In 1913, Yu Dafu goes from China to Japan to study. At that time, Japan is the nascent superpower of East Asia, while China, the “sick man of Asia”, is in turmoil. Dafu is forced to confront the formidable combination of challenging schoolwork, foreign culture, and a racist populace during his time in Japan, and, along the way, struggles with becoming a man, emotionally and sexually. Towards the beginning of the film, he meets, while bathing nude in a hot spring, Lung-erh, and falls in love instantly. Although Yu Dafu is unable to locate her after their brief encounter, he eventually runs into her again after having taken up his studies in Nagoya.
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The Flying Ace (1926) Richard E. Norman, Laurence Criner, Kathryn Boyd, Boise De Legge, Adventure, Crime, War
A veteran World War I fighter pilot returns home a war hero and immediately regains his former job as a railroad company detective. His first case: recover a stolen satchel filled with $25,000 of company payroll, locate a missing employee, and capture a gang of railroad thieves.
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Raising a Riot (1955) Wendy Toye, Kenneth More, Shelagh Fraser, Mandy Miller, Comedy
Commander Peter Kent of the Royal Navy and his wife Mary have three children aged from five to eleven. Kent comes home after three years abroad with no idea how to handle the children. When Mary has to fly to Canada, Peter takes his children to his father’s new country home, which turns out to be a windmill. They clash with an American family in the neighbourhood.
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Hellbound Train (1930) James Gist, Drama
Hellbound Train comprises a series of vignettes of “sinful” acts, any of which could book you a spot on that locomotive to perdition: Women deceiving their husbands; gamblers and tipplers; crooked men conducting illicit business; and insolent children disrespecting their parents make up the 20-minute silent film. At the end of each scene a character dies, and a round man in a form-fitting devil suit hops off a train and does a little jig as he accepts a new passenger.
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Les doigts croches / Sticky Fingers (2009) Ken Scott, Roy Dupuis, Patrice Robitaille, Aure Atika, Adventure, Comedy, Crime
In this sly comedy, six of the world’s worst gangsters managed to heist $2 million, but only one got away. Now after four years in the clink, five bumbling thieves from Montreal are forced to walk the famous Camino pilgrimage in Spain to prove they’ve changed their ways and deserve their cut of the loot.
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Torch Song (1953) Charles Walters, Joan Crawford, Michael Wilding, Gig Young, Drama, Music, Romance
Jenny Stewart is a tough Broadway musical star who doesn’t take criticism from anyone. Yet there is one individual, Tye Graham, a blind pianist who may be able to break through her tough exterior.
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Tômei ningen to hae otoko / The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (1957) Mitsuo Murayama, Ryûji Shinagawa, Yoshirô Kitahara, Junko Kanô, Crime, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
A series of ghastly murders is being committed. The one similarity in each of the murders is that a weird buzzing sound is always heard right before the murder occurs. Is the killer invisible or possibly some other incredible creature?
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Dead Air (1994) Fred Walton, Gregory Hines, Debrah Farentino, Harold Ayer, Thriller
A distraught disc jockey (Gregory Hines) seeks out a mystery caller (Debrah Farentino) who may be the killer of his girlfriend (Laura Harrington).
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Angels and Insects (1995) Philip Haas, Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patsy Kensit, Drama, Romance
The movie is a study of a family of country gentry in Victorian England. William Adamson, a young scientist, is introduced into the Alabaster family by Reverend Mr Alabaster who is also fascinated by insects. William marries the older daughter of the family and studies the amounts of insects in the garden of the villa. His – for the gentry – strange behaviors reveal at the same time their own failures and passions.
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The Black Camel (1931) Hamilton MacFadden, Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Movie star Sheila Fayne is seeing wealthy Alan Jaynes while filming in Honolulu, Hawaii, but won’t marry him without consulting famed psychic Tanaverro first. Tanaverro confronts her about the unsolved murder of fellow film star Denny Mayo three years earlier, and she decides to reject Jaynes’ proposal. When Sheila is found shot to death in her beach-front pavilion, Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police investigates.
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