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Bunshiro, a young samurai finds himself on the wrong side of clan politics when his father is accused of plotting against the clan and forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). He and his mother find themselves evicted from their home and forced to live in a hovel. But Bunshiro is a talented swordsman and after a time he is reinstated and becomes a magistrate, filling the same job as his father. As he tours the countryside he discovers the political maneuvering which led to his fathers death is still widespread, and his childhood love who is now one of the lord's concubines has become an unwilling pawn. She has given birth to a boy and a rival faction has decided to kill the boy and blame Bunshiro.

Based on a story by Shuhei Fujisawa, who also wrote the stories "Twilight Samurai" and "Hidden Blade", Semi Shigure is a personal and intimate portrait of the life of a lowly ranked samurai. For fans of the genre, it's a must see.

"Swing Girls" is one of those films you sit down and watch after a stressful day at work. It is the story of a group of school girls who have obviously failed a subject and are forced to repeat it over their summer break. A fate worse than death...which is exactly what they think and after a series of unfortunate events, they get a chance to ditch the classes and fill in for the school brass band who have come down with a not so mysterious case of food poisoning. It's light hearted fun and if you can look past a bunch of 20 something young women playing 16 year old school girls, and not doing an all that a convincing job of it, you won't regret watching Swing Girls. No bad language, no sex, no violence, just a quirky teenage comedy.