Box office: Blue is the Warmest Color, Finding Mr. Right, Shirley ― Visions of Reality

Blue is the Warmest Color (France)

Opening Jan. 16

Romance. Drama. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos), an ordinary high school girl, falls for a woman with blue hair while walking on the street one day. The two run into each other again at a lesbian bar, and Adele learns that the blue haired girl’s name is Emma (Lea Seydoux) and that she is a college student majoring in fine art. Adele, who has never dated a woman before, eventually moves into Emma’s place, stating a relationship with her. When her family visits her in their shared apartment, however, Adele does not introduce Emma as her girlfriend. Instead, she presents Emma as her friend and a tutor. The film is the winner of Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival.

Finding Mr. Right (China)

Opened Jan. 1

Romance. Comedy. Directed by Xue Xialou. Jiajia (Tang Wei), a pregnant woman from Beijing, arrives in Seattle to have her rich, married lover’s baby. Upon her arrival in the U.S., she heads to an illegal but comfortable maternity house run by a Taiwanese lady, where she intends to stay until the baby is born. For the first few months, Jiajia continues to enjoy her lavish lifestyle, thanks to her “unlimited” credit card provided by her lover back in China. But everything changes when her boyfriend is imprisoned for a white-collar crime in Beijing, and all of his property is confiscated by the authorities. Penniless, alone and pregnant in the foreign city, Jiajia gets hired as a maid in the maternity house, and forms a genuine friendship with Frank (Wu Xiubo), a gentle, kindhearted driver and a single father who used to work as a physician in the past.

Shirley ― Visions of Reality

Opened Dec. 26

Drama. Directed by Gustav Deutsch. Shirley is an emerging actress in the 1930s who likes to watch films and appreciates the arts. She also enjoys listening to the radio, questions conventional relationship roles, and reflects on the roles of theater and politics. The film features a total of 13 paintings by the legendary Edward Hopper, including “Western Motel,” “Office at Night” and “A Woman in the Sun,” and deftly weaves them with the life of Shirley, the fictional character, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Her personal history also overlaps with some of the most significant events in American history, including the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Like Father, Like Son (Japan)

Opened Dec. 19

Drama. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. Tokyo-based architect Ryota lives with his loving wife Midori and their 6-year-old son Keita in a comfortable apartment. One day he finds that Keita was switched at birth with another baby and that he is not his biological child. He and Midori meet Yudai, a laid-back electrician living in a rural town, and his wife, who have been together raising Ryusei, Ryota’s biological son. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.