Tag Archives: 1990s

When the boss of a highly profitable Triad family is forced to flee from Hong Kong, rival gangs swoop in to steal any piece of the action they can. York Koo (Andy Lau) becomes the family’s acting boss, and must do what he can to handle the difficult situation, with mounting pressure from both the Hong Kong police, and rival families.
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Debbie and Jo are identical twins. After Jo is killed in a car accident. Debbie starts to act increasingly like Jo. Mysterious circumstances lead Sam to suspect that the accident wasn’t an accident at all.
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Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.
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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.
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This groundbreaking drama, one of few to feature gay lifestyles in a Japanese context, is the work of writer, editor, cinematographer, director and co-star Hiroyuki Oki, an avant-garde filmmaker. In the liberal enclave of Kochi City, Japan, a gay college student, You (pronounced using two syllables as “Yo-ooh”), is living a contented life with his lover and classmate. Then he spies an attractive young man at a train station, and their meeting leads to a subsequent sexual encounter. Although You confesses his infidelity to his boyfriend and even seeks the advice of an ex-lover, he does not completely break off his new relationship, leading to a love triangle that forces each of the men to question his sexuality and identity. Running barely one hour long, I Like You, I Like You Very Much (1995) was short for a feature-length film but earned critical respect for tackling what remains an extremely sensitive cultural issue in its home country.
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Family moves to military base for the summer, but the soldiers are behaving even more strangely than usual. Is it a toxic spill as suggested or is it something more sinister?
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In good old days Franz Maurer and his partners from secret police used to live like kings. Now, they all must adapt to new post-communist environment where they are scorned and losing all the privileges. Some, like Franz, are like ordinary police fighting against drug dealers. But Franz would soon find that some of his friends are on the other side.
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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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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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My films are like that: in a room, but looking out onto an open sky. I can’t really say it except to repeat that Bresson note, ‘that without a thing changing, everything is different.’ The film exists. The fiction is set up, and we believe in it. The justness of the agreement leads us to believe it, because everything plays equally at being a sign.
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