The story takes place in feudal Japan, when any commerce with the rest of the world was strictly prohibited. An idealist suddenly appears in an isolated inn (the one that the title refers to), the head-quarters of a group of smugglers, with stolen money intended to ransom his loved one who is forced to work in a brothel.
Read More »
The Beauties and the Beast / The Beast and the Vixens (1974) Ray Nadeau, Jacqueline Giroux, Uschi Digard, Marius Mazmanian, Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Erotic
After a brief description of the legends of Bigfoot by the narrator, this film goes on to show what the hairy monster might really be doing with his time in the woods: watching women get naked and have sex. After spying on a couple of college girls sleeping together in a remote forest cabin, Bigfoot then stumbles across a couple having sex in the woods. After he chases off the man to have a little fun of his own with the woman, the film then leaves Bigfoot to follow the exploits of the two college girls as they encounter a troupe of skinny-dipping hippies.
Read More »
Body Double (1984) Brian De Palma, Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Mystery, Thriller
Jake Scully comes home to find his girlfriend with another man and has to find a new place. In between his acting workshops and his job in a vampire B-movie, he scans the paper looking for anything. He happens to meet Sam Bouchard, a fellow actor who needs a house sitter. Both are pleased with the arrangement that will have Jake staying in the house and for a sweetener, Sam shows him his favorite neighbor, a well-built woman who strips with her window open each night. Jake becomes obsessed with meeting her and is able to help recover her purse from a thief, but shows his own phobia, he is incapacitated by claustrophobia when the thief runs through a tunnel. When Jake witnesses a murder, he finds out that the police love to pin crimes on peeping Toms. Jake discovers that here are just too many coincidences but must hunt them down himself without the police.
Read More »
The Premonition (1976) Robert Allen Schnitzer, Sharon Farrell, Edward Bell, Danielle Brisebois, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
This Thriller/horror movie tells the tale of a young girl who is terrified that her insane mother will take her away from her beloved foster mother. One day, the crazed real mother attempts to contact the girl at school, but her foster mother has a premonition and gets there in time to protect the girl. Eventually though, the real mother and her boy friend, a carnival clown, succeed and takes her away, leaving the bereaved foster parents to enlist the assistance of a parapsychologist to help them interpret the foster mother’s terrifying dreams and psychic connection to the girl and find her before it is too late.
Read More »
Il richiamo / The Call (2009) Stefano Pasetto, Sandra Ceccarelli, Francesca Inaudi, César Bordón, Drama, Romance
Stefano Pasetto’s finely balanced tale of two women from different generations and very different sensibilities provides a surprising answer. Frustrated in each of their relationships, the two women get together and leave town, boldly striking out on their own and forming an indelible bond despite their many differences. This is only the beginning of a wonderfully liberating experience that defies narrative expectations.
Read More »
Happy End (1967) Oldrich Lipský, Vladimír Mensík, Jaroslava Obermaierová, Josef Abrhám, Comedy, Crime
A dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an “execution” of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.
Read More »
Don’t Talk to Strangers (1994) Robert Michael Lewis, Pierce Brosnan, Shanna Reed, Terry O’Quinn, Thriller, Crime
Unhappy marriage causes divorce. Brosnan (new husband) and wife attempt to build a new life, and move to a new state. However, the ex-husband follows and the story unfolds from there.
Read More »
The Spy in Black / L’Espion Noir (1939) Michael Powell, Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Sebastian Shaw, Thriller, War
Captain Hardt (Conrad Veidt), a World War I German submarine commander, is ordered to lead a mission to attack the British Fleet at Scapa Flow. He puts ashore on the Orkney Islands to meet his contact but finds more than he bargained for in the local schoolmistress (Valerie Hobson).
Read More »
Glamorous Night (1937) Brian Desmond Hurst, Mary Ellis, Otto Kruger, Victor Jory, Drama
The popular Ivor Novello musical play Glamorous Night was given a conservative film treatment in 1937–minus much of the Novello score that had made it famous. Opera singer Mary Ellis plays an opera singer (why not?) who falls in with a band of roguish but likeable gypsies. Mary manages to convince her Bohemian cohorts to rescue the King from the machinations of his ambitious prime minister. As “cast insurance” to make certain that Glamorous Night would get American bookings, Hollywood character actors Otto Kruger and Victor Jory are given leading roles. The US distributors also sliced the film down from 81 to 65 minutes, through the simple expedient of removing several songs.
Read More »
Afterimages (2014) Tony Kern, Sheena Chan, Pamelyn Chee, Daniel Jenkins, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
A group of film students burn paper effigy cameras for the wandering spirits during the ghost month in Singapore and receive a collection of horror movies in return. The first film received, GHOST POOL LEG, revolves around Chinese superstition in which ghosts are believed to pull swimmers legs to drown them. The second movie, XIAO BAO BAO, focuses on a young woman’s haunting experience after taking a postmortem photograph of a suicide jumper. The third movie, SKIN DEEP, finds a group of shoppers stuck in a mall elevator with a mysterious and beautiful woman who holds a terrible secret. The fourth film, REKINDLING, features a heartbroken hawker, a missing China bride, and the mysterious ring she left behind. The final film comes with a price.
Read More »