Compiled by Martin Williams
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Beaufort Nominated for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards, Beaufort is a tale of the last weeks of the Israeli Defense Force’s occupation of Lebanon in 2000. Beaufort is an age-old fortress where the soldiers are camped; outside, Hezbollah ramp up their attacks as the day of retreat draws near. Like Black Hawk Down, the film avoids direct engagement of larger political questions and concentrates on the soldiers on the ground and their precarious, preposterous lot. Fine reviews make this a must-see, whatever your politics. | |
The Ten Winona Ryder and a ventriloquist’s dummy. In an amorous relationship. This is one thing you’ll see in The Ten, which perverts the Ten Commandments across 10 lengthy sketches linked by harried host Paul Rudd. Largely negative reviews, with some notable exceptions, greeted this flick, which spent most of last year doing the US festival circuit before opening in fewer theaters than the producers might have hoped for. Still, viewers will have the chance to argue over which is the funniest commandment. | |
88 Minutes Al Pacino can pull a crowd no matter the quality of the movie. But this one may challenge that general rule, because Americans are preferring to see Jet Li (李連杰) and Jackie Chan (成龍) tussle in The Forbidden Kingdom (see review on Page 16) instead of Al fending off yet another serial killer. This time the maniac kills young ladies in vicious ways on the way to turning Pacino’s forensic shrink into mincemeat — with 88 minutes’ warning. The Village Voice called it “guilelessly, idiotically misogynist” and one of the worst films of the year so far. This year? It was released in the US last week — a full 12 months after hitting DVD stores in Brazil and parts of Europe. | |
Kitaro This is a live action version of the classic manga/anime that mixed children’s themes and bizarre and occasionally disturbing ideas and graphics. Hardcore fans may be disappointed to know that the film, which sees a powerful stone go missing and a little boy beset by yokai (spirit monsters), waters down the grislier elements in favor of the wacky and the comedic. Stars Japanese pop star Eiji Wentz as the heroic half-human, half-spirit monster of the title. Full Japanese title: Gegege no Kitaro. | |
2008 Taipei Labor Film Festival Labor rights is not one of Taiwan’s strong points, so this controversial, pared-down festival of overseas and local works on labor issues at the Spot theater in Taipei might prove provocative — if only because of the dispute between organizers and the Taipei City Government’s labor affairs office (see pots.tw/node/4121 for the surreal details in Chinese). Starts on Sunday with three screenings from 3pm, which is handy for the adjacent Zhongshan North Road army of Filipina laborers. Last screening is on May 10, so lay down your tools and visit www.spot.org.tw for a schedule. |
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