Ritual (2000)
Genre : Drama
Runtime : 2H 8M
Director : Hideaki Anno
Writer : Hideaki Anno
Synopsis
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young girl who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact.
John Gregory, who is a seventh son of a seventh son and also the local spook, has protected the country from witches, boggarts, ghouls and all manner of things that go bump in the night. However John is not young anymore, and has been seeking an apprentice to carry on his trade. Most have failed to survive. The last hope is a young farmer's son named Thomas Ward. Will he survive the training to become the spook that so many others couldn't?
Housemaid Georgette loves to gossip and this causes major trouble to people around her.
Schoolgirl Kuniko is kidnapped by a middle-aged man Iwazono when she is jogging. He tells her that he had a failed marriage which leaves him a deep and everlasting scar in his mind. He kidnaps her in search of a perfect marriage and intends to lock her in the room and 'educate' her to perform perfect sex where body and soul are united.
A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is scheduled to be closed, he is offered a job at a hotel, but he is emotionally unable to part with his career as a railroader. His life takes a turn when he meets a young woman with an interest in trains who resembles his daughter.
Unimpressive, 24-year-old virgin, Eamonn (Kris Marshall) lives in Belfast with his mother, during the Troubles. Local girl, Mary Malloy (Tara O'Neil) decides that since she has probably slept with every man in town Eamonn should be next on her list. He proves to be quite a catch... and Mary gets pregnant even though she took precautions. A doctor discovers that Eamonn has a very high sperm count and, with the birth rate in Ireland decreasing, Millicent (Bronagh Gallagher) decides to hire out Eamonn to women whose husbands have been firing blanks; all with the blessing of the local Catholic church which sees it as morally better than artificial means.
Chris O'Brien, devote Catholic and rookie cop with LAPD, is assigned to partner with the hard-edged, street-smart Nora Hugosian. A serial killer is loose, and all the victims are low-life guys whom Nora has dealt with. So, when the tire tracks of a police car are found at a murder scene, she's the prime suspect of internal affairs investigator Simon Hertzel...
A babysitting uncle tells his charges three horror stories: about a killer witch; Little Red Riding Hood and a werewolf; and Goldi Lox and the three bears.
Given only six months to live, Englishman Bruce Campbell goes to Canada to claim "Campbell's Kingdom", the land he inherited from his grandfather. In order to clear his grandfather's name and prove there is oil on the land, Campbell must face up to a ruthless contractor and work against the clock to find oil before "Campbell's Kingdom" is flooded by a new power dam.
'Do I Love You?' is a romantic philosophical comedy about life and the questions it throws at you.
The film is a metaphor for the Cold War. It depicts two neighbouring nations: peace loving Fortuna and the not so peaceful land of the Steel City.
Hans Baerlach is a Swiss police detective who has dedicated much of his career to pursuing powerful and allegedly murderous businessman Richard Gastmann. Though Baerlach's partner meets his demise while investigating Gastmann, his replacement, Walter Tschanz, is undaunted. Meanwhile, the lovely Anna Crawley becomes involved in the case, which proceeds to take many twists and turns.
Cecily Harrington, struggling along on a small allowance, wins a fortune in a lottery. She decides to travel rather than marrying her fiance Nigel Lawrence. A stranger, Manuel Cortez, comes to rent her flat and she falls in love with him, and they are married. For their honeymoon, they go to an isolated English college where she, unlike the audience, doesn't realize she has married a fortune-hunting Bluebeard with a few murdered wives in his past. The question is will she be able to repent in leisure her decision to marry in haste.
Sandra Brown’s “Smoke Screen” follows newswoman Britt Shelley (Jaime Pressly), who shockingly wakes up in bed next to the dead body of Detective Jay Burgess and is suspected of foul play. Five years prior, Jay’s lifelong friend Raley Gannon (Currie Graham) also woke up next to a dead body. After learning of Britt’s scandal and the similarities between their two cases, he realizes she might be his only chance for vindication. As the two unravel their mysterious cases together, they find themselves caught in a dangerous political cover-up involving arson and murder.
On the island of Jersey, off the French coast, Mélanie, a beautiful woman gifted with a captivating personality, enjoys having unimportant love affairs that her husband Victor, a perfumer older than her, seems to endure with total indifference.
Amon is a boy who can control the wind. Branik, ruler of the Empire of the Golden Snake, wants Amon's power to complete the ultimate weapon and sends his troops to capture the boy. Amon, using his talents, manages to runs away with Maria, one of the People of the Sea. Together, they try to stop the Empire of the Golden Snake from destroying and conquering everything.
A Polynesian sailor is separated from his wife when he's unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against a colonial bully. Members of the community petition the governor for clemency but all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.
Lucio Bordenave carries on the Grey lifestyle of an unemployed worker, dedicated to the trade of watchmaking, until in a somewhat mysterious way, his wife is admitted to a Frenopatic Institute. From this point on, the story enters a territory without parameters where reality is confused with the imaginary, sleep with wakefulness, and insanity with lucidity.
In this black comedy the lives of a timid small-time printer and his young wife are turned inside out by the arrival of a stranger who moves in and takes over their world. Set in a village-like outpost in the heart of Tokyo, this is a wry commentary on Japanese xenophobia. Kiki Sugino heads a spritely ensemble cast.
Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.