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Fresh out of a psychiatric hospital, Pia moves back in with her parents to get her life together. Torn between a new job, lovesickness, psychotropic drugs and social stigmatization, she emerges into a world where everything seems out of control.Read More »
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That even within a dramaturgically relevant omission of the massive cinematic correspondence between Yamada and the painter Yamazaki Mikio, known as OFUKU (Film Letter) I-V (1986-2006), Yamada redefines his syntax for his travel films from the first half of the 1990s. His films become increasingly interwoven: the continuity of a body of work can actually be experienced here, even if it no longer seems desirable in modern times.Read More »
letterboxd:
During World War II, the Japanese military established a secret underground laboratory in Tokyo. Three Olympic-level athletes were selected to undergo a process that would turn them into Jinra-go, superhuman armored soldiers. By March 1945, one of the soldiers had been completely transformed into the half man/half machine ultimate soldier called Mikadroid. But American B-29s firebomb the city and, while the two super soldiers manage to escape, Mikadroid and the lab are apparently destroyed. 45 years pass, Tokyo is rebuilt, and old secrets are forgotten. The site is now home to a complex that includes the Discoclub Layla. The disco’s patrons dance late into the night, unaware that a faulty basement generator has reactivated Mikadroid and the cyborg now prowls the basement levels, killing anyone in its path.Read More »
“What wild and unnatural spirits exist in the depths of the forest,
possessing an ancient and eternal power far beyond our reckoning?“
Synopsis:
City doctor Panos relocates his practice to a remote village, where he falls for Danae, a young woman who lives in isolation and suffers from an unusual skin condition. Determined to find Danae a cure, Panos learns of her dark secret and that things are not what they seem…Read More »
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The country makes an unusual setting for Naruse, known for his city films, and the lyrical, open-air feeling of this color, ’Scope film almost hides the defeat that permeates the story of a woman trying to be independent of her traditional farming family.Read More »
The third feature from distinctively voiced writer-director Jenna Bass — who also co-wrote 2018’s Kenyan Cannes headline-grabber “Rafiki” — “Flatland” represents something of a feminist milestone for a national cinema where genre film in particular has hitherto been a boys’ game. Wittier and more kinetic than the predominantly solemn South African fare that has popped through on the international festival circuit in recent years, Bass’s film ought to travel widely on the strength of its crowd-pleasing story switch-ups and strikingly integrated racial and gender politics — virtues undiminished by an admittedly drawn-out last act that feels a little drunk on its own momentum. Adventurous distributors with a taste for world-meets-Hollywood cinema should investigate; international casting directors, meanwhile, should note the film’s sensational trio of female leads.Read More »
imdb:
Jean-Marc Phaneuf, an unmarried electrical engineer, travels to Burundi as a volunteer for the NGO Radio du Monde. He finds a country ruined by grinding poverty, famine, war, disease and appalling social inequality. At the same time, he meets a joyful, brave people hungry for happiness, knowledge and human dignity. The camera that becomes his personal diary also helps Jean-Marc expose the shaky, ineffective workings of NGOs. His investigations turn up a few praiseworthy examples of international cooperation, but on the whole he finds himself drawn to a terrible, inescapable conclusion: humanitarian aid is a utopian mirage. After falling victim to an attack and losing whatever ideals he still had, Jean-Marc becomes entangled in an impossible relationship. He is ultimately forced to leave Africa in disgrace.Read More »
A Tibet mountaineering school recruits qualified residents from the two counties at the foot of Mount Everest only, and trains them to be mountain guide of the Everest.Read More »
