Sunflower (Xiang ri kui), directed by Zhang Yang, is a semiautobiographical social history of China from the era of Chairman Mao to the present through the lives of a simple family, notably the only son Zhang Xiangyang, who was born in 1967, his father Gengian (played by Sun Haiying), and mother Xiuqing (played by […]

OIL IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE LEFT TO HONEST CAPITALISTS IN SYRIANA Syriana, directed and written by Stephen Gaghan, is suggested by the book See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism (2002), written by former CIA field officer Robert Baer. The film attempts to portray how

In 1971, when the Cultural Revolution was in full swing, two teenagers in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise) are sentenced to reeducation for four years in Mount Phoenix, a remote area in Sichuan of breathtaking beauty, because of the “bourgeois crimes” of their fathers. Luo (played by Kun

China is giving the economy top priority, so capital accumulation for the rich is more important than the standard of life among ordinary Chinese. For those leaving the provinces for the bustling cities, life is frantic. Whereas So Close to Paradise (2001) illustrates the situation in Wuhan, The World (Shijie), directed by Jia Zhangke, focuses

In 1938, Orson Welles frightened radio listeners with War of the Worlds, based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells, using the mokumentary style that he later perfected in Citizen Kane (1941). Some listeners panicked, believing that Martians had actually arrived and were triumphing over humans, though Welles hoped to arouse some concern about

Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas, is yet another installment that glorifies war in the minds of filmviewers as the only way to settle conflicts. The plot of Episode III has been well understood for several years. Annekin Skywalker (played by Hayden Christiansen) begins as a sensitive

The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam (directed by Kayvan Mashayekh) is a fascinating biopic of Omar Khayyam (1048-1122), famous Persian astronomer, mathematician, poet, and author of The Rubaiyat. The biography is recounted in the method of oral storytelling, reminiscent of the television film Arabian Nights (2000), which was based on the tenth century classic,

Directed by Ridley Scott, Kingdom of Heaven is an epic movie that begins in France during the year 1184 (though filmed in Spain).  Titles say that the Christians have been in control of Jerusalem for almost a hundred years. (Muslim control began in 638, with Christians and Jews allowed free access to holy sites, but

THE TAKE DOCUMENTS WHY ARGENTINA HAS FORCED IMPORTANT CHANGES IN THE IMF In 2001, the Argentine economy collapsed. The government defaulted on $3 billion in payments to the International Monetary Fund, global corporations pulled out their assets, factories were shuttered, and banks closed so that citizens could not tap their savings. The Take, directed by

FEAR AND TREMBLING, TRANSLATED CORRECTLY, LAMBASTES JAPANESE CORPORATE PRACTICES Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements), directed by Alain Corneau, is a screen adaptation of a 1999 autobiographical novel by a French-speaking Belgian, Amélie Nothomb (played by Sylvie Testud). The daughter of Belgium’s ambassador to France, she was born in Kobe, left Japan at the age of