Maiko Haaaan!!!
This Japanese comedy is about an eccentric man intent on entering the world of the geisha after getting grief from an online rival, only for his former girlfriend to do the same as a maiko - a geisha in training. Big, boisterous and loopy, Nipponphiles and fans of frenetic mugging will have a ball with this one. The Taiwan title for this translates as "Maiko, ha ha ha"; translated literally, it would have been "Maiko Xiaojieeee!!!"
A Man's Job
An unemployed family man, Juha, winds up paying the bills by becoming a gigolo in this amiable Finnish drama. Problem is, his wife and kids don't know about his new line of work, and his friend-turned-pimp has the hots for his wife. Meanwhile, our hero starts to enjoy his studly status, perhaps despite himself, until cold reality slaps him in the face. The reviewer at Variety was a little taken aback with one element: Juha servicing a young woman with Down Syndrome.
Someone Behind You
Bloodier and more violent than your average Korean horror flick, this story of a curse that causes people to turn homicidal seems unable to escape standard Ringu imagery - TV sets with static, solving mysteries via old newspaper clippings, defaced photographs - but reportedly makes up for it with paranoia and ferocity. The heroine of the hour is a schoolgirl who can't seem to go anywhere - a wedding, school, even home - without someone getting carved up. Luckily, she has keen investigative abilities and sets out to unlock the curse.
Anna and Anna (安娜與安娜)
The two Annas in this drama are played by Karena Lam (林嘉欣), a Canadian-raised singer and actress who featured in the Taiwanese feature Silk (詭絲), which played here in 2006. Anna number one leaves behind her Singaporean job and boyfriend for Shanghai and promptly runs into Anna number two, a version of herself - the same person, in fact - that elected not to leave her less enviable life in China behind. Straight-faced hijinks follow as the Annas explore each other's lives by swapping identities. Perfect fare for those who like non sequitur fantasy plot points or wimpy male leads.
Doraemon: The 25th Movie
The latest adventure of our best blue friend takes Doraemon, his human friend Nobita and other kids way back in time to help find the homes of stray pets. They then stumble on a kingdom run by dogs and cats, where Doraemon falls in love with a gorgeous feline. And, yes, there's a baddy, too. Also known as Nobita in the Wan-Nyan Space-Time Odyssey, this is the 25th Doraemon feature film and was released in Japan in 2004.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and