A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she left acting some 30 years ago. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she's telling the story, Tachibana and his long-suffering cameraman are drawn in. The key was given to her as a teenager by a painter and revolutionary that she helped to escape the police. She becomes an actress because it will make it possible to track him down, and she spends the next several decades acting out that search in various genres and eras.

2001 Japanese anime film directed by Satoshi Kon

A middle-aged woman meets a strange man on the streets at night who shows her the remains of a leather jacket. He takes her back to Brooklyn of 1953, and tells her about Vinnie, his gang, the Stompers, his girl Roz, his friend Crazy Shapiro, and the all-out rumble with the black rival gang, the Chaplins.

As the blackest of magic, summoned by the evil megalomaniac Lord Nekron, gives birth to a towering, ever-growing glacier, the remnants of humankind flee south, seeking shelter in the temperate, volcanic realm of generous King Jarol. With the unstoppable glacial mass devouring everything in its path, war draws nearer, and King Jarol's resilient and resourceful only daughter, Princess Teegra, finds herself in harm's way. More and more, the suffocating stranglehold of Nekron's sorcery tightens around the last of the survivors as his beastly minions emerge from the bowels of the Earth. Now, to save raven-haired Teegra, the young defender, Larn, selflessly embarks on a peril-laden quest in the heart of a hostile, monster-ridden land, risking life and limb to thwart Nekron's sinister plans. If Fire and Ice meet on the blood-soaked field of battle, who can guess the outcome?

1983 animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi

It is the year 2029. Technology has advanced so far that cyborgs are commonplace. In addition, human brains can connect to the internet directly. Major Motoko Kusanagi is an officer in Section 9, an elite, secretive police division that deals with special operations, including counter terrorism and cyber crime. She is currently on the trail of the Puppet Master, a cyber criminal who hacks into the brains of cyborgs in order to obtain information and to commit other crimes.

Krabat, a beggar boy, is lured to become an apprentice to an evil, one-eyed sorcerer. With a number of other boys, he works at the sorcerer's mill while learning black magic. Every Christmas one of the boys has to face the master in a magical duel, where the boy never stands a chance because the master is the only person who is allowed to use a secret spell: The Koraktor.

Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way.

Metropolis is a visually stunning, rich, and memorable pleasure. It's contributors have brought us other classics such as Astroboy and Akira. The story takes place in the muti-leveled, fascinating, megalopolis called Metropolis. Metropolis is loosely ruled by Duke Red, who is close to presenting his ultimate work, an advanced AI robot girl named Tima. His son; however, is an opponent of AI and resents Tima. Tima finds herself deep within the labyrinth of Meteoplolis. She befriends the kind son of a police officer and begins exploring her new world. When Duke Red's son separates this new friendship, he puts much more at risk than anyone thought possible.

Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they've invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people's minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio - Chiba, Tokita, and Shima - assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief's attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother.

An old man is being treated specially by the Department of Health under the so-called Project Z, a special nursing bed with a 6th generation computer on board. When the pain and loneliness of the old man reaches his ex-private nurse, she decides to rescue him from the government's experiment. Thus begins a wild chase through the busy streets of Tokyo as the 6th generation computer begins to have the personality of the old man's ex-wife and as the government's secret project unfolds.

Natanaël, seven, still doesn't know how to read. His eccentric old aunt bequeaths her house to his parents and her book collection to the young boy. Nat discovers that the books serve as a shelter for all the heroes found in children's literature. They are the original characters and are counting on him for protection. For if they leave the library, they will disappear along with their stories forever! When his parents start selling off the books, Nathanaël, who is shrunk by the evil witch Carabosse, braves everything to save his tiny friends.

2009 Franco-Italian animated feature film directed by Dominique Monféry

This animated wildlife film provides an environmental friendly message that humans are a malicious, careless breed. Three cherubic little animals have to rescue their friend who has been overcome by poisonous gas.

Blessed--and at the same time cursed--with the precious but fatal gift of beauty, the young peasant, Jeanne, falls in love with the beautiful villager, Jean, in middle-aged France. However, as the village's foul feudal lord exercises the "Droit du Seigneur" or the "Right of the First Night" on the couple's wedding night, a desperate plunge to a world of disturbing hallucinations will eventually lead Jeanne to a damned Faustian bargain with the Prince of Darkness. Thirsting for power and sweet retribution, Jeanne will gradually transform into an omnipotent and destructive vessel of seduction, as her newly acquired powers go hand in hand with the blackest of witchcraft. Is there a limit to Jeanne's hatred?

The beautiful paradise island Melonia is inhabited by the wizard Prospero, his daughter Miranda and all their friends. The island is under threat from the industry island Plutonia, blackened by soot particles from coal particles and governed by two greedy managers who keeps small children as their slaves in the factories.

1989 animated film directed by Per Åhlin

A 15-year-old boy goes 1200 years back in time to find his unlikely destiny as the savior to end the war between humans and demons.

Hell-bent on becoming the ultimate ruler of the universe by sacrificing his firstborn, the powerful conjurer of illusions and master of the Black Arts, Traigon, makes an unholy pact with the evil deity, Kalghara. However, fate has other plans, and as the magician's wife gives her last breath to protect her newborn twin daughters, Traigon dies. Nearly two long decades later--imbued with the unlimited white force of their mentor, Krona--the dauntless warrior-sisters, Mira and Mara, embark on a dangerous mission to avenge their slaughtered mother and to defeat the resurrected warlock once and for all. Who shall live and who shall die in the final clash between good and evil?

Old Weird Cartoons

Liked by

More lists by Claire

games to check out

Asian Palace drama