1983
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida’s backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.
Desdemona lives on an isolated island with her strange family: her father Mario, her stepmother Dulcinea and her mentally challenged sister Paulova. As the only inhabitants on the island loneliness and desolation engulf all members of her family. Desdemona tries to ward off her boredom by taking long walks along the beach or engaging in acts of self-gratification. She often tries to seduce her own father Mario to engage in acts of a sexual nature. Their daily routine is interrupted by the arrival (by boat) of a robust male stranger who brings friction into Desdemona’s family.
Conqueror of the World, a thrilling and explosive story of violence…of human drama, of a rare man, strong and primitive. Set two hundred thousand years ago, when the human race had to adapt to their brutal, savage environment or disappear into oblivion.
A documentary made by Italian television with behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Federico Fellini’s AND THE SHIP SAILS ON and extensive interview footage of Fellini.
A TV reporter and cameraman are taken hostage on a tugboat while covering a workers strike. The demands of the hostage-takers are to collect all the nuclear detonators in the Charleston, SC area so they may be detonated at sea. They threaten to detonate a nuclear device of their own of their demand isnt met.
A British man on his deathbed recalls moments from his life.
A lonely Chinese woman in Paris starts an affair with an womanizer musician.
A sendup of the stereotypical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart.
Yun Fei Yang is the viciously bullied orphan who takes on the unpleasant tasks at a formidable kung-fu school. Constantly mocked by the other students of the school, Yen counts as his only friend the daughter of the resident master. Any internal wrangling between the various members is put to one side when a swordsman from a rival clan reminds the master of the duel he must take part in once a decade. Unfortunately the defending clan chief is well aware that his rival is more powerful than himself. The expected defeat is further complicated when a wandering swordsman arrives on the scene and joins himself to the injured party, immediately adding to Yen’s woes.
Anthropologist Max Scarry mysteriously disappears while doing excavation/research of a lost New Zealand tribe on a remote island. His wife and his twin brother Edward are clueless as to what could have happened, a situation complicated by their city’s police suspecting that one of the brothers murdered a local prostitute who was found with a strange tribal charm on her body matching one found in Max’s abandoned hut. What most certainly isn’t helping matters is the strange behavior of Max’s daughter as she seems to have visions beyond possibility, warnings of a supernatural threat and her uncle’s fate – and she’s the film’s narrator, to boot. Edward decides to go to the island to find out exactly what happened, but the deeper he goes into the mystery the more perilous and unknowable his world becomes, leading towards a shocking fate that raises more questions than it answers. (cont. http://view-from-the-paperhouse.blogspot.de/2014/10/the-threat-of-ancient-echoes-lost-tribe.html)
From first-time director Lung Yi Sheng comes Demon Of The Lute, a 1983 fantasy swordplay epic featuring a ragtag group of heroes as they face off against a demonic force for evil! Chock full of fantastical characters blessed with otherworldly powers, enchanted weapons, and the remarkable ability to defy gravity at will, Demon Of The Lute is a comic book influenced wuxia sure to tickle the fancy of martial arts fans both young and old
A brother and sister seek vengeance for the death of their parents by honing their martial skills and searching for the legendary Holy Flame sword. To avenge their parents they must fight their way through demons, ghosts, ancient booby-trapped temples, and cultish clans.
Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.
After repeatedly flaunting her peerless body to her servants, snobbish aristocrat Cecila becomes the victim of rape. But the experience triggers a carnal awakening, full of socialite sex parties and woodland orgies. And before long, Cecilia finds her amorous adventures spinning out of control, particularly when her husband decides to join in on the free-love lifestyle.
Two great friends leave Verona for Milan, Valentine with great enthusiasm and Proteus unwillingly, as he will have to leave his recently-betrothered Julia. Valentine soon falls in love with Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, but then Proteus meets the captivating Silvia… and he too becomes besotted.
Theodore Roosevelt was America’s 26th president and a larger-than-life legend whose incredible story must be seen to be believed. Narrated by George C. Scott, this documentary weaves extremely rare archival footage with meticulous recreations alongside the music of John Philip Sousa in a dynamic panorama of the great events of Teddy Roosevelt in the early years of the 20th century.
Jason is in need of a collaborator to give him inspiration. Phoebe is a small-town English teacher with an urge to write. On the day Jason is being married, Jason and Phoebe meet and form a partnership.
Six-year-old Ataru steps on Elle’s shadow during an impromptu game of shadow-tag; in Elle’s culture, this is viewed as a marriage proposal. Eleven years later, Elle returns to Earth in order to marry Ataru — by which time not only had he forgotten the events of his childhood, but he was also going out with Lum. The rest of the plot focuses on Lum’s attempts to prevent the marriage. The film was directed by Mamoru Oshii who was mad at the many requests that the producer made of him to alter the movie. Rumiko Takahashi considers this film her favorite and it is the most true to the original series.
Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles – between family members, men and women, and with the Yakuza. Momokawa was sold to Yokiro at age 12, and despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.
Mayumi and Mai are hair stylists who open a Barber shop called The Pink Cut. The place is an immediate success, due mostly to their super-short skirts. When the girls decide to stop wearing underpanties, business goes thru the roof. Eventually Main and Mayumi add special massages and cream rinses to their list of extras. The girls laugh all the way to the bank. Ah, the joys of entrepreneurship!
A murderous demon lurks inside an antique piano in a picturesque coastal town.
After a train accident, a woman survives and is mistaken for an other woman she just met on a train before the accident.
Shortly after moving to Dallas, a young woman is raped at gunpoint. Her intense anger drives her to seek revenge, and she becomes a hunter on a vengeance mission.
The story of Billy Mills the American Indian that came from obscurity, to win the 10,000 meter long distance foot race in the Tokyo Olympics.
In this TV special, Sherman the elf bungles his way from one job to the next at the North Pole, trying to find where he fits in. Finally, Santa Claus gives him the assignment of guarding his magic toy bag on Christmas Eve.
Through the experiences of two women in Paris and London, Ghost Dance offers an analysis of the complexity of our conceptions of ghosts, memory and the past. The film focuses on the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who observes, ‘I think cinema, when it’s not boring, is the art of letting ghosts come back.’ He also says that ‘memory is the past that has never had the form of the present.’
Gil Scott-Heron, one of rap’s earliest (and unfortunately unknown) pioneers, gets his full due in Black Wax, the 1982 documentary recently reissued on video. Interspliced between performance footage of Scott-Heron and his Midnight Band are vignettes of him walking around Washington D.C., spouting his views on then-President Reagan (dubbed “Ray-Gun”) and generally dropping knowledge. The live performance features many of Scott-Heron’s best-known hits, including “Johannesburg,” “Winter in America,” and “Angel Dust,” among others. Warm, intelligent, and insightful throughout, Scott-Heron is clearly enjoying himself and the opportunity to espouse his views. A must for any fan of Scott-Heron’s, and definitely worth a look for fans of the funkier jazz music of the mid to late 1970’s.
It is the late 1920s when six-year-old Yingzi and her family move to Beijing. As Yingzi explores the busy streets and alleys, she befriends a widow who, driven mad by grief, stands vigil at the entrance of her hutong, waiting for her missing daughter to return.
On a routine courier mission, the prestigious Chin Hu chief was murdered by four mysterious monks. When all evidence points to Ching Hua, his friend Lei Hsin is determined to clear his name by barging in the Shaolin Temple thrice, and gets intwined in an intricate web of deception!
Dan and Julie Evans are looking for a fresh start after Dan is cut from his pro football team due to age. They move into a palatial, coastal house and Dan starts a new career as a sportscaster, but the loss of his career has stirred up a deep vulnerability and it has spilled over into his sex life with his wife. With no outlet for her desires, Julie begins to fantasize, but it seems alarmingly real. Soon, the fantasy man is haunting her every waking moment and coming between her and Dan, and Julie comes to fear that their home may be haunted.
An evil dwarf sorcerer is buried alive in the jungles of Borneo for practicing black magic: Many years later, a documentary film crew from Hong Kong opens the coffin, and discover that one of them is afflicted with a horrible curse that begins killing off everyone around them.
Yoshiyama Kazuko is a third-year junior high school student. One day while cleaning the lab, she smells lavender and faints. From then on, she has the power to travel through time.
Jointly and respectively directed by King Hu, Lee Hsing, and Pai Ching-Jui, three major Taiwan directors of the 1970s, this film consist of three shorts with the same cast of two actors and one actress, who through reincarnation meet in three different times.
