AKIRA

AKIRA

Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

Released on July 16, 1988

Genre Animated film

Story-line

In 1988, Tokyo is destroyed by an apparent
nuclear explosion that leads to the start of
World War III. Thirty-one years later, Neo-
Tokyo, a metropolis built on an artificial
island in Tokyo Bay, is troubled by political
strife and gang violence. Shotaro Kaneda
leads his motorcycle gang, including
Yamagata, Kaneda's right-hand man, Kai, and
Tetsuo Shima, Kaneda's best friend, in a war
with another gang called the Clowns. As
Kaneda and Tetsuo battle a pair of Clowns on
a highway, Tetsuo almost runs into a child
with wizened features (Takashi) and is
injured when his bike suddenly explodes.
Tetsuo and the child are taken away by
armed soldiers. Kaneda and his gang are
taken in for questioning, where Kaneda
unsuccessfully flirts with a woman named
Kei, and the group are later released.
Tetsuo, under watch by Colonel Shikishima
and Doctor Onishi, is discovered to have
mental frequencies similar to "Akira", a boy
with powerful, almost god-like, mental
abilities. Akira was the cause of the explosion
that started World War III thirty-one years
earlier. Aware that another gifted child,
Kiyoko, has had visions of Neo-Tokyo's
destruction in the same manner, the Colonel
orders the doctor to kill Tetsuo should the
powers manifest any further. Tetsuo escapes
and meets up with his girlfriend Kaori and
steals Kaneda's motorcycle. They are
attacked by Clowns who attempt to sexually
assault Kaori, but Kaneda and the the gang
show up and defeat the Clowns. As Kaneda
helps Tetsuo and Kaori recover, Tetsuo
begins to suffer massive head pains and
experiences hallucinations. A government van
arrives to take him away, refusing to answer
Kaneda's questions. Later that evening,
Kaneda sees Kei, helps her avoid arrest, and
goes with her to the Resistance
headquarters. Kaneda offers to help after
they reveal their plan to infiltrate the hospital
that Tetsuo was taken to.
That night, Tetsuo is attacked by the three
psychics Espers, Takashi, Kiyoko and
Masaru, causing his powers to manifest
further, killing a doctor and damaging the
hospital in his attempts to find them. In the
Espers' room, Tetsuo learns that Akira was a
young boy with similar powers, now in
cryogenic storage below the new Stadium
being built for the upcoming Olympics, and
that he may be able to help Tetsuo remove
his pain. The Colonel, Kei, and Kaneda,
converging on the Espers' room, learn that
Tetsuo is heading for the Stadium to meet
Akira. Kei and Kaneda are detained, but
Kiyoko, speaking through Kei, explains that
Tetsuo must be stopped, and helps them
escape. That night, Tetsuo attacks his fellow
gang members, killing Yamagata for whom
he harbored a bitter hatred. He then departs
for the stadium. Tetsuo fends off full-force
attacks by the army on his way to the
Olympic Stadium. At the Stadium, Tetsuo
unearths the Akira chamber to find it empty
except for the organs of Akira stored in jars.
Kaneda, having learned of Yamagata's death
from Kai, uses Tetsuo's moment of
confusion to fight him with a laser rifle, but
Tetsuo is able to dodge the attacks. The
Colonel tries to shoot Tetsuo using a orbital
laser weapon, managing only to sever his
right arm. Tetsuo takes off into orbit and
destroys the weapon, then spends the night
recovering at the Stadium, psychically
forging himself a new arm from inorganic
material. His girlfriend Kaori arrives and tries
to calm him down as his powers create
immense physical pain.
The Colonel pleads with Tetsuo to return to
the lab, but Tetsuo thinks it is a trick to kill
him and attacks the Colonel. When the
Colonel fires back, with Kaneda joining the
fray, Tetsuo is unable to keep control any
longer, and his body begins to transform into
a gigantic mass that crushes and kills Kaori.
The Espers, watching from afar, realize the
only way to stop Tetsuo is to call forth Akira,
his life force contained in the body parts in
the chamber under the stadium. Akira's
manifestation causes another explosion, and
the Espers teleport the Colonel to safety.
Despite warnings from the Espers that
entering the field will prevent Kaneda from
being saved, Kaneda enters the field to try to
save Tetsuo. The Espers agree to sacrifice
themselves to save Kaneda, and also enter
the field. Kaneda experiences Tetsuo's and
the Espers' memories, including how much
Tetsuo trusted Kaneda as a friend and how
the children obtained their powers. The
Espers remove Kaneda from the field and tell
him that Akira will be taking Tetsuo "away"
and to find somewhere safe to ride out the
explosion. The explosion engulfs much of
Neo-Tokyo, and when it disappears, leaves a
void that is quickly filled by the nearby
ocean. Kaneda wakes up to find that Kei and
Kai are safe, and they drive away from the
ruined stadium. The film ends with a Big
bang and Tetsuo muttering the words, "I am
Tetsuo".

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A STRRETCAR NAMED DESIRE

A STRRETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Directed by Elia Kazan
Released on 18th september 1951


Story-line

As in the play, the film presents Blanche DuBois, a fading but still-attractive Southern belle whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask delusions of grandeur and alcoholism. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others, but most of all herself, from her reality, and an attempt to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives from their hometown of Auriol, Mississippi (Laurel, Mississippi in the play) at the apartment of her sister Stella Kowalski in the Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named "Desire". The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves. Explaining that her ancestral southern plantation, Belle Reve in Auriol, Mississippi, has been "lost" due to the "epic fornications" of her ancestors, Blanche is welcomed with some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband Stanley. Blanche explains to them how her supervisor told her she could take time off from her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves, when in fact, she has been fired for having an affair with a 17-year-old student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she has engaged in—and, along with other problems, has left Auriol to escape. A brief marriage scarred by the suicide of her spouse, Allen Grey, has led Blanche to live in a world in which her fantasies and illusions are seamlessly mixed with her reality.

In contrast to both the self-effacing and deferent Stella and the pretentious refinement of Blanche, Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski, is a force of nature: primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way and is physically and emotionally abusive. Stella tolerates his primal behaviour as this is part of what attracted her in the first place; their love and relationship is heavily based on powerful even animalistic sexual chemistry, something that Blanche finds impossible to understand.

The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister and brother-in-law's system of mutual dependence. Stella's concern for her sister's well-being emboldens Blanche to hold court in the Kowalski apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor Mitch is trampled along Blanche and Stanley's collision course. Stanley discovers Blanche's past through a co-worker who travels to Auriol frequently, and Stanley confronts Blanche with the things she has been trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the lives of those in her new home, just as they were in Auriol, and partly out of a distaste for pretence in general. However, his attempts to "unmask" her are predictably cruel and violent. Their final confrontation—a rape—results in Blanche's nervous breakdown. Stanley has her committed to a mental institution, and in the closing moments, Blanche utters her signature line to the kindly doctor who leads her away: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers", reminding us of one of the flaws that has led her to this point--relying too heavily on the attentions of men to fulfill and rescue her.

The reference to the streetcar called Desire—providing the aura of New Orleans geography—is symbolic. Blanche not only has to travel on a streetcar route named "Desire" to reach Stella's home on "Elysian Fields" but her desire acts as an irrepressible force throughout the play—she can only hang on as her desires lead her.

Devastated with her sister's fate, Stella weeps and rejects Stanley's intention to comfort her and pushes him away. As he cries her name once more ("Stella! Hey Stella!"), Stella clings to her child and vows that she will never return to Stanley again. She goes upstairs to once again seek refuge with her neighbor.

8MM

8mm

Directed by Joel Schumacher

Released February 26,
1999

Genre mystery/thriller

Story-line

Nicolas Cage plays private investigator Tom Welles, who is contacted by Daniel Longdale (Anthony Heald), the attorney of wealthy widow Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter), whose husband has recently died. While going
through the contents of her husband's safe, she and Longdale found an 8 mm film depicting what appears to be the brutal murder of a teenage girl by a hulking man in a mask. Tom believes the film, though ghastly, is fake, but Mrs. Christian wants him to find out for certain. After looking through missing persons files, Tom discovers the girl's name is Mary Ann Mathews (Jenny Powell). He visits the home of the girl's mother, Janet (Amy Morton), and after searching the house finds Mary Ann's diary, in which she explains that she ran away to Hollywood to become a movie star. Before he leaves he asks Mrs. Mathews
what she would choose: to go on thinking that Mary Ann is living a happy life, but not knowing for sure, or to know the truth, even if the worst were true. Mrs. Mathews responds that she has to know what happened to her daughter. Armed with this information, Tom flies to Hollywood, where, with the help of a local
named Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), he penetrates the underworld of illegal pornography, trying to discover who made the snuff film. Contact with a sleazy "talent scout" named Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini) leads Tom and Max to a shady movie director named Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare), whose violent pornographic films star a masked man named "Machine" (Chris Bauer) who is identical to the man in the film from Mr. Christian's safe. Hoping to expose Velvet and Machine, Tom pretends to be a client interested in commissioning an original, hardcore bondage film directed by Velvet and starring Machine. Velvet agrees and arranges for him and Machine to meet Tom at an abandoned warehouse in New York City. At the meeting, however, Machine turns against him and disarms Tom, then Longdale appears unexpectedly and explains that Mr. Christian had contracted him to procure the snuff film. Longdale also reveals that he had informed Velvet ahead of time that Tom might come looking for them. Tom finally realizes that the film was authentic. Velvet and Machine then produce a bound and beaten Max California whom they have abducted in order to force Tom to bring them the film. After Tom brings back the film, they burn it and kill Max. They are about to kill Tom when he shares information he learned from Mrs. Christian: that her husband had paid $1,000,000 for the film. Apparently Velvet, Poole, and Machine all received considerably less, thus making them realize that Longdale took most of the money for himself. In the ensuing fight, Velvet and Longdale are both killed, and while they are distracted Tom escapes after wounding Machine. After fleeing, Tom informs Mrs. Christian over the phone that the film was real and that
Longdale was involved. He says that they must go to the police and Mrs. Christianagrees to meet, but when he arrives at the Christian estate he is informed by the doorman that Mrs. Christian committed suicide after hearing the news. She left one envelope for the girl's family and one for Tom, the latter of which contains the rest of his money and a note reading, "Try to forget us." With the film destroyed and no remaining witnesses to its existence, Tom decides to track down the remaining people involved himself, saying, "There's no one left to finish this but me." He tracks down Poole and takes him back to the shooting location of the film. He tries to kill Poole but cannot bring himself to do it. He then calls Mrs. Mathews and tells her the truth about what happened to her daughter, simultaneously asking for her permission to hurt the men responsible. He gets what he needs and immediately returns - pistol whipping Poole to death and burning his body along with the pornography from Poole's car. Then he traces Machine back to his home by using hospital records and the fact that Tom wounded Machine during his escape from the warehouse. Machine's and Tom's fight ends with Machine being killed (stabbed with his own knife), but not before he is unmasked, revealing a rather unremarkable-looking man called George who asks Tom, "What did you expect?A monster?"
After Tom returns to his family, he receives a letter from Mrs. Mathews. She thanks him for the money he sent and ends by saying, "I hated you for telling me the truth, but now I realize you and I are probably the only people that ever really cared about Mary Ann."

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