This week only one Chinese-language movie will be released in Taiwan and it is a must see. It is the Best Picture Award winner of the 2004 Golden Horse Awards (
Kekexili is the third-least-inhabited area in the world and is at the northwest corner of the Tibetan plateau. This movie explores the complicated nature of human existence in this bleak, extreme environment where poverty and the natural elements make life almost unbearably difficult.
Kekexili is Lu Chuan's (
PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA ASIA
The film is shot with an almost documentary-like approach to tell about a Tibetan volunteer patrol chasing a ring of poachers who trade in antelope wool. The film is based on a true story witnessed by a journalist from Beijing.
Ritai (Dou Bujie) is the leader of the patrol squad and guides his team in pursuit of the poachers. He is determined to cross the snowy mountains and catch the gang leader.
Cinematographer Cao Yu (曹郁) presents stunning pictures of the scenery on the roads, giving nature a vital role in the plot. Its severity troubles both the patrol and the poachers, and blurs the distinction between good and evil.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLUMBIA ASIA
Besides the excellent collaboration between director Lu and Cao, the lead actor Dou Bujie gives an impressive portrayal of the patrol leader, while most of the non-professional actors add a sense of honesty and sincerity to the film.
Coming soon
Hoping to ride the tsunami-sized wave of media hype after his triumph at the Berlin International Film Festival, Tsai Ming-liang's (
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOMEGREEN FILMS
The film marks Tsai's first attempt to cross over from art-house cinema to the mainstream, though its abundant and explicit sexual content might keep it from that categorization.
The controversial film will play in more than 40 theaters nationwide starting next week.
Local distributor Long Hsiang Films (龍祥電影) announced last week that it acquired the rights to action film Seoul Raiders (韓城攻略), starring Tony Leung (梁朝偉), and the rights to Jay Chou's (周杰倫) debut film, Initial D (頭文字D). Seoul Raider will be released next week and Initial D will be released in Taiwan in July.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby