Film Reviews

A look at Communist musicals that strove to be ideologically correct - and entertaining, besides.

The story begins during music class before the chorus festival, when male student Kusakabe Hikaru notices that the bespectacled honor student Sajou Rihito is not singing. Although he thinks that Rihito just doesn't like singing, he finds him practicing alone in the classroom after school. Without even thinking, Hikaru calls out to him.

A freelance reporter stumbles on a desperate military operation. An army chopper has crashed and its cargo has been activated. Now there are two killer androids running loose in the wilderness and have the daughter of their inventor as their target. Can the army stop them or can the reporter reach the little girl before the droids do?

Young advertising executive Vatanen suddenly quits his job and his whole life in Helsinki, and decides to spend a while in the Finnish wilderness. A wounded hare hit by a car becomes his travel companion. Together they find reclusion in the Finnish Lapland, soon to be disturbed by a noisy group of foreign tourists and their pretentious Finnish hosts. When the hare gets ill and needs to see a vet, Vatanen must return to the city and finally face the choice between his new and former life

"Parade" is the story of a strange living situation in a 2LDK apartment (having two bedrooms, a living-dining room, and a kitchen) in suburban Tokyo. There are five residents ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-eight: Ryosuke (Keisuke Koide), a male student with no motivation or aspirations; Kotomi (Shihori Kanjiya), an out-of-work aspiring actress who longs for a celebrity boyfriend; Miki (Karina), a heavy-drinking female illustrator; Satoru (Kento Hayashi), a male prostitute with a spectator like attitude toward life; and Naoki (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a salaryman who works for a film distribution company and says strange things in his sleep. The roommates are not in any way romantically involved with one another, but one can see subtle hints of affection and friendship among them. In the end, however, none of them really know each other.

Summer Sunday at a small beach house at the coast of Rome. Many people and stories: women's basketball team, two sports-obsessed soldiers, two men with their girlfriends and the priest with a big secret, an elderly couple with their pregnant granddaughter, and engagemented couple wanting to have sex for the first time.

A drama of two aging women who live a solitary life collecting discarded items from a nearby town. One day they return home to find a young girl knitting a red sweater in their house. Each time the girl finishes her dress, she promptly unravels it and the mystery unfolds. Directed by Mai Tominaga.

Standup special recorded live at the Warner Theatre in Washington DC. This originally aired directly after a live episode of Real Time with Bill Maher also shot in Washington at a different location.

No overview found.

Two top baseball prospects in the Dominican Republic face fierce competition and corruption as they chase their big league dreams.

In a small Minnesota town, the annual beauty pageant is being covered by a TV crew. Former winner Gladys Leeman wants to make sure her daughter follows in her footsteps; explosions, falling lights, and trailer fires prove that. As the Leemans are the richest family in town, the police are pretty relaxed about it all. Despite everything, main rival (but sweet) Amber Atkins won't give up without a fight.

The Martin kids learn of a magic spell that will take them to the 'mommy market' so they can get a more user friendly model. After giving a few other moms a try, they want their own back. But that is not so easy.

A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

An epic tale about a group of whale watchers, whose ship breaks down and they get picked up by a whale fisher vessel. The Fishbillies on the vessel has just gone bust, and everything goes out of control.

A juror on a murder case begins to believe that the man on trial is innocent of the crime - and then discovers that the real killer is her own husband.