The Red Lantern

The story is about how a Eurasian girl who was born out of wedlock in China decided to take part in the Boxer Revolution to fight against the foreigners.

Liked the interesting plot and the dramatic acting!

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Impressions of Asia from Early French Cinema 1897-1933

This consisted of several short films about Asia.

Liked the first segment of films with special effects especially the one with the Japanese Acrobats! The street scenes of Singapore in the early 20s was interesting to watch too!

Tatsumi

This is a story based on the life and works of Yoshihiro Tatsumi who is a famous Japanese comic writer.

Liked the interesting study into human psychology in the short stories! Also liked how the film showed the comic writer in person at work towards the end!

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The Silence Before Bach

This is a tribute to the music of Bach where we learn about Bach's life and how modern people play and appreciate his music.

Liked the nice music and the interesting anecdotes! I thought the cello, piano and vocal ensembles were grand and impressive!

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Breakfast Lunch Dinner

This is an omnibus of three stories, each happening during a meal in the day as described in the title.

Liked "Lunch" the best as it had a cute Thai school girl who was funny and smart at the same time! "Breakfast" was not bad too for its simple plot. "Dinner" had many threads going on at the same time which made it hard to understand.

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Strangers No More

This is a documentary about an international school in Israel who admitted mostly refugee children.

Liked the big family concept of the school! The teachers really went out of their way to even help the parents of their students!

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Donor Unknown

This is a documentary about the sperm donor industry shown through the "family" of Donor 150 from the California Cryobank.

Liked the great story telling and the interesting characters!

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Green Days

The story is about a young girl's life during the seventies in Korea. She has an artistic girlfriend who is good at singing and writing poems as well as a techie boyfriend who wants to be an astronaut.

Liked the nice coming-of-age story and the nostalgic feel of the seventies!

Fairy Tales

The story is about how three teenagers who were neglected by their parents were led astray by bad guys.

Liked the pretty Siona Wu who played Amanda and the funny Indian couple! Thought it was a little outdated to be selling VCDs in this internet age. It puzzled me how the model agency boss managed to locate the taxi driver father so quickly though.

Gangs

The story is about gangs in Singapore during the seventies.

Great acting by Xiao Lang! The torture scene was quite innovative too! The dying person had too much dialogue and should have run out of breath before she could finish them in my opinion.

Muppet History 101

This is a documentary about Jim Henson's early muppet making career when the idea of "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" started to take shape.

Liked Jim Henson's great sense of humour in his shows as well as the promotional video of "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show"!

Nosferatu

The story is adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula. It is about how a vampire killed innocent people and how it was finally defeated in the end.

Liked how scary the vampire looked and the exciting music from the xylophone! The ending was a little bit anti-climax though.

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Autumn Gold

This is a documentary about old people from different countries taking part in the 2009 Oslo World Masters Athletics Championships.

Liked the interviews with the old people who didn't seem old at all! They are an inspiration for people who are too lazy to keep fit.

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Yellow Sea

The story is about a cab driver in China who smuggled into Korea to be a hitman and to gather news about his wife whom he has lost touch with.

Liked the tough survival instinct of the cab driver and the exciting fight sequences! One of the bad guy looked a bit like Sammo Hung.

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Animal Town

The story is about life in Korea after the financial crisis seen through two Korean guys: a former child molester out on parole and a family guy whose life was ruined because of him.

The pacing was slow but thought it helped to demonstrate the monotony of the lives of the two men. The little girl and her sister looked quite cute! The unexpected twist at the end was also interesting.

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams

This is a documentary about a cave in France that had ancient drawings dated back to 30000 years ago.

Thought it stretched a bit too long as I got tired watching the same old animals on the caves after a while. There were some humorous moments and the choral music was nice though.

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The Revenge of The Electric Car

This is a documentary about how the electric car is gaining prominence despite the industry players plotting to kill it off a few years ago.

Liked the clear explanation on the current situation of the electric car and the interesting personalities like Carlos Ghosn from Nissan, Bob Lutz from General Motors and Elon Musk from Tesla Motors!

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International Shorts 1

Shanghai Love Market: A parent tried to find a girlfriend for their son through the match-making ads placed in a park in Shanghai. Liked the unexpected ending!

The Familiar: A young man explains what it takes to be an assistant to a vampire. Felt quite sad for the cute sales girl at the video shop.

Youche Harbor: A grandson tried to find the location of Youche Harbor in Taiwan where his grandfather was last seen many years ago by his grandmother. Nice scenery!

The Wonder Hospital: A person goes for a face make over at the hospital. Pretty abstract!

The Father: A father tried to make up for his family after being released from jail. Another abstract film that didn't explain a lot of things between the father and the son.

Derelict: A guard and a prisoner who broke out of jail tried to solve their personal grievances. Exciting chase in the beginning but the dialogue sequences towards the end were too long and hard to understand as it tried to convey a lot of background information.

The Mouse That Soared: A bird taught her adopted mouse how to fly but the mouse ended up in a circus accidentally. Liked this short the best as it is funny and sad at the same time!

Killer

The story is about how a young man is forced by circumstances to become a killer.

Liked the nice simple plot that explained the downward spiral of the young man! Was puzzled by the amount of time spent showing the professor trying to get out of the maze-like broadcasting station initially but realised that it served as a metaphor for the whole film in the end.

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Loves of a Blonde

The story is about how a Czech blonde girl tried to find love during the Communist rule in the sixties.

Great acting by the female lead! Liked the funny and sad moments of the film!

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