Osaka in the early 1600s, aftermath of the historical Battle of Sekigahara; a group of orphan children are wandering through the battlefield scavenging for armour when they encounter a young boy named Sasuke with magical powers he says came from a meteor that crashed onto the Earth…Outrageous but emotionally affective, the film represents the youth culture whose causes it proclaims, taking the historical facts of the Osaka siege and the long-standing legend of the Sanada clan…
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Giallo a Venezia / Giallo in Venice (1979) Mario Landi, Leonora Fani, Jeff Blynn, Gianni Dei, Crime, Horror, Mystery, Erotic
Inspector Angelo De Pol (Jeff Blynn) is assigned to the case of a double murder in Venice, the victims were a married couple. He suspects that a psycho killer in on the loose, however during the investigation the inspector discovers that the husband was a sex maniac and a drug addict. Soon afterwards bloody killings begin to occur.
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Gentleman’s Fate (1931) Mervyn LeRoy, John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Drama
Jack lives the high life and wants to make Marjorie his one and only. He then learns that his deceased father is alive but dying of lead poisoning. His father sent him away, twenty years before, to keep him out of the rackets. But now that he is dying, he wants to split the business between Giacomo (Jack) and Frank, his other son. The business includes running booze down from Canada.
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Crimson Bat, the Blind Swordswoman / Mekura no oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori (1969) Sadatsugu Matsuda, Yôko Matsuyama, Chizuko Arai, Jun Tatara, Action, Adventure, Drama
A young blind girl is abandoned by her mother. When her guardian is killed, she learns to wield a sword from a traveling “Ronin”. She travels to seek her mother and her revenge.
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Count the Hours (1953) Don Siegel, Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Dolores Moran, Drama, Crime
The midnight murder of a rancher and his wife leaves circumstantial evidence pointing the finger of guilt toward a married couple, George Braden and his wife Ellen, who live and work on the ranch. George confesses to the killings in order to free his wife from hours of grilling by the police. Despite the best efforts of his defense attorney, Doug Madison , George gets the death penalty. Sunsequent events and his sympathy for Ellen convince Doug that George is innocent but he must find the real murderer to prove it. His man-hunt leads to a former hired hand, Max Verne. With the help of the latter’s greedy girl friend, Gracie Sanger, Max is found and admits to the killings. But when a hearing is held, a psychiatrist pronounces him unsound of mind but harmless and the judge sets him free.
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Qin Xianglian / Ping Opera (1955) Suling Xu, Li Zai Wen, Wei Rong Yuan, Chen Shao Fang, Drama
Qing (i.e. Qin) Xianglian was the wife of a man named Chen Shimei, who won the first title of national examination and awarded as husband of the emperor’s daughter. Then Qing (i. e. Qin) sues Chen as a murderer who plans to kill his wife and son. In spite of the royal power, gownsman Bao Zhen settles the lawsuit and sentences Chen to serve his head.
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Four Lovers / Happy Few (2010) Antony Cordier, Marina Foïs, Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Romance
In this sexy, French romantic drama, two couples decide to explore the boundaries of their relationships by swapping partners. What starts as a fun, free-spirited ménage-a-4 experimentation full of sleepovers, shared vacations, and dinner parties soon turns into a hotbed of desire, anger, and confusion. As their arrangement leads them down an increasingly surprising and provocative path, the lovers begin to question their personal choices and lifestyles, leading to consequences none of them could foresee.
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Der Henker von London / The Mad Executioners (1963) Edwin Zbonek, Hansjörg Felmy, Maria Perschy, Dieter Borsche, Crime, Horror
A band of hooded men have formed a court and they are exacting justice upon the criminals who have escaped the reach of the law. The sentence they exact is death by hanging. Using the hangman’s rope from the Scotland Yard Museum they leave their victims hanging from various locations with a file detailing the case against them pinned to the body. Scotland Yard is stumped and have assigned their best man to break the case. Meanwhile another fiend is on the loose, one who is neatly severing the heads of young women. The bodies are found the heads are not.
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Un homme et une femme / A Man and a Woman (1966) Claude Lelouch, Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh, Drama, Romance
A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens’ boarding school. Slowly they reveal themselves to each other, finding that each is a widow/widower. Each is slow to reveal anything personal so that each revelation is hidden by a misperception. They become friends, then close friends, and then she reveals that she can’t have a lover because, for her, her husband’s memory is still too strong. Much of the film is told wordlessly in action, or through hearing one of their thoughts as they go about their day.
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The Phantom of Paris (1931) John S. Robertson, John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone, Drama, Thriller
Bibi is a world class escape artist, but he cannot escape the false murder charge that is placed on him. Max has killed Bourrelier before he was removed from the will so that he will be rich when he marries Cecile. Together with Vera, they put the blame on Bibi, who is a romantic rival to Max, and he is sentenced to death. But Bibi escapes before his execution and hides in Herman’s secret cellar. When he learns that Max is dying, Bibi goes to his house for his confession, but Max dies before it is told to anyone else. So Bibi, has just one chance, and he goes to Dr. Gorin who will make him look like Max so that he can clear his name and put the blame where it belongs – on Max, even in death.
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Teresa Venerdì (1941) Vittorio De Sica, Adriana Benetti, Irasema Dilián, Comedy, Drama, Romance
A comedy of errors in which the sweetly incompetent Dr. Pietro Vignali (de Sica) has been run deep into debt by his girlfriend, Loletta Prima (Magnani). After his creditors threaten to sell his belongings, he takes a job as an orphanage health inspector to pay his debts and ends up engaged to wealthy Lilli, daughter of a mattress tycoon, and chased after by the orphan Teresa Venerdí, while trying to keep his life in order.
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Of Time and the City (2008) Terence Davies, Documentary, Biography
Terence Davies (1945- ), filmmaker and writer, takes us, sometimes obliquely, to his childhood and youth in Liverpool. He’s born Catholic and poor; later he rejects religion. He discovers homo-eroticism, and it’s tinged with Catholic guilt. Enjoying pop music gives way to a teenage love of Mahler and Wagner. Using archival footage, we take a ferry to a day on the beach. Postwar prosperity brings some positive change, but its concrete architecture is dispiriting. Contemporary colors and sights of children playing may balance out the presence of unemployment and persistent poverty. Davies’ narration is a mix of his own reflections and the poems and prose of others.
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Nina Forever (2015) Ben Blaine, Chris Blaine, Cian Barry, Abigail Hardingham, Mandeep Dhillon, Comedy, Horror, Romance
After his girlfriend Nina dies in a car crash, Rob unsuccessfully attempts suicide. As he begins to overcome his grief, he falls in love with a co-worker, Holly. Their relationship is complicated when Nina, unable to find rest in the afterlife, comes back to life to sarcastically torment them whenever they have sex.
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The Young Philadelphians (1959) Vincent Sherman, Paul Newman, Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Drama
Up and coming, young lawyer Anthony Lawrence faces several ethical and emotional dilemmas as he climbs the Philadelphia social ladder. His personal and professional skills are tested as he tries to balance the needs of his fiance Joan, the expectations of his colleagues and his own obligation to defend his friend Chester on a murder count.
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The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) Ken Loach, Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Drama, History, War
In 1920, rural Ireland is the vicious battlefield of republican rebels against the British security forces and Irish Unionist population who oppose them, a recipe for mutual cruelty. Medical graduate Damien O’Donovan always gave priority to his socialist ideals and simply helping people in need. Just when he’s leaving Ireland to work in a highly reputed London hospital, witnessing gross abuse of commoners changes his mind. He returns and joins the local IRA brigade, commanded by his brother Teddy, and adopts the merciless logic of civil war, while Teddy mellows by experiencing first-hand endless suffering. When IRA leaders negotiate an autonomous Free State under the British crown, Teddy defends the pragmatic best possible deal at this stage. Damien however joins the large seceding faction which holds nothing less than a socialist republic will do. The result is another civil war, bloodily opposing former Irish comrades in arms, even the brothers.
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