them away, one would-be actor, Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), makes a strong and eloquent case for fair treatment of the locals, and Sebastián casts him as Hatuey, the chief of a native tribe who fought the invading Spaniards. As Sebastián stages scenes of revolt against would-be colonists, a real battle is brewing in Colombia — the government has privatized the national water works, and the price of water has jumped by 300 percent, leading to protests and riots in the streets of Cochabamba. Daniel is one of the activists protesting price gouging for something as essential as water — will Sebastián and his colleagues join him in speaking out against this injustice? También la Iluvia (aka Even the Rain) was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.Read More »

  • Yimou Zhang – Huozhe AKA To Live (1994)

    1991-2000AsianChinaDramaFifth Generation Chinese CinemaYimou Zhang

    Roger Ebert wrote:
    To Live is a simple title, but it conceals a universe. The film follows the life of one
    family in China, from the heady days of gambling dens in the 1940s to the austere
    hardship of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. And through all of their fierce struggles
    with fate, all of the political twists and turns they endure, their hope is basically one
    summed up by the heroine, a wife who loses wealth and position and children, and
    who says, “All I ask is a quiet life together.” The movie has been directed by Zhang
    Yimou, the leading Chinese filmmaker right now (although this film offended Beijing and
    earned him a two-year ban from filmmaking). It stars his wife, Gong Li, the leading
    Chinese actress (likewise banned). Together their credits include Ju Dou, Raise the Red
    Lantern and The Story of Qui Ju. Like them it follows the fate of a strong woman, but
    also this time a strong man; somehow they stick together through incredible hardships.Read More »

  • Inan Temelkuran – Bornova Bornova (2009)

    Drama2001-2010ArthouseInan TemelkuranTurkey

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    The movie takes place in a time when dreams are reduced to almost nothing and when it’s difficult to remain sane. Ordinary life becomes a one greater expectation.

    Salih and Hakan who spend their entire days in front of the grocery shop thinking we were given the chance. Salih is like a older brother to Hakan. Hakan has just came back from the mandatory military service. His football career ended before even it had started because of an injury. He is without a job or a vocation He hopes to be to be a taxi driver. Salih is the psycopath of the neigborhood. He’s the only person who listens to Hakan and gives him advices. Although Salih has grown up in a well meaning educated family he’s involved in every kind of illegal business in the neighborhood. Everbody is scared of him. High school girl Özlem included. Hakan is crazy about her but he never had the the courage to talk to her.
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  • Sergei Bodrov – S.E.R. – Svoboda eto rai AKA Freedom is Paradise (1989)

    Drama1981-1990Sergei BodrovUSSR

    SYNOPSIS:
    13-year-old Sasha finds himself the unwilling resident of a grim reform school after the death of his mother. He sets off on a 1,000 mile odyssey to a gulag-style high security prison, seeking the father he has never met.Read More »

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