Discover Movies

8,336 Matches Found

Kim Il Sung's Children

From 1950 to 1953, one hundred thousand children were orphaned by the Korean War. With no resources to mend the wounds, the two sides, North and South, took different paths to find homes and families for the war orphans. While the children of South Korea were sent to Europe and the United States through ‘International Adoption’, the children of North Korea were distributed across Eastern Europe through a method called ‘Commissioned Education’. As a result, more than five thousand children from the North had to spend nearly a decade living in foreign lands across Eastern Europe. This story is a record of their lives, which used to be kept hidden from the rest of the world. There is a key to understanding how North Korea's closed political structure began and how the ‘Juche ideology’ was formed in this documentary movie. Understanding North Korea in the 1950s is an important way to understand North Korea at present.

Kim Il Sung's Children

NR 2020
206: Unearthed

After the dissolution of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was launched as a South Korean government organization in 2005, civic groups and bereaved families wishing to complete the mission the government had failed to accomplish form a joint organization to investigate the remains of civilians who were massacred during the Korean War. A three-year-long documentary about the organization’s three-year-long excavation efforts, 206: Unearthed is a record of sunlight, dirt, and sweat.

206: Unearthed

7.0 2023
The Silence

The Silence narrates the struggle of fifteen "comfort women"—former sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII—for recognition and reparation. The "comfort women" issue has previously been treated almost exclusively within the framework of Korean nationalism. The Silence will provide insight into the ways in which nationalism and the emergence of post-war Asian nation-states have hindered the understanding of "comfort women" narratives through Zainichi Korean documentary filmmaker Soo-nam Park's point of view.

The Silence

10.0 2017
To Live Is Better Than To Die

In the 1990s HIV/AIDS came to Wenlou through a blood purchasing program. To supplement their income many poor villagers sold their blood and 60% of those who sold blood contracted HIV/AIDS from unsanitary equipment. Many have died from the disease. In his documentary film, To Live is Better than to Die, Wiejun Chen tells of the impact AIDS has had in parts of rural China by showing how it has affected the Ma family. It is spring when the film takes up the family’s story.

To Live Is Better Than To Die

8.3 2003
Kazuo Ohno: Beauty and Strength

In the 60's and into the 70's, Kazuo Ohno himself produced three 16mm films. His many performances at the "Teatro Fonte" in Yokohama have been preserved with high quality Beta cameras. In addition, the television station NHK has made recordings of many of his theater performances since the premiere of "The Dead Sea" in 1985. Together, the Kazuo Ohno Dance Studio and NHK own over one hundred hours of footage. This is complemented by a 1994 film by Daniel Schmid and new 16mm footage of Kazuo Ohno filmed especially for this project in October of 2000. From these resources, this 111 minute Video/DVD was assembled. "Beauty and Strength" includes dance performances, film excerpts and interviews, examples of Ohno's drawings and writings, as well as biographical information, creating a comprehensive look into the world of Kazuo Ohno's dance.

Kazuo Ohno: Beauty and Strength

NR 2001
Straw Shoes

This is a documentary that records the actions of the elderly who makes straw shoes. It was filmed in Bongcheon-dong for a day before the urban redevelopment that area. It sharply contrasts the primitive labor of agricultural society and the modern urban labor with bold close-ups and cross editing. Against the backdrop of a poor hillside village in Seoul, it contains young filmmakers’ criticism on labor and society with an anthropological perspective. The film is the last one of the total seven short films made by director Kim Hongjun and Hwang Juho using a self-taught Super 8mm camera for a year from 1976 to 1977 before the founding of Yalasheng, a film society of Seoul National University. The film was selected at the 3rd SIFF.

Straw Shoes

NR 1977
Odoriko

Odoriko performances are intense, sometimes acrobatic choreographies, performed in sumptuous costumes—at least, until the costumes come off, because these dancers practice the Japanese form of striptease theater. The art was once popular, but is now seen only in a few clubs in the country. Filming on mini-DV tape, as if he is not actually in the room, director Yoichiro Okutani observes the unusual, traditional profession of the odoriko and the contrast with the modern, everyday questions the women struggle with.

Odoriko

7.0 2022
Free Beats: The Musical Journey of CHEN Ming Chang

CHEN Ming-chang, exposed to Western music, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan, often taught himself to play and sing with a guitar when he was young. In the closed social milieu of martial law in Taiwan, he became immersed in music and yearned for freedom, arousing his desire to become a musician. Later, he decided to set out on a journey to learn more about the music that has been passed down through generations. Traveling around Taiwan, he learns traditional opera music from prestigious musicians and integrates it into his artistic creations, composing music and stories that belong to Taiwan…

Free Beats: The Musical Journey of CHEN Ming Chang

NR 2023
Budô dokyumento: Kengô no saiten

The documentary covers notable Japanese martial arts from Okinawa Karate to Ninjutsu, Kendo, Shorinji Kenpo, sword fighting techniques, and even firearms. Various martial arts masters, from Shorinji Kenpo founder Doshin So to Japan Karate Association’s Masafumi Suzuki (who also frequently appeared in Toei’s karate films) and a supposedly 102 year old Okinawa Karate practitioner are brought in front of camera for interviews and martial arts demonstrations.

Budô dokyumento: Kengô no saiten

NR 1974
I'll Be Seeing Her

"I'll Be Seeing HER" is an approach to images of women in Korean cinema with a new genre, ‘Fanta Docu’, which shows beautiful and adventurous Korean actresses in the 1950s. The director, Kim Soyoung stated that “studying and teaching Korean cinema history, I felt sorry that most documentaries on Korean cinema had been made from the male perspective,” which led her to make a documentary on Korean cinema through women’s eyes. Kim So young directed ‘Women's History Trilogy’ (Koryu: Southern Women, South Korea, I'll Be Seeing Her: Women in Korean Cinema, New Woman: Her First Song) which was screened at many international film festivals including Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

I'll Be Seeing Her

NR 2002
Hong Kong's 1971 Diaoyutai Movement

Hong Kong Diaoyutai Movement (1971) documents HK youth protesting the U.S. decision to transfer the disputed Diaoyu Islands to Japan alongside Okinawa's return. The protest joined the transnational Baodiao movement, launched by overseas Chinese students in America and taken up across Taiwan and Hong Kong in defense of Chinese territorial claims. The film was produced by 70s Biweekly, a radical publication that served as a crucial platform for political debate among young Hong Kong intellectuals. Co-founders Ng Chung-yin and Mok Chiu-yu, who organized the demonstrations themselves, commissioned directors Law Kar and Chiu Tak-hak to create a documentary from inside the movement. The camera moves with the protesters, capturing chants, gestures, and surging crowds as they unfold. This approach transforms cinema into a tool of activism—the filmmakers weren't documenting history but participating in it, positioning the camera as part of collective action rather than a neutral observer.

Hong Kong's 1971 Diaoyutai Movement

NR 1971
Pathway

Xu Xin’s film “Dao Lu” (China 2012) offers an exclusive “in camera” encounter with Zheng Yan, an 83 year-old veteran of the Chinese Red Army, who calmly relates how he has navigated his country’s turbulent history over three-quarters of a century.Born to a wealthy family in a foreign concession, Yan joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1941 because he sincerely believed in the socialist project, and in its immediate capacity to free China from the Japanese yoke and eradicate deep-rooted corruption.

Pathway

3.0 2012
Sasamori Miyu Kaori "Densetsu no Ikimono - Chosa Roke in Hakodate"

Yuu Shinohara, Toruka Moriya, Miyu Tomita, Kaori Maeda, on location in Hakodate, Hokkaido! Internet radio station Onsen's popular original program "Yu and Kyoka's 'Atsumare! Sasamori! and "Mimyu Tomita and Kaori Maeda are waiting for your request for investigation! The collaboration location projects will be released on Blu-ray. The first project investigates legendary creatures in Hakodate, Hokkaido! What kind of creatures did they find? In addition, there are many enjoyable elements such as secret guests and narration by the popular hamster "Chuchumaru"!

Sasamori Miyu Kaori "Densetsu no Ikimono - Chosa Roke in Hakodate"

NR 2022
My Dearest Fu Bao

After her miraculous birth in Korea, giant panda Fu Bao gained tremendous popularity and love from her fans worldwide. While her upcoming return to China is leaving fans in sorrow, her zookeepers continue their duty to make Fu Bao happy and solemnly start preparing her trip to China. As the expected day of farewell approaches, the zookeepers have to confront another unexpected farewell, and cannot but give in to the emotions they have been holding back. Knowing they must say goodbye soon, they cherish and treasure each day leading up to the farewell.

My Dearest Fu Bao

7.3 2024
Twisted Sex

A look at sex in Japan, that covers underground gay life, transvestites, sex change operations, tattoos, and S&M. What does it mean to live an individualistic life in the modern age? By capturing the seemingly bizarre customs of men in drag and women in men's clothing seen on the streets, and examining the world of sexual perversion in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of our homogenized modern society, we explore whether it represents the pinnacle of pleasure, or a world of endless hell.

Twisted Sex

4.0 1971
Whisper of Minqin

Ten-year-old HE Fangfei and her family are "eco-refugees" living in Minqin County. Minqin, once an oasis, is now one of the major sources of sandstorms in China. The deserts are encroaching on the towns and swallowing up farmland, schools and homes. The government advisers privately describe Minqin and the surrounding areas as "ecological disaster areas", and try to convince the villagers that the only option the Chinese people in this region have is to respect nature’s rules by allowing the sand to encroach and restore these regions to the original ecological system. The film examines this ongoing battle, now carried out by young villagers like HE, between human nature and Mother Nature.

Whisper of Minqin

NR 2013
Tarch Trip

A film like an Impressionist painting; the kind of paintings to have titles like 'urban view from the artist's studio'. The film is largely set in the film-maker's home and the street in the provincial town of Aichi where he lives. Minor everyday incidents are observed poetically; the melancholy mood of the images is boosted by serene electronic music. There is no dialogue; the sound track only comprises streets sounds as well as the music. Loose, almost nonchalant impressions of the street or of cloudy skies are juxtaposed with posed, almost photographic mildly homo-erotic portraits of friends of the film-maker. Tarch Trip is made up of fragments of a cinematographic diary, which are however not edited chronologically. Two periods alternate. One is characterized rain and dark cloudy skies. The other is sunny and repeatedly accompanied by three friends

Tarch Trip

4.2 1994
Daylight Developing

Daylight Developing is a filmed family diary in the form of a personal cinema. This work covers a family history and discusses changes in the light of family in the economic globalization, including the constantly moving family, the absence of family members, the room for women in separated families, as well as representations the concept of home; ultimately what is the meaning of home? In the film, the use of light as a symbol highlights the sanctity of the family and the beginning of life and the use of changes in lighting in the home movie remind of the warm atmosphere in l’espace heureux and therefore leads us to imagine the deepening relationships between the members of this family.

Daylight Developing

NR N/A