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Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

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5.9 1998
版畫家廖修平

A short experimental documentary directed by Chang Chao-Tang (張照堂) during his tenure at the China Television Company (中國電視公司) for the program News Highlights (新聞集錦). Using an abstract visual approach, Chang captures the printmaker Liao Shiou-Ping (廖修平) in his thirties, at the height of his creative vigor. The film is entirely without narration and is accompanied by composer Chou Wen-Chung’s (周文中) modernist piece "Cursive" (草書).

版畫家廖修平

NR 1973
Kiki Kirin's Life

This documentary follows the last days of actress KIKI Kirin, who passed away on September 15, 2018. The documentary is the first long-term, in-depth coverage of Ki-kin, and is a re-edited version of the NHK documentary of the same title that was broadcast on September 26, 2006, adding previously unseen footage. She was loved all over Japan for her blunt remarks, her attentive concern for those around her, and her overflowing sense of humor. Despite her busy schedule, she valued her daily life and had her own unique style, even though she talked about life as it came. This film captures the last days of her life and gives us hints for living from her "life as it comes" and her many inspiring words.

Kiki Kirin's Life

NR 2019
Our Time, Our Story

Richly illustrated with film clips and interviews, OUR TIME, OUR STORY tells the still-evolving story of the Taiwanese "new wave," from its rise in the early 1980s, as the island was democratizing after decades under martial law, through growing international recognition and domestic debate in the 1990s. Spearheaded in its early years by such filmmakers as Edward Yang, Ko I-cheng, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Wan Jen, the movement revitalized Taiwan cinema through low-budget experiments that emphasized personal stories, political reflection and stylistic invention. Said filmmakers, writers and actors like Wu Nien-jen and Sylvia Chang, even "second wave" directors Tsai Ming-liang and Lin Cheng-sheng provide fond reminiscences and retrospective insights in this compelling account of one of the most distinctive national cinemas of the last quarter-century.

Our Time, Our Story

6.0 2002
A Century of Light and Shadow

Revisit 100 years of Chinese cinema through the RTHK TV program A Century of Light and Shadow. Aired in 2005, this interesting and informative documentary traces the development of the Chinese film industry from the pioneering years to contemporary times. From the volley between Mandarin and Cantonese films to the rise of the New Wave, this program touches on all the major trends and developments that have helped define Chinese cinema and explores different genres and representative figures and films. From actors to directors, over 200 film industry names, including Jackie Chan, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Connie Chan, Andrew Lau, Peter Chan, and Lau Ching Wan, appear in the program, bringing their intimate knowledge of the industry and providing insight about what lies ahead for Chinese cinema.

A Century of Light and Shadow

NR 2005
Yellowing

The turmoil that has overtaken Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has spawned a new generation of young, passionately committed activist filmmakers; they want to tell Hong Kong's story with Hong Kong voices. And the best indie documentary to have emerged so far from the HKSAR is this year's Yellowing, by Chan Tze Woon, a 29-year-old with degrees in policy studies and film production. Hong Kong's fraught, tense relationship with its mainland Chinese overseers came to a head with the Umbrella Movement of 2014. A crowd of protesters stormed Civic Square on September 27. The next day police shocked most residents of the HKSAR by attacking the growing crowds with volleys of tear gas, whereupon a wide cross section of Hong Kongers occupied the streets in several areas and stayed for almost 6 weeks. Chan took his camera on the streets for 67 days during these events.

Yellowing

6.0 2016
The Making of Weathering with You

A thorough account of the process to make Weathering with You. The crew appears to have been given unfettered access to the production allowing for a great walk through something we rarely see, production of an anime feature. From first audition of the voice actors, to cast and crew working with the director, to the animation process like compositing, background, temp work, 3D modelling, computer animation, to production meetings, to working on the songs with RADWIMPS, to finally the promotional tour of the final film this documentary covers every step.

The Making of Weathering with You

NR 2020
My New Friends

Tsai interrupted his pre-production for The River to make this pioneering documentary for Taiwan's nascent AIDS-awareness campaign. Ignoring instructions to 'play down the gay angle', he centres the film on his own very candid conversations with two HIV+ young men. Sadly the identities of the interviewees have to be concealed, and so the freewheeling camerawork focuses most often on Tsai himself; but the sense of rapport between the director and his 'new friends' is palpable and very moving, even to Western viewers already only too familiar with these issues.

My New Friends

5.5 1995
Ghibli Scenery:  A European Journey to Encounter Miyazaki's Works

Would you like to embark on a journey to discover new attractions in Miyazaki's works? By setting a fictional city and depicting the vivid lives of the people who live there, it is as if the city really exists.― Director Hayao Miyazaki's landscapes have this power. Natsukawa Yui, and Sugimoto Tetta, will visiting the European towns and places that inspired the setting images of Hayao Miyazaki's works. In "A European Journey to Encounter Miyazaki's Works," we embark on a journey to find the scenery of Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle.

Ghibli Scenery: A European Journey to Encounter Miyazaki's Works

NR 2006
The J-Horror Virus

How did a single ‘Big in Japan’ videotape change the course of global horror history? Find out in this insightful documentary charting the origins, evolution and diffusion across the world of a distinctive brand of Japanese supernatural chillers featuring vengeful ghosts manifesting themselves through contemporary technology against a backdrop of urban alienation and social decay. From Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988) and straight-to-video scary true stories to such key titles as Ring (1998), Pulse (2001) and The Grudge (2002), critics and filmmakers reflect on how the bleak Dystopian visions and unsettling atmospheres infiltrated their way into the world’s shocker consciousness.

The J-Horror Virus

NR 2023
Soul of Soil

Something is wrong with the “soil”, rendering farmers unable to make money. Enthusiastic middle-aged farmer A-Ren switches to the tech industry, aiming to revive the soil by turning garbage into compost, with his family reluctantly supporting his dream. Meanwhile, An-he, who is nearing retirement, leads his family to cultivate the land using organic farming methods. Farming becomes not only a way of life but also an attitude towards life. As the cycles of nature unfold between the tug-of-war of ideals versus reality, two farmers — one old, one young; one calm, one energetic — will intersect amid the changing seasons of life.

Soul of Soil

NR 2024