Helas pour moi (1993) *****

Much Ado About Nothing (1993) *****

Short Cuts (1993) *****

Schindler's List (1993) *****

Six Degrees Of Separation (1993) *****

Women On The Run (1993) *****

The greatest kung-fu masters of the Hong Kong cinema are men - Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Bruce Lee... The few women who have succeeded to carve themselves a place alongside them - Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock among them - were always very careful to keep their clothes on. Only one kung-fu master, Tamara Guo, has dared to put on display her sexuality alongside her fighting skills by appearing buck naked in serious kung-fu fight sequences. Unfortunately, Asian audiences rejected this daring concept. Her second film, ''Women On The Run'' (1993), directed by Corey Yuen and David Lai, was a huge flop, and Tamara Guo would never work as a lead actress in films again. And yet, the film itself is excellent. It's fast-paced, with terrific action sequences, complex characters and enough plot twists for a dozen movies. It wasn't the poor quality of the film that turned the mainstream Asian viewers off, but the daring concept of mixing kung-fu with female sexuality. There are two scenes when Tamara Guo has nude kung-fu fights. The first comes early on in the movie. Working as a prostitute, she lays naked in bed while her client relieves himself into her martial-arts trophy. Seeing this, she angrily attacks and beats the crap out of him, until her pimp arrives and he slaps her in the face. She is clearly a better fighter than her pimp, but she barely defends herself. It's a very erotically-charged sequence, with a naked woman fighting against two fully-clothed men. At first she is all-powerful, but then she's completely defeated. A similar sequence occurs again later in the film. Tamara and her friend Farini Cheung are ambushed by a gang of rapists. Farini is easily defeated, but Tamara manages for a while to beat the crap out of her attackers, even after they rip off all of her clothes. It's quite a sight, a naked girl fighting for a very long time completely surrounded by a dozen fully-clothed men. But eventually, they manage to overpower her and she gets raped just like her friend. Both of those scenes are very disturbing. Not because Tamara looses her kung-fu fights to more powerful opponents, but because she looses even though she is clearly a superior fighter. The message is clear - she is a woman and men are more powerful. There is no place for a courageous actress like Tamara Guo to compete against the male masters of the kung-fu genre. She cannot be allowed to use her sex-appeal and to put her nude body on display in order to compete with Jackie and Jet. They might loose.

Sleepless In Seattle (1993) *****

A romantic love story with an unusual twist: the two leads (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan) don't actually meet until the film's conclusion. A superb film in all respects.

Groundhog Day (1993) *****

Endlessly inventive comedy starring Bill Murray as a Pittsburgh weatherman who attends the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. He's then doomed to relive that day over and over again. This superb "high concept" idea allows the film to experiment with endless possibilities of rewriting its own narrative.

Smoking / No smoking (1993) *****

A movie about simple decisions that might have a crucial impact on one's life. A woman lights a cigarette, a man makes a date with his girlfriend, a husband says something nice to his wife. As result, one becomes either a vagabond or a successful businessman. There are twelve different outcomes.