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This kinetic horror/action hybrid stars Tak Sakaguchi as Prisoner KSC2-303, a criminal who has just escaped from a maximum security prison. Heading to the Forest of Resurrection to meet up with some gangsters, KSC2-303`s escape plan soon veers off course when an argument with one of the gangsters leads KSC2-303 to shoot him. Worse still, KSC2-303 finds out the hard way that when you kill something in the Forest of Resurrection, it does not stay dead. Things get even more complicated when all the dead people the gangsters have buried in the forest begin coming back to life and packing heat. Blending zombie horror with EVIL DEAD 2 style slapstick and Hong Kong action pyrotechnics, VERSUS is a very bloody and very enjoyable thriller.
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Tadanobu Asano and Joe Odagiri star as two friends who work part-time in a laundry factory in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's highly original BRIGHT FUTURE. Odagiri is Yuji Nimura, a messy, lazy slacker who has odd dreams at night of a future of hope and peace. His best friend, Mamoru Arita (Asano), meanwhile, is obsessed with his pet red jellyfish, a poisonous creature he is training to be able to survive in fresh water. After mysteriously presenting the marine invertebrate to Yuji, he even more mysteriously viciously murders his boss and willingly accepts his fate. While Mamoru is in prison, Yuji grows attached to the jellyfish and to his friend's estranged father, who repairs old televisions, radios, and lamps in his own cluttered shop. The very busy Asano (ICHI THE KILLER, THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE) and Odagiri are excellent in the lead roles, filled with a quiet ennui and disassociation from the rest of the world. Longtime actor Tatsuya Fuji provides outstanding support as Mr. Arita, who becomes a kind of surrogate father to Yuji. Kurosawa, the director of such successful thrillers as DOPPELGANGER, PULSE, and CURE, here alternates between beautifully shot scenes and grainy set pieces, steady camerawork and handheld moments, keeping the audience perpetually off balance yet mesmerized. BRIGHT FUTURE, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is a slow-paced, introspective, intelligent film that has a dark underbelly lurking just beneath it, like the potential lethal bite of a jellyfish.DVD Features:Region (unknown)Keep CaseFull Frame - 1.33Additional Release Material: Theatrical Trailer PreviewsDVD Rom Features: Weblinks
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INCH`ALLAH DIMANCHE, a deep and poetic film about the immigrant experiences of an Algerian family in France, is set in the aftermath of WWII. In an attempt to replenish its weakened work force, France recruits men from North Africa. Years later, in 1974, the government invites their wives and children to join them and immigrate to France.Zouina (played in a near-silent and richly emotional performance by Fejria Deliba) is an Algerian woman with three young children who travels with her mother-in-law, Aicha (played in an abrupt, hostile, and powerful performance by Rabia Modedem), to meet her husband, Ahmed (Zinedine Soualem). Torn from her own loving mother and harshly browbeaten by Aicha, Zouina rejoins a distant husband who scorns her and finds herself imprisoned in a land that is foreign and unaccommodating to her Algerian traditions. Her neighbor, Madame Donze (a hilarious France Darry), is both fearful of Zouina`s otherness and so obsessed with winning the prize for the best flower garden that she cannot empathize with Zouina. Meanwhile, a young woman who works in a makeup factory, Nicole (Mathilde Seigner), helps Zouina feel accepted, and sparks her interest in French culture and the new world around her. It is this curiosity, and Zouina`s longing for freedom and experience, that drives Zouina to take secret excursions with her children on Sundays, the one day that her husband and mother-in-law are out of the house. Through these little adventures, she comes to terms with the difficulties of immigration, change, and adaptation to a new culture. INCH`ALLAH DIMANCHE is a complex, textured film with a beautiful, moving soundtrack, and excellent performances by its delectable cast.This film was included in the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2002 festival organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.
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A self-obsessed businessman gets his cosmic comeuppance in the lighthearted Chinese comedy ESCAPE FROM HONG KONG ISLAND. Raymond Mak (Jordan Chan) is a callow stockbroker who cheats on his girlfriend, sponges off his siblings, neglects his shut-in mother, and generally behaves out of pure self-interest. But on one particularly karmic day, Raymond is fired by his boss and forced to make his penniless way to another job interview after being mugged--a feat made more difficult by the grudges of those he has wronged and the vendetta of a local cop (Chapman To). Will Raymond ever make it across Hong Kong harbor, and more importantly, will his hellish day teach him to be a better person? Simon Lui's directorial debut charts Raymond's odyssey of self-discovery with comic aplomb and reunites Hong Kong actors Chan and To (MEN SUDDENLY IN BLACK) for another zany pairing.DVD Features:Region 0Keep CaseWidescreen - 16.9Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 - MandarinInteractive Features: Scene Access
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Gloria (Carmen Maura) tries to hold her insane Madrid family together in this hilariously deadpan working-class comedy from Pedro Almodovar. Sharing their cramped tenement apartment is Gloria's husband (Luis Hostalot), an abusive cabdriver who forges letters from Hitler; her heroin-dealing son; a younger son who likes to sleep with older men; an eccentric grandmother (Chus Lampreave); and a pet lizard named Dinero. Gloria works several cleaning jobs to try to make ends meet and sniffs cleaning products for relief from the stress, as she gets no thanks from her nagging husband, who eventually drives her to murder. Luckily she has a friend in next-door neighbor Cristal (Veronica Forque), a bubbly prostitute who seduces the cop on the case. There's also a girl upstairs who helps Gloria with her housework via telekinesis. This all works sublimely well thanks to both an inspired cast who plays everything completely straight and dialogue that spills over with dry wit and keen observation. Almodovar scored one of his first international hits with this outrageous, irreverent, and touching film. He also appears in a brief cameo as a TV opera star.DVD Features:Region 0Keep CaseAnamorphic - 1.66Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - SpanishInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive Menus
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