1. BEFORE SUNSET/SIDEWAYS: Superb writing and acting, unobtrusive but expert direction and, above all, unflagging intelligence made these two observant, romantic misadventures the best films of the year. Imagine that working; Hollywood usually doesn't.
2. CONTROL ROOM: In the flood of political documentaries, this was the only one that encouraged us to question messages from all sides, including whichever side we like to believe. ... And, crucially, to suspect parts of "Control Room" itself. Neither Michael Moore nor Bill O'Reilly will ever understand that kind of honesty, the rest of us need to.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WARNER MOIVES
3. BAD EDUCATION/KINSEY/THE MOTHER: In this red state nightmare trifecta, badly behaving gays, sex researchers with murky motives and a granny who refuses to be a proper bereaved widow powerfully proved that to deny desire is to undervalue one's own, and everybody else's, humanity. And if these ingenious films are any indication, being naughty can also lead to great art.
4. I (HEART) HUCKABEES: The search for spiritual peace in our corrupt modern world is funny, people! Or can be, if it doesn't leave you too traumatized. Just like we all do when we seek to know what it's all about, Davd Russell's one-of-a-kind riff on life's great cosmic joke danced on the edge of profundity and inanity. Only more gracefully.
5. DOGVILLE/THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: Lars von Trier is Europe's most provocative mad movie scientist. These two films -- a three-hour, bare-stage critique of provincialism and power (with Nicole Kidman's best-ever film performance), and a playfully sadistic "making of" documentary like no other -- broke down everything we take for granted at the movies, then built their own unique forms out of the rubble.
6. MILLION DOLLAR BABY: Clint Eastwood delivers another masterpiece. This is not news anymore. Oh, it's a lady boxer movie. Well, that's, uh, unexpected. It also contains Clint's best acting and directing work to date. And it's an unparalleled example of lighting and tonal control. OK, then; media duly alerted.
7. THE BLIND SWORDSMAN (ZATOICHI)/HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS/KILL BILL -- VOL. 2: Martial-arts movies got taken in all kinds of imaginative directions this year by Japanese (Takeshi Kitano), Chinese (Zhang Yimou) and American (Quentin Tarantino) directors with limited experience in the genre. It showed, beautifully, in an exhilarating explosion of new ideas and broken tired rules.
8. RAY: Jamie Foxx's channeling of soul legend Charles was nothing short of phenomenal, but the presentation of music, cultural history and the blind genius' understandably darker qualities made for a rocking movie that never missed a high note -- and man, were there plenty of them.
9. GOOD BYE LENIN!/NOTRE MUSIQUE: One thing that we should acknowledge Europeans know: No matter how much the world progresses, man's propensity for self-delusion and violence will always prevent paradise on Earth. Two totally different filmmakers, young German ironist Wolfgang Becker and grizzled French New Waver Jean-Luc Godard, got to the core of this matter with a post-communist family comedy and a hyper-aestheticized philosophical essay. The real connection? Both films still have hope.
10. THE INCREDIBLES: The first big, computer-animated feature that expressed its director's personal worldview, Brad Bird's superhero satire was also faster, funnier and more visually distinctive than anything the still-young format has seen before. Fight mediocrity, heck yeah!
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
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