MW Asian Classics/Hidden Gems
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22 titles
- DirectorJeong-hyang LeeStarsShim Eun-haLee Sung-jaeAhn Sung-kiTwo strangers with very little in common, find themselves forced to live together.
- DirectorLee Jang-hoStarsAhn Sung-kiSeong-chan KimYeong-ho LeeThis is a film about the coming of age of three men.Ahn Sung-ki gained significant notice for his role as a working-class young man in Lee Jang-ho’s “Fine Windy Day” (1980). He was rewarded with a Grand New Bell award for Best New Actor.
- DirectorKinji FukasakuStarsTatsuya FujiwaraAki MaedaTarô YamamotoIn the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.Takeshi Kitano was flawless as the head instructor of the teenage kill program in “Battle Royale” (2000).
- DirectorKenji MisumiStarsTomisaburô WakayamaKayo MatsuoMinoru ÔkiTrailed by a clan of female ninja, Ogami is paid to assassinate a clan traitor accompanied by three killers known as the Gods of Death.The second film of the series, “Baby Cart at the River Styx” (1972) is my favorite. Female ninjas! Basket-headed assassins! A showdown in the sand dunes!
Tomisaburo Wakayama descended from a family of Kabuki performers and is the brother of actor Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi.) He reached iconic status as Ogami Itto, the scowling, disgraced samurai who pushes his son Daigoro around in a cart as he enacts bloody vengeance. Wakayama’s “Lone Wolf and Cub” series epitomizes the flash and violence of 1970s cult cinema. - DirectorYe LouStarsXun ZhouHongsheng JiaZhongkai HuaAfter getting out of prison, small-time crook Mardar stumbles upon a woman who looks exactly like his long-lost lover.In “Suzhou River,” a 2000 film noir directed by Lou Ye, Zhou Xun enthralled audiences as the femme fatale star of a mermaid show.
...she showed up on the set of “The Message” intoxicated, in order to get into the mind of her hard-drinking character. Her accolades include multiple Best Actress awards for “The Equation of Love and Death” and “Perhaps Love.” - DirectorBaoping CaoStarsXun ZhouChao DengWang NingWhen a mysterious death occurs, the lives of five unexpected strangers are suddenly intertwined together. A drug trafficking crime is unveiled, and through the twists and turns of the investigation, their stories unravel, and a bizarre connection is gradually discovered between them. THE EQUATION OF LOVE AND DEATH weaves together three different love stories, examining the different emotional struggles people go through in dealing with pain and loss, and how letting go might just be the hardest thing to do.The seductive Zhou Xun is arguably the most adept of China’s “Four Young Dan actresses.” She’s certainly the most dedicated: Xun confessed to CNN that she showed up on the set of “The Message” intoxicated, in order to get into the mind of her hard-drinking character. Her accolades include multiple Best Actress awards for “The Equation of Love and Death” and “Perhaps Love.”
- DirectorPeter Ho-Sun ChanStarsTakeshi KaneshiroXun ZhouJacky CheungA love triangle develops during the making of a musical in mainland China.The seductive Zhou Xun is arguably the most adept of China’s “Four Young Dan actresses.” She’s certainly the most dedicated: Xun confessed to CNN that she showed up on the set of “The Message” intoxicated, in order to get into the mind of her hard-drinking character. Her accolades include multiple Best Actress awards for “The Equation of Love and Death” and “Perhaps Love.”
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsGong LiPeiqi LiuLiuchun YangA peasant woman seeks justice after the headman of her village has kicked her husband in the groin.Gong Li
- DirectorKuo-Fu ChenQunshu GaoStarsXun ZhouBingbing LiHanyu ZhangFollowing a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government in 1942 Nanjingn (Nanking), the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.The seductive Zhou Xun is arguably the most adept of China’s “Four Young Dan actresses.” She’s certainly the most dedicated: Xun confessed to CNN that she showed up on the set of “The Message” intoxicated, in order to get into the mind of her hard-drinking character. Her accolades include multiple Best Actress awards for “The Equation of Love and Death” and “Perhaps Love.”
- DirectorHeung-sik ParkStarsSol Kyung-guJeon Do-yeonJin Hee-kyungBong Soo has been working as manager of a small bank in an apartment complex for three years. During his three years there, no, for 23 years if you count his school days, he has never been late. However, he purposely decides to skip work one day. There is only one reason. Inside a subway train that has suddenly stopped on his way to work, everyone around him reaches for their cell phones to call someone. At that moment, he realized that he does not have a single person to call. He does not know that inside the educational center across the street from the bank where he works, a 27-year-old woman Won Ju is looking over to him, nourishing a small love. Bong Soo and Won Ju run into each other every day, at the Ramen restaurant, at the bank, at the bus station - Various trivial incidents occur, but Bong Soo still does not truly recognize Won Ju's presence.
- DirectorKiyoshi KurosawaStarsMasato HagiwaraKoji YakushoTsuyoshi UjikiA frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsGong LiFengyi ZhangZhou SunIn pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.
- DirectorKaige ChenStarsYun TangPeiqi LiuHong ChenA violin prodigy and his father travel to Beijing, where the father seeks the means to his son's success while the son struggles to accept the path laid before him.
- DirectorKim Ki-youngStarsKim Jin-kyuJeung-nyeo JuEun-shim LeeA composer and his wife are thrown into turmoil when a housemaid becomes more than they bargained for.
- DirectorSatoshi MikiStarsJoe OdagiriTomokazu MiuraKyôko KoizumiTakemura has no friends and no family. He's a law student but he doesn't have any particular ambitions. A thug offers to pay Takemura's considerable gambling debt if the student accompanies him on a trip across Tokyo.
- DirectorMu FeiStarsChaoming CuiWei LiYu ShiA lonely housewife finds her monotonous life altered when her childhood sweetheart returns to town.
- DirectorSiu-Tung ChingJohnnie ToStarsStephen ChowMaggie CheungMan-Tat NgInternationally proclaimed comic genius Stephen Chow must change the lives of radiant prostitute Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, filthy beggar Anthony Wong, and a killer in this heavenly comedy directed by masterful new wave filmmaker Johnnie To.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsSihung LungKuei-Mei YangWang Yu-wenA senior chef lives with his three grown daughters; the middle one finds her future plans affected by unexpected events and the life changes of the other household members.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsZiyi ZhangHonglei SunHao ZhengPrompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsKen TakakuraKiichi NakaiShinobu TerajimaA Japanese father travels to China's Yunnan province in the place of his ailing son to film a folk-opera singer.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsWen JiangBaotian LiYing QuA spurned lover seeks a rich man for revenge. A random onlooker -- who witnessed the public assault committed by the rich man against the lover -- seeks for monetary compensation for his smashed computer. The lover's and the onlooker's lives intertwine as two people collaborate. The onlooker's fate faces an unpredictable turn and mirrors the lover's life.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuYuka MizunoYasuaki KurataA Chinese man (Liu) marries a Japanese woman through an arranged marriage and manages to insult all of her Japanese martial arts family by issuing a challenge to her that is misinterpreted by the others. He must then prove how good Chinese Kung Fu really is through a series of duels with the seven Japanese martial artists who come to meet the challenge.