Film Dictionary: 07/01/1990

July 7, 1990

Days Of Being Wild (1990) **

Wong Kar-Wai's second film is a slow-moving melodrama.

God Of Gamblers 2 (1990) *

Andy Lau and Stephen Chow star in this film about Hong Kong gamblers.

The Little Devil (1990) **

A sympathetic devil tries to enjoy himself after escaping from Hell. Director Roberto Benigni plays the title role.

The Match Factory Girl (1990) ***

A minimalist Finnish film about a young girl looking for love and only finding rejection.

A Moment Of Romance (1990) *

A gangster falls in love with a girl he took as a hostage. Weak melodrama from Hong Kong.

La Voce della luna (1990) *

Federico Fellini's last film and possibly his worst.

Song Of The Exile (1990) *

A Chinese girl from Hong Kong accompanies her Japanese mother on a visit to her homeland. **

Taxi Blues (1990) **

A friendship between a Moscow taxi driver and a musician.

This esoteric film consists of eight segments. It begins with a little boy sent away from home by his mother. In the second episode, another little boy cries, because his favourite peach trees have been cut down. The third one is set during a terrible blizzard. The following segment shows an officer walking through a tunnel, where he meets his dead comrades. Martin Scorsese plays Vincent Van Gogh in the fifth episode, while the next segment shows exploding nuclear power plants around Mount Fuji. The last two episodes contrast the harsh reality of a nuclear winter with a quiet life in a simple village. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, it's among his weakest films.

Island Of Fire (1990) *

Directed by Chu Yin-Ping. With Tony Leung Kar-Fai, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Samo Hung). A prison drama from Hong Kong.

Journey Of Hope (1990) *

Turkish peasants try to immigrate to Switzerland. Predictable film that undeservedly won the Oscar for best foreign film over such masterpieces as "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Nasty Girl".

Man Behind The Sun (1990) *

At first, it looks like a serious drama about atrocities commited by the Japanese Army in Manchuria during World War II. Later, however, the film becomes increasingly exploitive in nature. It's like watching "Schindler's List" morphing into "Ilsa, She-Wolf Of The SS". The torture scenes are unbearably gruesome.