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New York City custodian Daryll Deever is a big fan of local news reporter Tony Sokolow, so he is intrigued when she shows up to cover a story at his workplace. There’s been a murder in the office building, and Tony suspects that Daryll may have insight into the crime, a notion that he furthers to stay close to her. However, when those behind the killing begin to think that Daryll really knows something, they target both him and Tony to keep their secrets hidden.
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In the winter of 1943 two young Jews, Alek and Fryda, escape, via sewer tunnels, from the atrocities underway in Warsaw ghetto. Alek, entrusted with undeveloped photos of the horrors within, makes his way to a supposedly safe apartment only to find it occupied by Germans. Another tenant, a pole Stephania, abruptly offers to shelter him in her spacious apartment. She comforts him and they make love that very night. Stefania is uncommonly generous and willing to jeopardize her own safety by hiding a Jew. She even goes to a nearby church and rescues Fryda. But Fryda is ungrateful and proceeds to sabotage the trio’s safety in insidious ways.
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The young and handsome Kano Sozaburo is admitted to the Shinsengumi, an elite samurai group that seeks to defend the Tokugawa shogunate against reformist forces. Kano is a skilled swordsman, but his physical beauty leads the members of the strictly male group to compete for his affections, generating tensions that threaten to become lethal. In Gohatto, Nagisa Oshima explores the ambiguous forms of masculinity that the samurai code concealed, with a terrific cast including Ryuhei Matsuda, Takeshi Kitano and Tadanobu Asano subtly capturing the dangers of repressed homoerotic desire.
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Yuu Kamiya is an up-and-coming talent in Japanese show business. She is killed in a traffic accident. On the way to heaven, she gets a chance to transiently restore her body (to which mirrors and photos are insensitive) and comes back to this world. She starts new life as an average girl.
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Harassed by the day, a man runs away in the evening from people and town. He crawls into his little room to sleep. The dream is bringing him the limitless and quiet spaces of solitude. At last, he is alone and free. But the solitude engenders the fear.
——UPGRADED——
Made in the early years of internet chat rooms, Yoshimitsu Morita’s mid-1990s standout follows a young salaryman in the city with the username “[Haru]” who becomes fast friends with a fellow named Hoshi who lives in a rural town. Their anonymity allows them to open up about their loves, struggles, and cinephilia. One day, Hoshi reveals that she is a woman, but that doesn’t damage the strength of their friendship. Eventually, the two finally decide to meet in person. Morita’s keen interest in new technology and an enduring love for trains come together to create a charming tale of connection in an alienating world.
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In the summer of 1939, 13-year-old Marie goes with her parents to visit her grandmother in a small town near Avignon. Although rumors of war reach the countryside, it’s an idyllic place, and Marie’s parents are constantly making love. Surrounded by sexual frankness, Marie fancies herself a woman and develops a crush on Alexander, the town’s young Jewish doctor but is despondent when he treats her like a child…
——UPGRADED——
A widow in a small town begins to realize that her late husband was hated by nearly everybody. She begins to receive blackmail letters that threaten to further humiliate her if she does not pay up. She enlists the help of Franz, a man who was once fired by her late husband, to track down the source of the letters…
