Shindo’s “Hymn” is one of many adaptions of Tanizaki’s classical novella ‘Shunkinsho’ (‘A Portrait of Shunkin’, 1933). The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings. After an unknown intruder probably one of her pupils, who seeks revenge for her cruel behaviour, pours boiling water on the sleeping Shunkin’s face, Sasuke blinds himself in order not to behold her disfigurement. Sasuke’s sacrifice, made in response to Shunkin’s tacit wish, seals their life-long relationship.
Author: Jon W.
Two boys on a hot summer afternoon on the steppe wander into a Bollywood movie. They want to go back for the second show but don’t have enough money for a ticket, so they think up a scheme to earn the cash.
In a mountain village, Heita, a translator’s son, is a gifted boy but is shunned by the villagers. He can imitate birds’ cry and befriends another boy who works in a brewery. Heita also finds solace in the village pastor Yasugi and his teacher Michiko, but they too have problems of their own.
Set in 1884, and based on the assumption that Britain is one of the Baltic states between Russia and Latvia, making it part of Europe instead of an off-shore island. It is winter 1884. To gain access to the sea, England has declared war on Latvia and believes herself to be winning. But Russia has sided with Latvia and England is doomed. The action takes place on New Year’s Eve in a country house on the Anglo-Latvian border. The guests are a cross section of the ruling classes.
50 years after their mariage a couple look back on when they first met. Through flashbacks we se them fall in love.
Private detective Johnny Fletcher and his sidekick Sam Cragg skip out on their rented room, but when they sneak back to retrieve their luggage, they discover a dead body on the bed, holding a gold coin in its hand. Fletcher is told by a coin collector that the piece is an old and valuable Spanish coin, but Fletcher soon begins to suspect that the man is himself involved in the murder. Fletcher’s investigation leads to he and Sam getting caught up in a murder and gold smuggling scheme.
Sam Shepard is an American playwright who ventures beyond the boundaries of the stage to the far reaches of the American landscape. In this film, Sam Shepard leads us on the journey where he explores the strangest land of all: the terrain of family and the landmarks of personal experience.
Clara works a back-breaking factory job in a Milan slum to support her disabled husband, three children and carping mother-in-law. But when Clara is diagnosed as tubercular, she’s sent to a sanatorium in the Alps that proves the greatest vacation of her life. There she meets other patients who treat her with kindness, civility and an intellectual respect that is alien to her. When she falls for a handsome fellow patient, she wonders if she can ever return.