Atari: Game Over

This is a documentary about the rise and fall of the video game company Atari.

Liked how the director presented the view points from different groups of people: fans, programmers and historians! Quite amazed by how the protagonist could develop a game in just five weeks!

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Goodbye CP

This is a documentary about cerebral palsy in Japan during the early seventies.

Liked how the director dived deep into the personal lives of a few individuals to show us how it was like to be inflicted with cerebral palsy! Felt sad for one of them who had to cancel his poem reading session as the authorities called it a freak show.

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Wrestling

This is a documentary about wrestling in Canada during the early sixties.

Liked the exciting sporting action and narration! The reactions from the audience were interesting too!


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My Neighbors and Their Japanese Ghosts

This is a documentary about old people in China discussing about the Japanese during the Second World War.

Liked the interesting personal accounts told by the interviewees! They contrasted with the modern peaceful setting in Beijing.

The Green Wave

This is a documentary about the events that happened in Iran around the period of the 2009 Iran elections. Animation is used to recreate personal witness accounts from social media such as blogs and twitter.

Liked how the director covered different perspectives of the events! Learnt more about modern Iran history from the interviews and the nice animation!

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Three Sisters

This is a documentary about three sisters living in a mountainous village of Yunnan.

Liked the nice mountainous scenery and the peaceful village life! Quite amazed by how the kids were able to do complex household chores like maintaining the fire by themselves!

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Devil's Town

The film consists of many inter-related short stories that happened in Belgrade.

Liked how the director slowly introduced the characters and brought them all together towards the end! Some parts were a bit too weird for my taste though.

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Hopscotch

The story is about an ex-CIA employee trying to write a memoir while staying one step ahead of the people who wants to stop him.

Liked how the protagonist managed to outsmart his ex-colleagues! Great action and comedy without too much violence!

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The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

This is a documentary about a Japanese war veteran's search for the truth behind the execution of two soldiers in New Guinea shortly after the second World War.

Liked the protagonist's determination to uncover the truth to console the dead! At the beginning of the film, I thought he was just an obnoxious old man but I slowly began to understand his actions as the film progressed.

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Von Trier's 100 Eyes

This is a short documentary about the making of "Dancer in the Dark" by the Danish director, Lars Von Trier.

Liked the in-depth interviews with the director and the simple children's story of "Golden Heart"!

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Railroad of Hope

This is a documentary about peasants taking the train from Sichuan to Xinjiang to earn more money by harvesting cotton.

Liked the interviews with the train passengers where they talked about their hopes and dreams! Quite amazed at how the train can pack so many people and luggages!

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Teddy Bear

The story is about a shy bodybuilder who lived with his oppressive mother looking for love in Thailand.

Liked how the director managed to paint a convincing image of a shy bodybuilder as I have always imagined them to be fierce and tough! Great acting by the bodybuilder and his mother!

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A Dedicated Life

This is a documentary about a famous Japanese novelist.

Liked the interesting reconstructed flashbacks to the novelist's childhood days!

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The Makes

This is a pseudo documentary about an interview with a French critic about an Italian film director's work in Japan.

Liked how the director used photographs and speech to tell a story! I could then use my imagination to visualize how wonderful these films were!

Dream Work

The film tries to capture how the dream of a girl might look like.

Liked the special visual effects that created the dreamlike atmosphere!

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Sic

The story is about a girl working in a Japanese bookshop as a censor of photo-books by scratching bits of images away.

Liked how the protagonist brushed the book with a giant feather in the end as it looked elegant!

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Following Diana

The story is about an Indonesian couple slowly drifting apart after the husband announced his intention to marry a second wife.

Liked the quiet moments that featured the interaction between mother and son! Took me quite a while to realize what the husband was showing to his wife on his computer screen as I thought they were just a bunch of mind maps.

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Immoral Tales

The film consists of five short stories set in reverse chronological order: "The Tide", "Therese Philosophe", "The Beast", "Erzsebet Bathory" and "Lucrezia Borgia".

Quite surprised that the last two films were based on actual historical figures! The beast looked scary in "The Beast"!

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It Happened Tomorrow

The story is about the adventures of a reporter when he realized that he had information on the next day's news.

Liked the interesting plot and how everything fell into place in the end! Wonder if "Back to the Future II" was inspired by this film?

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Junun

This is a documentary about a group of musicians from different countries collaborating to make music in an Indian palace.

Liked the nice music played from exotic looking musical instruments! The aerial view of the palace and the street views looked interesting too!

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