Haruo Sugimura is fresh from serving a two-year stint in prison for assaulting someone when he is recruited by a loan shark named Sakai to help collect money for a company called Minami Hachi Ban Kogyo, baesd in Osaka. Their rates are ruthless: 10% interest is added every 10 days. Their customers are desperate: a hostess who owes money to other loan sharks, a man made suicidal because his family don’t love him anymore. Haruo learns about the art of the loan shark as well as the dark side of peoples personalities.
At least we got the original cast back, right? Not even that saves it. None of them could bring a sliver of hope to this special. Rather, they bring dread as we witness the light leaving from their eyes.
Avatar: The Last Airbender's success fifteen years after its premiere proves the enduring power of its storytelling. But it's more than just a quality show.
It’s easy to dismiss Joel and Ethan Coen for writing from the world they build from outside the box of overarching Hollywood stereotypes, but their inability to compromise their collective vision is precisely what makes the simplistic nature of their world-building and characters so brilliant. It’s also what led Fargo to collect seven Oscar nominations and two wins for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress for Frances McDormand’s brilliant portrayal of the sincere, motherly detective whose wholesome demeanor seizes the day over the selfishness, corruption and evil of the men who don’t comprehend that there’s more to life than a little money.
A gentle coming of age story, Water Lilies takes its time in exploring what it’s like to be a young girl trying to make sense of her sexuality in a heteronormative world.
In Stowaway, director Joe Penna narrates the story of a starship crew (Anna Kendrick as Zoe Levenson; Toni Collette as Marina Barnett; and Daniel Dae Kim as David Kim) struggling with serious technical problems on a two-year mission to Mars. During the trip, they discover aboard the presence of Michael (Shamier Anderson), a stowaway who jeopardizes everyone’s life on board.
"Be good. It doesn’t mean you can’t be tough. It doesn’t mean you always have to be nice. Just be good."
