Film Reviews

Considered by some as the first modern Spanish cinema film, “Ditirambo” retrieves a character who had already been Gonzalo Suárez’s literary life in his novel.

In 1957, Peter Kubelka was hired to make a short commercial for Schwechater beer. The beer company undoubtedly thought they were commissioning a film that would help them sell their beers; Kubelka had other ideas. He shot his film with a camera that did not even have a viewer, simply pointing it in the general direction of the action. He then took many months to edit his footage, while the company fumed and demanded a finished product. Finally he submitted a film, 90 seconds long, that featured extremely rapid cutting (cutting at the limits of most viewers' perception) between images washed out almost to the point of abstraction — in black-and-white positive and negative and with red tint — of dimly visible people drinking beer and of the froth of beer seen in a fully abstract pattern.

Intended as the concluding film in the trilogy on the modern history of Taiwan began with Beiqing Chengshi (1989), this film reveals the story through three levels: a film within a film as well as the past and present as linked by a young woman, Liang Ching. She is being persecuted by an anonymous man who calls her repeatedly but does not speak. He has stolen her diary and faxes her pages daily. Liang is also rehearsing for a new film that is due to go into production soon. The film, entitled Haonan Haonu, is about a couple Chiang Bi-yu and Chung Hao-tung who returns to China to participate in the anti-Japanese movement in China in the 1940s and are arrested as communists when they go back to Taiwan.

Making her way through life by forming superficial relationships, Yoko (Japanese pop idol Yo Hitoto) keeps everyone at arm's length, whether it's her father (Nanji Kobayashi) and stepmother (Kimiko Yo) or Hajime (Tadanobu Asano), the owner of a small bookstore who could be the father of her unborn child. Yoko seems most at home when she's riding the train, speeding around the city with only her thoughts to entertain her.

A historic Hollywood hotel houses a supernatural evil. It's been subdued for decades - but when renovations start, a series of murders take place. It's up to our heroine to solve the mystery.

A black comedy about vanity and lust in contemporary America. In the middle of the sexual jungle of New York's singles' world, two men and two women try to achieve their dreams.

The international criminal Vinaro enjoys sending explosive wristwatches to his enemies.

Mongryong marries the beautiful Chunhyang without telling his father, the Governor of Namwon. When his father is transferred to Seoul, Mongryong has to leave Chunhyang and finish his exams. Chunhyang, being the daughter of a courtesan, is also legally a courtesan. She is beaten and imprisoned when she refuses to obey the new Governor Byun, as she wishes to be faithful to her husband. After three years, Mongryong passes his exam and becomes an emissary to the King. He returns to Namwon, disguised as a beggar, just before Chunhyang is to be flogged to death at the governor's birthday celebration.

After watching their respective partners die, a cop and a hitman form an alliance in order to bring down their common enemy.

A naive young dancer in a Broadway show innocently gets involved in backstage bootlegging and murder.

The biker Anne has a violent one night stand with the supposed cop Chris after a minor infraction. Two days later, feeling guilty and traumatized, she decides to go hiking with her boyfriend Michael in the Whistler chain of mountains, a spot where bicycles are prohibited. When she sees Chris riding a bike, she tells Michael about her affair, and Chris unexpectedly kills Michael. Along the rest of the day and night, Anne is chased by Chris in a sick and mortal mouse-and-cat game.

The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film completed in 1994. Created to secure copyright to the property, the producers never intended it for release although the director, actors, and other participants were not informed of this fact. It was produced by low-budget specialist Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger (who also produced another Fantastic Four movie in 2005).

On The Doll is a story of the victims of child abuse, and the pain it visits upon their later lives. With interweaving stories following victims and victimizers, the film depicts the variety of experiences of abuse.

Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.

New York stenographer Marilyn David meets Englishman Charles Gray and they fall in love. But Charles leaves town and Marilyn discovers he is a duke's son and already engaged. Marilyn confides in her platonic friend, reporter Peter Dawes, who publicizes her as the 'No Girl' who refused nobility. So Marilyn cashes in on her unwelcome notoriety by becoming a cafe entertainer; in an unexpected way, she succeeds. But can she decide between her two loves?