Birth of Melos (2023)

Red Maid, the Matchmaker

Production company Taoyuan chose for its inaugural film a comedy and Fong Yim-fun gets to take a break from playing long-suffering roles and showcase her talents in making us laugh! She plays the spritely titled character, brandishing a fresh image. The film is an adaptation of the literary classic Romance of the Western Chamber, in which the Prime Minister's daughter (Law Yim-hing), under siege from rebel soldiers, is rescued by a plan formulated by a poor scholar (Law Kim-long), with whom she is in love. But her mother (Poon Yat On) reneges afterwards on her promise to let the rescuer marry the daughter, and the clever Red Maid steps up as go-between, devising a series of sharp-witted tactics to help the lovers.

Mama, I Need You!

After finishing the course of junior high school, Kazuo comes up to Tokyo, leaving his mother alone in the unproductive northern district. He finds a job in a small laundry in downtown Tokyo and works hard till late at night. At a nearby restaurant a brother and sister are working, and Kazuo becomes friendly with the girl, Yoneko. Love blossoms between the two. However, Yoneko's brother objects to his sister marrying Kazuo.

The Judgment

Adapted from the short story by Franz Kafka, The Judgment is a psychological drama exploring themes of alienation, memory, and the lines between fantasy and reality. The film follows Georg Bendemann, a young merchant living 1900s Prague, who is struggling to maintain balance in an ever changing world. As his situation deteriorates due to complicated familial relationships, we are compelled to question the very nature of what we are seeing.

On the Move

A poor taxi driver offered a chance for a better financial future must weigh up the cost of walking away from what he most values. // In a world first omnibus collaboration between emerging Asian movie powerhouses, China, Korea and Australia, comes the classic adaptation of Loa She’s The Rickshaw Boy. Set in three locations, across three countries each thirty minute chapter tells the story of one man’s struggle for survival amidst the age of disruptive technology and explores the intimate relationship that has come to exist between man and machine and the evolution of that relationship.

Family

"Family" (1953), which launched the Union Film legacy, "Spring" (1953) and "Autumn" (1954) are adaptations of Ba Jin's highly regarded novel "Torrent Trilogy". In "Family", director Ng Wui skilfully condenses the voluminous first part of the novel into an emotionally powerful and intellectually focused story of youngsters struggling to survive oppression and repression in a feudalistic family. This well-received film quickly established the company's reputation.

Daisy Miller

Despite mixed emotions, Frederick Winterbourne tries to figure out the bright and bubbly Daisy Miller, only to be helped and hindered by false judgments from their fellow friends.

Oliver Twist

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

A Leaf of Winter

We all carry our leaves, some of winter, some of spring and summer. But all leaves grow, breathe and wither with time; and so do we.

Fortress

Filmed entirely inside Civitavecchia prison, with the inmates themselves as protagonists and co-authors, Fortezza is the reinterpretation of one of the most important novels of the 1900s: The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati. Three soldiers arrive at a solitary military garrison which no longer serves any defensive function. Here, time is at a standstill and is marked by strict regulations, power dynamics, engrained idleness and habit. Waiting in vain for an enemy that will not arrive, the military officers are consumed by the need to give their stay meaning, and resist the attraction that this place holds for them.

Little Women

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Such A Girl Like Me

'...is unsuitable for any man's love.' (Xi Xi, A Woman Like Me) Sum-yin patches up wounds, masks scars and performs other beautician services that, when done well - as she always does - bring comfort to her and appreciation from grateful families. But inside she's hurting. Her job as a mortuary cosmetologist makes her self-conscious about the smell of death that seems to be seeping through and under her skin and looming over her stagnant relationship with Kwan, her oblivious boyfriend. No amount of cigarettes and perfume and cleaning will rid of it. At some point, a decision has to be made.

Jack London’s Son of the Wolf

After winning a thousand dollars in gold in a boxing match, Jack Mackenzie and his wolf-dog trek south on a journey in hunt of a suitable wife.

Genesis

Inspired by the book of Genesis, this film tells the power struggle between two families: a clan of herders led by Jacob and another clan of hunters fronted by his brother Esau. Caught in the crossfire is their cousin, Hamor and his tribe of farmers.

The Atrocity Exhibition

A doctor in a mental research institution is driven insane by the spectacle of the horrors of the twentieth century.

Seize the Day

Tommy Wilhelm (Robin Williams) is a salesman. An honest, hard-working guy who has lost his job, his girlfriend, and left part of his sanity behind as he heads to New York to pick up the pieces of his life. He's always been able to sell, but caught in a downward spiral, he must, in addition, face the father who never really understood him, while trying to balance his newly precarious existence.

Stroller

An old member of Namsadang (a wayfaring group of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)) leaves his daughter Gye-yeon at a tavern of Hwagye Market, a traditional market located in Gurye, Jeollanam-do. Son of the tavern owner Seong-gi and Gye-yeon love each other, but the madam owner tries to separate them by sending Seon-gi to a temple. The old man comes back to take Gye-yeon and disclose a secret that the tavern owner is in fact his daughter, therefore Seong-gi is his grand son. Frustrated to hear that he cannot love Gye-yeon, Seong-gi goes for a long journey without destination as his ancestors of Namsadang have done.

Crisálida

A man becomes obsessed with a woman to the point of wanting to become her. What begins as attraction turns into a morbid imitation that blurs the boundaries between desire and identity. Inspired by Julio Cortázar’s Axolotl.

Anna Karenina

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Seven Days… Seven Nights

Anne Desbarèdes is a young woman who is married to a wealthy businessman and lives a monotonous existence in the small commune town of Blaye. After indirectly witnessing a murder in a café, she returns to the scene of the crime the next day and meets Chauvin, who informs her in more detail about the events that took place. Mentally unbalanced, Anne begins to believe that Chauvin intends to kill her.

The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

A disfigured musical genius, hidden away in the Paris Opera House, terrorises the opera company for the unwitting benefit of a young protégée whom he trains and loves. The 25th anniversary of the first public performance of Phantom of the Opera was celebrated with a grand performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Romelia's Secret

The way three different generations of women view virginity and the mystery that a love story hides.

The Top of Mount Fuji

A touching drama based on the novel of the same name by Eikichi Hashimoto. In the 23rd year of the Meiji period, weather forecasts were rarely correct, and people endlessly suffered from typhoons and natural disasters. Nonaka Itaru, a private meteorologist, settled on Mount Fuji during the harsh winter, where it was thought impossible to overwinter, and opens up the future of high-altitude weather observations in Japan.

Great Expectations

Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Killer Clans

Based on a popular swordplay novel, this colorful and complex saga (whose Chinese title literally translates into the poetic Meteor, Butterfly, Sword) has enough conspiracies, stratagems, and sword fights to fascinate even novice kung-fu cinema viewers. The cast of Shaw Brothers' leading swordsmen and swordswomen are masterfully staged by Yuen Cheung-yan, the brother of Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. The result is both a great action movie and an exceptional dramatic film.

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

Macário

Plot unavailable

Trilby

Danish adaptation of Trilby. Presumed lost, though a single still apparently depicting the novel's climax survives.

Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd

The premiere of Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in Madrid is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Teatro Real's bicentennial celebrations. Its magnificent libretto, based on the novel of the same name by Herman Melville, tells the story of the sailor Billy Budd: a handsome, loyal, generous, strong, naive, and kind young man whose beauty and personality drive the ship's master-at-arms mad. Unable to control the situation, the master crucifies the naive young man without mercy. This new production by the Teatro Real is being presented for the first time in Madrid, in co-production with the Opéra national de Paris, under the direction of Deborah Warner, one of the great names in stage direction today.

Hot Milk

Rose and her daughter Sofia travel to the Spanish seaside town of Almería to consult with the shamanic Dr. Gomez, a physician who could possibly hold the cure to Rose’s mystery illness, which has left her bound to a wheelchair. But in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town Sofia, who has been trapped by her mother’s illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid.

The Monk

Ambrosio is a monk who is sexually tempted by an emissary of the Devil, a young girl in monk's robes. After he has committed numerous crimes, it appears that he will be caught and punished by the Inquisition. Instead, he signs up on the Devil's team and wins his freedom.. and eventually, the papacy.