Butterfly on a Wheel
This thriller barely got released in the US before going to cable (under the name Shattered), but Pierce Brosnan completists might get a kick out of seeing him abduct a couple's daughter and subject all three to various torments.
Ghost of Mae Nak
A British cinematographer helms this Thai ghost story set in present-day and early 20th century Bangkok. A man lies comatose after an accident, and his wife must dig deep (literally) to uncover the secret of the ghost that protects and threatens their lives. Film Threat magazine likens the death scenes to those in the Final Destination series.
Doraemon: The Movie 2007
This, the latest in the decades-old series of animated films for kids featuring our best blue friend, involves a dinosaur egg. Released last year in Japan as Doraemon: The Movie 2006.
Memories of Tomorrow
Ken Watanabe of The Last Samurai fame was the driving force behind this Japanese drama. He stars as an advertising executive who succumbs to Alzheimer's disease as his family struggle to adjust. A weepie, to be sure, but by most accounts very well done.
Nightmare Detective
The most brutal entry for the week comes from director/cinematographer Shinya Tsukamoto, perhaps best known for Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Pop star Hitomi is a detective probing a series of suicides; with the help of a mysterious man who analyzes dreams, she faces her own demons and the demonic killer. Variety describes the film's style as "recalling David Lynch at his most perverse." A sequel is in production.
Photo Album of the Village
This Japanese drama from 2004 is set in a mountainous town threatened by construction for a dam. An aging photographer calls his son back from the city to help him make a record of the people of the community before it is destroyed. In so doing, their troubled relationship changes.
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