Eden Lake
Just in time for the global economic morass comes a pitiless British horror thriller that pits a well-to-do middle-class couple on holiday against nasty kids from the local working-class community who don’t limit themselves to throwing rocks and abusive language. Distressing images of fear and brutalization on the film’s posters should keep most adults away, but for anyone into horror or British cinema, this is the pick of the week. Comparisons have been drawn with Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left, a notoriously vicious horror milestone from 1972 that was never released in Taiwan. House’s inspiration, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960), screened here a few weeks ago, however, and that title’s similarity to Eden Lake can’t be a coincidence.
The Midnight Meat Train
Clive Barker hit his bankable peak in the late 1980s when a number of his grim horror tales were turned into films, most famously Hellraiser, which Barker also directed. The Midnight Meat Train is a short story from his Books of Blood that started it all, and stars ex-soccer star Vinnie Jones as a beefy killer prowling an American subway late at night as a photographer tries to track him down. Like Eden Lake, this film has higher ambitions and attention to style (including an excellent poster), possibly thanks to the presence of Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura (Azumi, Versus). Also stars Brooke Shields.
Orochi – Blood
The week’s third horror outing is a more stately, elegant and restrained affair from Japan. Based on a work by horror manga specialist Kazuo Umezu, this film explores the sinister underpinnings of beauty as an actress mother takes a strange young female visitor into her home with a curse. Japanese gothic horror or baroque horror might be too crude a description, but the visuals are lush and detailed, and the satirical message of female physical decay from age 30 has resonance in Taiwan in particular. This Umezu adaptation comes courtesy of Hiroshi Takahashi, the writer responsible for the Ringu films, and horror director Norio Tsuruta.
Two-Legged Horse
Not quite horror, but close. A parable of political servitude sees a legless Afghan child from a comfortable family use a poverty-stricken child in the neighborhood as the “horse” of the title for a daily pittance. As time goes on, the brutalities mount and the “horse” ... becomes one. Robert Koehler, reviewing the film for Variety, lent the film some notoriety of his own when he wrote “anger is likely to be directed at [award-winning director Samira Makhmalbaf] herself rather than at her subject, totalitarianism. Pic will raise festival howls and walkouts, with distribs certain to consider it untouchable,” because of the apparent suffering of the actors. Aha, but not in Taiwan, Mr Koehler.
The Chaser
Not quite horror, but very close. A cop-turned-pimp searches for one of his hookers after she is tortured and left for dead by a hitherto reliable client. Problem is, everyone who is supposed to do this rescue work for a living is corrupt, incompetent or ill-willed. This is a serial killer thriller with horrific elements (and a restricted rating) from South Korea that treats the audience with keen intelligence and the establishment with utter contempt. It was a monstrous hit at home.
The Code
Morgan Freeman, who rejoins director Mimi Leder after their work together in Deep Impact, stars as an aging thief who returns from retirement for, all together now, one ... last ... heist. Antonio Banderas is his younger partner and foil who is attracted to Freeman’s goddaughter (Aussie actress Radha Mitchell) in addition to some almost priceless Faberge Eggs. The rest of the story writes itself. Also known as Thick as Thieves, this one is struggling to secure a US release date.
To Life
A troubled Mexican photographer reunites with her estranged father in Chile in this chirpy, warm drama about healing and renewal. While there, she falls in love with one of her father’s closest friends, a rabbi, who has a few problems of his own. It goes without saying that the backdrop is all gorgeous mountains, vineyards, lakes, rustic villages and quaint villagers. Spanish title: El Brindis (“The Toast”), and shot in 2006.
No Regret
Purportedly the first feature to be directed by an openly gay Korean director, this film from 2006 covers a lot of ground. A grown orphan moves to Seoul in search of work and a future but circumstances conspire against him and he ends up working at a gay bar. While there he falls in love with a smitten boss from a former workplace and their relationship blossoms. Seedy settings and intense sex scenes rarely engender happy endings, however, and in this case, as the Village Voice states, “Korean melodrama hell” and the underworld sting wait in the wings.
Behind a car repair business on a nondescript Thai street are the cherished pets of a rising TikTok animal influencer: two lions and a 200-kilogram lion-tiger hybrid called “Big George.” Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and Tharnuwarht Plengkemratch is an enthusiastic advocate, posting updates on his feline companions to nearly three million followers. “They’re playful and affectionate, just like dogs or cats,” he said from inside their cage complex at his home in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand’s captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the
No one saw it coming. Everyone — including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — expected at least some of the recall campaigns against 24 of its lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) to succeed. Underground gamblers reportedly expected between five and eight lawmakers to lose their jobs. All of this analysis made sense, but contained a fatal flaw. The record of the recall campaigns, the collapse of the KMT-led recalls, and polling data all pointed to enthusiastic high turnout in support of the recall campaigns, and that those against the recalls were unenthusiastic and far less likely to vote. That
A couple of weeks ago the parties aligned with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), voted in the legislature to eliminate the subsidy that enables Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to keep up with its burgeoning debt, and instead pay for universal cash handouts worth NT$10,000. The subsidy would have been NT$100 billion, while the cash handout had a budget of NT$235 billion. The bill mandates that the cash payments must be completed by Oct. 31 of this year. The changes were part of the overall NT$545 billion budget approved
The unexpected collapse of the recall campaigns is being viewed through many lenses, most of them skewed and self-absorbed. The international media unsurprisingly focuses on what they perceive as the message that Taiwanese voters were sending in the failure of the mass recall, especially to China, the US and to friendly Western nations. This made some sense prior to early last month. One of the main arguments used by recall campaigners for recalling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers was that they were too pro-China, and by extension not to be trusted with defending the nation. Also by extension, that argument could be
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