Posts Tagged ‘heritage’

Hero (2002)

Friday, March 14th, 2008
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama
Countries: China | Hong Kong
Actors: Jet Li | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Maggie Cheung | Ziyi Zhang | Daoming Chen | Donnie Yen | Liu Zhong Yuan | Zheng Tia Yong | Yan Qin | Chang Xiao Yang | Zhang Ya Kun | Ma Wen Hua | Jin Ming | Xu Kuang Hua | Wang Shou Xin
Directors: Yimou Zhang
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In ancient China, before the reign of the first emperor, warring factions throughout the Six Kingdoms plot to assassinate the most powerful ruler, Qin. When a minor official defeats Qin’s three principal enemies, he is summoned to the palace to tell Qin the story of his surprising victory.

How to Make an American Quilt (1995)

Friday, May 4th, 2007
Genres: Drama | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Winona Ryder | Anne Bancroft | Ellen Burstyn | Kate Nelligan | Alfre Woodard | Kaelynn Craddick | Sara Craddick | Kate Capshaw | Adam Baldwin | Dermot Mulroney | Maya Angelou | Lois Smith | Jean Simmons | Denis Arndt | Rip Torn
Directors: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

Finn is a young graduate student, finishing a master’s thesis, and preparing for marriage to her fiance Sam. But thoughts of the end of the free life, and a potential summer fling, intrude. She goes home to her grandmother, where, over the making of her wedding gift by a group of quilting-bee friends, laughter, bickering, love, and advice lead her toward a more open-eyed examination of her course.

Thousand Acres, A (1997)

Friday, May 4th, 2007
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Jessica Lange | Michelle Pfeiffer | Jennifer Jason Leigh | Jason Robards | Colin Firth | Keith Carradine | Kevin Anderson | Pat Hingle | Anne Pitoniak | John Carroll Lynch | Vyto Ruginis | Michelle Williams | Elisabeth Moss | Ray Toler | Kenneth Tigar
Directors: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

A THOUSAND ACRES is a drama about an American family who meets with tragedy on their land. It is the story of a father, his daughters, and their husbands, and their passion to subdue the history of their land and its stories.

Mousehunt (1997)

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
Genres: Action | Comedy | Family
Countries: USA
Actors: Nathan Lane | Lee Evans | Vicki Lewis | Maury Chaykin | Eric Christmas | Michael Jeter | Debra Christofferson | Camilla Søeberg | Ian Abercrombie | Annabelle Gurwitch | Eric Poppick | Ernie Sabella | William Hickey | Christopher Walken | Cliff 'Fatty' Emmich
Directors: Gore Verbinski
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

A family film about a mouse that lives in an old house where the geriatric owner dies, and ‘Nathan Lane’ (qv) and ‘Lee Evans (I)’ (qv) have plans for, but they have trouble getting rid of the mouse. It’s like Home Alone with a mouse.

Whale Rider (2002)

Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Genres: Drama | Family
Countries: Germany | New Zealand
Actors: Keisha Castle-Hughes | Rawiri Paratene | Vicky Haughton | Cliff Curtis | Grant Roa | Mana Taumaunu | Rachel House | Taungaroa Emile | Tammy Davis | Mabel Wharekawa | Rawinia Clarke | Tahei Simpson | Roi Taimana | Elizabeth Skeen | Tyronne White
Directors: Niki Caro
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea’s direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

The Last Samurai (2003)

Thursday, February 1st, 2007
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama | War
Countries: Japan | New Zealand | USA
Actors: Shin Koyamada | Ken Watanabe | Tom Cruise | William Atherton | Chad Lindberg | Ray Godshall Sr. | Billy Connolly | Tony Goldwyn | Masato Harada | Masashi Odate | John Koyama | Timothy Spall | Shichinosuke Nakamura | Togo Igawa | Satoshi Nikaido | Shintaro Wada
Directors: Edward Zwick
Download: DVD DivX PDA 

In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren, a cynical veteran of the American Civil war who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing imperial army in modern warfare using firearms. The imperial Omura cabinet’s first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai -hereditary warriors- who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty but reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms. Yet when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded Algren’s courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto spare his life; once nursed to health he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto’s failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but Omura gets repressive laws enacted- he must now choose to honor his loyalty to one of the embittered sides when the conflict returns to the battlefield…