#940 – Lust, Caution, (色‧戒), 2007, Ang Lee
During World War II a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
#941 – Shakespeare in Love, 1998, John Madden
Young Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter,” before it’s even written. When a lovely noblewoman auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love – and his play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship progresses, Shakespeare’s comedy soon transforms into tragedy.
#942 – Kids Return, (キッズ・リターン), 1996, Takeshi Kitano
Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local Yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place…
#943 – The Day He Arrives, (북촌방향), 2011, Hong Sang-soo
Sang-Joon is a professor in the film department at a provincial university. He goes to Seoul to meet his senior, Young-Ho, who works as a film critic. Sang-Joon stays in a northern village in Seoul for 3 days.
#944 – Double Suicide, (心中天網島), 1969, Masahiro Shinoda
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.
#945 – Kuroneko, (藪の中の黒猫), 1968, Kaneto Shindō
In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost. He encounters the two beautiful women in an eerie, beautiful scene. After spiritual purification, he meets the demon in a thrilling fight.
#946 – Malcolm X, 1992, Spike Lee
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the ’50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#947 – Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets, (書を捨てよ町へ出よう), 1971, Shūji Terayama
Conditions have been better for the nameless protagonist: his grandmother is a shoplifter and his war criminal father and sister have an unhealthy, intimate relationship with the family rabbit.
#948 – The Full Monty, 1997, Peter Cattaneo
Sheffield, England. Gaz, a jobless steelworker in need of quick cash persuades his mates to bare it all in a one-night-only strip show.
#949 – Orlando, 1992, Sally Potter
The story begins in the Elizabethan era , shortly before the death of Queen Elizabeth I . On her deathbed, the Queen promises an androgynous young nobleman named Orlando a large tract of land and a castle built on it, along with a generous monetary gift. But Elizabeth will bequeath it to him only if he assents to an unusual command: Do not fade. Do not wither. Do not grow old…
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 