1657 – Ash is the Purest White/Sons and Daughters of Jianghu 江湖儿女 (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2001 till about 2017 in the city of Datong bordering with Inner Mongolia, an old mining city that now has become poor since the price of coal dropped and then in the province of Hubei in central China where the city of Wuhan lies.

directed by Jia Zhangke

“He is generally regarded as a leading figure of the “Sixth Generation” movement of Chinese cinema, a group that also includes such figures as Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Wang Quan’an and Zhang Yuan.”(wiki)

“It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The story is loosely based on the leader of a gang from Jia Zhangke’s childhood, whom he had admired as a role model.”(wiki)

“A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.”(imdb)

imdb

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1655 – The Wild Goose Lake 南方车站的聚会 (2019)

timespace coordinates: around 2010s in the environs of lakes around Wuhan city, Hubei province.

directed by Diao Yinan. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 edition of Cannes Film Festival.

NY Times review

“Zhou Zenong, is the leader of a gang of criminals specialized in the theft of motorcycles, and has recently been released from prison. During an argument with a rival gang, Zhou accidentally shoots and kills a policeman, mistaking him for his enemy.

Hunted by the law and rivals, the man finds himself on the run.

The rest of the story revolves around Zhou and Liu Aiai, a prostitute (“bathing beauty”), whose pimp is a well-known associate of Zhou. It will be Liu, as not directly known to the police and therefore not suspicious, who will have to get in touch with Zhou about a bounty issue on him.”

imdb

1646 – Bronson (2008)

timespace coordinates: 1970’s – 1980’s Britain

Bronson is a 2008 British biographical crime film directed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. The film stars Tom Hardy as Michael Peterson, known from 1987 as Charles Bronson.

Bronson told The Times “I honestly believe nobody on the planet could play me as Tom did. He is more like me than I am”, (wiki)

imdb

1642 – Snowpiercer (TV Series 2020-)

timespace coordinates: 2021, seven years after the world becomes a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually moving train consisting of 1001 carriages that circles the globe 2.7 revolutions per year (133 days to complete a revolution). Built by billionaire Wilford, the train is rigidly separated by class, with passengers caught up in a revolutionary struggle against the strictly imposed social hierarchy and unbalanced allocation of limited resources.

Snowpiercer is an American post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller television drama series that premiered on TNT on May 17, 2020. It is based on both the 2013 South Korean–Czech film of the same name, directed by Bong Joon-ho, and the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, from which the film was adapted, by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette.

A reboot of the film’s continuity, the series questions class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival. Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly star alongside Mickey Sumner, Annalise Basso, Sasha Frolova, Alison Wright, Benjamin Haigh, Roberto Urbina, Katie McGuinness, Susan Park, Lena Hall, Sheila Vand, Sam Otto, Iddo Goldberg, and Jaylin Fletcher. (wiki)

imdb

1641 – Caravaggio (1986)

Malta, Siracuse, Messina, Naples,
Porto Ercole. 18th July 1610.

Four years on the run,
so many labels on the luggage…

and hardly a friendly face, always on the
move, running under the poisonous blue sea

running under the July sun.
Adrift…

Caravaggio is a 1986 British historical drama film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalised re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is the film debut of Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean.

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio 1571–1610 Porto Ercole) The Musicians, ca. 1595 Oil on canvas; 36 1/4 x 46 5/8 in. (92.1 x 118.4 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1952 (52.81) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/435844

In keeping with Caravaggio’s use of contemporary dress for his Biblical figures, Jarman intentionally includes several anachronisms in the film that do not fit with Caravaggio’s life in the 16th century. In one scene, Caravaggio is in a bar lit with electric lights. Another character is seen using an electronic calculator. Car horns are heard honking outside Caravaggio’s studio etc. (wiki)

imdb

1639 – Unhinged (2020)

timespace coordinates: road rage incident, summer of 2019 in New Orleans

Unhinged is a 2020 American thriller film directed by Derrick Borte. The film stars Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius and Gabriel Bateman. (wiki)

imdb

1633 – Target Number One (2020)

timespace coordinates: 1989 Canada /  Thailand, Bang Kwang – เรือนจำกลางบางขวาง

Target Number One (released as Most Wanted in the United States, Suspect numéro un in Québec) is a 2020 Canadian crime film directed by Daniel Roby. Based on the true story of Alain Olivier, a Canadian drug addict from Quebec who spent eight years in prison in Thailand in the 1980s after having been set up as an unwitting pawn in an espionage plot by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, (wiki)

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