Asian Cinema
Cinema has been a part of Asian cultures for more than a century. We offer a selection of films from older classic titles (King Hu's THE FATE OF LEE KHAN) to more recent family dramas by the Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, along with films from Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Okiku and the World
In the mid-19th century, Okiku lives in a tenement row house in the sprawling city of Edo. There, she cares for her father, Genbei, a former samurai, whom she supports by teaching children in a temple school. Yasuke and his newly recruited partner, Chuji, regularly visit the tenement to collect t...
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Human Lanterns
In this maniacal mashup of martial arts and the macabre, a psychotic retired swordsman (Lo Lieh) finds a unique way to get retribution for his past humiliations while seeking vengeance on his enemies. Inside his secret workshop, he creates lanterns made from the human skin of his rivals’ sisters,...
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The Golden Lotus
In this Shaw Brothers adaptation of the most erotic novel in Chinese history, director Han Hsiang Li recounts the depraved exploits of a Sung Dynasty lothario. Hsi Men-ching (Yeung Kwan) already has one wife and three concubines, but that does not stop him from coveting for more. He eventually re...
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Farewell My Concubine
Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) and Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) grow up enduring the harsh training of the Peking Opera Academy, where instructors regularly beat the students to instill in them the discipline needed to master the complex physical and vocal techniques of this ancient art. As the two b...
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Girl's Blood
Satsuki is a karate expert with a gender identity disorder. Chinatsu is on the run from her abusive husband. Miko works part-time as an S&M queen, and Mayu is a baby face Lolita. Four women with very different life stories come together at Girl's Blood, a members-only, illegal mixed martial arts...
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Asia-pol
It’s not Interpol, it's Asia-pol, a law enforcement agency somewhere between the police and Her Majesty's Secret Service. Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Swordsman) stars in his first major modern day role as a down and dirty secret agent battling against homicidal Japanese gold smugglers amidst femme f...
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By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him
In postwar Japan a downtrodden neighborhood is nearly torn apart when a Korean gang tries to take over the local market. As anger escalates to the brink, tough as nails WWII veteran Dr. Amamiya (played by real life former yakuza Noboru Ando) steps in to stop the conflict.
Director Tai Kato’s gr...
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I, the Executioner
As the police investigate a sudden rash of brutal murders whose victims are all women the unscrupulous killer’s murky motivations remain hauntingly elusive. A labyrinthine character study slowly unfolds implying that the targets of these unspeakable acts may be culpable in their own shocking demi...
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Before, Now & Then
Nana (Happy Salma), the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner, values her safety and material comforts but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love who was murdered years ago during the Indonesian Revolution. Forced to confront her husband’s blatant infidelity, Nana makes...
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Facets of Love
Legends are born and dreams become reality in three tales centering around a Ming Dynasty brothel. Brought to life by visionary filmmaker Han Hsiang Li, Hong Kong's undisputed king of epic drama, this anthology of forbidden stories steams with erotic myths, secret trysts and romantic twists of fa...
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Illicit Desire
Tang Dynasty emperors and Ming Dynasty scholars along with assorted fortune tellers and Buddhist monks comprise the cast of characters in three mystical Chinese legends. Brought to life by director Han Hsiang Li, the undisputed master of the Hong Kong costume epic, this erotic anthology presents ...
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Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
In her most daring role, Lily Ho plays Ainu, a beautiful girl who is abducted and sold into prostitution. Under the tutelage of the cunning madam Lady Chun (Betty Pei Ti), Ainu becomes the most desirable courtesan of the Four Seasons Spring Brothel. But she soon finds herself caught in a web of s...
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Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan
Kidnapped and forced to work in Merryland brothel, the beautiful Ai Nu (Hu Kuan-chen) at first tries to resist her captors but soon learns a seductive new path of survival, pursuing fame and fortune under the cunning tutelage of madam Lady Chun (Yu An-an).
Director Chu Yuan returns to his erotic...
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Return to Dust
In rural Gaotai county, two lonely, middle-aged outcasts are pushed into an arranged marriage by their families. Ma (Wu Renlin) is a humble farmer with little to offer his timid and sickly wife, Cao (Hai Qing), except for a small abandoned house on a barren patch of land. From just a few seeds, t...
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Cash Calls Hell
Facing the final days of his prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter, Oida (Tatsuya Nakadai) dreads reentering society as a ruined man with no future prospects. Sensing his street smarts, Oida's cellmate promises him a pile of loot if he tracks down and kills three men whose names are on a lis...
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Red Peony Gambler
Wandering female gambler Oryu the Red Peony (Junko Fuji), so known for the tattoo on her shoulder, rambles into town searching for her father’s killer with a wallet left at the crime scene as her only clue. At a card game she meets a kindred spirit, the noble and handsome yakuza Katagiri (Ken Tak...
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Red Peony Gambler 2: Gambler's Obligation
The second installment of the influential Red Peony Gambler series finds the titular heroine Oryu taken under the arm of the benevolent gang boss of a silk farming town. Soon ruthless loan sharks encroach on the business determined to enslave and exploit the workers. When their treachery leads to...
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Red Peony Gambler 3: The Flower Cards Game
Maestro of Japanese cinema Tai Kato simultaneously satiates and transcends genre tropes in his masterful direction of the celebrated third film in the Red Peony Gambler series. From its classically melodramatic opening set piece involving an oncoming train, the stage is set for a visually rich ta...
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Green Night
Trapped in a cycle of oppression, Chinese immigrant Jin Xia (Fan Bingbing) works in customs at South Korea's Incheon Airport, where she encounters a mysterious green-haired girl (Lee Joo-young) acting suspiciously at the security checkpoint. Overcome by the unspoken attraction between them, she t...
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Violent Panic: The Big Crash
Takashi, an expert bank-robber, plans to pull off the biggest heist of his career, stealing 300 million yen before fleeing to Brazil. However, when the robbery goes awry, Takashi finds himself alone and his getaway foiled. Trailed by the police, his lover, his partner-in-crime’s brother, and coun...
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Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
Brimming with magical realism, sensuality, and humor, the final film by revered filmmaker Shohei Imamura tells the story of Yosuke Sasano (Koji Yakusho), an unemployed salaryman who arrives in a remote fishing village following a rumor of hidden treasure. Instead, he meets Saeko Aizawa (Misa Shim...
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Love's Whirlpool
Six strangers meet at an underground sex club in Japan for a night of anonymous pleasure. While first-timers and regulars collide, each member’s attitude towards sex and satisfaction becomes challenged as their kinks and inhibitions begin to reveal more than they were initially willing to let on....
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The Sales Girl
When college coed Saruul takes a temporary job as a clerk in a sex shop, her poker-faced indifference makes her the perfect foil for the shop’s clientele, who range from slightly sheepish and cautiously curious to downright perverse. But it’s the shop’s flamboyant, eccentric female owner who init...
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In the Morning of La Petite Mort
Matsui (Yusuke Fukuchi), a homeless food delivery driver, spends his days and nights traveling from destination to destination without any place to find true solace. Longing to make a connection, he becomes infatuated with a beautiful young prostitute, Ching (Yun-Chih Wang), but her sudden disapp...