Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story (2003)

Director
Masahiro Kobayashi

Main cast
Kazuki Kitamura; Keiko Oginome; Yasufumi Hayashi; Naoto Takenaka; Jirô Satô

Genres
Drama, Thriller, Romance, Foreign

Description
Because of the desolate landscape, Kobayashi chose snow-covered Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan) as the setting for Amazing Story, a light-erotic drama about a lonely man, Kenji, who kidnaps the woman of his dreams. The woman is Harumi, a hairdresser in the deserted town where Kenji has just arrived. It's never really busy in her business. Harumi's husband is a gambling addict and spends all Harumi's money. Maybe that's why Harumi doesn't try very hard to escape when Kenji kidnaps her. His concern about her and his boundless worship probably help, too. Something strange and beautiful blossoms between the kidnapper and his victim, but can this be the basis of a long and happy encounter?


Similar movies

When Sarah walks alone along the desolate beach one day she find an unconscious man, who has been brought to land by the waves. When he awakens he doesn't remember anything. He has no name and no past. His dependence lies on Sarah. A role that makes her forget her loneliness and she decides to therefore lie about their situation... She says that they are situated on an island, where no one can reach them. From now, his life lies in her hands.
Accomplished British screenwriter Christopher Hampton directs the political drama Imagining Argentina, based on the novel by Lawrence Thornton. Set during the unsettling disappearances in Buenos Aires during the dictatorship of the 1970s, the film involves theater director Carlos Rueda (Antonio Banderas) and his wife Cecilia (Emma Thompson). Shortly after Cecilia writes an editorial commentary questioning the mysterious abductions, she is herself abducted and taken into police custody. Soon Carlos develops the supernatural ability to see into the future and he imagines his wife meeting an awful fate during an escape attempt. To make matters worse, their teenage daughter Teresa (Leticia Dolera) is also kidnapped. Imagining Argentina was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Venice Film Festival (ref. Amazon)
Dia is a divorced mom living in New York and must go back to India after she receives news that her guru is on his death bed. When she arrives she finds he is gone and has left her the responsibility of saving and reviving the Ajanta Theater where she used to dance. The problem is that the political officers want it torn down and turned into a shopping mall. The storyline follows Dia and her challenge to stand up for what she believes in and fight the cause to the end, while trying to win back the love and support of the people of the town whom she walked out on ten years prior.
Son de Mar (English: "Sound of the Sea") is a 2001 Spanish drama / erotic film directed by Juan José Bigas Luna based on the novel of the same title by Manuel Vicent. It revolves around Ulises (Jordi Mollà), who comes to a fishing village to teach literature at a local high school. During his stay he falls in love with Martina (Leonor Watling), the daughter of his landlord. Sierra (Eduard Fernández), a rich businessman, also falls in love with her and fruitlessly tries to win her heart.
Maan has recently lost her lover, Sam, a painter who died tragically of an incurable disease. Before his death, he was remembering a beautiful landscape from the days when he was still a boy living in Qingdao in China. Maan goes to Qingdao to find this landscape. There, she meets Lit (Liu Ye), a postman who will help her to find that place. A relationship grows between Maan and Lit but she can't forget the love she had for Sam.
The story is about Iris' rise to the apex of a love/power triangle that includes her roguish English lover, McHeath and Art, an earnest young boxer. Within the flawed moral landscape, each character struggles to establish their sovereignty.
Veteran French director Agnes Varda's Le Petit Amour is based on a short story by actress/songstress Jane Birkin. Birkin herself plays the main character, a loving but lonely 40-year-old divorcee. Her life is brightened a bit by the presence of a handsome 15-year-old, played by Mathieu Demy. Their romance forms the basis of this "petit" Varda effort, which is also known as Kung Fu Master (now you'll have to see it for yourself!). Shortly after the release of Le Petit Amour, Agnes Varda directed a documentary centering upon Jane Birkin, Jane B par Agnes V.
Miguel, a young psychiatrist working in Madrid, learns that his wife has just dumped him for no one else than his own father while he's expecting his mother-in-law's visit, who's come to the city on a medical revision, and doesn't know anything about her daughter's affair; to make things worse, one of Miguel's deranged patients has just stolen his wallet. Going to his patient's home to retrieve his wallet he'll meet instead his spontaneous and outspoken hairdresser sister Jasmina, who's bound to change Miguel's ordered, upper-middle-class world for good.
In France of the late 19th century, the wife of a wealthy general, the Countess Louise, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off debts; she claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, & her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.
A dark and handsome true-crime thriller about kidnapping and police corruption in Hong Kong. One of Jackie Chan's most serious roles, but still overflowing with spectacular acrobatic sequences.
One day, Hye Lin, the five-year old daughter of a devoted pastor, Joo Young Soo, is kidnapped. Pastor Joo, who has a rock solid faith in God at this time, prays wholeheartedly for her safe comeback, but she does not return. Eight years later, Joo Young Soo, who now does not believe in God and leads a completely secular life, receives a call. Hye Lin is still alive and is with the kidnapper. Joo Young Soo’s resolute attempt to rescue his daughter begins...
Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in kolkata from London to find her missing husband Arnab Bagchi. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search for her husband. With nothing to rely on except fragments from her memories about him, all clues seem to reach a dead end when everyone tries to convince Vidya that her husband does not exist. She slowly realises that nothing is what it seems. In a city soaked in lies, Vidya is determined to unravel the truth about her husband - for herself and her unborn child - even at the cost of her own life.
Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.
A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.
A recently released ex-con gets involved in a fake kidnapping scheme that turns very real.
Francisco is rich, rather strict on principles, and still a bachelor. After meeting Gloria by accident, he is suddenly intent on her becoming his wife and courts her until she agrees to marry him. Francisco is a dedicated husband, but little by little his passion starts to exhibit disturbing traits. Nevertheless, Gloria meets with scepticism as she expresses her worries to their acquaintances.
After indulging in an affair with a man (a friend of the family) she truly loves, a woman returns to her young son and husband for good, and loses contact with the man. Her husband is unaware of the affair. Twenty years later, there is news that the friend has died and left all of his money to the younger son in the family, which leads us to question this younger son's biological origin.
This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.
Nagiko (Vivian Wu) is a Japanese model in search of pleasure and new cultural experience from various lovers. The film is a rich and artistic melding of dark modern drama with idealized Chinese and Japanese cultural themes and settings, and centers around body painting.
17-year old Eli moves with his family to the isolated farm of reclusive Waylon, a man whose dark past threatens to overtake him. Eli’s family works to restore the desolate fields, while he becomes fascinated with the forests. While on the farm, Eli meets the mysterious Amanda when she gives him an apple. The next day she extracts a promise from him to avoid the deep woods. Reeling from a violent encounter with his father, one night he breaks this promise and finds her body hanging from a tree.
A hard-working young man meets and falls in love with his sister's bridesmaid. He soon finds out how disturbed she really is.
Gambling fever -- along with a brutal bookie -- leads three crooked cops into a double-dealing scheme that lands them in hot water way over their heads.
Officers Kyung-yoon CHO and Eun-joo PARK are on the hunt a killer following duo of ghastly murders. The victims carry a common military past, and the secret of their past must be unraveled to find the killer.
Supermodel Sanjana and Rohan, son of one of the nation's foremost business tycoons have been one of the most popular couples in the social circuit. When Sanjana decides against flying to Paris at the last minute- for a lucrative modeling assignment, she does so, not just because she cannot bear to stay away from her boyfriend Rohan, but more importantly because her instincts push her against going. But what her instincts cannot do is stop Rohan from getting kidnapped. The high profile kidnapping creates chaos in Sanjana's life. The kidnappers demand INR 50 crores. The Police however believe that even paying the ransom will not bring Rohan back.
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
Major Jaidev Rajvansh (Anil Kapoor) and his fellow officer Hussein (Om Puri) manage to rescue a leading politician as well as capture his kidnapper, Abhrush (Danny Denzongpa). The terrorist has been wanted for years and he is finally captured by the two officers. Jai returns to a joyous welcome, and is declared a national hero. He takes a break from the army and returns to his hometown. There he meets his childhood friend Anjali (Madhuri Dixit) who has always harboured love for Jai. Anjali is determined to make sure she and Jai stay together 24/7. At a party, he meets Miss India, Pooja Mallapa (Namrata Shirodkar). As they spend more time together, he begins to love her and she too begins to love him. In the mean time, Jai's parents are arranging his marriage to Anjali but when they find out about Jai's love for Pooja, they realise that they have to tell Anjali everything.
7 Khoon Maaf movie is a romantic misadventures story of an Anglo-Indian woman Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, a beautiful lass who over the course of thirty-five odd years, gets married seven times due to the untimely and mysterious deaths of half a dozen of her hapless husbands. The strange circumstances of their deaths, makes Susanna a prime accused. Did the husbands deserve to die? Were the murders out of necessity or pure blood-lust? Does Susanna ever find her one true love?
Norberto Lopez Amado's They're Watching Us is about a cop who becomes obsessed with a case. Juan (Carmelo Gomez) is ordered to head up an investigation concerning a businessman who has been missing for almost three years. The officer who worled on the case previously now resides in a mental institution and is unable to say anything other than, "They're watching us." A priest (Roberto Alvarez) explains how a series of disappearances in the area have supernatural underpinnings. As Juan is absorbed deeper and deeper into the case, his mother is concerned for him.
A masochistic cop, who hides her predilection from her cop husband, gets involved in pursuing a kidnapper nicknamed Harry for Harry Houdini
Han Kyung Bae (Sol Kyung Gu) is a successful news anchor with a beautiful wife (Kim Nam Joo) and a nine-year-old son, but his quiet life comes crashing down when his son gets kidnapped. In the next 44 days, they continuously receive calls from the kidnapper in his chillingly cold and emotionless voice with instructions and requests for ransom. The police are determined to find the kidnapper, but he effortlessly eludes capture; not only is he a step ahead at every turn, he seems to enjoy toying with the police in this cat-and-mouse chase. As the kidnapper keeps walking free, Kyung Bae becomes increasingly desperate and frustrated with the police, as he knows time is running out for his child.
A teenager with boundless imagination tries to solve a murder he witnessed.
Self condemned to the immense and boundless prison of the Mojave desert, Phoenix leads a life of forced isolation, living by himself in a house as far away as possible from the rest of the world. Phoenix does one thing and one thing only: he digs holes. Every month he digs a hole in the middle of nowhere and buries something. The last stronghold of society stands with the man that frequently delivers his mail. When one day the delivery doesn't happen by the hand of his trustworthy mailman, but by that of the beautiful and quizzical Ariel, Phoenix's life derails in an escalation that leads him to dangerous consequences which will be impossible to escape.
In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds… and remembers.
A married couple move into a new house in Dublin. Wife Janice is a weather forecaster and is tricked into working from home by her boss Joe, with whom she has had an affair. Feeling guilty about this affair, she goes to visit spiritual healer Mary and tries to follow her advice. She soon becomes distracted by a bigger issue - she begins to see ghosts in the house. They soon reveal a shocking tale of an unhappy marriage and a possible murder. Janice researches the house's past and finds the visions may have an historical basis. As she uncovers the truth, she is forced to come to terms with the secrets of her own past.
A serial killer named Shin-Hyun gives himself up to police. He is imprisoned, awaiting the death sentence for his crimes. Yet the killings do not stop. They continue with all the same characteristics trademarks of the Shin-Hyun serial killings. Detective Mi Yun, and her newly appointed partner, Detective Kang, are assigned to the case. Mi Yun and Kang have difficulty working with each other. Detective Kang follows a new suspect, Huh, and eventually catches him in the act of brutally murdering a woman in a crowded techno bar. Huh is taken into custody after Kang shoots and wounds him at the scene of the crime. Yet the murders continue in copy-cat style. The police desperately hunt for new leads. They start an in-depth investigation of a Doctor Chu, who is Shin-Hyun's psychiatrist. But progress is frustrated when Dr Chu becomes a victim of the copy-cat killings herself. The murdered psychiatrist's former boyfriend quickly becomes the prime suspect, a fanatical character named Choi.
Marc Schrader, a rookie cop caught red-handed with drugs in a police raid of an illegal rave, joins a homicide investigation conducted by Chief Inspector Minks. The victim is a naked young woman with the skin stripped off her back, killed as she staggered into traffic. As Schrader and Minks investigate the murder, the case is complicated by a finger found in the stomach of the victim. Forensic examination proves the finger belongs to Nobert Günzel, who was previously convicted of rape and assault. The police raid Günzel’s residence, and discover a blood-stained table with restraints and bits of human flesh in his basement. They also find video equipment and preserved, tattooed skin from the victim’s back. Soon, they found dead bodies buried in the garden. Günzel then goes missing.
A young woman takes off with a charming stranger in Australia, then begins to think he's a killer.
When a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal skills and a gambling problem gets in trouble with the mob, he has one last play… and it's all or nothing.
When a poor college student who cracks an online poker game goes bust, he arranges a face-to-face with the man he thinks cheated him, a sly offshore entrepreneur.
Literature professor and gambler Jim Bennett's debt causes him to borrow money from his mother and a loan shark. Further complicating his situation is his relationship with one of his students. Will Bennett risk his life for a second chance?
In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.
A limo ride turns hellish as several kidnappers set their sights on the young people inside.
Most everyone in town thinks that Sheriff Calder is merely a puppet of rich oil-man Val Rogers. When it is learned that local baddie Bubber Reeves has escaped prison, Rogers' son is concerned because he is having an affair with Reeves' wife. It seems many others in town feel they may have reasons to fear Reeves. Calder's aim is to bring Reeves in alive, unharmed. Calder will have to oppose the powerful Rogers on one hand and mob violence on the other, in his quest for justice.
This werewolf-themed horror film set in Victorian England centers on Lawrence Talbot, an American man who, upon a visit to London, gets bitten by a werewolf. Talbot had come to England to make amends with his estranged father, but after a moonlight transformation leaves him with a savage hunger for flesh, family harmony is the least of his worries.
A woman turns to prescription medication as a way of handling her anxiety concerning her husband's upcoming release from prison.
A fortnight before her eighteenth birthday, Sonia goes missing. Her family receives a call informing them that she has been kidnapped and her estranged father, a US-based businessman, must now follow the kidnapper’s instructions to the letter if he is to entertain any hopes of seeing her alive again. Is this a mere kidnapping or is there more to it than what meets the eye?
A serial-murderer is on the loose who just so happens to also be removing the hearts of his victims and taking them with him. His victims however, are not merely random humans as thought by the police. They are in fact, the past and present guardians of the gateway of the afterlife.On the day he is to be married, Detective Kanzaki, who happens to be on the case, discovers that his fiancé Mina has been murdered with her heart also missing. He also learns that the killers are Kudo, a geneticist, and his evil secretary Rei. The two are trying to obtain six hearts from the guardians so that they may call forth a horde of demons from the Gate of Rage and have their every desire granted. Only problem is, once they open the gate the entire world will be covered in darkness.
Athadu is a Action Movie Directed by Trivikram Srinivas Rao.Nandu (Mahesh Babu), an orphan, is a top-notch professional killer in town. He maneuvers his operations with the help of his buddy (Sonu Sood). In one such operation, he falls into the eyes of the cops. While fleeing from the crime scene, he unintentionally becomes the cause for the death of a stranger called Pardhoo (Rajiv Kanakala), a run-away youngster who wants to return home after 12 years. Nandu assumes the identity of Pardhoo and enters his household in a remote village to escape from the cops. The rest of the story is all about how Nandu solves all the problems.
A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.
An airline pilot and his wife are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. While the woman enters detox, her husband must face the truth of his enabling behavior.
After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...
While dining out with friends, Sy suggests the difficulty of separating comedy from tragedy. To illustrate his point, he tells his guests two parallel stories about Melinda ; both versions have the same basic elements, but one take on her state of affairs leans toward levity, while the other is full of anguish. Each story involves Melinda coping with a recent divorce through substance abuse while beginning a romantic relationship with a close friend's husband.
Anne Shirley, now a schoolteacher, has begun writing stories and collecting rejection slips. She makes the acquaintance of a handsome, rich, bachelor, chases a cow, and wins (to her chagrin) a baking soda company's writing contest. She acts as Diana's maid of honor, and refuses Gilbert Blythe's marriage proposal; which sends her to teach Kingsport Ladies' College, an exclusive girls school, where she meets opposition from one of the teachers, Miss Brooke, and the Pringle clan (one of whom is a rich, handsome bachelor). But while Anne enjoys the battle, and the friends she makes, she returns to Avonlea.
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Musical based on The Beatles songbook and set in the 60s England, America, and Vietnam. The love story of Lucy and Jude is intertwined with the anti-war movement and social protests of the 60s.
Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.
A love story that should not have happened. But the Great Cultural Revolution fathered it. As memorable as Romeo and Juliet, their love tied with the same intrusion from their families ¨C the hatred. Until one day, they watched Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It inspires them. It gives their juiceless love story the hope for fruit. It brings them the determination to bridge through time setting aside the hatred. The same gives them a wait of 12 years. 12 years of changing time, changing era. Friends come and go. Songs sang become old. How much longer for their love can they hold? How much longer for their love with beautiful memory and unforgettable days can they hold?
In 1998, an auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor causes great excitement. For one woman, Wally Winthrop, it has much more meaning. Wally becomes obsessed by their historic love story. As she learns more about the sacrifices involved, Wally gains her own courage to find happiness.
A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly they reveal themselves to each other, finding that each is a widow/widower. Each is slow to reveal anything personal so that each revelation is hidden by a misperception. They become friends, then close friends, and then she reveals that she can't have a lover because, for her, her husband's memory is still too strong. Much of the film is told wordlessly in action, or through hearing one of their thoughts as they go about their day.
In a small North Carolina town, Paul, a womanizer, meets Noel, a confused intellectual returning home for the first time in years since she left for boarding school. The film depicts the typical romance of a good girl and a bad boy, in an interesting way.

© Valossa 2015–2024