狂野时代 (Resurrection)

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In a world where human beings have given up the ability to dream in exchange for a longer lifespan, the few who are left with such a capacity are referred to as Deliriants. Those who seek them are called The Other Ones, one of which is Miss Shu (Shu Qi) who manages to track down a monstrous Deliriant (Jackson Yee) so engrossed in his dream state. She decides to ease him into death through the magic of cinema, allowing him to jump from dream to dream through a film projector she implants in him. There he gets to live several lives while waiting for imminent death: a theremin player named Qiu who is accused of murder; an art thief referred to as Mongrel who encounters the Spirit of Bitterness; a con artist called Jia who forges a professional relationship with a young street urchin; and as Apollo, a hoodlum who gets infatuated with a young singer at the turn of the century in 1999.

یک تصادف ساده (It Was Just an Accident)

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A man with an artificial leg stops by a mechanic’s shop along the road to ask for help in the middle of the night after his car breaks down, his wife and daughter in tow. One of the mechanics named Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) recognizes the sound of the man’s prosthetic leg as well as his voice. He hides and follows him later back to his home. The next day he abducts him and almost buries him alive, calling him Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) or “Peg Leg” aka the intelligence officer who tortured him and destroyed his life. The man denies his accusations and is consequently knocked out cold and kept captive at the back of a van. To confirm whether the man is really who he believes him to be, Vahid is sent by a friend to seek help in identifying him to Shiva (Mariam Afshari) who was also detained by the same man and now working as a photographer. What will they do once they confirm that it is really he who ruined their lives?

Rental Family

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Japan has served as home for American actor Phillip Vanderploeg (Brendan Fraser) for the last 7 years or so. Searching for an ever elusive break since his breakout toothpaste commercial during his first year in the country, he has since taken on trivial roles like “side American” or “token white guy” to make ends meet. One of such gigs introduces him to Shinji (Takehiro Hira) who owns a company called Rental Family. Together with his employees Aiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Kota (Kimura Bun), the trio take acting to a whole new level by playing whatever role, in real life, that their clients ask them to. Phillip is hesitant to join at first but sees its potential in helping people. Among his first assignments are the roles of “Father” to a half-Caucasian half-Japanese girl named Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman) and a “Magazine Writer” interviewing the retired and almost senile actor Kikuo Hasegawa (Akira Emoto).

8番出口 (Exit 8)

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A middle aged Japanese guy referred to as The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) steps out of the train after witnessing an irate elderly man berate a young mother whose baby won’t stop crying out loud in the car. While heading toward Exit 8, he receives a phone call from his girlfriend who tells him that she is pregnant and is currently at the hospital. Stress causes an asthma attack and he relies heavily on his inhaler as he thinks about whether he is ready to be a father yet. Weak coverage cuts their conversation short and he is challenged by a new dilemma. He has already passed by the same underground walkway twice or thrice but every time he rounds a corner he is brought back to the same area with the same Walking Man (Yamato Kochi) walking the other way as if they were both caught in an Escheresque kind of loop.

기생충 (Parasite)

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The Kim family has been down on their luck for many years now and so when opportunity strikes, so do they. After all, living in a basement apartment that becomes a swimming pool during monsoon season no thanks to flood and sewer water is not really an ideal kind of life any family would want. When son 김기우 (최우식), who calls himself Kevin, is asked by a former classmate to take over his English tutorial gig at a rich Seoul household, he doesn’t think twice despite lacking the qualifications. Taking note of the family’s naivety and taking advantage of it, he soon gets his sister 김기정 (박소담) a.k.a. Jessica in the family’s employ, followed by their father 김기택 (송강호) and later on, their mother 박충숙 (장혜진) as well. Thinking they finally hit the jackpot by leeching onto the unsuspecting Park family, another parasite soon emerges, fighting over their host for survival.

부산행 (Train to Busan)

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Asking questions but not getting any answers, a truck driver maneuvers his vehicle into a quarantine checkpoint, and then runs a deer over on his way out. Left for dead, the animal springs back to life a minute later as if nothing happened, except that its eyeballs are now all white. Novice fund manager 석우 (공유) juggles his time between making it big and trying to win his daughter’s affection by showering her with material things, but she is not impressed. All she wants is to go back home to her mother in Busan, so much that she is willing to take the southbound KTX from Seoul all on her own. Realizing that he is just pushing his child further away, he decides to accompany her so she can be reunited with his estranged wife. As the doors of the train close, a visibly injured girl dashes in last minute and drops on the floor convulsing, before lying motionless on the ground. Panicking, a train attendant shouts for help, too distracted to see the now reanimated zombie lunge for her jugular.

סיפור על אהבה וחושך (A Tale of Love and Darkness)

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Growing up at a time of tumultuous transition from Mandatory Palestine to the creation of the state of Israel, Amos (Amir Tessler) gets a semblance of normalcy thanks to the efforts of his imaginative mother, Fania (Natalie Portman), whose collection of stories never fails to tickle his imagination. She also plays the role of the supportive wife to his father, Arieh (Gilad Kahana), a struggling writer with an overbearing mother who is not so fond of her daughter-in-law. As depression eventually sets in, Fania finds herself in a state of perpetual gloom, slowly losing her zest for life. Her son continues to be her daily companion, helplessly witnessing her deterioration, both mental and physical, while trying to navigate his way around the new status quo that paints a rather uncertain picture for the years to come.

รัก ลวง หลอน (The Couple)

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Young couple Karn (Golf Pichaya) and Aom (Sushar Manaying) exchange their I Do’s in a lavish wedding ceremony. Looking forward to married bliss, the newlyweds have no idea that they are about to face a lot of family drama that has been unfolding in the sidelines without their knowledge. The family business is almost bankrupt, forcing the siblings to form a deal with a dangerous politician. Did I mention that the bride finds her sister-in-law’s corpse in the bathroom during their wedding night? To further complicate matters, she starts behaving strangely after that, borrowing mannerisms from the dead in-law. The family nanny thinks she is possessed, and the spirit invading her body will not stop until it gets rid of unfinished business. Would she be strong enough to resist once her loved ones’ safety are put on the line?

댄싱퀸 (Dancing Queen)

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정화 (엄정화) and 정민 (황정민) have an interesting love story to tell, and well-documented by the local media to boot. This is mostly because of the oddities involved in their first meeting, combined with some unlucky events which bring them together as a couple. Years later, they struggle to raise their daughter and pay for monthly rent, something that normal families have to go through in their early years together. He manages to become a lawyer while she puts her aspirations to become a pop star on hold, probably forever. Their luck changes when he unwittingly saves a guy who falls down the train tracks, fuelling a media frenzy which would bring him all the way to the Mayoral race of Seoul. She, on the other hand, applies for and successfully gets in a fast-rising girl band called the Dancing Queens. While each of the worlds they now belong in are complicated enough on their own, the fusion of the two seems highly unlikely to be accepted by the general public. Who between husband and wife should give up one dream in order to salvage another?

설국열차 (Snowpiercer)

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An experiment gone awry prompts a new ice age which deems the planet inhabitable. The remaining survivors are aboard the Snowpiercer, a train circling the globe and powered by a perpetual-motion mechanism. The train is owned by a wealthy entrepreneur named Wilford (Ed Harris) who was ridiculed for coming up with a modern day Noah’s Ark back in the day, not knowing that his creation would end up to be the salvation of the human race. Since the train is private property, a hierarchy among its passengers exists, with the poor residents occupying the tail end of the train while the chosen few in the elite circle enjoy a life of splendor at the front. From time to time, Mason (Tilda Swinton), Wilford’s right hand, visits the occupants of the tail to make sure that their subjugation is in place. Years of deprivation and unequal treatment have taken its toll, though, and a rebellion is about to begin. Led by Curtis (Chris Evans) and his wingman Edgar (Jamie Bell), will the proletariat be able to succeed in taking over the train?

늑대소년 (A Werewolf Boy)

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Fragile teenager 순이 (박보영) relocates to the countryside with her sister and widowed mother for the betterment of her respiratory condition. Left with almost nothing, they live a hand-to-mouth existence in the house owned by 지태, the son of her father’s business partner, who lusts after her. One day, they encounter a teenage boy who could not speak and whose behavior is similar to that of a wild animal. The caring mother adopts him and gives him the name 철수 (송중기). Unknown to them, he is actually a werewolf. 순이 hates him at first, although her persistence pays off when she manages to tame the beast inside him, but he could only repress so much of his wild side as danger looms. Forced to separate due to threats to his life, she asks him to wait for her, and promises that she will come back for him. 46 years later, she does.

赤壁 (Red Cliff)

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I try to avoid Chinese movies because they usually just fly and kill each other. In this movie they fly less and kill more. And Gong Li is nowhere in sight. This movie is based on that video game called Dynasty Warriors (Battle of Chi Bi, in particular), which is based on that novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is supposedly based on real events from China's feudal past. Sword fight, sword fight. I burn your navy, bitch. Arrow to the head, arrow to the head! I use VCO for my hair, look how it sways. Blood on the forehead, blood on the forehead! Shameful as it may seem I admit I fell asleep.

I think it is based on the video game because even the physical appearance of the characters are almost the same! Well except maybe for Zhuge Liang (Kong Ming) because they asked Takeshi Kaneshiro to play the role. Come on. Zhou Yu is the narcissistic Pantene model. And we've always thought that Zhuge Liang is gay (who goes into battle with a fan? He is a strategist. Hmmm... okay...). And where are all the Wei generals? Only Cao Cao is here, boring. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu here really resemble their PlayStation counterparts.