My Brother is an Only Child
Last week this newspaper's film review excoriated Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution for, among other things, trivializing Iron Curtain oppression. A similar accusation might just be leveled at this film, set in postwar Italy, in which fascism and communism are the developmental playgrounds of two brothers from a leftist family. But the real concern of the filmmakers is not the political realities of 20th-century Italy as much as vivid family drama. Critics were kind to this film; the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a provocative character study and portrait of the times."
Tricks
Rave reviews and awards came from the European festivals that featured this unusual, unsentimental Polish comedy-drama. A precocious young boy in a mining town conspires to have a man whom he thinks is his father return to the family, all the time using strange "tricks" he has learned from his newly adult sister. The Chinese title translates as "Train-Chasing Diary" and refers to one of the boy's favorite activities while riding a motorcycle with his sister's boyfriend. Director Andrzej Jakimowski is a name to watch.
My Mom's New Boyfriend
George Gallo is not a household name, but he did write the screenplay for Midnight Run, one of the best American films of the 1980s. This is his latest effort as writer-director and stars Meg Ryan as a sexually voracious older woman whose FBI agent son (Colin Hanks) has her latest conquest (Antonio Banderas) under surveillance for art theft. You can guess what happens next, so start cringing. This is a straight-to-DVD-in-the-US offload, despite the lead actors, which means you may as well stay home and rent Midnight Run instead.
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's New Great Adventure into the Underworld - The Seven Magicians
Our best blue friend returns in this feature released last year in Japan, itself a remake of a 1984 Doraemon entry. Doraemon and Nobita enter a magical alternate universe in which every human has magical powers - except Nobita, of course. This has to change very quickly when a demonic celestial body is discovered to be hurtling toward their planet. Notable as the first in the series to be directed by a woman (Yukiyo Teramoto); in another first, animation direction is also by a woman (Shizue Kaneko). Also known as Doraemon the Magic 2007.
Spot Seminar Series No. 8
Looking at Movies from Another Angle is the theme for the latest set of lectures on film at the Spot theater in Taipei, and runs until the end of next month. Speakers include Liao Shu-chen (廖淑珍), make-up artist and longtime Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) collaborator; calligrapher Chen Shih-hsien (陳世憲); and academics and industry professionals. For tickets and booking details (in Chinese), go to www.spot.org.tw/forum/index8.asp.
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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located