A small traveling circus from Hanoi arrives at a village struck down by famine, trying to sell magic and dreams.
A woman is cursed with beauty in China and becomes prey for men. Raped by the prefect of her ballet school and sent to work camp, she escapes to decadent Hong Kong by marrying a wealthy banker. She finds herself drawn to sadomasochistic affairs and in flashbacks discovers she is the reincarnation of a famous courtesan of ancient China.
Five young men threw themselves with heart and soul into the work force. They have different approaches and different life styles.
Wu Viet is a Vietnamese refugee who wants to leave his country behind and start over in the United States. First, he must make his way to Hong Kong, but as he passes through Thailand, he meets a beautiful woman who travels with him. Wu and his new love end up in a refugee camp in Thailand, where they discover many of their countrymen are disappearing under mysterious circumstances. As Wu tries to learn the truth about what's happening, he discovers his life is in danger, and he must flee to the Philippines for safety.
Hong Kong student Ben Lee becomes friends with his mainland Chinese classmate Chang Chih while studying abroad in Japan. Ben is unmotivated to study and only cares about money and on the other hand, whenever Chih encounters a Chinese person, he would ask whereabouts of his childhood sweetheart. Ming is also from Hong Kong and in order to elevate his social status, he becomes involved with a bar hostess and owner Yuriko, hoping to become Yakuza leader Yamada Ishikawa's brother in-law.
A 12-year-old boy from America experiences the clash of cultures and the generation gap when he visits his grandfather in Shanghai.
Collection of short films the summaries of which include; a foreign man moving to Italy, getting married and having a child; a four split scene short involving plot-less images of old people with television sets for heads, a beautiful woman having sex, and overall confusion; and an old man reminiscing over his youth.
Natalie, a gifted New York photographer, has a troubled past reflected in her art. When she struggles to make ends meet in the city, her agent, arranges an assignment in Boston for a considerable sum of money. Unable to turn it down in her dire straits, Natalie takes the job -- only to find that her estranged gay brother, Roy, is the employer. Roy wants to mend their broken past, but must convince her to stay long enough to do so.
An intimate look into the life of a 13 year old girl in northern Amsterdam who 'looses' her Russian mother and older sister to the cruel world of prostitution. Little sister remains alone in a flat at the IJ-square. Through her unconditional love and her lack of inhibition she manages to keep her head up in the relentless world of porn, drugs, and neon ads.
Hunky Daniel couldn’t have it better: great parents, a successful career, and his beautiful fiancée Jen. But in his seemingly perfect life, there is one temptation; he has a thing for his adorable, openly gay former college classmate, Tommy. After a few drinks, Daniel succumbs to his repressed desires sending these two into a torrid affair they will never forget! Funny how love and lust have a way of messing up even the best laid plans of man.
An account of serial killer Richard Ramírez and his rampage in California during the mid-1980s.
During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.
Freda Lopez, an aspiring musician, travels with her husband to the beautiful beaches of Georgia where she befriends Camilla, an odd and exotic elderly woman who plays the violin. When the two embark on a journey together, Camilla reclaims a lost love and makes peace with herself and her son, while Freda discovers inner resources she never knew she had.
Maria lives with her 18-year-old sister, Caterina in a small apartment, tutors her at home, lets her out only for dance classes. Yet Maria sees no reason to hide her work as a prostitute from her sister. Men come in and out of the apartment constantly, and Caterina turns up the volume on her music to drown out the sounds from the next room. The film soon reveals that the sisters are in love with each other, a situation that cannot stand, but exactly what prompts the characters' behavior is rarely clear. Soon after Caterina's belated discovery of her heterosexuality, she is invited into the bedroom with Maria and a client.
A mysterious criminal rolls into a small town planning to knock off the local bank, assuming it will go off without a hitch. But when he encounters a retired poetry professor, his plans take an unlikely turn. With no place to stay, the professor generously welcomes him into his home. As the two men talk, a bond forms between these two polar opposites, and surprising moments of humor and compassion emerge. As they begin to understand each other more, they each examine the choices they've made in their lives, secretly longing to live the type of lifestyle the other man has lived, based on the desire to escape their own.
I AM I is the story of a young woman, Rachael, who meets the father she never knew, Gene, at her mother's funeral. She discovers that her father is completely delusional and believes her to be her dead mother. After Rachael visits Gene in an assisted living home, she learns that he suffers from a disease called Korsakov's Syndrome, a form of retrograde amnesia and that her mother had placed him in this facility for treatment a year earlier. He does not remember anything past the age of thirty-three, and believes that he is still a young man. Unable to convince him of who she really is, Rachael decides to go along with her father's delusions by pretending to be her mother and discovers that under this guise, she and Gene can have "normal" conversations. Before long, Rachael is visiting Gene everyday, finding new ways to bring elements from his past into their present relationship.
Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.
In the wake of their friends' marriages and eventual offspring, longtime pals Julie and Jason decide to have a child together without becoming a couple. By becoming "time-share" parents, they reason, they can experience the joys of parenthood without significantly curbing their personal freedom. However, when Julie and Jason both become involved with others, they discover that they secretly harbor romantic feelings for each other.
Sweet suburban teen Amanda is introduced by her new friends to prescription drug-sharing, but the recreational fun soon leads her to a life-altering heroin addiction.
An experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of the loss of innocence.