Blade of The Immortal

The year is 1614, Japan has been united under the Tokugawa Shoguns and the land is beginning to feel at peace. Two remote ninja clans, the Koga and the Igo, are ancient enemies but have long been bound by a peace agreement forbidding them to fight. The heirs to the leadership of both clans have fallen in love, but a tragic fate awaits them. A cruel plot is set by the Shogun to wipe these two clans from existence by breaking the peace agreement and forcing the two clans to battle. Five Ninjas of each the Koga and the Iga clans will battle eagainst each other to the death. As a great war begins, it brings the two young heirs together again. But this time as enemies.

Visions of Light is not just for film buffs. In fact, if the presentation of the Oscar for Best Cinematography is your cue to take a bathroom break from the Academy Awards, then this exhilarating documentary will help you see movies in a whole new light. Named Best Documentary by the National Society of Film Critics as well as several film-critic associations, Visions of Light traces the history and illuminates the art of cinematography. It profiles the cameramen who pioneered the visual language of cinema (such as D.W. Griffith’s cameraman Billy Bitzer and Gregg Toland, who shot Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane), as well as the masters they influenced, among them Nestor Alemendros (Days of Heaven), Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), and Gordon Willis, the affectionately nicknamed “Prince of Darkness” who shot the Godfather films.

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Set in 1844 Japan, and based on a 1963 film of the same name, “13 Assassins” stars Koji Yakusho (“Tokyo Sonata,” “Babel”), and brings together the cream of Japan’s acting talent. Yakusho plays a brave samurai who assembles an elite team of thirteen killers to assassinate the brother of the Shogun, a sadistic and well protected young lord who’s above the law, raping and killing innocents with impunity. The film culminates in a mind-blowing, forty-five minute battle sequence that rivals anything seen before in the genre.