Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
The rags-to-riches saga of a young Italian immigrant who battles his way out of the San Francisco earthquake to become a shipping magnate, rise to the top of Nob Hill's society through a loveless marriage to the daughter of the city's wealthiest family, and find happiness with an Asian mistress despite the collapse of his fortune during the Wall Street crash.
The film portrays MacArthur's life from 1942, before the Battle of Bataan, to 1952, when he was removed from his Korean War command by President Truman for insubordination, and is recounted in flashback as he visits West Point.
A bordello catering to rich and wealthy clients, run by Lil Hutton experiences a series of crises as one girl ends up pregnant, and another dead. As a subplot, a young woman, Julie Taylor, makes a trip to LA to surprise a friend, but never finds her. Julie is mugged, and seeks help from Lil Hutton. She sees how much the prostitutes are making, and is tempted into the lifestyle. On her first "job" is hired by a rich father for his 18-year old virgin son as a birthday gift, and they fall in love. But the relationship comes to a quick end as soon as the son learns she is a "whore"; Julie breaks down and runs off after realizing prostitution is a cold and loveless occupation that cannot fulfill her emotional emptiness.
The story of three generations of a family in Shanghai against the backdrop of tumultuous times.
On a trip to Japan, an American student watches the lives of the Geishas in a tea house.
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.
The story of Simon Rodia, the real-life artist who spent 30 years constructing Los Angeles' Watts Towers, a monument to Christopher Columbus, and his fictional relationship with Daniel, a young boy.
Best friends Alice and Darlene take a trip to Thailand after graduating high school. In Thailand, they meet a captivating Australian man, who calls himself Nick Parks. Darlene is particularly smitten with Nick and convinces Alice to take Nick up on his offer to treat the two of them to what amounts to a day trip to Hong Kong. In the airport, the girls are seized by the police and shocked to discover that one of their bags contains heroin.
A scientist who has been preserved in suspended animation wakes up to find himself in a primitive society in the future.
Political and personal intrigues surround a group of characters in Malaya, after the close of the Second World War.
Based on the true story of film actress Ina Balin and her efforts with American Red Cross volunteer Betty Tisdale, as well as a compassionate Vietnamese woman running a Saigon orphanage, to rescue as many children as possible and fly them out of the country before South Vietnam's fall in the spring of 1975 through the An Lac baby-lift.
When a passenger ship sinks, a ship's officer must decide which passengers in an overcrowded lifeboat must be sacrificed so the rest can survive an approaching typhoon.
A famous opera singer, Giorgio Fini, loses his voice during an American tour. He goes to a female throat specialist, Pamela Taylor, whom he falls in love with.
When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor, Ross Carpenter, has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel.
Lee Cantrell, a young San Francisco attorney by day, at night becomes a samurai warrior, and battles a crazed multi-millionaire who is planning to destroy the city with an earthquake machine.
A young college girl becomes pregnant, and she and the baby's father are targeted by a black-market adoption ring that is out to get the baby.
In California, a young Caucasian girl and a Japanese-American boy defy local prejudices and secretly marry on Dec. 7, 1941, minutes before Pearl Harbor is attacked.
Four former harlots try to leave the wild west (Colorado, to be exact) and head north to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately someone from Cody's past won't let it happen that easily.
Grandma Lee tours the California wilderness in a motor home with her Americanized family, teaching them Tai Chi and the ancient Chinese way to deal with modern American life.
Judith Shapiro's dream has come true. Due to the process of opening to the west in China she has been invited to stay for two years in Shang Sa, Hunan as a school teacher. As soon as she arrives she has to deal with problems such as only cold water to wash, an unlockable door at her room and so on. All these problems are nothing compared to the difficulties she has in understanding chinese social interacting. When she falls in love with one of her students, things are going to get really weird.
The wife of a Malaysian planter kills an employee of her husband one night, but her motive begins to appear not entirely truthful.
A man with a wife, two daughters, and a flourishing career is visited by a woman whom he had an affair with when he was in Vietnam.