
The film is packed with nice stunts throughout, but the screenplay could be better. After escaping the prison Chiba teams up with a bunch of thugs, who design prison escapes for money. Unfortunately trust and loyalty are unknown concepts to these men who take turns deceiving each other. The endless “who’s-cheating-who” game has been done better in other films, and sometimes the writing is downright sloppy: when a carefully planned escape operation fails, Chiba simply steals a fire engine and drives away without anyone noticing! It also feels that director Kosaku Yamashita, who made his name with yakuza films, was a bit out of his element here. However, even with these weaknesses it’s an entertaining action comedy which compares favourably against some of the later, similar Yasaku Matsuda films like Execution Game (1978) and No Grave for Us (1979). The focus is on stunts and comedy.
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Tag Archives: english subtitles
Much Loved (2015) Nabil Ayouch, Loubna Abidar, Asmaa Lazrak, Halima Karaouane, Drama

A social drama about four marginalized prostitutes in Marrakech and their complex relations with their families and society at large.
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Jigoku no okite ni asu wa nai / Glorious Fights (1966) Yasuo Furuhata, Ken Takakura, Rentarô Mikuni, Yukiyo Toake, Action

A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan without fear of consequences.
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Sister Emanuelle (1977) Giuseppe Vari, Laura Gemser, Mónica Zanchi, Gabriele Tinti, Drama, Erotic

Renouncing her “sinful” past, Emanuelle has entered a convent and has dedicated herself to a life of service. Enter Monika, the free-spirited, free-loving daughter of a wealthy Baron. Emanuelle is charged with keeping Monika in line, but when the young girl’s wild ways bring back memories of her own sensual past, Emanuelle begins questioning her own religious and sexual identity. Advances from an escaped killer who is hiding in the convent serve to complicate matters further.
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Little Tony / Kleine Teun (1998) Alex van Warmerdam, Annet Malherbe, Ariane Schluter, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Farmer Brand can’t read and he is quite happy with that. His wife, Keet, who has to read him all the subtitles on the television, isn’t. She decides to hire a teacher for him. This is a beautiful young woman, called Lena. Brand falls in love with her. To his puzzlement and dismay Keet encourages him, because as she says she doesn’t want a husband with another woman in his head. She wants their love to grow stale. She also wants Lena to give Brand and her a son. The love between Brand and Lena does not grow stale easily and after the birth of little Teun, their strange menage a trois comes to a dramatic conclusion.
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Osobisty pamietnik grzesznika przez niego samego spisany / Memoirs of a Sinner (1986) Wojciech Has, Piotr Bajor, Maciej Kozlowski, Janusz Michalowski, Drama

The 18th century tale of a youngster whose memories, recounted after death, are a long series of wrong moral choices ending up with his killing his evil alter-ego, that is committing suicide.
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Der Kongreß tanzt / Congress Dances (1931) Erik Charell, Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Otto Wallburg, Comedy, History, Musical

Vienna glove-sales-lady Christl falls in love to Czar Alexander. Metternich tries to use this to keep him out of the conferences of the Vienna Congress from 1815.
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The Birds (1963) Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Horror, Mystery

Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.
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Le Chien / Wild (2007) Christian Monnier, Florian Frin, Marie Le Cam, Jean-Marc Lebars, Drama

Kevin is an odd young man whose behaviour is sometimes dangerous. He lives with Jean-Claude on a remote farm in the midst of beautiful natural surroundings. The two men live together in disturbing silence. When Michèle meets Jean-Claude, she sees him as a casual lover. But when Kévin appears, Michèle sees this as an opportunity to give meaning to her own life…
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Segreti di stato / Secrets of the State (2003) Paolo Benvenuti, Antonio Catania, David Coco, Sergio Graziani, Drama

On the first of May 1947, the bandit Salvatore Giuliano conducted a raid to the mountain pass Portella della Ginestra, with a view to capturing Sicily’s most prominent communist, Giacomo Licausi. What actually happened was a regular massacre, leaving fourteen people dead and more than thirty wounded. In 1951, about a year after Giulano’s violent death, his men are tried in Viterbo. Unconvinced by the official version, Gaspare Pasciotta’s lawyer, decides to travel to Sicily and starts investigating the facts.
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