21st Century Girl

Sep 3, 2020

1h 57m

★ 7.3

15 short films with an animated end-title sequence by young women directors born in late ‘80s to ‘90s.

Overview

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

Genres

Drama

Romance

Production Companies

AOI Pro.

VAP

21st Century Girl Trailers

Cast

(segment "Out of Fashion")

Serena Motola

(segment "Low Resolution, High Emotion")

Ai Hashimoto

(segment "Mirror")

Aki Asakura

(segment "Projection")

Sairi Ito

(segment "For Lonesome Blossoms")

Erika Karata

(segment "Muse")

Shizuka Ishibashi

(segment "Anytime, anywhere")

Ayu Kitaura

(segment "I wanna be your cat")

Akari Kinoshita

(segment "Sex-less, Sex-friends")

Mei Kurokawa

(segment "Mirror")

Kumi Takiuchi

(segment "Love Desiccant")

Anna Yamada

(segment "Projection")

An Ogawa

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.

7.2

2046

Oct 29, 2004

Women enter and exit a science fiction author's life over the course of a few years after the author loses the woman he considers his one true love.

7.2

Dangerous Liaisons

Dec 21, 1988

In 18th century France, Marquise de Merteuil asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things don’t go as planned.

7.6

Dolls

Oct 12, 2002

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

6.7

Starting Over Again

Feb 12, 2014

Ten years ago, Ginny, an Architecture student, and Marco, a History professor, began a one-of-a-kind and unpredictable love story. In the five years that they were together, they brought out the best in each other, which included Marco’s unrealized dream of becoming a chef. Together, they worked towards their dream of opening up a restaurant, but when Ginny realized her own pursuits were different from his, she rejected his wedding proposal and left the country for a Masters degree in Architecture. At present, Ginny co-owns a one-stop Architecture and Interior Design firm specializing in Restoration. She receives an email from Marco, which was written and sent after their break-up, meant to be read four years later. It makes her feel even more regretful of leaving the love of her life.

5.5

The Third Side of the River

Mar 13, 2014

Tensions rise when a doctor (Daniel Veronese) pressures his teenage son to follow in his footsteps.

5.6

And Then There Was You

Oct 19, 2013

Natalie and Joshua appear to be the picture-perfect couple, but looks can be deceiving. When Natalie discovers her husband has led a secret life, she is forced to deal with losing everything she loves. Newly divorced and soured on relationships, Natalie is picking up the pieces of her shattered world. In the process of healing, she meets a new man who challenges the boundaries of her trust and her ability to fall in love again.

7.0

Antonia's Line

Sep 21, 1995

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

6.4

Crash

Jul 17, 1996

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims, and he begins to use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.

0.0

Firefly

Mar 24, 2001

Emotionally withdrawn strip club dancer Ayako has never recovered from her mother's suicide when she was young. She begins a relationship with patient potter Daiji, but leaves him behind when she quits her job and returns to her home town after a 10 year absence.

6.5

From A to Q

Jun 26, 2021

When Alex wakes suddenly from a dream in which she confesses her love to her best friend, her whole world is turned upside down. She uses the following weeks to understand herself and slowly comes to terms with who she may be, all the while trying really hard not to lose the best friend she’s had since she was five. After all, coming out isn’t easy. 'From A to Q’ is a story of friendship, coming out and learning to love yourself.

7.4

The Piano

May 18, 1993

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.

7.7

Little Miss Sunshine

Jul 26, 2006

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

7.1

Whale Rider

Jan 30, 2003

A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.

7.1

The Story of the Weeping Camel

Jun 29, 2003

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

7.0

The Miracle Worker

Nov 12, 2000

Devoted teacher Anne Sullivan leads deaf, blind and mute Helen Keller out of solitude and helps integrate her into the world.

6.4

Eight Miles High

Feb 1, 2007

Achim Bornhak's movie focuses on the restless life of Uschi Obermaier, the icon of the 1968 movement in Germany and groupie. At the age of 16, Uschi is bored by her job in a photo lab, but soon becomes the "it girl" of Munich's club scene. When she gets to know Rainer Langhans, they move to Berlin and live in "Kommune 1", the first politically-motivated commune in Germany. While the other occupants claim she isn't political enough, Uschi just wants to have fun, works as fashion model and leads international music stars in temptation.

7.2

The Dreamers

Oct 10, 2003

When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.

7.4

Frida

Aug 29, 2002

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

7.0

sex, lies, and videotape

Aug 4, 1989

Ann, a frustrated wife, enters into counseling due to a troubled marriage. Unbeknownst to her, her husband John has begun an affair with her sister. When John’s best friend Graham arrives, his penchant for interviewing women about their sex lives forever changes John and Ann’s rocky marriage.