humilityprim's - Rented List

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From John Woo, the director of Hong Kong movie classics including 'Bulle in the Head' and 'The Killer', comes the incredible 'Last Hurrah for Chivalry'; his unique take on the Wuxia or heroic fantasy movie genre.

This time the guns are replaced with swords but the trademark Woo themes of heroism and honour are much in evidence as the newly married swordsman Kao (Lau Kong) seeks revenge on the evil Pai (Lee Hoi San) for wiping out his family on his wedding night. Alone he cannot beat him so he enlists the help of Chang (Wei Pai) and Green (Damian Lau) to exact justice upon Pai - John Woo style! In common with Woo's best films this new brotherhood isn't as honourable as it first appears and as the truth emerges the scene is set for a climactic deadly battle. This, like the rest of the film, is expertly choreographed and beautifully captured in John Woo's brutally inimitable style that will delight fans who prefer their action hardcore!

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After the massive success of 'The Street Fighter', Toei Company decided to build a new karate series around a female lead and cast a young actress who had appeared in a cameo role alongside her mentor Sonny Chiba.

Still a teenager at the time, Etsuko Shihomi exploded onscreen in her first leading role and created a new character type: a tough fighter who was fierce, fearless, good-hearted, and decidedly non-sexualised, a departure from Toei's typical formula. In 1974's 'Sister Street Fighter', Shihomi is the half-Chinese, half-Japanese Koryu Lee, who travels to Yokohama to investigate the disappearance of her brother, an undercover cop. Lee discovers a smuggling ring run by a drug lord with his own personal army of deadly fighters, and must penetrate his evil lair with the help of a fellow karate master (played by Chiba). Shihomi and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (Wolf Guy) made two additional films based on the same character over the next year, 'Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread' and 'Return of the Sister Street Fighter', with a final unrelated follow-up (Sister Street Fighter: Fifth Level Fist) helmed by original 'Street Fighter' director Shigehiro Ozawa appearing in 1976. Genre entertainment of the highest order, the 'Sister Street Fighter' films are a wild ride through some of the best exploitation cinema Japan produced in the 1970's. Funky and over-the-top, filled with wall-to-wall action, and featuring some of the craziest villains ever depicted onscreen, the series embodies female power in a male-dominated genre and is a magnificent showcase for the physical presence and martial arts skills of its lead star.

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Set in a remote Buddhist monastery in 16th Century China, 'Raining in the Mountain' deals with a power struggle that ensues when the Abbot of the Three Treasures Temple announces his imminent retirement.

The ageing Abbot invites three outsiders to advise him on the critical choice of appointing his successor: Esquire Wen, a wealthy patron of the monastery, General Wang, commander-in-chief of the local military, and Wu Wai, a respected lay Buddhist master. Within the monastery, several disciples aspiring to the position begin to collude individually with Esquire Wen and General Wang. But these two invited advisers have come with seditious intent, scheming to obtain the priceless scroll housed in the monastery: the scriptural text of "The Mahayana Sutra", hand-copied by Tripitaka. Meanwhile, convicted criminal Chiu Ming has arrived at the monastery to atone as a monk. He is assigned to safeguard the scroll at the house of scriptures, and encounters thieving rivals White Fox who poses as Esquire Wen's concubine and General Wang's fearsome Lieutenant Chang, who originally framed Chiu Ming for the crime he did not commit.

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Triple bill of classic Japanese crimes by Seijun Suzuki.

Eight Hours of Terror (1957)

When all trains are cancelled due to a typhoon destroying the rail tracks, a replacement bus is laid on for passengers more eager to get to their destination, including a haughty company president and his wife, an idealistic university student, a brassy good-time girl, and a convicted murderer and the warder escorting him to prison. The bus wends its way through the night along a treacherous mountain road, but the journey is thrown into further peril when more dangerous passengers come aboard.
Tokyo Knights (1961)
When Koji is dragged back from studying in America following the death of his father, the president of a construction company, he not only has to cope with the trials of settling into his new educational environment at a Catholic Mission School, but also lend his hand to the running of the family business. Meanwhile, he notices the acting manager, Mishima, getting a little too close for comfort to his bereaved stepmother Rie, and also to the rival Tokutake enterprise who are vying for the same lucrative government bid.
The Man with a Shotgun (1961)
Nitani Hideaki plays Ryoji, the inscrutable loner who wanders into a small logging town with his shotgun and a thirst for revenge as he attempts to track down the men responsible for murdering his girlfriend. Straight away, Ryoji finds himself the subject of the unruly locals and winds up going hand-to-hand with the town tough guy Masa to establish the pecking order. When the sheriff is wounded, Ryoji steps right into his shoes, an act which sees him pitted against the hired thugs of the local lumber-mill owner Nishioka, a man with a more sinister hidden revenue stream than that provided by mere timber.

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Based on the early 20th-century exploits of Jimmy Governor, Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis) follows its title character, a half-Aboriginal, half-white young man attempting to make his way as a farmhand, but facing only prejudice and deception from society.

When the parentage of his child is called into question and he is further robbed by his white employers, Jimmie's barely suppressed rage explodes, triggering a wave of violence that would shock a nation.

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"It was an evil house from the beginning, a house that was born bad". The place is the 90-year-old mansion called Hill House. No one lives there. Or so it seems. But please do come in. Because even if you don't believe in ghosts, there's no denying the terror of 'The Haunting'.

Robert Wise returned to psychological horror for this much admired, first screen adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House'. Four people come to the house to study its supernatural phenomena. Or has the house drawn at least one of them to it?

Reprising his role as the irrepressible Hong Kong 'super-cop' Ka Kui, Jackie Chan is triumphant in scene after scene of breath-taking action, as he puts his life on the line to combat ruthless kidnappers holding his city to ransom.

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When shy, emotionally fragile Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland), the daughter of a wealthy New York doctor, begins to receive calls from the handsome spendthrift Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she becomes possessed by the promise of romance.

Are his smoldering professions of love sincere, as she believes they are? Or is Catherines calculating father (Ralph Richardson) correct in judging Morris a venal fortune seeker?

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Julianne Moore gives an astonishing performance as Carol White, a typically bored, affluent Californian housewife whose carefully controlled domestic environment suddenly turns against her. Gradually she develops nosebleeds, vomiting and breathing problems before finally collapsing.

In desperation to remain 'safe' from her allergies she opts for the virtual isolation of a porcelain igloo in the Texan desert where the inhabitants drag around oxygen cylinders and therapists behave like preachers.

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Welcome to a bittersweet world of episodic adventures and strange encounters. Welcome to a sordid, nocturnal world of ruthless, callous boyfriends and stray movie stars looking for seedy kicks.

Welcome to the harsh, unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome where hope can still prevail and dreams cradle the lost. Welcome to the world of Cabiria, a feisty, loud, outspoken and somewhat naïve prostitute waiting for a miracle, and one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters of European cinema. Eventually remade in Hollywood as 'Sweet Charity', 'Nights of Cabiria' is a often humorous, poignant, unflinching and vivid portrait of one woman's picaresque existence and her perseverance through adversity. Starring Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, as the irrepressible protagonist, 'Nights of Cabiria' marked Fellini's last foray into gritty neo-realism before venturing into the surreal satire and dream logic of 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Eight and a Half'.

Strolling along 5th Avenue or going on the bum as 'A Couple of Swells', Judy Garland and Fred Astaire lead a parade of music and gotta-dance fun in this never-ending delight...

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Kazuo Hara's infamous and audacious documentary follows Kenzo Okuzaki, an ageing Japanese WW2 veteran, on a mission to uncover the truth about atrocities committed as the war in the Pacific reached its bloody end.

Ultimately, Okuzaki blames The Emperor himself for these barbarities, and his obsessive pursuit of those he deems responsible soon escalates. Willing to confront the taboos of Japanese society in his fanatical quest for justice, Okuzaki is driven to unsettling acts of violence. Harrowing and extraordinarily powerful, Hara's film forces us to face the disturbing realities of war and, crucially, to question the complicity between filmmaker, subject and audience.

The rules are the same but the laughs are bigger and the thrills are better. This time, Billy and everyone's favourite Mogwai, Gizmo, must face off against a new batch of Gremlins who definitely think that New York is their kind of town.

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Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) is the eldest daughter of an impoverished New South Wales farming family. Bold and determined, Sybylla dreams of succeeding as an acclaimed writer. But in a time of sexist ignorance and bigotry Sybylla has frequent clashes with procrustean conformists.

Though it is her love for the dashing Harry Beacham (Sam Neill) that will truly test her desire to succeed as a writer. As events twist and turn, Sybylla is painfully forced to realise the emotional cost of putting her career over love. 'My Brilliant Career' is a delicate parable of one woman's fight for independence, and the sacrifices of the heart that must be made along the way.

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Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is a troubled juvenile delinquent trying to live up to the legendary reputation of his older brother, Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke). One night, while Rusty James and his friends Smokey (Nicolas Cage), Steve (Vincent Spano), and B.J.

(Christopher Penn) are involved in a rumble, Motorcycle Boy returns home from California after a two-month absence. After Motorcycle Boy reveals some family secrets about their mother, both brothers become determined to escape their lives or die trying.