Bridesmaids (U.S.)
Opening Aug. 25.
Comedy. Directed by Paul Feig. Annie, (Kristen Wiig) whose bakery business just failed, is also having a hard time because of her annoying roommates and her unfulfilling love life. While living a life of misery, her life-long best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolf) gets engaged and asks Annie to be her maid of honor. Annie accepts, and meets her fellow bridesmaids at the engagement party: wealthy, beautiful but brain-dead Helen (Rose Bryne), Lillian’s sexy but blunt cousin Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Becca (Ellie Kemper) who loves to talk, and shameless Megan (Melissa McCarthy). As the women get together and share their ideas for Lillian’s wedding, they realize they all have very different visions. Annie particularly gets jealous of Helen -- who would object to everything Annie suggests about the upcoming wedding -- and her friendship with Lillian.
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (France)
Opening Aug. 25.
Drama. Directed by Jan Kounen. In 1913, Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) attends Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen)’s first performance of “The Rite of Spring” in Paris. The piece receives slashing criticism for its musical dissonance and shocking choreography, but Chanel finds herself being attracted to his music and talent regardless. In 1917, Stravinsky and his family decide to stay in Paris to avoid Russian Revolution. Chanel invites the Stravinsky, along with his wife and children, to live in her Paris mansion. The designer and the composer soon begin an affair. Stravinsky’s wife leaves the house, with much bitterness and sense of betrayal, after she finds out her husband has been unfaithful. Inspired by artistic spirits of one another, Chanel and Stravinsky start to work on their next projects -- which include the legendary Chanel No. 5.
Themselves (Korea)
Opening Sept. 1.
Directed by Yoon Tae-sik. Jin-ee (Kim Jin-ee), a young woman who serves liquor at a bar, finds herself pregnant with her boyfriend who is no longer interested in her. Feeling upset and betrayed, she drives her car with much speed and ends up hitting a teenage boy unintentionally. The boy (Jeon Ji-hwan) turns out to be visually impaired, and asks Jin-ee to take him to random places instead of a hospital. On their way to the destination together, a big-sized woman runs into the car in hopes of killing herself.
Helen, the Baby Fox (Japan)
Opened Aug. 18.
Drama. Directed by Keita Kono. Taichi, a little boy who does not have many friends at school, lives with his mother alone. Soon, his working camerawoman mother moves to another town for a project by herself and makes Taichi live with her boyfriend, Yajima, while she is gone. As Taichi lives with Yajima, he finds a fox cub alongside a road in the town. Taichi soon finds out the fox is blind, deaf and mute. He names the fox Helen after Helen Keller, and devotes himself to taking care of the animal. Eventually, Helen learns to drink milk on her own, without the help of Taichi. Yet Helen’s health conditions worsen, mostly because of a tumor in her brain.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (U.S.)
Opened Aug. 17
Action. Directed by Rupert Wyatt. Will Rodman (James Franco), a San Francisco-based scientist whose father (John Lithgow) suffers from Alzheimer’s, develops a cure for the disease and tests it on apes. Rodman takes one of the tested baby chimpanzees, Caesar (Andy Serkis), to his house and starts to live with him. As time passes by, Caesar’s intelligence level surpasses that of most humans. One day, however, Caesar unintentionally ends up attacking humans while trying to protect Rodman’s ill father, Charles. Authorities order Rodman to place Caesar into a remote cage, where other chimpanzees are housed while being locked up. In the cage, Caesar witnesses how his fellow chimps are being cruelly abused by humans. Deeply disillusioned and enraged, Caesar makes his plan to escape the cage to get Rodman’s Alzheimer’s cure and increase his friends’ intelligence.
