Freda Foh Shen Movies

The retired patriarch of a New York-based Chinese-American family finds that escaping the insanity of his decidedly dysfunctional clan is more difficult than he anticipated in a thoughtful family drama from writer/director Georgia Lee. There was a time when the Wong's were happy, but time has a strange way of transforming relationships and now all that Ed Wong (Tzi Ma) can see in his family is frustration and rebellion. Though he longs to flee to the calming confines of an upstate Buddhist monastery, Ed is about to find out just how the actions of his three mischievous daughters can throw his outwardly perfect plan for the future into question. As his well-heeled oldest daughter Samantha (Jacqueline Kim) reevaluates her love life and professional career while preparing for an upcoming wedding, middle daughter Julie (Elaine Kao) strives to improve the failing social life that has taken a back seat to her demanding schedule as a medical student, and youngest daughter Katie (Kathy Shao-lin Lee) enters into an increasingly dangerous prank war with longtime neighbor and determined nemesis Simon. Though a look back at the family's old home movies offer Ed a nostalgic glimpse into a happier time when the Wong's were actually able to communicate their feelings to one and other, the dejected father soon discovers that the stories and images from the past may provide new hope for the future as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Flight 323 has crashed in the Colorado Rockies, killing everyone on board. Was the disaster the result of carelessness, incompetence, malfunctioning equipment--or terrorism? To answer these question, a team of experts from the National Transportation Safety Board, headed by Al Cummings (Mandy Patinkin) painstakingly recreate the events leading up to the tragedy, and also trace the movements of the various passengers in the last hours on earth. As the impatient media and the victims' grieving families demand answers immediately, Cummings and company do their best to remain calm and detached while using a flight simulator and other such devices to try out innumerable scenarios, in the manner of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (and before that, Rashomon). A compelling example of "procedural" drama, with a logical if not altogether satisfying outcome, the made-for-TV NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323 was originally telecast March 22, 2004, by ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Teri Garr guest stars as patient Celinda Randlett, who claims to possess the incredible power of seeing "inside" people. In other developments, everyone in the ER finds out that Carol (Julianna Margulies) is pregnant with twins; Weaver (Laura Innes) brings in an abandoned child; Benton (Eriq La Salle) gets more bad news; a teenager (Corey Parker Robinson) whom Carter (Noah Wyle) previously mentored returns as a patient; and Lucy (Kellie Martin) is becoming more and more dependent upon Ritalin. Two romances -- one new, one renewed -- cap this episode, the last of ER's fifth season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The extraordinary private and professional life of the 1990s' greatest young golfer Tiger Woods provides the subject for this biographical feature. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Inspired by a familiar Chinese folk tale, this $90 million animated Disney drama follows the adventures of a young woman in ancient China. Character animator Tony Bancroft and 17-year Disney veteran Barry Cook (Captain EO, Tron, Trail Mix-Up) formed the directing team with production design by Hans Bacher (Balto), and work on the film began 2 January 1995 under the working title The Legend of Mulan. While the merciless Shan-Yu (Miguel Ferrer) leads invading Huns over the Great Wall, young Mulan (Ming-Na Wen, with singing by Lea Salonga) sees a matchmaker about her matrimonial future. Mulan's views on accepted marriage traditions prompt the ballad, "Reflection," as she hopes for a recognition of her true self. To repel the Huns, a man from each family is required to join the Imperial Army. When Mulan's elderly father Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek Oh) volunteers, she objects. He warns, "I know my place. It is time you learned yours." Mulan, however, cuts her hair, dresses as a man, and is ready for military camp, prompting the concern of her First Ancestor (George Takei), who converts an inanimate incense burner into the 18-inch high comedic dragon Mushu (Eddie Murphy). With Mushu hidden in her clothing, she joins a group of raw recruits under the command of Captain Shang (B.D. Wong, singing by Donny Osmond). During an ambush by the Huns in a mountain pass, Mulan steps in to turn defeat into a victory. Mulan was the first Disney feature from the company's 200,000-square-foot Orlando facility (now known as Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the heart of the film's appeal, as it mixes perverse sexuality and erotic bloodshed in a manner common to European thrillers (director Paul Verhoeven had done it himself in 1979's marvelous De Vierde Man) but mostly taboo in America. The plot concerns Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a successful bisexual mystery writer who may also be a ruthless murderer. Everyone close to Catherine dies, and troubled policeman Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) must find out why. In the process, Nick becomes sexually involved with both Catherine and police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), while the bodies begin piling up and Catherine turns the cat-and-mouse game around on Nick. Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas -- who was paid $3 million for the script -- keep the tension ratcheted up throughout, even during the frequent sex scenes, which carry a violent edge reminiscent of the Italian thrillers of Dario Argento. The film's most notorious scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots out of her captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear, became a cultural touchstone and was widely imitated and parodied. Sharon Stone, meanwhile, was embarrassed to the point that she claimed Verhoeven had aimed lights on strategic locations without her knowledge. George Dzundza and Dorothy Malone co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

At the time of Longtime Companion's release in 1990, the devastating disease of AIDS was seen as a mysterious and deadly scourge, replete with rumors, lies, and panic. As the first narrative film to examine the AIDS epidemic, screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René place the disease in an historical context, dramatizing the impact of the disease through time in a series of vignettes involving seven gay men. AIDS first made its presence felt surreptitiously, as an article in The New York Times reported on a rare cancer attacking gay men called Karposi's syndrome. Then the Village Voice began a series of in-depth articles concerning a "gay plague" which later became known as AIDS. The film follows the AIDS crisis through the lives of the seven main characters so that they are only aware of AIDS in the historical framework of each episode. The characters include former gay couple Willy (Campbell Scott) and John (Dermot Mulroney), first seen partying at a Fire Island club, who don't pay much attention to the mysterious article in The New York Times but become intimately effected by the disease. There is also Sean (Mark Lamos), a soap opera writer whose mind is slowly deteriorating because of the disease, and his supportive friend David (Bruce Davison). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The eponymous team consists of four residents of a New Jersey psychiatric hospital: ex-postal worker Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd), who fancies himself a doctor; one-time ad agency exec Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle), suffering from a Messiah/martyr complex; writer Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton), who cannot abide the "idiots" in the world (namely, everyone but himself); and TV-obsessed Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst). Permitted a field trip to a baseball game, the four unfortunates wander off when psychiatrist Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is waylaid by two corrupt police officers after he witnesses them killing a third cop. The innocent inmates are accused of attacking Dr. Weitzman, but it is they who team up to bring the actual culprits to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cliff (Bill Cosby) and Clair (Phylicia Rashad) head to the police station to pick up Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), who was a passenger in a car that was stopped for speeding by the cops. Though Theo isn't in trouble with the law, he's in plenty of hot water with his parents because he'd been grounded and was not supposed to be out of the house. Somehow or other, Cliff and Clair's anger turns upon each other, resulting in a vociferous verbal battle in which Theo is completely forgotten! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The final made-for-TV movie of the calendar year 1981 (it was originally telecast on December 30), Senior Trip combines music, comedy and pathos to tell the story of a group of graduates from a staid Ohio high school. Though tightly chaperoned on their titular trip to New York City, the kids intend to cut loose and go crazy, or at least to pursue their hearts' desires (in fact, the only two students who actually want to do some sightseeing before returning home are treated like social pariahs). Among the principal characters are would-be business tyro, Roger (Scott Baio); wannabe singer, David (Randy Brooks); aspiring actress, Judy (Liz Callaway); budding artist, Jon (Jeffrey Marcus); and self-styled Lothario, Fred (James Carroll). It takes a few run-ins with the seamier denizens of the Big Apple to convince the teens that maybe the old high school wasn't so bad. Part of the film is an extended plug for the then-current Broadway smash, Sugar Babies, with Mickey Rooney showing up as himself in one of the sequences. Buried among the minor players are two promising young actors named Jason Alexander and Robert Townsend. Senior Trip was a CBS presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi