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
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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
The Goddess (Wu Yonggang, China, 1934)
A mother by day and a prostitute by night The Goddess (Ruan Ling-yu) struggles to bring up her child (Li Keng) in the face of hostility and prejudice. After narrowly escaping a police raid in the red light district The Goddess finds herself under the thumb of a thuggish gambler and pimp known as The Boss (Zhang Zhizhi), who steals … Read the rest
The Birth Of A Legend
53 years ago an American television actor accepted the starring role in a low budget Italian-German-Spanish co-production of a remake of a Japanese samurai movie, at a time when the very notion of Americans acting in European movies was regarded in Hollywood as the kiss of death for their careers. How wrong they all were. Joe Leydon has a good … Read the rest
Virus/Resurrection Day (full 156m version) (Kinji Fukasaku, Japan, 1980)
A renegade scientist passes onto the Russians a doomsday virus developed by the US military. But the virus escapes and proves unstoppable. Hospitals overflow with dying patients and mass panic erupts. Overwhelmed, the authorities begin burning mounds of corpses in the streets while the US President (Glenn Ford) and a wily senator (Robert Vaughn) try to identify the source of … Read the rest
Shadow of Deception (Koichi Saito, Japan, 1971)
An adulterous affair between Minako (Shima Iwashita), the wife of a rich but much older husband who can no longer satisfy her physically, and Shozo (Akira Nakao), a young archaeology scholar married to his teacher’s daughter, reaches breaking point when it becomes apparent that while Minako is quite willing to leave her husband, Shozo values his work and career far … Read the rest
The Long Darkness (Kei Kumai, Japan, 1972)
University student Tetsuro (Go Kato) falls in love with waitress Shino (Komaki Kurahara) but as the pair fall in love each is burdened with family tragedies that threaten to tear them apart.
This deeply moving film from director Kei Kumai is a contemporary social issue drama about that distinctively Japanese sense of personal shame which leads individuals to believe they … Read the rest
Black Belly Of The Tarantula (Italy, 1971, Paolo Cavara)
Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannnini) investigates a series of grisly murders in which women are paralysed by scorpion venom before being mutilated. As the bodies pile up the gruesome nature of the investigation proves hard to bear and Tellini relies on his wife Anna (Stefania Sandrelli) for support. The discovery of a blackmail plot involving the victims seems like a breakthrough … Read the rest
