When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

1958 French film by Louis Malle

1934 film by Jean Vigo

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

1960 film by Ingmar Bergman

England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.

故事发生在昭和49年的东京。在东京都的丰岛区千里，居住着94岁高龄的画家熊谷守一（山崎努 饰）。熊谷守一和妻子秀子（树木希林 饰）拥有一个温馨的家，一条门廊，一片小院。每一天，熊谷守一都能够从自家院子的自然里感受到生命与季节和时间的变迁，这个院子里的一切就是他的生命。他和妻子都做已经参透了生活的奥义——生命的意义并非是钱可以买来的。可是，这样的院子旁边即将盖起一栋高耸入云的公寓大楼，大楼的影子将投射到他家的院子里，这也就意味着在那里的生命都将失去阳光……

大坂府泉南地区，明治末年开始发展成石棉重镇，战后更是石棉工厂林立。2005 年「久保田震撼」令日本民众意识到石棉问题严峻，不只石棉工人罹患致命肺病比率超高，连员工家属及工厂周边居民亦深受其害。政府早知石棉危险，却以经济发展为先，对致病风险视若无睹。泉南受害民众决定控告政 府，原一男以三个半小时篇幅，把个桉数字还原为一个个有血有肉的人，都有喜怒哀乐，有人以抱病之躯坚持诉讼，有人等不到裁决已病逝。民众代表柚冈一祯没有《祭军魂》的奥崎谦三那麽激进，但同样是愤怒的行动派，上书首相府，誓要有关官员对石棉祸害承担责任。