Author Archives: rarefilm

Sen-hime to Hideyori / Lady Sen and Hideyori (1962) Masahiro Makino, Hibari Misora, Kinnosuke Nakamura, Ken Takakura, Drama, History

Sen-hime to Hideyori AKA Lady Sen and Hideyori (1962)
An all-star cast led by Hibari Misora and Kinnosuke Nakamura bring this stunning historical drama to life. From the late 1500’s through the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate many battles were fought as the great warlords vied for power over the nation. Princess Sen, a daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, is caught amidst the family feud between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi families. When her father Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu attacks her husband Toyotomi Hideyori’s castle, her life takes a sudden turn for the worse. Will she ever find peace in her life again? One of Hibari Misora’s most memorable performances, a movie you will never forget!
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A Cara que Mereces / The Face You Deserve (2004) Miguel Gomes, José Airosa, Gracinda Nave, Sara Graça, Comedy, Fantasy

A Cara que Mereces AKA The Face You Deserve (2004)
Until you turn 30, you have the face God gave you. After that, you have the face you deserve.” The estranged musical comedy that is Gomes’ first feature film seeks to convince its protagonist, Francisco, of that saying/dogma; precisely, during his thirtieth birthday. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite, and that Francisco who dresses up as a cowboy for the school play at the school where he teaches the children he detests, seeks to convince A cara que mereces of the fatality of the little phrase. But Francisco is a trick: he knows he deserves his face and his body because of him being intolerable. And A cara que mereces, hunted hunter, becomes a claustrophobic film that seeks to run away from Francisco using cinephilia as a way of escape; boarding, as Mark Peranson has observed, to the heart of Rivette, to the train (of dreams) of the recent Godard and, finally, to an impossible (but well-deserved) version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
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Kyua / Cure (1997) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Crime, Horror, Mystery

Kyua AKA Cure (1997)
A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere. An odd young man is arrested near the scene of the latest murder, who has a strange effect on everyone who comes into contact with him. Detective Takabe starts a series of interrogations to determine the man’s connection with the killings.
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Os Imortais / The Imortals (2003) António-Pedro Vasconcelos, Joaquim de Almeida, Emmanuelle Seigner, Nicolau Breyner, Action, Crime, Drama

Os Imortais AKA The Imortals (2003)
Every year, four ex-soldiers who call themselves “Os Imortais” (“The Immortals”), get together with four women to celebrate their war deeds and remember the old days, back in the war. On the summer of 1985, tired of their monotonous lives, they decide to rob a bank. Joaquim Malarranha, a chief inspector from the local police force who is about to retire, crosses their path and chooses to spend his last days of duty trying to solve the robbery. But as he carries on with his investigation, he discovers more than he could have ever imagined…
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Spider Baby (1967) Jack Hill, Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Spider Baby (1967)
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home…
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Man Hunt / Chasse à l’Homme (1941) Fritz Lang, Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Drama, Thriller, War

Man Hunt
On July 29, 1939, renowned British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) slips through the forest undetected near the Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s residence near Berchtesgaden. Getting the dictator in his telescopic sight, he pulls the trigger on his unloaded rifle and gives a wave. He ponders a moment, then loads a live round, but is discovered at the last second by a guard, and the shot goes wild…
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Cheut ai kup gei / Exodus (2007) Ho-Cheung Pang, Simon Yam, Annie Liu, Nick Cheung, Comedy, Crime, Drama

Cheut ai kup gei AKA Exodus (2007)
A low-ranking cop often relegated to desk duty, middle-aged Tsim Kin Yip (Simon Yam) lives a stable, mundane life with his young yoga instructor wife Ann (Annie Liu). The monotony is broken one day when he interrogates Kwan Ping Man (Nick Cheung), a nervous, profanity-spouting man caught spying in the women’s bathroom. Kwan, who seems to have more than a few screws loose, confides to Tsim a shocking secret: a ring of women conspiring to murder men. Everyday, plans are whispered in restrooms and deaths are carefully engineered, so that men die unnoticeably from “accidents” that are anything but. Tsim initially dismisses Kwan’s conspiracy theory, but then clues crop up suggesting there is something fishy at work. Both his marriage and life could be at stake as Tsim becomes increasingly obsessed with cracking the case.
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Leila (1997) Dariush Mehrjui, Leila Hatami, Ali Mosaffa, Jamileh Sheikhi, Drama, Romance

Leila (1997)
Leila and Reza meet in a kind of celebration and fall for each other. Having discovered their love, they get married soon only to find out the infertility of Leila. That’s when Reza’s authoritative mother starts wheedling Leila to persuade Reza into second marriage for the sake of having a grandchild. Leila accepts at first but is unaware of her own strain threshold.
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Vigilante (1983) William Lustig, Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, Richard Bright, Action, Crime, Thriller

Vigilante (1983)
New York City factory worker Eddie Marino is a solid citizen and regular guy, until the day a sadistic street gang brutally assaults his wife and murders his child. But when a corrupt judge sets the thugs free, Eddie goes berserk and vows revenge. Now there’s a new breed of marauder loose on the city streets, enforcing his own kind of law. His justice is swift. His methods are violent. He is the VIGILANTE.
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