WIFE OF A SPY EXPOSES A WAR CRIME In early 1940, importer/exporter Yusaku Fukuhara (played by Issey Takahashi) goes from Kobe to Manchuria with his nephew, Fumio Takeshita (Ryôta Bandô). Manchuria, then controlled by Japan, was a place where purchases could be made at lower prices than in rationed Japan—or so he […]
Blue Bayou features fictional Antonio LeBlanc (played by director Justin Chon), who was adopted from Korea by a Louisiana Caucasian family at age 3. During the film he faces many challenge and almost reaches the point of suicide several times. Later in the story, filmviewers learn that his adoptive parents evidently could not accommodate him
Minari features a Korean immigrant family in Arkansas during the 1980s; the husband tries to become a farmer with little success in the first year but he promises to try again in the following year.
WHO WAS ON TRIAL IN AMERICAN TRAITOR? An American citizen named Mildred Gilliars (played by Meadow Williams) was in Germany when World War II began, hoping to became a famous actress. Approached by radio program director Max Otto Koischwitz (Carsten Norgaard) one day in 1941, he presents her with an extraordinary opportunity—work as a high-profile
THE COURIER IS NOT JUST ANOTHER SPY MOVIE Directed by Dominic Cooke, The Courier is the story of how the gravity of the Russian threat came to the attention of President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missiles Crisis of 1962. The basic facts are quite simple: In 1960, the Kremlin discovers that Major Pyotr
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 IS HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED On August 26, 1968, the Democratic Party was scheduled to begin its national convention at the Chicago Hilton and was expected to nominate as their presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey, who was expected to continue American involvement in Vietnam. Protesters from several different groups called
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BEAUTIFUL BOXER PORTRAYS A FEMALE’S FIGHT TO LEAVE A MALE BODY Beautiful Boxer is a biopic about the sexual identity of a famous Thai kickboxer. Of the many ways to tell the story, director Ekechai Uekrongtham chooses to have a fictional American reporter interview Parinya “Nong Toom” Charoenphol (played by kickboxer Asanee Suwan), who in
Boys of Abu Ghraib Portrays War Crimes Without Saying So With such a film title, one might suppose that the boys were the hundred or so young Iraqis confined at the prison, including one who observed his sister’s rape and another who was subjected to excessive cold in order to obtain a confession from his
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SPIKE LEE REWRITES HISTORY IN C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, directed by Kevin Willmott, is a mokumentary, that is, a film in the format of a documentary but about untrue events. What if the South won the Civil War? That is the premise of the film, which is
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TWO REVIEWS SEPARATED BY 20 YEARS COSTA-GAVRAS’S AMEN DOCUMENTS THE NAZI HORRORS (February 15, 2023) Many films have emerged recently to contradict those who have denied the Holocaust. Amen, directed by Constantine Costa-Gavras has trumped them all, providing specific documentation from an unwilling participant who supplied gas to the death camps, with a story based