Synopsis:
Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. They have everything in common from noodle shops to martial arts. Soon, they are shocked to discover that their spouses are having an affair. Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.Read More »

The expansive mountainscapes of the Andes are the basis for this new, 35mm film by Daïchi Saïto, who won the 2016 Tiger Award for Short Films with Engram of Returning. Once again propelled by the free, pulsating improvisation of saxophonist Jason Sharp, in which his heartbeat and breathing play a prominent role, the series of images slowly becomes more abstract. The end result is a hypnotic, sensory meditation on ‘our’ earth.Read More »

Quote:
Martin Scorsese describes his initial and growing obsession with films from the 1940s and 50s as the art form developed and grew with clips from classics and cult classics.Read More »

Based on a short story by Nobel Prize-winning author Kawabata Yasunari, this lighthearted road film follows the rolling wheels of a country bus manned by a driver who says “thank you” to everyone he encounters. “Mr. Thank You” drives into various humorous and telling episodes with different passenger and travelers as he rumbles his way through the mountainous countryside. Arigatau-san highlights common Shimizu motifs of location shooting, constant movement, and heartwarming sentiments, while at the same time subtly addressing real-world worries like Depression-era woes and the condition of Korean laborers.Read More »

In this weird, wicked and wonderfully perverse shocker from Japan, we meet Sumida, a disabled young man marked by his wheelchair, his electronic voice box, his rampant alcoholism, and his appetite for porn. When a female student temporarily becomes his carer during her college studies, he mistakes her harmless flirtation for true love. Her eventual rejection sends Sumida on a downward spiral in which his repressed rage erupts in random violence. Black-and-white cinematography by Masaaki Takakura.Read More »

In the Susukino red light district of Sapporo, a private detective (Yo Oizumi) drinks alcohol with his driver Takada (Ryuhei Matsuda) in his favourite bar. There he receives a phone call from a woman who identifies herself as Kyoko Kondo. The woman asks the detective to complete a simple task. The detective, having an excellent sense for danger, thinks the work is easy and accepts the case. The next day he begins the investigation.Read More »

Eighteen-year-old Maggy has a baby, Lucy, eight months old. She has dropped out of school and broken up with Lucy’s father. Maggy still lives with her mother, who often takes care of the baby so that Maggy can occasionally meet with her girlfriends or go out for an evening. At a disco she meets Gordon and soon falls in love with him. He’s not much older than she is, but she is impressed by the fact that he earns his own living and even has his own flat.Read More »

Quote:
The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun is the second film of Anton Vidokle’s trilogy on Russian cosmism, a metaphysical philosophy and cultural movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among Russian scientists, intellectuals, artists, and revolutionaries, which speculated on the possibilities of space travel; the use of electromagnetic energies to enhance health, healing, and vitality; and prolonged human lifespan, immortality, and even resurrection. This film focuses specifically on the poetic dimension of the theories of Soviet biophysicist, Alexander Chizhevsky (1897-1964), whose lifework involved the study of the effects of aero-ionization and cosmological fluctuations such as sunspots and solar flares on human health and behaviour.Read More »

Quote:
In 1974, the New York City music scene was shocked into consciousness by the violently new sound of a band from Queens: The Ramones. Playing in a seedy Bowery bar to a small group of fellow struggling musicians, the band struck a chord of disharmony that rocked the foundation of the placid mid-1970s music scene. Tracing the history of the band over three decades, END OF THE CENTURY is a vibrant, candid document of one of the most influential groups in the history of rock.Read More »