Cyborg She
Picture a Japanese romantic comedy based on the premise of The Terminator and you have Cyborg She. An inventor sends a “female” robot back in time to save himself from being killed, only for the younger version of the man to fall in love with the oddly familiar ’borg. But can she love him in return? It’s a question put to the test when utter calamity strikes Tokyo. Warm humor, an accessible love story, a generous helping of reheated ideas from Western and Asian films alike and remarkable special effects brought plaudits for this film, which, in keeping with its eclectic frame of mind, is directed by a South Korean.
10 Promises to My Dog
This is also a Japanese love story between species, as it were, but of the canine variety. A girl adopts a stray dog on conditions laid down by her mother that she care for it properly. Eventually the mother dies, the girl grows up and leaves home to study, start relationships and everything else an adult does, placing pressure on her desire to care for the poor creature. It’s a simple premise but one rarely covered in cute animal movies: Where should responsibility for pets end? Older kids will love this film, though the message is just as much for adults. The 10 promises, by the way, are on the film’s Chinese-language Web site.
The Fox and the Child
Here’s another cute animal movie, this time from France, though the animal is decidedly not a pet. A fox captivates the heroine of the title (perhaps it’s because they have the same hair color) and they make friends after the girl gets lost one night. But friendship with a wild animal only goes so far, as she will find out all too soon. From the director of March of the Penguins, some critics were not taken with the mix of strange human behavior and sanitizing of Mother Nature, even in a children’s film.
Inside
Taiwanese advertising for this short but sharp French bloodbath warns that pregnant women will not be admitted. That’s a pity; it’s not often the heroine of any movie, horror or otherwise, is fat bellied and on the verge of a quick trip to the hospital. For this homebound heroine, recently bereaved in a car accident, the challenge is to stay out of the morgue as a fetus-coveting psycho (Beatrice Dalle, who famously played an erotic psycho in Betty Blue two decades ago) closes in with scissors poised. Apparently Taiwan’s censors resisted the temptation of using theirs.
Sorry If I Love You
In this Italian romantic comedy, viewers are invited to feel sorry for a bunch of male friends approaching middle age who are beginning to feel a little lost in the carnality department. One of the group has an accident with a motorscooter, whose owner is a sexy and adventurous 17-year-old. “Though almost adults,” says the promo, “[she and her friends] can still get up to the most incredible mischief.” A-ha! Color by numbers from this point; the only challenge is guessing whether there will be a moral sting in the tail. Heartthrob Raoul Bova (Alien vs Predator, Under the Tuscan Sun) stars as the smitten older man.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated