Exte: Hair Extensions
You've seen the ads in the buses: fleeting shots of scissors, constant screaming and locks of black hair pushing out of eye sockets and fingertips. Exte: Hair Extensions is the film, and based on reviews out of Japan, this could be the next big crossover in J-horror. If Ringu and its ilk uses long, black, glistening female hair as a horror motif, Exte: Hair Extensions takes the logical next step and turns the hair itself into a weapon of terror. A film that fetishizes hair naturally must contain a hair fetishist - hence a hairdresser who spreads killer locks to unsuspecting fashion victims. The film also contains a child abuse subplot that keeps things from turning camp. The film is directed by Sion Sono, whose 2005 flick Noriko's Dinner Table was released here a few weeks ago. Why wait for a "cut" American remake and a million bad hair jokes by jaded Western critics? See it now - and take your hairdresser with you.
Gong Tau (降頭)
There are so few Hong Kong releases in Taiwan these days that the arrival of a horror pic is worthy of note, if not celebration. Gong Tau is a grisly black magic shocker directed by Herman Yau (邱禮濤) of Ebola Syndrome and Troublesome Night fame. Yau knows his bloodletting: The Untold Story in 1993 horrified unsuspecting moviegoers worldwide with its brutal tale of human dumpling production. Gong Tau is the dark art that reunites a policeman with an old foe bent on revenge; very nasty stuff ensues. Not a first date movie - unless your date is into dismemberment and wacky uses for bodily fluids.
For Horowitz
Also known as My Piano, this South Korean melodrama from last year focuses on the relationship between a frustrated 30-ish music teacher and a young bully who, wouldn't you know it, is a natural musician (he has perfect pitch, for starters). Before you can say "variation on a theme," the youngster is practicing hard for a piano competition - maybe his success might just resurrect his teacher's professional renown. But then ... hard reality hits home. Winner of the best new director award at this year's Grand Bell Awards (the Korean Oscars).
Clash of Egos
Here's another offbeat Scandinavian comedy, following The Art of Negative Thinking, which was released two weeks ago. Clash of Egos pits a man with an anger management problem against an affected movie director (whom the Variety review says is a parody of Lars von Trier). This Danish production did well at home, and given that advance tickets are on sale, the Taiwanese distributor must be confident of getting big laughs here as well.
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would