Housewife Ayako (Ayako Wakao) stands trial for the death of her husband on a climbing expedition in the Japanese Alps. An accident left Ayako, cruel elderly hubby Ryokichi (Eitaro Ozawa) and friend Osamu (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) – for whom Ayako harbours strong romantic feelings – dangling from a single rope. Ayako claims she cut the rope which sent her husband plunging … Read the rest
Month: September 2017
Hideko The Bus Conductress (Mikio Naruse, Japan, 1941)
Hideko Takamine (displaying real star wattage here even though she was only 17 at the time) plays the titular heroine Okoma, who works for a financially struggling bus company in a small, sleepy town and comes up with the idea of giving a speech to passengers about places of interest on her local bus route in order to drum up … Read the rest
4th Period Mystery (Lee Sang-Yong, South Korea, 2009)
Student Jung-Hoon (Yoo Seung-Ho) arrives late for class to find the body of hated rival Tae-Gyu (Jo Sang-Keun) stabbed to death. Before you know it he’s gotten blood on his shirt and picked up the murder weapon (the fool!) And then in walks fellow classmate Da-Jung (Kang So-Ra), a quiet, nerdy girl and fanatical mystery novel buff who despite her … Read the rest
Invisible Man Vs The Human Fly (Mitsuo Murayama, Japan, 1957)
A man is killed aboard a packed jet flight but none of the crew or passengers see or hear a thing. Inspector Wakabayashi (Yoshiro Kitahara) discovers that fellow passenger Professor Hayakawa (Shozo Nanbu) has invented an invisibility ray and wonders if that’s the link to a series of baffling murders and bank robberies. But when the culprit turns out to … Read the rest
Empress Wu (Li Han-Hsiang, Hong Kong, 1963)
Gob-smackingly gorgeous and lavishly staged drama, in colour and widescreen, about the rise, reign and fall of China’s first and only female ruler Wu Tse-Tien (Li Hua Li). Well acted and well-written, its chief strength is a satisfyingly even-handed portrait of Wu herself thanks to a compelling performance from veteran Hong Kong superstar Hua Li. It’s certainly possible to see … Read the rest
Last Known Address (Jose Giovanni, France, 1970)
Leonetti (Lino Ventura) is a tough, experienced copper who after nicking a lawyer’s son for drunkenness ends up reassigned because the kid’s father has political connections. Kicking his heels in the sticks Leonetti finds himself teamed with a rookie cop named Jeanne Dumas (Marlene Jobert) in the search for an important witness in a major criminal trial. But as the … Read the rest
The Affair (Yoshishige Yoshida, Japan, 1967)
30-something Oriko (Mariko Okada), trapped in a loveless marriage, encounters her mother’s younger lover, a sculptor who crafts feminine shapes out of stone and begins a friendship with him. At a party the sight of her swinging sister-in-law being roughly seduced at the hands of a labourer stirs her own sexual desires and Oriko begins to understand the poetry her … Read the rest
Sway (Miwa Nishikawa, Japan, 2006)
Two brothers, achingly trendy Tokyo fashion photographer Takeru (Jô Odagiri) and shy homebody Minoru (Key Of Life‘s Teruyuki Kagawa) reunite at their mother’s funeral. The next day a walk across a rickety wooden bridge with Chieko (Yoko Maki), a local girl employed in the family business and a former girlfriend of Takeru’s, results in tragedy and Minoru finds … Read the rest
This Sweet Sickness (Claude Miller, France, 1977)
Obsessed with his ex-girlfriend Lise (Dominique Laffin), an accountant named David (Gerard Depardieu) builds a cabin in the forest outside of town that he furnishes in the expectation Lise will move in with him. As David bombards Lise with letters, phone calls and personal visits – much to the annoyance of Lise’s husband – David becomes the object of affection … Read the rest
A Hard Day (Kim Seong-hun, South Korea, 2014)
A bent copper named Ko (Lee Sun-kyun) is en route to his mother’s funeral when he knocks down a pedestrian in his car. Panic-stricken, Ko decides to dispose of the body by sticking it in the same coffin as that of his Mum! However, the entire incident is witnessed and a menacing voice on the phone (Jo Jin-woong) contacts Ko … Read the rest
