Asian Drama

Facing an unacceptable reality, a teacher is trying to reclaim relationships with his family, students and former friends. Reassessing his past, he contemplates how to go on with his life.

When the world is hit with a naturally occuring virus that spreads among all living things, humans begin to turn into insatiable zombies. In a blink, the world as we know it collapses. Furthermore, the few remaining survivors are unable to use the available food resources. They therefore develop a new crop to support themselves. Survivors depend on one profession, their only hope; someone in this profession must brave the dangers to send and recieve food and packages of necessities. These people are called Riders.

Saeba Ryo is a "sweeper" in the city of Tokyo. He works as a trouble shooter, cleaning the streets of vermin, and helping out desperate people. Sometimes he's a bodyguard, sometimes he's an assassin, whatever Ryo does he does it well. In fact, his only flaw is his hormones - he loves the ladies and sometimes turns into an idiot when he's near them. Thankfully he's got people like his partner Kaori Makimura to keep him in check.

(Source: Mangaupdates)

Adapted from the manga series "City Hunter" (シティーハンター) by Hojo Tsukasa (北条司).

Duration: 1 hr. 42 min.

Ratings: 8.1

After suffering from serial paranormal events, a wealthy family living in LA summons a young rising shaman duo Hwa Rim and Bong Gil to save the newborn of the family. Once they arrive, Hwa Rim senses a dark shadow of their ancestor has latched on the family in a so-called 'Grave Calling'.

In order to exhume the grave and relieve the ancestor, Hwa Rim seeks help from top-notch geomancer Sang Deok and mortician Yeong Geun. To their dismay, the four find the grave at a shady location in a remote village in Korea. Unaware of the consequences, the exhumation is carried out, unleashing a malevolent force buried underneath.

(Source: showbox.co.kr)

Duration: 2 hr. 13 min.

Content Rating: 15+ - Teens 15 or older

This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the womanizing, heavy-drinking, suicidal hero than on...

Based on the hit anime of the same name, "Honey and Clover" deals with five college art students. While the premise may sound simple, it's quite the opposite; the characters struggle through school, work, and love. All within the confines of a university, "Honey and Clover" showcases the journey that everyone must take from being a young adult and following the long and challenging road to becoming a full fledged adult.First off, the cast is wonderfully presented. Their likeliness to their anime counterparts is great and for the most part (albeit hair color) spot on. The mannerisms of the cast also reflected the anime greatly and fans of the anime will certainly enjoy this aspect of the film. Another great aspect of the film is definitely the cinematography. Since this film's environment is mostly held at or around an art school, you would expect for most part, as viewer, to be stimulated visually, right? Indeed this is the case with "Honey and Clover". The film accurately displays the happenings of an art school, from the constant unfinished student projects scattered about, to the multiple classes that art students participate in, it is faithfully recreated here.The musical score by famous composer Yoko Kanno is wonderfully implemented into the movie too. I for one have taken notice that Kanno is starting to produce more film scores, and she has done great job so far. With her most recent contributions to Su-ki-da and Kamikaze Girls, her slow transition from anime composition to film composition can only be seen as a good thing. I hope to see her contribute more to the realm of films in the future. Putting music aside though, "Honey and Clover" does run into some slight problems… Based on an anime series, one can truly see the tremendous amount of time and effort it would take to condense 26 episodes into roughly a two hour film. What happens in most cases when this occurs in other adaptations is that entire story arcs, characters, and original endings are left out. "Honey and Clover" suffers from the all these. While significantly better in many regards than most anime to film conversions, the story of "Honey and Clover" is just too character driven for a film. Maybe a Japanese TV drama would perhaps work well, but due to the time constraints of a film, it doesn't provide the adequate depth that the anime series does. This leaves viewers who aren't fans of the anime or manga sometimes clueless as to what is happening on screen. Some characters relationships might be questionable for those viewers who haven't seen the anime or read the manga. Some characters just pop in with little to no background and the viewer is expected to already know who they are, what their purpose is, and what their relationship is to plot. By the end of the film, all we are left is with a cast we don't really care for (even if you have seen the anime/read the manga). This hurts a film that otherwise is a moderately accurate retelling of a rather well crafted anime series.With all but one minor quibble (a major one if you haven't seen the series or read the manga), "Honey and Clover" is one of the better anime adaptations out there. While fans of the anime will definitely enjoy this film, non-fans will probably be asking themselves why certain characters do this or that, unknowing to the fact that their questions are clearly explained in anime. In the end though, I recommend this film for fans, but I have to say pass if you haven't seen anything that has to do with 'Honey and Clover".

The story of 12-year-old ALI and his three friends. Together they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find hidden treasure underground. He recruits his gang, but first, to gain access to the tunnel, the children must enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers, close to where the treasure is located.

Fighting Men of China

Set 18 months after movie "Library Wars." After the government's enactment of the Media Betterment Act, battles wage between the Betterment Squads and the Library Defense. The Library Defense resists censorship and advocates freedom of expression. The biggest battle awaits for the Library Defense.

Lying is a universal language, spoken and understood by 7 billion people. none of us can evade the jinx of The Seventh Lie - Self Deception. Chauffeur Song claims to be a part-time killer. Or is he a womanizer, tries to get in the heart of his chum's wife Julianne? Julianne checks into a hotel with Song to discover his frightful plan. A sneaky Hotel Bellhop bumps into them. Could he come to Julianne's rescue? Or is he a brilliant con-artist who attempts to rip off moneyed guests of the hotel? In this hotel, he uncovers his darkest secret and comes across a Runaway Bride Gwen. The lives of these seemingly unassociated souls are interlaced together to face the appalling truth beneath their lies.

Whereas Hostel was for kids, Grotesque is for adults. This is billed as the "cruelest Japanese splatter movie ever" and it truly lives up to that billing. It is no small relief that the film lives up to its Movie title, a torture porn genre that has largely taken over the horror field. No CGI effects here, just sadistic violence that rarely flinches away, use of excellent makeup and prosthetics and shot very convincingly. Needless to say, in the finest tradition of Japanese gore cinema, the plot is minimal, with a young couple played by AV actress Nagasawa Tsugumi and Kawatsure Hiroaki (recently in “OneChanbara”) being snatched off the street, only to wake up shackled in a grimy basement. Without even having the decency to explain why, a particularly sadistic madman (Osako Shigeo) proceeds to degrade, torture and mutilate them. This film is not for the faint of heart.

In the late 1930's (Show Period 14), two sides in Japan are conflicted between joining Germany and Italy in a military alliance. At this time, Isoroku Yamamoto, who strongly opposed the alliance, is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. The following year, on September 27, Japan, Germany and Italy form the Axis alliance.

Isoroku Yamamoto leads the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The attack's main purpose is to gain an early peace settlement. The surprise military strike appeared successful and caused massive damage, but US aircraft carriers were not damaged in the assault. After the attack, the Axis alliance initially saw advances without any defeats.

By April 18, 1942 (Show Period 17), formations of U.S. B-25B bombers, flown from an U.S. aircraft carrier, attacked the Japanese mainland for the first time. The Japanese military responded by carrying out their Midway operation, but the mission failed, and the Japanese military lost 4 aircraft carriers.

The U.S. army were encouraged by their victory at Midway and proceeded to carry out a landing operation on Guadalcanal. The Japanese and U.S. military fought fiercely. Besides the toll from fighting the U.S. military, the Japanese military suffered from starvation, dehydration and diseases while on Guadalcanal. The Japanese military were nearing collapse on Guadalcanal before Isoroku Yamamoto gave the order to withdraw to save more lives.

After the completion of the withdrawal from Guadalcanal, Isoroku Yamamoto flew on an airplane to make moral boosting visits to soldiers on the front line. His plane would be intercepted by the U.S. military.