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Highlights of the Berlin Film Festival, 2006, are presented. The Road to Guantanamo is a film about three U.K. citizens by NATO forces in Afghanistan forces and taken to Guantanamo by the U.S. forces.

Hong Kong's film Infernal Affaires earned United States $7 million. The story and performances of the actors in the film are discussed.

In the movie, 'Zatoichi', Kitano Takeshi has reactivated Japan's most loved cultural hero of the 1960s and 1970s. Takeshi talks about his film and he gives his reason for adding a male geisha and a tap-dancing finale to the mix.

Oshii Mamoru discusses his latest film 'Avalon.' The director is well-known in Japan for his animation. However, 'Avalon' is a live-action feature which focuses on a virtual-rality war game. More information on the film's plot and its making is provided.

The motion picture industry of Shanghai in the 1930s is examined. The impact of crime, politics, war and fantasy on the industry is detailed.

Highlights of the 2000 Edinburgh International Film Festival are detailed. An interview with film director Wong Kar-Wai is presented.

Kitano Takeshi's latest release 'Kikujiro no Natsu' (Kikujuro's Summer) is a departure for the director who is famed for his violent productions. The film portrays a journey taken by Kikujuro and orphaned child Masao, in search of the latter's mother. Takeshi was inspired by the 'The Wizard of Oz', and the role of dreams in 'Kikujuro' links the two films. The premiere of 'Kikujuro' will be held at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

The renaissance of the South Korean cinema is being threatened by a host of problems. Commercial disappointments, marketing problems and failure to establish a strong international presence may hamper the continued growth of the film tradition in this country. Nevertheless, several directors have emerged, guaranteeing that a lively cinematic community is cultivated. Chief among these so-called new wave filmmakers are Jang Sun-Woo and Hong Sang-Soo.

Kitano Takeshi's 'Hana-Bi', otherwise known as Kitano Volume 7, is due to be released during 1998. The film is about a detective called Nishi, who is required to resign after a shooting incident, and henceforward relates how the troubled Nishi tries to sort out the problems in his life. Details of how the shooting incident was filmed at Azalea Mall are included.

The works of Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang often dwell on urban malaise. His films have tackled such issues as loneliness and isolation, boys trying to discover their sexual identity, loveless sex in marriage, and estranged family members. He already has three feature films to his credit, namely, 'Rebels of the Neon God' (1992), 'Vive l'amour' (1994) and 'The River' (1997). An interview with Tsai is included.

Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yuan has been working on his first nonfiction film which will be titled 'East Palace, West Palace' and will be China's first gay film. Zhang, who is not gay, became fascinated with Beijing's gay subculture while working on another film. His films have not been shown in China, and filming is proceeding in a surreptitious fashion. The director has interviewed extensively to research his film and is capturing many scenes of gay life in China.

The two main characters in 'Kids Return' by Japanese director Kitano Takeshi search for the right way to survive, contrary to his earlier films where seeking ways to die was the dominant theme. The director's portrayal of the adolescents in the film is influenced by his own experience at school. He feels that his engineering degree might have helped him to organize the self-edited materials for his films. Takeshi places more emphasis on the silent expressions of the characters than the background music and dialogue. He feels he has received more attention in the Japanese film industry after the success of his movies abroad.

Film director Chen Kaige feels that his film 'Temptress Moon' has helped him to understand people through observing their sex lives and has made him more open-minded. It is important for him to make a film that expresses something new about human nature. Wanting to make a film on the individuality of women, Chen tries to depict in this film the gender roles created by society. Set in the 1920s, it explores the gap between sexuality and social roles. Among the most striking features of the film are the camera work and Chen's new approach to emotions.

Japan has a thriving sex-film industry that boasts the works of avant-garde directors such as Morita Yoshimitsu, Hiroki Ryuichi and Takahashi Banmei. The country's lax laws against pornography allows directors to join independent producers in depicting eroticism with an anarchic focus. In the 1980's films for gay audiences, known as bara-eiga, have achieved international recognition for their unidealized depictions of homosexual relationships.

Korean new wave film-makers who first started in late 1970s have achieved international recognition for their superior movies which deal with such diverse topics as the splitting up and subsequent re-unification of Korea and gender bias in the political culture of Korea. Park Kaing-Su and Jong Sun-Woos are the pioneers of the new wave in Korean pictures and together they have made internationally acclaimed motion pictures. Park Kaing-Su's films include 'Chilsu and Mansu,' 'Black Republic,' 'Berlin Report' and 'To the Starry Island,' while Jang has made 'Hwa-om-Kyung,' 'Road to the Racetrack' and 'To You, I'm Sending Myself.'

In the harsh December cold of Changchun, Zhang Yimou directs his film 'Lifetimes,' his most ambitious venture based on a recent novel written by Yu Hua, which follows the experiences of a broken family from the war ridden 1940s. 'Lifetimes' poignantly portrays the characters with natural camera work and a realistic depiction of events, and is produced and financed by the Hong Kong office of Era International, a Taiwanese company.

The independent film makers in China are exploring new styles and themes, overshadowing the works of their contemporaries in other countries. The richness of the themes has increased the possibility of opening the foreign market for Chinese films, which are screened only in International Film Festivals.

'A Bright Summer Day,' based on a true-story, depicts the violence in Taiwanese society in the 1960's and focuses on a young boy's involvement in street gang murders. Each character is complete, and audience manipulation and specific character sympathy are absent. The film consists chiefly of fixed frame wide angle shots that do justice to the characters. An edited version of the film won a Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo Festival in Oct 1992.

Chinese director Chen Kaige shot 'Farewell to My Concubine' in Beijing in thesummer of 1992 with lead actors Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi and Gong Li, among others. The two-part television movie, expected to premiere in Hong Kong in January 1993, is a big-budget spectacle spanning the period of Chinese history from the 1920s to the 1970s. The movie is based on a novel of the same title byHong Kong writer Lilian Lee. Behind-the-scenes descriptions are included in diary form.

Young directors who work on low-budgets and are financed by establishments such as department stores and publishing houses, swamp the Japanese film industry. Pornographic videos, and low-budget films for screening in department stores are produced in large numbers. This trend has brought the question of censorship to the fore and resulted in the decline of culture-based films.