THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI HONORS A BRITISH HERO CAUGHT UP IN WORLD WAR II A biopic about George Hogg (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), The Children of Huang Shi begins as he enters Shanghai as a journalist, camera in hand. British, he is witness to the “Rape of Nanjing” of 1937, capturing the arbitrary […]
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A HARD LIFE IS EVEN MORE BITTER IN TUYA’S MARRIAGE When Tuya’s Marriage (Tuya de hun shi) begins, tears flow from the eyes of Tuya (played by Yu Nan). The rest of the film, directed by Quanan Wang, reverts to an earlier time to explain why. Tuya has been scraping out an existence in a
SANGRE DE MI SANGRE IS A THRILLER ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN BROOKLYN After a payoff to an American border agent, a truckload of illegals enter New York, including Pedro (played by Jorge Adrián Espindola) and Juan (played by Armando Hernandez), who are attractive seventeen-year-olds. During the trip, Pedro falls asleep, Juan steals his knapsack, and
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WAR, INC. PROVES TO BE AS SENSELESS AS THE WAR With some clever lines, War Inc., directed by Joshua Seftel, should have been a winner. But with so much disrespect for Iraqis throughout, antihero Brand Hauser (played by John Cusack) plays the fool. Initial credits establish the central premise that war in the future is
A CONNECTICUT PROFESSOR FINDS INJUSTICE IN KING GEORGE’S COURT IN THE VISITOR A Syrian criticizes the government, is imprisoned for many years, and dies not longer after his release from prison. His mother Mouna Khalil (played by Hiam Abbass) and son Tarek (played by Haaz Sleiman) flee to Michigan, seeking diplomatic asylum. Although her application
DARK MATTER SHOWS HOW A CHINESE STUDENT REACTS TO ACADEMIC ARROGANCE Presumably based on a true story, Dark Matter focuses on Liu Xing (played by Chinese actor Ye Liu), a brilliant physics graduate student at an American university near the Rockies who is hired upon arrival from Beijing as a research assistant by a Professor
A SEPARATED IMMIGRANT FAMILY SEEKS A REUNION IN UNDER THE SAME SUN La misma luna (Under the Same Sun) is a touching saga of a nine-year-old Mexican boy, Carlitos (played by fourteen-year-old Adrian Alonso), who seeks to join his mother Rosario (directed by Kate del Castillo) after the untimely death of his grandmother Benita Reyes
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A “DEAD” PRESIDENT SURVIVES IN VANTAGE POINT When Vantage Point begins, President Ashton (played by William Hurt) is assassinated in a public square in Salamanca, Spain, or so it seems. After a few rewinds of tapes of the event, director Pete Travis appears to promise a Rashomon (1950) whodunit, the film is mostly a few
CHINA CENSORS SUMMER PALACE Directed by Lou Ye, Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) views modern China from the perspective of college students, who are adrift amid the new capitalist society. No longer controlled by family or the state, Hu Hong (played by Lei Hao) leaves her boyfriend Xiao Jun (played by Lin Cui) in Tumen to
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile) is a Romanian noir film directed by Cristian Mungui that is based on a true story about a pregnant college girl, Gabita Dragut (played by Laura Valiliu), and her dormmate, Otilia(played by Anamaria Marinca), in winter 1987. Gabita does not want the
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