Beverly Hills Chihuahua
This is the latest in a lengthening line of live-action “talking animal” movies that started with Babe. The plot starts with the title: a prissy, pampered but charming Chihuahua (Drew Barrymore) is taken south of the border by her owner’s niece, where she gets lost and runs into all sorts of trouble, not unlike the misadventure depicted in Babe: Pig in the City. There are stars galore in this canine caper, but the biggest question is why celebrated Hispanic actor/director/activist Edward James Olmos would contribute his voice to Disney fluff that paints Mexico as a place gone to the dogs.
Wushu 武術
The title and promotional literature scream “Hong Kong action flick” but this one is a little out of the ordinary and rates a wider audience. Described as a coming of age drama in martial clothing, Wushu charts friendships among students who eventually use their fighting skills and sense of righteousness to tackle a sinister organization targeting children. Stars the incomparable Sammo Hung (洪金寶) as the father of brothers who get in the thick of the action, as well as several young, real-life martial arts champions. Directed by one-time Australian stuntman and wushu practitioner Antony Szeto and executive produced by Jackie Chan (成龍).
Tokyo!
A French production, Tokyo! offers three off-kilter portraits of the city by directors Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind), Leos Carax (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) and Bong Joon-ho (The Host). Gondry’s segment has a Japanese couple arriving in the city and finding the going quite tough — before a surreal change takes place. The Carax short is anarchic and confrontational: a grisly creature emerges from nowhere to insult and cajole Tokyosiders. Bong finishes the trilogy with a love story whose hero is agoraphobic but who still tries to get the girl (his Cupid turns out to be an earthquake). Don’t be put off by the bland, congenial poster and ads in the newspapers; this is a quality urban ode with attitude and real teeth.
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
A top earner at home and billed as South Korea’s most expensive production, this hybrid of Sergio Leone and Korean quirkiness reimagines the spaghetti western in Chinese desert locales and serves up grand entertainment. The three titular characters get caught up in a race for ancient loot in prewar Manchuria as the Japanese tighten their grip on the area, a contest that triggers elaborate fights and stunts. Critically acclaimed, this is a film that deserves to be seen in a big theater. Directed by Kim Jee-woon, who made the formidable psychological thriller A Tale of Two Sisters.
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