Anthony Manmohan

Cooper a tuba player and poet is self-made in a small town where he learns he has inherited $20m. He leaves his town for the first time having to borrow suitcases, taking up new residence in New York City where he lives in a mansion with upper-class servants. The only thing is everyone seems to want something from him, he is believed to be a simpleton and sap, but he never blows his trumpet. A female report Arthur goes undercover to write articles about this unknown person but ridicules him in the press to sell papers. He decides to dispose of his inheritance in a housing scheme for the homeless whereby others take him to court to have him declared insane. Love follows. I chose to watch this as I used to play the tuba and enjoy Jean Arthur films.

Set in 17th-century peacetime Japan in the Edo period (1603-1868, the last shogunate period), where few samurais were retained for service, the others fell into poverty and despair. This peacetime lasted over 250 years and brought the end of traditional japan with the Meiji period of imperial modernisation and power that followed. Our samurai wishes to commit ritual suicide in the grand setting of the castle courtyard, before which he tells his story of his friend and himself trying to adjust to normal life without service to any lord. The story is slow and as it draws you into the stark reality and the monotony of everyday life struggles. Selling belongings to feed and support one's family. I think the secret of this story is the slowness of its reality, which could have been a bit shorter, but nevertheless did not distract from the end result. How low can a samurai get? Watch the final scene when he is about to take his life, it shocked me. The final demise of the samurai came in 1876 with the banning of sword wearing that ended the samurai class.

An alien world is being mined for…and the military is unimpressed in keeping with local believes so takes hostile measures like the imperial days. One way of communication with the aliens is to be transferred into an avatar’s body. With limited time to save the aliens and build trust, Jake takes on his company to stop mining extensions, which means the destructions of scared trees and their sprit way of worship. He has to unite different groups placed around the planet for one cause, survival before the impending death-dealing invasion.

Newspaper takeover sacks reporters and staff due to falling sales so one Stanwyck, made up a story about a John Doe who will commit suicide on Christmas Eve and keeps her job. Who will play the part to continue the sales run? Cooper is enlisted and is propelled into a man of influence giving speeches around the country, which would lead to him been politically manipulated. After been exposed he decides to commit suicide.

Based on a real event in Japan in the 1920/30s where an Akita dog named Hachiko showed many years of loyalty by waiting at the Shibuya railway station for its past owner who had died some 9 years prior while working but never returned to the train station. A bronze statue of 11-year-old Hachiko was placed outside the station. His remains were cremated and placed near his owner, but his fur was stuffed, mounted and kept at the National Science Museum of Tokyo, Japan. Hachi is found by Gere at the station on his way home and is temporarily taken home to the dismay of his wife. He is not claimed, so he stays with the family who grows to love him. He follows his master to the station and returns to greet him on his arrival. This event continues for 9 years even though his master died while lecturing having the expectation he will return.

My second viewing after many years, one of my favourites for the positivity of the main female character non-stop chattering on a man with everything yet depressed and alone to the point of suicide, who leaves his world behind him on a train journey to nowhere except the life of his self-attached companion and decides to take her home. The running scene was amusing where Kapoor hands her numerous belonging to a fellow passenger without seen her and then jumps on. Reminds me of Mumbai when I run for a train and jumped in before the doors closed leaving the station to screams of the female passengers, Yes, I was in a female carriage, I mean No, never know they had them until that point. I apologised and changed carriages at the next station, likewise, Mr Kapoor leaves the train completely at the next stop and Kapoor follows to check he is all right, which leads her to miss her train and the adventure starts and finishes with a lesson learnt for both of them when she is taken back home for the second time! An uncorrected misunderstanding brings about a good ending.

Bloom’s father Liam visits him as a smithy on his way to the holy land for the first time. He is trained in the art of warfare as they both travel on the road and encounter hostile repercussion from his uncle. He makes it to the holy land after being shipwrecked not before making a name for himself in single combat over a horse. He inherits his father titles, estate and sword, when Liam succumbs to his fatal wound. He tries to stay clear of court intrigue but succumbs to another man’s wife the future Queen of Jerusalem… As he stands alone in Jerusalem to defend against Saladin’s army when the Christian armies fails tactically to outwit the Muslims and are massacred. An epic battle without knights ensues an epic film of courage.

A mute girl is lost on her visit to India and arrives at a Hindu festival to Lord Hanuman she seeks help from Khan who feeds her and takes her to the temple, but she follows him. He misjudges her caste as she is fair-skinned, takes her home, and while the family is watching a cricket match between India and Pakistan, it becomes obvious she is Pakistani by which side she supports, which causes tension with the older generation, so can no longer stay. He intends to do things as legally as possible, firstly by taking her to the Pakistani embassy who are unhelpful so he endeavors to get her back to her family by other means at some personal cost to himselve with the help of his friend. He has to illegally cross the border and is chased by the police but his case is taken up by a journalist who sees a story and records the unfolding events and puts it out on the internet as his peers do not see it as a public interest story. The public takes interest and sympathise on both sides of the border except the politicians who see him and want to see him as a political spy. He will need the Pakistani public help if he is to ever return to India.