Summary: After a mysterious kidnapping, a truck driver finds himself drawn into a subterranean maze of doom lurking beneath his city's Chinese district.



Discuss: Is the film's use of Asian stereotyping acceptable? Can it ever be okay to enjoy stereotypes for what they are without betraying one's preclusion to sensitivity?

Summary: An oil rig worker takes a wife then succumbs to a serious accident shortly after, leaving her with some difficult decisions to make.



Discuss: Is the wife's faith unreasonable or justifiable? Does the final scene's suggestive wink ruin the film or make it more palatable?

Summary: A nerdy loner obsessed with birds tries to build his own mechanical wings.



Discuss: Nerds in films tend to be endearing, but is there anything about this protagonist that endears him to you? Do the prevalence of opportune bird droppings and the boy's ornithological mania imply some sort of higher power or higher calling at work?

Summary: A married woman recounts a troubled affair she had with a man she met in town while her husband was at work.



Discuss: Do unfaithful partners ever have a legitimate reason to cheat? Is there ever any harm in hiding an affair from a loved one? Is it preferable to stay in a dormant relationship and never entertain the idea of having more, or to risk a comfortable life and the feelings of people close to you in order to pursue your own interests?

Summary: An affluent couple living in Paris eerily begins receiving recorded videos observing their home anonymously. After some investigation on the part of the husband, terrible latent secrets and terrors are dredged up to the surface to confront him.



Discuss: Has France forgotten its deplorable conflict with Algeria nearly forty years ago? How responsible are the citizens of a country for knowing its past crimes? To what degree are we expected to internalize collective feelings of guilt for these crimes?

Summary: Two playful young women forge a whimsical friendship that draws them closer and closer to the peripheries of reality – and to the dangers lurking within a house destined to be visited by a brutal murder.



Discuss: How are the film's senses of reality and unreality defined, established, and subsequently shattered? How can one accurately define reality? Are the constructs of what we deem to be real open to change? Are we passive spectators in life or do we possess sufficient self-efficacy to alter reality and change the course of our lives?

Summary: A four-year-old boy is volleyed around by the dissolution of his family as each parent struggles with their own needs and problems before attending to him.



Discuss: How early in a child's life can one learn to distrust one's parents? What degree of sympathy should be afforded to parents who don't know how to look after their child? Is it possible to repair damaged relationships and put families back together or does family turmoil always leave scars?

Summary: Tumult ensconces the theatre world of 1940s Paris when a sophisticatedly seductive female starlet baits the hearts of a series of men intent on claiming her as their own.



Discuss: In a twist on the old adage, is it better to have loved and lost than to have held onto love for too long? What drives people to seek long-lasting love from a single person or, alternately, to pursue the exclusive affections of someone? Does the tragedy of love ultimately lie in oneself?

Summary: Chungking Express is two distinct stories, each premised on the disappointments and excitements of waiting for love, respectively.



Discuss: How long would you wait for love? Do you believe in fate? What is the significance of both protagonists being policemen?

Summary: The life of 18th Century Armenian poet Sayat Nova is explored in a series of highly surreal and visually inventive tableaux unaccompanied by either camera movement or dialogue.



Discuss: Is the standard linear approach to presenting the biography of a person the ideal method or do some people's lives warrant specially tailored representations? What is gained by making the film devoid of camera movement or dialogue? Is the cinema the best medium with which to convey this particular vision?