Ah, the
pressures of
being young,
rich and
brilliant.
Discontent with
his current
lifestyle of
straight A's and
upper-middle-class
monotony,
overachieving
high school
student Ben
Manibag (Parry
Shen) seeks a
lifestyle of
excitement and
danger. He finds
it with help
from a suburban
gang of other
misguided
youths, who get
caught up in a
disturbing
downward spiral
of sex, drugs
and crime.
Iikiru
(Japan, 1952)
Running Time:
143 Minutes
When a stoic
government
official
(Takashi
Shimura, with a
BAFTA nomination
for Best Foreign
Actor) in
post-war Japan
learns he has
terminal cancer,
he realizes he
has squandered
his life on
meaningless red
tape and has no
close family or
friendships to
lean on. He
resolves to use
his remaining
time to usher an
insignificant
but popular
civic project, a
children's
playground,
through the
bureaucracy he
knows so well.
The acclaimed
Akira Kurosawa
directs.
Beijing students
and lovers Yu
Hong (Lei Hao)
and Zhou Wei (Xiaodong
Guo) are torn
apart during
student
pro-democracy
demonstrations,
and Zhou flees
to the country.
Years later,
haunted by the
memory of Yu,
Zhou returns to
China to find
his true love.
But has their
love survived
the intervening
years of
political and
personal
turmoil?
Directed by Ye
Lou, this
atmospheric
drama also
features Xueyun
Bai, Lin Cui and
Long Duan.
Mongol
(Mongolia, 2007)
Running Time:
125 Minutes
In the 12th
century, an
orphaned young
slave named
Temudjin
(Tadanobu Asano)
escapes from his
captors and
begins the
journey that
will lead him to
become one of
the greatest
conquerors the
world has ever
known. Honglei
Sun and Ying Bai
co-star in this
Oscar-nominated
epic adventure
from
writer-director
Sergei Bodrov,
the first in a
trilogy that
spans the life
story of Genghis
Khan.
After coming
within one
question of
winning 20
million rupees
on the Indian
version of "Who
Wants to Be a
Millionaire?"
18-year-old
Mumbai "slumdog"
Jamal Malik (Dev
Patel) is
arrested on
suspicion of
cheating. While
in custody,
Jamal regales a
jaded police
inspector (Irfan
Khan) with
remarkable tales
of his life on
the streets, as
well as the
story of Latika
(Freida Pinto),
the woman he
loved and lost.
Danny Boyle's
film won a
Golden Globe and
Oscar for Best
Picture.
