Muvii...Muzic...?Mantabs..!!!Thumbs Up...!!!: THE 10 MOST TOUCHING MOVIES

1. Life Is Beautiful
Starring : Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini
Directed by : Roberto Benigni
Synopsis : Set in late 1930s Arezzo, Italy, Jewish man and poet, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) uses cunning wit to win over an Italian schoolteacher, Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) who's set to marry another man. Charming her with "Buongiorno Principessa", getting the timing perfect every time and whisking her away on a green horse (don't ask!) ensures they soon live together happily in Guido's uncle, Eliseo Orefice's (Giustino Durano) house. Bringing up their 5 year old boy, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), the war continues without them noticing until one fateful day when the Germans arrest Guido and his son at the uncle's house during preparation for Giosué's birthday party, and transfer them to a concentraction camp. Dora demands to be taken too, thus Guido is devastated to see his non-Jewish wife board the train.

Protecting his son from the vile truth, Guido tells Giosué that they are just on a big hoilday, and he turns the camp into a big game for Giosué, claiming that they must win 1000 points to win a real tank and leave. His elderly uncle, however, is on a different "team" and is lead towards the showers first. Guido must complete "tasks" for the camp "moderators" (ie. the Nazi SS), while avoiding the impending fate with everything he can offer. His quick thinking saves Giosué from the truth when a German officer requires a translator. Despite not speaking a word of German, Guido steps forward and makes up the "Regole del Campo" from the German's body language, claiming that tanks, scoreboards and games of Hide and Seek litter the camp, while cleverly stating that Giosué cannot cry, ask for his mother or declared he's hungry, resulting in the loss of the "game", in other words, death.

Giosué later refuses to take a shower, and unknowingly escapes being gased, so Guido hides him with the help of other Italian prisoners, since there are no other children. Playing messages over the tannoy for Dora, kept prisoner on the other side of the camp, the family build up hope, only to be diminuished by the SS. With the help of Guido's former German friend, Herr Lessing, Guido can hide Giosué amongst the German children, while waiting the German Officer's meals. With the days becoming steadily worse, Guido realises that time is short and that he must make certain sacrifices if his son is ever to see the tanks roll over the hills, and be reunited with his mother. Giosué is pessimistic, and doesn't believe that there are any real tanks or games.

Hiding Giosué in a junction box for the last time, telling him that everyone is looking for him, Guido jeapordises his own survival to prevent the Germans discovering Giosué, while he attempts to free Dora, giving his own life away at the same time. The Americans break into the seemingly deserted camp the following morning. Giosué immerges just as a tank pulls around the corner. Hitching a lift out, Giosué soon spots his mother and the film closes.

2. If Only
Starring : Jennifer Love Hewitt, Paul Nicholls, Lucy Davenport, Tom Wilkinson
Directed By : Gil Junger

3. Armageddon
Starring : Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler
Directed By : Michael Bay

4. Indecent Proposal
Starring : Demi Moore, Robert Redford, Woody Harrelson
Directed by : Adrian Lyne

5. Brave Heart
Starring : Mel Gibson, Patrick McGoohan
Directed by : Mel Gibson

6. Hachiko
Starring : Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Sarah Roemer
Directed by : Lasse Hallström
Synopsis : Based on a true story from Japan, Hachi: A Dog's Tale is a moving film about loyalty and the rare, invincible bonds that occasionally form almost instantaneously in the most unlikely places.

In the modern day, a class full of young students is giving oral presentations about personal heroes. A boy named Ronnie stands up and begins to tell of 'Hachiko', his grandfather's dog. Years before, an Akita puppy is sent from Japan to American, but his cage falls off the baggage cart at an American train station, where he is found by college professor Parker Wilson (Richard Gere). Parker is instantly captivated by the dog and when Carl, the station controller, refuses to take him, Parker takes the puppy home overnight. His wife Cate (Joan Allen) is insistent about not keeping the puppy.

The next day Parker expects that someone will have contacted the train station, but no one has. He sneaks the pup onto the train and takes him to work, where a Japanese college, Ken, translates the symbol on the pup's collar as 'Hachiko', Japanese for 'good fortune'. Parker decides to call the dog 'Hachi'. Ken points out that perhaps the two are meant to be together. Parker attempts to play fetch with Hachi, but he refuses to join in, whilst Cate receives a call about someone wanting to adopt Hachi. However, after seeing how close her husband has come to Hachi, Cate agrees that they can keep him.

A few years later, Hachi and Parker are as close as ever. Parker however, is still mystified by Hachi's refusal to do normal, dog-like things like chase and retrieve balls. Ken advises him that Hachi will only bring him the ball for a special reason. One morning, Parker leaves for work and Hachi sneaks out and follows him to the train station, where he refuses to leave until Parker walks him home. That afternoon, Hachi sneaks out again and walks to the train station, waiting patiently for Parker's train to come in. Eventually Parker relents and walks Hachi to the station every morning, where he leaves on the train. Hachi leaves after Parker's safe departure, but comes back in the afternoon to see his master's train arrive and walk with him home again. This continues for some time, until one afternoon Parker attempts to leave, but Hachi refuses to go with him. Parker eventually leaves without him, but Hachi chases after him, holding his ball. Parker is surprised but pleased that Hachi is finally willing to play fetch with him but, worried he will be late, leaves on the train despite Hachi barking at him. At work that day, Parker, still holding Hachi's ball, is teaching his class when he passes out from cardiac arrest.

At the train station, Hachi waits patiently as the train arrives, but there is no sign of Parker. He remains, lying in the snow, for several hours, until Parker's son-in-law Michael comes to collect him. The next day, Hachi returns to the station and waits, remaining all day and all night. As time passes, Cate sells the house and Hachi is sent to live with her daughter Andy, Michael, and their new baby Ronnie. However, at the first opportunity, he escapes and eventually finds his way back to his old house and then to the train station, where he sits at his usual spot, eating hot dogs given to him by Jas, a local vendor. Andy arrives soon after and takes him home, but lets him out the next day to return to the station.

Hachi begins sleeping under a broken train carriage, keeping vigil during the day and surviving off food and water given to him by Jas and the local butcher. One day, a man named Teddy, a newspaper reporter, enquires about Hachi and asks if he can write a story about him. People begin to send money to Carl to buy Hachi food. Ken, Parker's friend, reads the article, and offers to pay for Hachi's upkeep. He realises that although it has been a year, Hachi wants to, and has to, wait for his master, and wishes him long life.

Years pass, and still Hachi waits. Cate visits Parker's grave, where she meets Ken, and she says that even though it has been a decade, she still misses him. Arriving at the station, she is stunned to see Hachi, old, dirty and weak, still maintaining his vigil. Overcome, Cate sits and waits for the next train with him. At home, Cate tells the now ten-year-old Ronnie about Hachi. That night, Hachi makes his way to his usual spot, where he lies down and falls asleep for the last time, dreaming of Parker, where his spirit get along with Hachi, and the both acends to heaven.

Ronnie, back in his classroom, finishes his report, telling his classmates that Hachi, for his love and loyalty, will forever be his hero. That afternoon, he walks his own puppy Akita along the same track his grandfather once walked with Hachi.

The real Hachiko was born in Odate Japan in 1923. When his master, Dr Eisaburo Ueno, a professor at the Tokyo University, died in May, 1925, Hachi returned to the Shibuya train station the next day, and for the next nine years, to wait. Hachiko died in March, 1935. Today, a bronze statue of Hachiko sits in his waiting spot outside the Shibuya railroad station.

7. Pretty Woman
Starring : Julia Roberts, Richard Gere
Directed by : Garry Marshal

8. Dying Young
Starring : Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott
Directed by : Joel Schumacher

9. Schindler's List
Starring : Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Directed by : Steven Spielberg
Synopsis : The film begins in 1939 with the German-initiated relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to the Kraków Ghetto shortly after the beginning of World War II. Meanwhile, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an ethnic German businessman from Moravia, arrives in the city in hopes of making his fortune as a war profiteer. Schindler, a member of the National Socialist Party, lavishes bribes upon the Wehrmacht and SS officials in charge of procurement. Sponsored by the military, Schindler acquires a factory for the production of army mess kits. Not knowing much about how to properly run such an enterprise, he gains a close collaborator in Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley), an official of Krakow's Judenrat (Jewish Council) who has contacts with the Jewish business community and the black marketers inside the Ghetto. They lend him the money for the factory in return for a small share of products produced. Opening the factory, Schindler pleases the Nazis and enjoys his newfound wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", while Stern handles all administration. Schindler hires Jewish Poles instead of Catholic Poles because they cost less (the workers themselves get nothing; the wages are paid to the SS). Workers in Schindler's factory are allowed outside the ghetto, and Stern falsifies documents to ensure that as many people as possible are deemed "essential" to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps, or being killed.

SS Captain Amon Göth (Ralph Fiennes) arrives in Krakow to initiate construction of the new Płaszów concentration camp. He orders liquidation of part of the ghetto and Operation Reinhard in Kraków begins, with hundreds of troops emptying the cramped rooms and murdering anyone who protests, appears uncooperative, elderly or infirm. In many cases, the killings were arbitrary. Schindler watches the massacre from the hills overlooking the area, and is profoundly affected. He nevertheless is careful to befriend Göth and, through Stern's attention to bribery, he continues to enjoy SS support and protection. During this time, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp for his workers. Originally, his intentions are to continue making money, but as time passes, he begins ordering Stern to save as many lives as possible. As the war shifts, an order arrives from Berlin commanding Göth to exhume and destroy the remains of every Jew murdered in the Krakow Ghetto, dismantle Płaszów, and to ship the remaining Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

At first, Schindler prepares to leave Kraków with his ill-gotten fortune. Then however, he prevails upon Göth to allow him to keep his workers, so that he can move them to a factory in his old home of Zwittau-Brinnlitz, in Moravia, away from the Final Solution, now fully underway in occupied Poland. Göth acquiesces, but charges a massive bribe for each worker. Schindler and Stern assemble a list of workers who are to be kept off the trains to Auschwitz.

One of the most interesting scenes was with the girl in the red jacket. The scene used only colour in the red and a birds eye view of a horrific situation were the Jews had to face, the just positioning codes were throughout the movie apart from the scene were it was black and white and they used it on the most important scene to outline the movie point. A young angelic girl walking through a town, watching people getting brutally butchered creates sympathy and anger at the same time. The scene was an example of a symbolic code and shows a good use of just positioning. One example is the technical codes in the movie which was in 3 minutes, where Oscar moves into his new luxurious house and forces the Jews that lived there while all the Jews are forced into small cramped rooms in the ghetto. This scene easily outlines the unjust treatment the? Germans inflicted to the Jews. This scene was a perfect example of the use of technical code to create an audience response. The German man calmly playing a beautiful and complex song known as the Prelude to Bach’s English Suite in .A. minor. The interesting thing about this is that it’s showing the horrific scene where German officers are hunting these scared and starving Jews while there’s a song being played by a German officer. You can hear the just positioning between the calming notes being played by the unsympathetic officer, followed by horrific screams from Jews being massacred in their hidden places.

"Schindler's List" comprises these "skilled" inmates, and for many of those in Płaszów camp, being included means the difference between life and death. Almost all of the people on Schindler's list arrive safely at the new site. The train carrying the Jewish women is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz. There, the horrified women are taken to what they believe to be the gas chambers; but weep with joy when water falls from the showers. The day after, the women are shown waiting in line for work. In the meantime, Schindler rushes immediately to Auschwitz. Intending to rescue all the women, he bribes the camp commander, Rudolf Höß, with a cache of diamonds in exchange for releasing the women to Brinnlitz. However, a last minute problem arises just when all the women are boarding the train. Several SS officers attempt to hold back the children and prevent them from leaving. Schindler, however, insists that he needs their hands to polish the narrow insides of artillery shells. As a result, the children are released. Once the women arrive in Zwittau-Brinnlitz, Schindler institutes firm controls on the SS guards assigned to the factory, forbidding them to shoot or torture anyone. He permits the Jews to observe the Sabbath. In order to keep his factory workers alive, he spends much of his fortune bribing Nazi officials. Later, he surprises his wife while she is in the village church during mass, and tells her that she will now be the only woman in his life, a concession he had refused to grant previously. She goes with him to the factory to assist him. He runs out of money just as the Wehrmacht surrenders, ending the war in Europe.

As a Nazi Party member and a self-described "profiteer of slave labor", in 1945, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army. Although the SS guards have been ordered to liquidate the Jews of Brinnlitz, Schindler persuades them to return to their families as men, not murderers. In the aftermath, he packs a car in the night, and bids farewell to his workers. They give him a letter explaining he is not a criminal to them, together with a ring secretly made from a worker's gold dental bridge and engraved with a Talmudic quotation, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." Schindler is touched but deeply ashamed, feeling he could have done more to save many more lives. Weeping, he considers how many more lives he could have saved as he leaves with his wife during the night. The Schindler Jews, having slept outside the factory gates through the night, are awakened by sunlight the next morning. A Soviet dragoon arrives and announces to the Jews that they have been liberated by the Red Army. The Jews walk to a nearby town in search of food.

Justapositioning was also used in the film during the naked scenes; it showed us the difference in freedom which the Germans and Jews had. The reason for this is because the Germans could do whatever they pleased when the Jews couldn’t do anything, because they were forced to obey any order they were given, it would usually show as a beautiful woman with a German man shortly after or shortly before sex. Schindler’s list was an unusual daring film that unlike other films that aim at the same kind of feeling, it used black and white in a way that would enhance the film rather than make people think B grade. Strangely enough using black and white was a good idea the makers used because it fully outlined the symbolic codes (objects, settings, costume, facial expressions, and body language) technical codes (camera angles, movement, editing, sequencing, lighting, and special FX) audio codes (musical score, incidental music, sound FX, and background dialog) therefore using black and white was an excellent way of making the film codes so much more powerful and the music portrayed was unique and had an original feel which could not be explained even through an pathological vocabulary.

After a few scenes depicting post-war events and locations such as the execution of Amon Göth for war crimes, and a brief summary of what eventually happened to Schindler in his later years, the film returns to the Jews walking to the nearby town. As they walk abreast, the frame changes to one in color of the Schindler Jews in the present day at the grave of Schindler in Jerusalem. The film ends by showing a procession of now-elderly Jews who worked in Schindler's factory, each of whom reverently sets a stone on his grave (a traditional Jewish custom denoting deep gratitude or thanks to the deceased). The actors portraying the major characters walk hand-in-hand with the people they portrayed, placing stones on Schindler's grave as they pass. The audience learns that at the time of the film's release, there were fewer than 4,000 Jews left alive in Poland, while there were more than 6,000 descendants of the Schindler Jews throughout the world. In the final scene, Liam Neeson (though his face is not visible) places a pair of roses on the grave and stands contemplatively over it.

The film concludes with a statement, "In memory of the more than six million Jews murdered"; the closing credits begin with a view of a road paved with headstones culled from Jewish cemeteries during the war (as depicted in the film), before fading to black.