2000s

PROPOSITIONS
Selected examples of a New Cinema

The continuing demand for high standards is what sets Rouseau’s work apart. What makes this film distinctive is the way Rousseau explicitly returns to the source of his creative inspiration. So here he is at home reciting «Bérénice» to himself, whilst going about his household chores. It verges on the comical: There are repeated shots of him obstinately trying to turn off a dripping tap, or the jubilant close up of bare feet carried away in performing a dance step or two. Combining art with life in such a way, that nothing is compartmentalised, nothing lost – that is the goal. (Jean-Pierre Rehm)Read More »

Synopsis
Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. He joins Castro’s rebels. By 1964, he is in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; a love-hate relationship lasts for years. Openly gay behavior is a way to spite the government. His writing and homosexuality get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. He befriends Lázaro Gomes Garriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, “Revenge.”Read More »

Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover… and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.Read More »

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Two cynical workers in a hospital morgue (Boro Stjepanovic, Zan Marolt) make bets on how many bodies will turn up by a certain time. When three corpses are suddenly wheeled in after a horrific accident involving a plane, a car and a suicide jumper, joining a forth cadaver who suddenly dropped dead in a government lobby, one coroner appears to have won the bet. But death holds many surprises.Read More »

After eight years of undercover work with the triads, officer Hoi San’s case brings about the conviction of the crime boss. But now Hoi is detested by the triads and by his fellow officers–and he’s forced to run after he’s suspected of a crime.

Arresting his gangster head, Hoi San finally resumes to a policeman and receives his bravery award after 8 years undercover duties. However, walking out from the dark side and having his real life is not easy for Hoi San as he is being disliked and repelled by his new police colleague, he is being detested by his past gangster buddy. The most miserable thing is his lover for 8 years also wants to leave him…Read More »

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In Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, twelve-year-old Mindy Ho (Valerie Tian) tries Taoist magic to fix her single mother’s (Sandra Oh) financial situation and seemingly hopeless romantic prospects. Mindy’s misdirected charms appear to cause an aging security guard to lose his job and a local butcher to win the lottery. The guard, the butcher and her mother’s stories all intersect, bound together by Mindy’s attempts at magic intervention. Set in the Chinese Canadian community, Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity is a story of hope and the importance of keeping faith in this sometimes difficult world.Read More »

[B]The Magician’s House[B] 2007, 5:45 Both a letter to a cancer stricken, alchemist-filmmaker friend, and a quiet tribute to the vanishing art of celluloid, “The Magician’s House” is full of ghosts. Including that of Athanasius Kircher, inventor of the Magic Lantern or “Sorcerer’s Lamp”. The music, La lutte des Mages (The Struggle of the Magicians), was composed by Armenian mystic Georges Gurdjieff and Thomas De Hartmann. Gurdjieff thought of man as a kind of “transmitting station of forces.” To him, most people move around in a state of waking sleep, so he sought to provide aural conditions that would induce awareness.Read More »

Synopsis
This is the short Pedro Costa made for the Jeonju Digital Project in 2007. Pedro Costa brings Ventura who is the main character of his previous film, Colossal Youth to this film again and telling about being divested and being alienated of the people who don’t have anything. Alfredo is dumped by his wife after losing his job. Ventura is just comforting him with words. Jose is ordered to quit the country. These three men just have a mean reality seeing the high buildings outside and thinking about their happy days.Read More »

Quote:
While it has been reported on several anime news sites that the newest Takashi Miike film is based on the Hashida Yukari “boy’s love” manga, WARU, the live action film is actually based on a popular 70s manga of the same title. Japanese sources clearly credit Hisao Maki’s dramatic action manga, WARU — an edgy action-packed tale of outlaw swordsman Youji Himuro — as the story on which the film is based.Read More »