[OTHER RELEASES]

Forget You Not

The first of a large number of non-English language releases this week is a rich ensemble piece about a group of nine pregnant women who spend time with one another while undergoing treatment in a hospital in postwar Italy. Yet to see a release in English-language markets, this interesting title offers a tale of hope, love and privation in the ruins of a defeated country. It was directed and written by the daughter and son, respectively, of veteran Italian director Pupi Avati.

Love Songs

If you missed the Jacques Demy/Agnes Varda retrospective at the Spot theater and you want to reclaim your impression (or build one) of Parisians as creatively romantic creatures for whom love is all or nothing, then here's a contemporary tune-filled musical with a happy threesome, tragic death, mournful wandering, a spurned crush and so on. Reviews are divided on the quality of the songs, which occupy much of the running time. But overall it's an attractive package that only the French could make with a straight face - and turn a profit.

Undisputed II: Last Man Standing

This is a sequel to a solid but little seen 2002 prison boxing flick by veteran action helmer Walter Hill. The original starred Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames, but none of these big names return this time around. In part two, framed Michael Jae White (Exit Wounds) does time and ends up having to fight a very nasty Russian (played by real-life martial artist Scott Adkins, an Englishman). Went straight to DVD in the US, though it has a respectable reputation for its fight scenes. And it's surely no accident that the subtitle is the name of another Walter Hill movie.

The Pye-Dog (野良犬)

A pye-dog is a pooch that hangs around human settlements. Described as a film in the mold of Akira Kurosawa - the title is borrowed from his 1949 morality tale Nora Inu - this work by debuting director Derek Kwok Tse-kin (郭子健) eschews the crassness and emptiness that afflicts so many Hong Kong films. Kwok focuses on the foibles of vulnerable people: a triad goon played by Eason Chan (陳奕迅) on assignment to locate the child of a rival boss, the mute child who he befriends, and the female teacher that joins them. Fresh from its belated release in Hong Kong, The Pye-Dog also stars Eric Tsang (曾志偉) as a triad boss and George Lam (林子祥) as the rival leader.

Brothers (兄弟)

Eason Chan also stars in this, a crime flick directed by Derek Chiu (趙崇基) that reunites veteran Hong Kong TV actors. The spirit of the Bard and the Godfather films seem to infuse this story as the children of a crime boss turn on each other following a murder attempt on their father. Lovehkfilm.com gave this effort an almighty serve for pandering to the alleged product placement interests of supporting actor Andy Lau (劉德華).

Hidden Floor

This is one of a quartet of loosely linked horror films released in South Korea last year. Ringu deja vu abounds as a single mother and her daughter move into a new apartment block, only to be subjected to strange noises and worse. Before long there is death and suspense as the mystery of the hidden floor - the fourth floor, of course - threatens to destroy our heroines. One question: How did Sadako get a Korean visa? Screening at the Baixue theater in Ximending.

Colic

The posters for this Thai baby-in-peril film are far more impactful than anything the reviews reveal. The Taiwanese poster shows a ghostly woman looking over a screaming tot with a handprint buried in its torso. Elsewhere in Asia the poster has a baby with its left hand bloodily amputated sitting next to a blender full of red mush. Colic is a term for excessive and sustained crying by an infant, and in this unusual horror effort, the ear-splitting baby in question turns out to have a very good supernatural reason to be unhappy. Unlike Forget You Not, this is not recommended for expectant mothers.