BOX OFFICE
Blind (Korea)
Opening August 11
Thriller. Directed by Ahn Sang-hoon. A female university student goes missing one day and later gets discovered as a victim of a hit-and-run car accident. Assuming the kidnapper and the driver are the same person, the police begin their investigation but fail to get a hold of the criminal. They then find there were two witnesses at the scene: Soo-ah (Kim Ha-neul), a visually impaired woman who was once a very promising student at Korean National Police University, and Gi-sub (Yu Seung-ho), a young man who happened to witness the hit-and run-accident. The case becomes even more complicated as the two witnesses tell very different stories and details about the accident.
Sarah’s Key (France)
Opening August 11
Drama. Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner. In July of 1942, a young Jewish girl named Sarah (Melusine Mayance) locks her little brother, Michel, in her closet when the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup -- mass arrest of Jews by Nazis in Paris -- occurs in her neighborhood. She tells him to stay there and wait until she returns to get him out. Then Sarah, along with other members of her family, gets taken away to a concentration camp leaving her brother alone in the closet. Desperate to save her brother’s life, Sarah tries escaping the camp with the closet key in her hand. In the present time, Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist who is married to a French man, investigates the notorious Vel d’Hiv Roundup cases for a French newspaper. She then becomes to be aware of the life of Sarah, and soon realizes she and Sarah are somehow related, through her husband, Bertrand.
Lost Paradise (Japan)
Opening July 28
Drama. Directed by Yoshimitsu Morita. Rinko (Hitomi Kuroki), a 37-year-old woman who is married to a controlling, unloving doctor, ends up having an affair with Kuki (Koji Yakusho), a married man in his 50s who was recently demoted from his magazine editor position to a mere clerk. Having fallen out of love with their own spouses, the two cannot stop seeing each other in secret while both are well aware of the possible consequences. Soon, Rinko’s suspicious husband hires a private detective and makes him follow her whenever she goes out of the house. Kuki quits his job as his relationship with Rinko is revealed, while Rinko is told by her husband that divorce is not acceptable under any circumstances. The two plan their last trip together, eager to find their own paradise where they can be together once and for all. This 1997 movie is opening in theaters in Korea 14 years after its initial release in Japan.
In My Sleep (U.S.)
Opening July 28
Thriller. Directed by Allen Wolf. Marcus, who suffers from parasomnia, a sleeping disorder that causes him to do things while asleep which he cannot remember, wakes up every morning at random places he doesn’t recognize. One morning, however, he wakes up with his clothes covered with blood stains and sees a knife beside his own bed. While he has no memory of what happened during the night, Marcus soon receives shocking news that his best friend’s wife, Ann (Kelly Overton) has been stabbed to death. Thinking he might be the one who murdered Ann, Marcus desperately tries to remember and eventually faces the shocking truth.
Patisserie Coin De Rue (Japan)
Opening July 28
Drama. Directed by Yoshihiro Fukagawa. Tomura (Yosuke Eguchi), once a legendary patisserie in Japan, left the field after sustaining an injury that severely affected his career. He has been lecturing at culinary schools ever since, while writing a guidebook for pastry critics at the same time. Meanwhile, Natsume (Yu Aoi), a young woman from Kagoshima, comes to Tokyo to find her boyfriend who would not return her calls. When she arrives at Patisserie Coin De Rue, a pastry shop in Tokyo where Natsume believes her boyfriend to be, she is told that he left the job a while ago. Natsume is determined not to leave Tokyo until she finds her boyfriend. She gets a job at Patisserie Coin de rue, and soon encounters Tomura and a series of major life changes.
