Flower and Snake 3 / Hana to hebi 3 (2010)
Drama
Shizuko Toyama is a rising cellist who comes back to Japan from Italy. She then falls into a planned sensual trap where she is bound with straw rope, given a diuretic, and more …
Starring: Minako Komukai
Director: Yusuke Narita
Flower and Snake 2 / Hana to hebi 2: Pari/Shizuko (2005)
Drama | Thriller
Tooyama, an aging impotent art critic, sends his much-younger wife, Shizuko, to Paris to evaluate the work of Ikegami, an artist he sponsors. She discovers she's curious about sado-masochism, and soon she becomes Ikegami's object of bondage as well as his muse. Encounters with Ikegami lead her into a shadowy world of wealthy patrons of ropes, humiliation, and slavery. Ikegami discovers his protective side, and Tooyama reenters the picture. Once Shizuko can reestablish control over her life, she can make a choice.
Starring: Aya Sugimoto
Director: Takashi Ishii
Flower and Snake / Hana to hebi (2004)
Drama | Thriller
Tôyama, a weak-willed businessman, is in debt to the Yakuza; they also have a video of him bribing a government minister. To clear his debts, he agrees to let them drug and kidnap his wife Shizuko, Japan's queen of the tango, and subject her to the proclivities of a 95-year-old voyeur, who's a Yakuza boss. After a masked ball, Shizuko is taken prisoner; she fights her captors, submitting only when the life of Kyôko, her female bodyguard, is threatened. Tôyama feels regret and seeks to buy back Shizuko, but by this time, she may be enjoying her situation. Is she, or is she pretending in order to protect herself and Kyôko? Would she want a way out if there is one?
Starring: Aya Sugimoto
Director: Takashi Ishii
Ocean Flame / Yi ban hai shui, yi ban huo yan (2008)
Drama
Wong Yiu was a very shameless person and a blackmailer until one day he met a waitress named Ni Chen. He thought Ni Chen was like any other girls that could be controlled by him, but her stubbornness was way beyond his imagination. As time goes by, they both lost their ways and losing themselves in the process. He was not as free as he once was. Insanity causes him to end her life. Eight years later, Wong Yiu stepped out from the jail. He carried a gun and went to look for Ni Chen's mother at her home wishing to fulfill his own will.
Starring: Fan Liao, Monica Mok, Simon Yam, Shiu Hung Hui, Suet Lam, Hee Ching Paw, Yitian Hai
Director: Fendou Liu
Sideways (2004)
Comedy | Drama | Romance
A wine tasting road trip to salute Jack's final days as a bachelor careens woefully sideways as he and Miles hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women. Emerging from a haze of pinot noir, wistful yearnings and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality.
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Marylouise Burke, Jessica Hecht
Director: Alexander Payne
Swimfan (2002)
Drama | Thriller
New Jersey high school senior Ben Cronin is a former juvenile delinquent, whose past criminal behavior was fueled by and for drug use. He credits the support of his now long time girlfriend Amy Miller and getting into competitive swimming as the primary reasons for turning his life around, which includes working part-time at the hospital where his single mother works. He has become the star swimmer of his high school team, so much so that scouts from Stanford University are coming in a week's time to watch Ben swim. Ben has a new swim fan in Madison Bell, a recent transfer student to Ben's high school. Despite Ben making it clear that he is in a committed relationship, Madison seduces him, the seduction to which he succumbs. They agree afterward that their encounter was a one-time only event, but Ben slowly comes to the realization that despite Madison's assertions to the contrary…
Starring: Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen, Shiri Appleby
Director: John Polson
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El espíritu de la colmena / The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Drama | Fantasy
This highly acclaimed debut feature from Victor Erice is set in rural Spain just after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. It offers a memorable story of a child's innocence amid post-war traumas and a haunting commentary on the new fascist rule. In a remote Castillian village in 1940 a travelling cinema comes to town and shows the Boris Karloff film 'Frankenstein'. The young girl, Ana, starts to worry about the fate of the monster. Goaded on by her sister, who tells her the monster lives in a house on the edge of the village, she finally summons enough courage to visit the house. She discovers a fugitive on the run who takes the surrogate place of the monster of her imagining, and she naively tries to protect him from the villagers and police.
Starring: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería
Director: Víctor Erice
19-Nineteen (2009)
Drama
Three teenagers that have two things in common: they are all nineteen, and they are all suspects in the murder of another girl. Opting to run from a corrupt policeman that refuses to believe their innocence, the three young fugitives learn to trust one another, and begin their personal journeys towards self discovery, unraveling the mystery of the true murderer along the way.
Starring: Seung Hyun Choi, In-jae Heo, Seungri, Her Jie
Director: Yong-woo Chung
Klass / The Class (2007)
Drama
Kaspar and the class pushover Joosep are 16 and life in high school isn't easy. Without meaning to, Kaspar defends Joosep against the bullying of his classmates, but every time Kaspar tries to him, it backfires, with the class taking it out on Joosep. Kaspar just wants his friends, his girl and his unassuming life back. Joosep wants to regain his dignity and the chance to switch to a high school far away. But their classmates are relentless, going further and further with each incident.
Starring: Vallo Kirs, Pärt Uusberg, Lauri Pedaja, Paula Solvak, Mikk Mägi
Director: Ilmar Raag
Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté / Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (1988)
Adventure | Comedy | Drama
A foundling, raised in the circus, Sam Lion becomes a businessman after a trapeze accident. However, when he reaches fifty and becomes tired of his responsibilities and of his son Jean-Philippe, he decides to disappear at sea. However, he runs into Albert Duvivier, one of his former employees. He comes to realise that he has ignored the important things in his life.
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Richard Anconina
Director: Claude Lelouch
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller
Posing as jewel broker Donnie Brasco, FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone (Johnny Depp) is granted entrance into the violent mob family of aging hit man Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino). When his personal and professional lives collide, Pistone jeopardizes his marriage, his job life and, ultimately, the gangster mentor he has come to respect and admire.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, Anne Heche
Director: Mike Newell
Always 3 chôme no yûhi '64 / Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 (2012)
Drama
The Tokyo Olympics are about to open, and Rynosuke Chagawa is excited to receive a new TV set to watch the upcoming events. His wife Hiromi is pregnant and he has built a second level on his shop to provide his adopted son Junnosuke with a private space to study for entrance to Tokyo University to set up a career with a major company. He dreams of sparing Junnosuke the struggles that he has faced as a writer. The family continues to rely upon Hiromi's income from her bar. Meanwhile a rival story, The Virus, by a new writer has appeared in the periodical that has been publishing his stories "Boy's Adventure Book" and he fears the new competition. Norifumi Suzuki also receives a new TV, but more of a deluxe model. Mutsuko Hoshino (Roku) is still the principal mechanic in the Suzuki family's auto repair shop, but she dresses up some mornings to go to a nearby street with the hope of a "chance" meeting with Dr…
Starring: Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Maki Horikita, Masako Motai, Tomokazu Miura, Hiroko Yakushimaru
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Always zoku san-chôme no yûhi / Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007)
Drama
Chagawa finds it increasing difficult to support his young ward Junnosuke in his store across the street from the Suzuki garage on Third Street. Unless he can provide a better life, Junnosuke's rich father, Kawabata will take him away. Chagawa focuses once again on winning the "Akutagawa-sho" literary award and the prize money coming with it. Mika, a 7-year old relative of the Suzukis is left to stay with them when her father has business reverses. She is accustomed to a richer life style and at first her behavior is very spoiled but is humbled when sees the menial chores that her same-aged cousin Ippei performs. Mutsuko continues to work in the family as a mechanic but has an aspiring boyfriend Takeo, who is studying cooking. Chagawa seeks to find Hiromi, who has become successful once more as the exotic dancer "Betty."
Starring: Shin'ichi Hatori, Maki Horikita, Kazuki Koshimizu, Koyuki, Tomokazu Miura, Masako Motai, Kenta Suga, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Hidetaka Yoshioka
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Always san-chôme no yûhi / Always: Sunset on Third Street (2005)
Drama | Family
Leaving her provincial home, teenage Mutsuko arrives in Tokyo by train to take a job in a major automotive company but finds that she is employed by a small auto repair shop owned by Norifumi Suzuki. Suzuki's hair-trigger temper is held somewhat in check by the motherly instincts of his wife, Tomoe, and his young son Ippei immediately bonds with Mutsuko as if she were his older sister. The Suzuki shop lies almost in the shadow of the Tokyo Tower as it rises steadily above the skyline during construction in 1958. Others in the neighborhood also are striving to better themselves as Japan continues to emerge from the shadow of war. Hiromi has just abandoned her shady life as a dancer to start a sake bar. Abandoned by his single mother, young Junnosuke is first handed off to Hiromi but she passes him off to Ryunosuke Chagawa, a struggling writer who runs a candy shop and only manages to sell adventure stories for boys as his serious novels continue to be rejected…
Starring: Maki Horikita, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Kazuki Koshimizu, Kenta Suga
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Step Up Revolution / Step up 4: Miami Heat (2012)
Drama | Music | Romance
Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations to become a professional dancer. She sparks with Sean, the leader of a dance crew whose neighborhood is threatened by Emily's father's development plans.
Starring: Adam G. Sevani, Kathryn McCormick, Ryan Guzman, Stephen Boss, Megan Boone, Chadd Smith
Director: Scott Speer
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband… but even once the deed is done, they must live with the consequences of their actions.
Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames, Alan Reed
Director: Tay Garnett
The Thompsons (2012)
Drama | Horror | Thriller
They have assumed a new identity but still share the same thirst for blood. Vanquished from America where they are wanted by the law the anguished and dysfunctional family land in England where they hope to make contact with a family sympathetic to their plight. But the shadowy underground brings the Thompsons into contact with something more sinister and dangerous than they have ever encountered. Will the family survive?
Starring: Mackenzie Firgens, Elizabeth Henstridge, Cory Knauf, Ryan Hartwig, Samuel Child
Director: Mitchell Altieri, Phil Flores
Cobra Verde (1987)
Adventure | Drama
The feared bandit Cobra Verde is hired by a plantation owner to supervise his slaves. After the owner suspects Cobra Verde of consorting with his young daughters, the owner wishes him gone. Rather than kill him,the owner sends Cobra Verde to Africa. The only white man in the area, Cobra Verde finds himself the victim of torture and humiliation. Later, he trains soldiers in a rebel army. Far from home, Cobra Verde is on the edge of madness.
Starring: Klaus Kinski, King Ampaw, José Lewgoy
Director: Werner Herzog
Boiler Room (2000)
Crime | Drama | Thriller
Set in the backwaters of New York's financial world, Seth Davis, a young college dropout, is eager to prove his worth to his demanding an disapproving father. When he stumbles upon a shady brokerage firm in Long Island that's making a killing in stock market sales, he sees it as his chance to shine. He finds immediate success and instantly gets swept up in the high-stakes life of a group of young businessmen whose professional role model is "Wall Street"'s greedy Gordon Gekko. Seth soon learns that his co-workers are not only as greedy as Gekko, but just as underhanded when he realizes that his company's profit, including his own ever-expanding paycheck, derives from the selling of phony stocks to under-educated buyers.
Starring: Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Ron Rifkin
Director: Ben Younger
Radio Star / Ra-dee-o-seu-ta (2006)
Comedy | Drama
Award Winning singer gets down with drugs and his comeback who was assisted by his manager. Then they decided to split-up and the consequences…
Starring: Joong-Hoon Park, Sung-kee Ahn, Jeong-yun Choi
Director: Joon-ik Lee
