VIEW THIS PAGE Tropic Thunder
A bunch of neurotic Hollywood actors go on location in a Southeast Asian country to shoot the testosterone vehicle Tropic Thunder, but things go postal when some locals decide to start taking pot shots before the war flick wraps. While the central conceit seems borrowed from Severance, audiences and a lot of critics have been lapping up this irreverent flick. Laughs are guaranteed — at some point. Starring and directed by Ben Stiller, comic energy is added by Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise and especially Robert Downey Jr — as a pompous Aussie Oscar winner who has his melanin darkened to get inside his black character.
Blindness
A contagion of sightlessness breaks out in an unnamed city, and pretty soon it’s clear that nothing can stop it. A doctor (Mark Ruffalo, who was simply excellent as a serial killer-hunting cop in Zodiac) is infected and sent to a prison-based concentration camp for the newly blind. His wife (Julianne Moore) miraculously avoids infection, and the film concentrates on her tactical response to social breakdown and atrocities as she fakes blindness to stay with her beau. From Fernando Meirelles, director of The Constant Gardener, the film has not been so well-received, especially by those who have read Jose Saramago’s book. The Los Angeles Times blinked, calling it an “overly long car commercial crossed with a scare-mongering public service announcement.”
I’m Not There
Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale and three others (including the late Heath Ledger in his third-last role) star as a Bob Dylan-like character who travels through a wild variety of settings corresponding to major events in Dylan’s life or impressions thereof. Director Todd Haynes (Poison, Velvet Goldmine) is offering a sophisticated gift to music fans and particularly fans of Dylan with this one, though only the most devoted of the legendary folk singer’s following will understand what Haynes is getting at. Most of it.
Ca$h
This French production might be the first movie to send audiences running for the exits out of sheer confusion. But there are reasons to stay. Cash (Jean Dujardin) is a charismatic criminal whose nefarious colleagues — and even girlfriend — cannot be trusted, and that’s before cop Valeria Golino (Hot Shots!, Leaving Las Vegas) turns up in plain clothes looking for trouble. The ever-entertaining Jean Reno plays a top thug whom Cash turns to for his next vengeful enterprise, perhaps to his regret. Similar in visual style to the Ocean’s Eleven remake and its sequels, Ca$h aims to please.
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
When picturing Tainan, what typically comes to mind is charming alleyways, Japanese architecture and world-class cuisine. But look beyond the fray, through stained glass windows and sliding bookcases, and there exists a thriving speakeasy subculture, where innovative mixologists ply their trade, serving exquisite concoctions and unique flavor profiles to rival any city in Taiwan. Speakeasies hail from the prohibition era of 1920s America. When alcohol was outlawed, people took their business to hidden establishments; requiring patrons to use hushed tones — speak easy — to conceal their illegal activities. Nowadays legal, speakeasy bars are simply hidden bars, often found behind bookcases