In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
A police chief, about to retire, pledges to help a woman find her daughter's killer.
Ib and Boum decide to commit suicide together in Bangkok in 1997. After reneging on the promise, the vengeful ghost of Ib returns 20 years later to haunt Boum and her 15 year old daughter, Bell.
In the wake of Jamaican emancipation, French colonist Annette Cosway falls into poverty and marries racist Englishman Paul Mason. But when Annette's young son dies in a fire started by former slaves, Mason flees to England, leaving his grief-stricken wife and her Creole daughter Antoinette behind. Soon Antoinette learns she must marry to claim her inheritance and sets her sights on Rochester, an Englishman eerily similar to Mason.
In Nordestina, a small town lost in the Brazilian badlands, young Karina dreams of becoming an actress and leaving to explore the world. Before losing his love, Dona Nazaré’s son, Antônio, takes the first step in a kamikaze crusade to bring the world to Karina. For that, Antônio leaves town and announces, in a TV show that he will set off on a sensational adventure: a trip into the future, starting from Nordestina’s square. A story where dreams contradict reality, geographical and political conditions threaten to block life, and love plays the part of the transforming element.
Set in the People's Republic of China during the 1990s, the film centers on a 13-year-old substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, in the Chinese countryside. Called in to substitute for a village teacher for one month, Wei is told not to lose any students.
Two women retreat to a lake house to get a break from the pressures of the outside world, only to realize how disconnected from each other they have become, allowing their suspicions to bleed into reality.
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.
When brash Texas border officer Mike Norton wrongfully kills and buries the friend and ranch hand of Pete Perkins, the latter is reminded of a promise he made to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada, in his Mexican home town. He kidnaps Norton and exhumes Estrada's corpse, and the odd caravan sets out on horseback for Mexico.
The powers of love are always at work. But when they do so in an ancient southern Italian town at sunset, they seem just a little more magical.
To avoid the rigors of the law, Gilda flees New Orleans and hides on a Caribbean island where the worst criminals can ask for asylum. Besieged by the scum of the earth, Gilda will soon find out that she has found refuge in hell.
After years of hospitalization for alcoholism, a techno musician makes her son swear to never let her spend the rest of her life in an institution. When her doctors diagnose her with permanent brain damage, 20-year-old Adam, who is deaf and completely on his own, must decide whether to break his promise or help her die...
There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.
Destiny has brought Ten and Pao to meet through a story in touring book. Though they haven't seen each other yet, the letters in the book was written and sent to both of them. Until one day, when they meet by chance, the acquaintance they've made through the book begins to blossom and develop into love.
After her father's death, a young girl receives a letter he wrote before he died. In it, he promises that one day he will come down from heaven to get her. The promise becomes an eternal wait that completely isolates her from the world.
We Promised is the true and touching story of Mae, an elderly woman suffering from Dementia. Her daughters Jamie and Alisa team with Cathy (a hired caregiver) to honor Mae's one desire, to stay in her own home until the very end.
When Amalia breaks a friendship spell, her best friend Daniela disappears from her life and memories. Now, Amalia must redo it before it's too late.
Pinkerton marries Cho-Cho San in Japan, whilst on shore leave. When he leaves, she keeps his Japanese home as he left it. He returns three years later, having married again in America, and tells Cho-Cho that their affair is over. She has had a child in his absence, who is sent to her family, before she kills herself.