The New Taira Clan

The story is about the rise of Samurais through the Taira family in ancient Japan when monks are well respected and abused their authority.

Learnt a bit about the social conditions at that time. Young master Taira has really thick eye brows!

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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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Repast

The story is about how a wife got tired of her household chores when her husband's niece came to visit them and went back to her parent's place to reflect about her situation.

Liked the voice over narration, the outdoor sequences and how the relationship of the couple developed! The actress looked convincing as the overworked wife!

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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

The story is about how a team of super heroes named the Fantastic Four saved the world and their encounters with an alien named the Silver Surfer.

Liked the little quarrels among the team and how they managed to stick together to solve their problems together in the end! Nice special effects too!

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Miss Oyu

The story is about a man falling in love with a widowed woman named Miss Oyu but marries her sister instead.

Liked how the film explained the relationship among the three people and how their actions are affected by people's attitude at that time! Was also impressed by the nice black and white cinematography and the fluid camera action that followed the characters around!

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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

The story is about a girl who discovered that she could travel back in time by leaping forward.

A charming film that describes the girl's everyday life at school and at home in great detail! The theme "Time waits for no one" comes across very nicely too!

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Ghost Rider

The story is adapted from a comic book about a rider who serves the devil to eliminate his violent son.

Nice special effects! The skull on fire looks cool!

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Wild Hogs

The story is about four middle aged friends going on a road trip around United States on their motorcycles.

Interesting trip where they meet all sorts of people! Marisa Tomei who acted as the waitress looked quite cute! The action sequences are exciting too!

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Music and Lyrics

The story is about how a once popular boy band member discovers that his gardener had great lyric writing talent and cooperated with her to make a new song.

Interesting to see how the creative process evolved! Nice dance choreography by the singer whom the song is meant for too!

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Zodiac

This is based on a true story about a serial killer who taunts the police by forcing the newspaper to publish articles about himself in the 70s.

There was too much information overload and didn't manage to understand who the potential suspects were. A bit too draggy to my liking.

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Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust

The story is about how a young girl travelled back in time to the early 90s to maintain Japan's economic bubble by stopping the economic minister from releasing a particular news.

Interesting and funny film! Was kept in suspense throughout on how everything would end!

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Bridge to Terabithia

The story is about how two classmates became good friends and how they discovered a secret hideout that they named Terabithia.

Liked the depiction of school life and how the friendship evolved over time! The lead actor's sister looks quite cute! Also liked the nice ending!

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After This Our Exile

The story is about the relationship between a father and a son living in Malaysia. The father has a wife who left him because he was a loser. The son chose to stay with his dad even though his mum is financially better off.

Chose to watch this two days before Father's day because of its theme. Realised that Aaron Kwok can act pretty well! The son did a very good job too! Liked the scenery at the countryside and the emotional build up to the final scene!

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D.O.A: Dead or Alive

The story is adapted from an X-box game "Dead or Alive" and is about how a group of martial arts expert are invited to take part in a martial arts competition on an island where the top prize is US$10 million.

Very impressive martial arts choreography! Also liked how the lead actresses worked well together as a team!

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The Crucified Lovers

The story is about how a young wife of a wealthy miserly scroll-maker leaves home with one of the most hardworking workers and falls in love with him in the process. The custom of the time in 17th century Kyoto was to nail adulterous couples on the cross which is how the title comes about.

Liked the nice black and white cinematography and the detailed description of the social conditions in Japan at that time! Very well written storyline that explains how one event leads to another! The lead actress, Kyoko Kagawa, looks a bit like local actress Evelyn Tan.

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Gion Festival Music

The story is about life as a geisha in Japan through the eyes of two geishas who have both a teacher-apprentice and a sisterly relationship.

The second film in the Mizoguchi DVD box set that I watched. The rest of the films in the 8-disc box set are: "New Tales of the Taira Clan", "The Crucified Lovers", "Miss Oyu", "Sansho the Bailiff", "Ugetsu" and "The Life of Oharu".

Realised that geishas have to undergo rigorous training in playing musical instrument and dance before they can graduate but their actual job hardly require much of those skills. Learnt that it is more to build up their character and make them more feminine. Story is interesting and I liked the great acting by the two lead actresses!

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Maya Deren Experimental Films

The DVD consists of several short films by avant garde film director Maya Deren: "Meshes of the Afternoon", "At Land", "A Study in Choreography for Camera", "Ritual in Transfigured Time", "Meditation on Violence", "The Very Eye of Night".

Got this at the World Book Fair as I wanted to see what avant garde film is all about. Thought "Meshes of the Afternoon" and "At Land" were abstract but pretty interesting! Her background in psychology comes through in her films. The rest of the films were pretty boring though in my opinion.

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The Empress Yang Kwei Fei

This is a love story set in the palace during the Tang dynasty in China. The queen is said to be one of the four all-time most beautiful women in China.

Got a box set of Mizoguchi films from Commercial Press at the World Book Fair and chose to watch this first. Found it strange initially to see the actors and actresses dress in Chinese costume but speaking in Japanese but got used to it after a while. Liked how the director related the personal story of Ms Yang!

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Hibiscus Town

The story is about how life in a small town where a couple sells rice bean curd changes during the Cultural Revolution.

Had a better understanding of the Cultural Revolution which is like a large scale social experiment! There is a very tight command and control structure and people's roles are reversed. The rich has to sweep the streets while the uneducated poor became civil servants. Learnt even more about the background to the Cultural Revolution when I chanced upon a talk on Mao ZeDong at the World Book Fair in the later part of the day.

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Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story

The film is a documentary about the problem of North Koreans abducting Japanese during the late 70s and early 80s period and focus on the case of Megumi Yokota who was 13 years old when she was abducted in 1977.

Was very happy that I managed to get the free tickets that Planet Ads was giving out! Learnt that this is not about a few bad guys abducting rich kids for ransom but involves large scale secret agent operation from a hostile country. Pretty informative as the political situation of both Japan and Korea was explained and there were interviews with Megumi's family and friends as well as a North Korean spy. Felt quite sad for the family of the victims as they had to visit many different places to publicise their cause and when the old photos of Megumi Yokota was shown on the screen!

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The Experiment

The story is about a two week psychological experiment conducted to observe how a group of men would behave when given roles as guards or prisoners in a make-shift prison cell. The rules state that anyone can quit anytime, no violence is allowed and money is only given to all those who make it to the end of the experiment.

Quite scary to see how the guards slowly start to abuse their authority while the prisoners have to endure the stress of living in a cell! Realised that it is based on the true story only after watching the film!

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The Dancer Upstairs

The story is about a police investigating the identity of a mysterious leader who instigated a series of violent acts in the name of starting a revolution. The title comes about because his daughter learns ballet and he became friends with her teacher.

Not the usual CSI type of story where the focus is on getting clues to solve the crime as there is some discussion about family relationship and other social issues. A little slow pace but I liked how everything gels together towards the end!

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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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Mother

The story is about the hardships that a family has to face especially that of the mother. Quite coincidental that I am watching this on the eve of Mother's day! A search on the Internet Movie Database shows more than a dozen films with the same title!

Read from "One Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema" by Donald Ritchie that this is director, Mikio Naruse's, happiest film. The DVD cover with two smiling faces seems to convey the same message too! I think I agree with the comment based on the few films from the director that I have watched so far. The playful kids and the cheerful teenage daughter who is in love with a bakery assistant help to liven up the atmosphere while we see how the mother struggles to keep the family together. Good storyline and nicely executed!

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Summer Palace

The story is about the life of a teenage girl from her college days in the late 80s to more than 10 years later in the 21st century. Many big events happened along the way, for example, the Tiananmen Square incident, the fall of Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the Hong Kong reunification.

Had hoped to understand more about the Tiananmen Square incident as the protagonist was studying in Beijing University at the right time but was disappointed! The political events during the era only served as a backdrop and had nothing to do with the story at all! Liked the nice songs played but the film felt too long and could have been compressed a bit. Pretty good acting by the lead actor and actress although I find it hard to understand why they do certain things.

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When A Women Ascends The Stairs

This film has one of the most beautiful titles in my opinion! It is descriptive as it evokes an image of a beautiful lady making her way up the stairs elegantly, yet there is little clue on what exactly the film is about and leaves much room to the viewer’s imagination. The beautiful lady, Keiko, is played by Takamine Hideko who has acted in several other Naruse films such as “Floating Clouds” and “Lightning”. She is the head bar hostess and has to climb a steep staircase every night when she goes to work. This explains how the title comes about. The staircase is also symbolic of the obstacles that she has to overcome each day in order to survive.

Set in Tokyo in the early sixties, Keiko faced the same set of problems that women face today. She had to deal with pressures from work and from her family. At the workplace, she has a demanding boss but the manager likes her and she is on very good terms with the girls under her charge. Her public relations skills is put to good use when she deals with her customers that included a rich arrogant man, an old sugar daddy, a fat man who looked like her ex-husband and a good looking banker. Her family which included her mother, her retrenched brother and her polio inflicted nephew all depended on her to be the breadwinner.

I liked how voice over narration was used as both a social commentary and the inner thoughts of the lead actress! By listening attentively to what is being said and correlating it to the well shot documentary styled outdoor scenes of the city and ordinary people walking about, one is able to piece together a pretty concrete picture of people’s life then. The accompanying soundtrack that consists of light piano and xylophone music is soothing to the ears and does not distract one from the main story.

I also found out that the director was a very good story teller and was able to explain the cause of a certain action and its ripple effect of the resulting consequence really well! The tempo of the film was quick and I did not feel bored at any time! The director’s humanistic touch in the story also makes one feel for the character as they go through the ups and downs of their life.

This is one of the best Japanese films I have ever seen and I highly recommend it!

Au Hasard Balthazar

This is about the life of a donkey whose name is Balthazar. The donkey had to work very hard and yet was mistreated by some of its owners.

A very unique film that sees life through the eyes of a donkey! The narrative is not very straightforward though and many scenes not directly related to the story are omitted to give it a minimalistic feel. Nice background music by Schubert and the ending was beautifully done!

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F*ck

This is a documentary about the most commonly used English swear word. It describes the origin of the word as well as its effects on society.

Liked the animation and the film clips shown to describe the usage of the word! Was quite impressed by the number of meanings that the word could take on depending on the context!

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Atheism

This is a documentary that discusses about the different beliefs about whether there is a god in the world. Scientists, religious people, writers and professors of philosophy were interviewed.

Pretty interesting to hear about the opinions of people from different walks of life! Was not bored at all by this heavy topic and was particularly intrigued by the discussion on the effects that religion had on society.

German Animation

This is a collection of short German Animation compiled into a single programme.

Liked "The Rocks", "Hessi James" and "Terminal Paradise" the best for their storyline and the humour! Fell asleep during "Cherchez la Femme" as I had a heavy lunch. Thought "Rubicon" was cute" while "Hobo", "Ghost Train", "Recently 2", "The Modern Cyclops" and "The Raven" were pretty interesting! "Harara", "Escape", "The Message", "The Moment" and "The Patchwork Queen" were too abstract for me.

Side Effects Of Love

This is a love story of an Indian couple shown through the male perspective with lots of song and dance.

Liked the many comical moments and how the male lead was able to explain his situation so clearly!

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Don't Look Back

The film consists of three short segments. The first is about a father attempting to reconcile with his daughters. The second is about a telecoms engineer falling in love with a girl who is having an affair with a married guy. The last story is about a guy feeling lost about how things have changed after he got discharged from National Service.

All the three stories are about regret of some sort and how life must still go on despite of this. Liked the shots of the train and the railway tracks that appeared in all the film segments!

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The Choice

The story is about how a detective solved a murder mystery involving a pair of twin brothers who lead very different lifestyles.

Liked how the film unravelled the thought process of the police in solving the case! There was quite a bit of suspense where the audience had to decide who could be the real murderer! Very well written script with great dialogue!

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Life in Loops (A Megacities RMX)

This is a documentary that describes the life of the underpriviledged people in the big cities. It is edited from a similar themed film "Megacities" made almost ten years ago with additional scenes in Tokyo.

Liked how the music complemented what is shown on the screen and the MTV feel! Interesting how the film is cut to show the parallels among the different cities!

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A Zen Life

This is a biography of D.T. Suzuki who brought Zen to United States.

The documentary interviewed many people who are influenced by him. Learnt quite a bit about the Zen philosophy through them and Suzuki's television interview.

Scream of the Ants

The story is about a newly wed couple's honeymoon trip in India. It also turned out to be a spiritual journey as the people that they met acted as their guide.

Liked the interesting imageries and the dialogue! It is also funny at times! Good that most of the dialogue is in English so that I spend less effort reading the subtitles.

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Ad Lib Night

The story is about what happens in a single night when a girl pretends to be the long lost granddaughter of a man who is dying of terminal disease.

Liked the script and the quiet moments of the film! The girl looks very pretty too! Especially liked the sock changing scene that symbolised the decision to step into the shoes of the other person and the dialogue in the car towards the end where the revelation made everything fall into place!

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The Other Half

The story is about the life in Sichuan, China where a young woman work as a secretary in a law firm. Clients would come to their firm and seek consultation on their cases and these are presented in a face-to-face interview style.

Liked how the different clients presented their cases at the law firm! The different problems that they faced helped me understand life in China better. Also liked how the digital camera captured the small town life so realistically!

Feet Unbound

The story is about a young woman retracing the steps of the Chinese Red Army during the Long March period more than 70 years ago. She interviewed six surviving female soldiers who recounted the living conditions then.

Liked the interesting personal stories told by the old soldiers! They looked smart in their uniforms and so animated when they recalled how they had to traverse the mountains, cross the rivers and fight the enemies all at the same time! Also liked the narration by the young woman that served to contrast between the past and present life!

In a Year of 13 Moons

The story is about a man with an identity crisis. He had a sex change operation to turn from Erwin to Elvira so that he could be with a man (Anton) he loved and left his wife (Irene) and daughter (Marie Ann) but things didn't work out as planned and he became depressed in the process.

Liked the extensive use of voice narration and the scenes where Elvira had to talk to strangers in the street! Also liked how the nun weaved her way across the different characters as she walked and the interesting dance that was performed in Anton's office!

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The Woven Lives of Others

This is about the life of a tribal village in Philippines. The priestess laments about her diminishing role in the village while soldiers and communist rebels fight in the jungle.

Liked the leisurely pace, the songs and the music in the film! Not much of a plot though as it just shows the daily life of the different types of people in the tribe.

Betina

A strange film about life in an Indonesian village where people rear cows. A girl tries to find her father who seems to be working in a cemetry and using black magic on widows who just lost their husbands.

One particular cow seems to be a witness to what goes on in the village as people interact with it. The girl milks her and lies together with it in the barn while her colleague is jealous of the cow and abuses it. Reminds me a bit of "Au Hasard Balthazar" about the life of a donkey which I am watching halfway.

Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst

The story is a biography of a famous Australian, Florence Broadhurst. She is a socialite who started a company doing colorful wall papers when she became a grandmother and got murdered mysteriously one day.

Interesting use of animation to tell her story! Also liked the interviews with her staff who clearly loved her and feared her at the same time! Didn't like the part where they simulated a day in the life of Florence showing her walking around as I thought it was quite pointless.

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The Last Chip

A cute short film about a trip to the casino by three asian women in Australia where one gambler passed them her last chip which is supposed to bring them good luck.

Interesting look at how the casino works in the eyes of both the staff and the client! Quite educational since the Integrated Resorts will be opening in Singapore soon!

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Prague

The story is about how a man travelled with his wife to Prague to collect his dad's dead body and finding more about himself in the process.

Was quite surprised to see the bad guy in "Casino Royale" act in this film! Great acting and nice scenery! Liked how the male lead tried hard to communicate his feelings even though he is clearly not very good at it!

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M

The story is about the Japanese society's perception of the female sexuality shown through a young housewife who is being pimped by a gang member.

The film described the different roles of the female gender pretty well! As an adult, she has to fulfil her role as a wife to her husband and as a mother to her child, yet she longs to be just a daughter of a father figure. At other times, she is just a sexual image in the head of her husband and other men. Had a better understanding of this through the young housewife's dealings with her husband, her son, her pimp and a young man who befriended her son at the baseball field.

Grbavica

The story is about the life of a Bosnian family that consists of a single mother and her daughter. The mother works in a factory in the day and a bar in the night. The daughter studies in school and she has an upcoming class trip that costs US$ 200. The cost can be waived if she proves that her father died in the war as a soldier, so she keeps bugging her mother about it.

Liked how the film showed the group of single mothers quietly sitting down and staring at different directions! The songs and poems are beautifully written too! Also liked how the individual parts combined nicely together towards the end!

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The Journals of Knud Rasmussen

The story is based on the journals of a Danish ethnographer named Knud Rasmussen in the 1920s. He and his friend stayed with an Inuit family in an igloo and he recorded their way of life which is slowly being eroded away by Western culture.

Liked the opening that showed the family preparing for a group photo and how the director showed their everyday life! Compared to "Nanook of the North", which is another documentary about Eskimos, this films describes more on the family relationship and the spiritual aspect rather than how they catch fish or canoe around on the icy waters. One girl who sat in the corner quietly in her thick bearskin fur coat reminded me of one particular character in "South Park"!

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The Marriage of Maria Braun

The story is about how a German woman, Maria, survive post World War II Germany through her wits and charm!

Liked how the strong minded Maria manage to survive the tumultous times! She figures out other people's mind easily but has people guessing what she'll do. Very nicely written dialogue that cuts straight to the point! Liked the explosive start and finish too!

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Simon the Stylite

I thought the story would be about an actual filming of a guy named Simon who had great balancing skills on top of a few tall columns but realised that I was mistaken shortly after the film started. The balancing act happened many years ago and all that was left was building ruins and incomplete columns.

Learnt a bit about history from the film even though it was not quite what I expected!