Sandakan No. 8

The story is about the plight of poor Japanese girls who were sent overseas to work as prostitutes in the early 20th century. This is told through flashbacks from an old Japanese woman to a researcher whom she befriended.

Liked the friendship forged between the researcher and the old Japanese woman! Nice story and the use of silence during two key scenes were pretty effective!

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The Spirit Compendium

The story centers around a special book that is able to provide answers to your queries. A guy used this book to solve a few problems faced by him and his house mates during the hungry ghost festival.

The cast was pretty good looking and the outdoor scenes looked beautiful! I also liked the songs and the special sound effects used whenever something supernatural was encountered!

My Dad is a Priest

The story is about the relationship of a father and a son. The son is still studying in school while the father is a priest who is slowly losing his memory because of a recently diagnosed alzheimer's disease.

Liked the simple storyline and the close father-son relationship depicted! Thought the father acted really well when he showed the effects of alzheimer's disease!

Kes

The story is about the school life of a young English boy from a single-parent family and how he trained a falcon to be his pet.

Nice story and great acting by the little boy! Learnt a bit more about the education system in Britain during the late 60s.

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Manufactured Landscapes

This is a documentary about the works of a Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. He likes to film gigantic man-made structures such as factories, quarries, harbors, dams and industrial waste.

Liked the part on the life of the factory workers! Pretty amazed by the skills of one of the workers! She assembled an electronic gadget very quickly and seemingly without any effort at all!

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The Magic Flute

The film is based on the opera of the same title written by Mozart. The story is about how a soldier, Tamino and his friend Papageno ventured into the kingdom of Sarastro to save Pamina who is the Queen of the Night's daughter. They were given a magic flute and a mini-xylophone to help their quest.

Liked the nice songs and the many pretty actresses! A little big draggy at times but the overall plot was interesting! Interested to catch Bergman's adaptation now!

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Thin Blue Line

This is a documentary about the events that led to the murder of a policeman and how an innocent man was sentenced to life imprisonment as a result.

Interesting how the director interviewed so many people to give different perspectives on what actually happened! Pretty scary to think how eye witnesses could be bought and how people can ignore hard evidence and just choose what they want to believe in!

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Radio On

The story is about a young man's road trip from London to Bristol to investigate his brother's death. The radio is sometimes turned on and we hear how different types of music is played in different context.

Liked the nice black and white feel of the film! Thought the music and the landscape reflected how England looked like in the 80s pretty well! Reminds me a little bit of "Singapore Gaga" which is also a musical journey minus the road trip part.

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The Heartbreak Kid

The story is about a guy getting married and how he fell in love with another girl during their honeymoon trip to Mexico.

Liked the directors' previous works such as "There is Something About Mary" and "Shallow Hal" better as I thought their storylines were better. Didn't like the guy who tells lies and happily engage in an affair! I was also shocked by the two scenes shown during the credit rolls. They were pretty tasteless in my opinion!

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Killer of Sheep

The story is about life in the LA black district during the early 70s. There was a major racial riot several years earlier at the same location in the mid 60s and the effects of destruction can still be seen.

Liked the nice songs played throughout the film and how natural the children at play and the adults at work are being captured!

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Khan Kluay

The story is about the adventures of an elephant named Khan Kluay when he travelled across the country in search for his father.

Nice storyline that is based on historical facts! Liked the songs and how the director infused the film with Thai culture!

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Anna and Anna

The story is about what happens when two identical looking women both named Anna but living in different parts of the world finally meet.

First part of the film reminds me a bit of "Double Life Of Veronique". Rest of the film is pretty slow paced and nothing exciting really happens. Won't really recommend unless you like to watch emotionally unstable men breakdown on the big screen.

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A Touch of Zen

The story is about how a poor scholar's life changed after he discovered that a beautiful woman has become his new neighbor. She is a mysterious figure who is skilled in martial arts and has a complicated relationship with a powerful eunuch and a group of monks.

Enjoyed the movie pretty much! Some parts were really funny and the martial arts sequence superbly choreographed!

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The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

This is a film criticism piece that describes how philosophy and psychoanalysis plays a part in how the audience views cinema and how the two subjects are incorporated in different films.

Quite amazed by how the narrator managed to link more than 40 films together in just 150 minutes! Liked the movie clip excerpts and the insights offered by the narrator! Pretty interested to catch David Lynch films now! Maybe someone could organise a David Lynch film retrospective!

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Flash Point

The story is about how the police tries to catch three filial brothers who are cold blooded crooks.

Very nice gun fights, car chases and martial arts action that includes lots of wrestling moves! The girlfriend of one of the undercover police and the fierce head police woman both look quite pretty! A pity that they only had "flower vase" roles.

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Gone Shopping

The film explores how a young tai-tai, an office guy and a little girl view shopping differently. One shops to vent her emotions, one hangs around shopping centers to laze around and one runs around looking for her parents.

Lots of voiceover by Kym Ng! First time I see her in such a moody role, quite unlike her image on television. Liked her performance and Adrian Pang's guest appearance! The office guy story segment was so so and I was puzzled over the little girl story segment.

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Sada and Kichi

The story is based on a famous murder case that happened in late 1930s Japan. A geisha strangled a rich man and cut off his private parts after making love with each other in a room for a month.

Learnt from the Q&A session that this film belonged to the "Roman Porno" genre created by Nikkatsu in the 60s to save them from bankruptcy. The obsessive love between the couple was portrayed realistically and the flashbacks on the geisha's past made me understand her better. Thought a good companion film could be "World of Geisha" shown in cinemas a few months ago that starred the same leading actress. Looking forward to catch "In the Realm of the Senses" by Nagisa Oshima based on the same true story if it is ever allowed to show here.

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Nancy Drew

The story is about how a young girl who likes to solve mysteries got herself involved in yet another mystery.

Pretty impressed by Nancy Drew who excels in all areas of her schoolwork! She is also polite, likes to help people and has very good dress sense! Liked the way the interesting mystery was unravelled and the delicious pastries presented!

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Da-Yu: The Touch of Fate

The story is about how a school drop-out fell into bad company and learnt to be a pickpocket. He enjoys his new found lifestyle at first but soon finds out that it is not as rosy as he thinks.

Liked the animation, the fantasy sequences and the in-depth character study! The lead actor's female classmate looks quite cute too!

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Nine Lives

The story is about the lives of nine women described separately in different short segments. Each segment is filmed in a single shot and some women appear in more than one segment as their lives intersect.

Liked the natural dialogue and how the different roles played by women are presented! Each segment provides a sample on a typical mother, wife, lover or daughter through basic daily activities.

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