2009.6.26 NOW PLAYING

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2009.6.26 NOW PLAYING

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (12)

SF, Action / 150 / English

See full review, top left.



The Pope’s Toilet (12)

Drama / 98 / Spanish

The small poverty-stricken village of Melo in Uruguay is in a flurry over an upcoming visit by the Pope, who will be accompanied by 50,000 assistants.

With so many guests expected to arrive, the townspeople anticipate making a fortune on sales of food and souvenirs and they start working together to prepare.

Meanwhile, Beto (Cesar Troncoso) devises his own plan: he will build a toilet and charge for its use. He works hard, hoping the money will enable him to pay for his electricity bills, a new radio for his daughter and a motorbike for himself. Beto’s plan feeds his hopes, motivating him to work even harder.

The movie was inspired by visits made Pope John Paul II made to towns outside Italy, including Melo, in 1998.



The Missing Lynx (PG)

Animation, Comedy / 88 / Spanish

Felix is a mischievous lynx who lives in Africa. After an endless series of accidents, he lands himself in an animal recovery center. One day, however, fortune smiles on him when he meets Lincesa and falls in love at first sight. But the good luck doesn’t last long. Lincesa is soon captured by the notorious hunter Newmann, who was hired by the millionaire Noah, a man with a plan to build a second ark. Noah is actually concerned about the extinction of endangered species and launched his plan as a way to protect the animals, but his partnership with Newmann could prove more to be than he can handle.

Lynx leads a motley crew of animal friends in a fight to save the animals from the clutches of the blood thirsty hunter. Gus, a grumpy, paranoid chameleon with camouflage problems, joins them on the journey, along with a goat, a hawk and a blind old mole.

The movie is dubbed in Korean.



Bandhobi (18)

Drama / 107 / Korean

Seventeen-year-old Min-seo (Bae Jin-hui) is always left alone. Her single mother is busy dating an incompetent boyfriend and her friends are preoccupied with private after-school classes.

Though cheeky and rebellious at times, Min-seo remains a strong, independent and self-sufficient character. She tries all sorts of part-time jobs to raise money for a summer session of an English language course.

One day, she gets into trouble when she is caught trying to take a wallet she finds, which belongs to Karim (Mahbub Alam Pollob), a migrant worker from Bangladesh who speaks fluent Korean and is working to support his family back home.

Min-seo manages to dissuade him from reporting her to the police in return for helping him track down his former boss, who owes him one year’s pay.

As the unlikely pair works together, they find themselves changing each other’s lives in unexpected ways.

Director Shin Dong-il made the film as a way to explore uncomfortable social issues including illegal immigration and racism, and the story is told through the friendship between the two unlikely main characters.

The film’s title, “Bandohbi,” means “female friend” in Bengali.



Yoshino’s Barber Shop (18)

Comedy / 98 / Japanese

Everything in the seaside village of Kaminoe seems peaceful and normal, except for one thing: All the boys in the village have bowl cuts.

But the winds of change blow through the town in the form of the new kid on the block, who breezes in from Tokyo with blond locks and a stylish hair cut.

Yoshiko (Masako Motai), the matron of the town’s barbershop that has bestowed the bowl cut on all of the boys, tries to make the new boy’s hair conform to the town style. But this proves a difficult task to accomplish when all of the boys start questioning the age-old tradition that has made their hair the same and express their desire for more stylish cuts.

The movie from writer-director Naoko Ogigami is a reflection on the traditions and customs we hold dear.

It was originally released in 2004 in Japan.
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