meets the Carry On gang gives some idea as to the character of this rough diamond of a Chilean flick that was first released in 2003 and which has found its way circuitously through several minor film festivals to Taiwan.
Lovely young schoolteacher Luisa is eager to introduce sex education into her classes of youngsters and so brings parents together to discuss this project. It turns out that the adults are in need of sex education as much as the children. The couples who meet in the class discussion group all have their own romantic and sexual problems, not least Luisa herself, who is two-timing her artist boyfriend with the much older Jorge, a prominent sexologist and the father of one of her students.
The set up is obviously absurd from the get go, but the rumbustious and raunchy delight that director Boris Quercia dives into the project carries the audience along. And quite apart from the sex, and there is a lot of it, Sex With Love (Sexo con Amor) has heart. On the fringes of the sexual comedy are the children (Luisa’s students), who stand as a constant reminder of what may happen when adult lust gets out of hand.
Quercia doesn’t try to make any big points, but is happy to explore sex as something that can be both wonderful, especially when mixed with a modicum of love, or hilarious, when lust appears as a ridiculous bug-eyed and salivating monster. There is a refreshing frankness in dealing both with the beauty and ugliness of the human body, as Querica allows his camera to linger lovingly (and lustfully) over buttocks, crotches and cleavages of an absolutely gorgeous cast of women, but never airbrushes away the imperfections, from moles, to body hair, to pubic crabs.
Both men and woman are observed with a cool eye for comedy, and the director puts himself right in the firing line playing Emilio, a grumpy butcher whose frantic lovemaking has all but made his wife frigid. A scene involving a spin-dryer was one of many that had the audience at the press screening almost falling out of their seats with laughter.
Although the cinematography is a little rough and ready and the narrative almost falls apart under the strain of so many couples have so much sex in so many different ways, Sexo With Love has more than its share of laugh-out-loud moments, and it is this raucous comedy, though neither subtle or even particularly original, but full of joy, that drives the film forward.
A brilliant soundtrack, a strangely evocative coupling of disco and grunge by the Alvaro Henriquez-fronted Chilean rock band Pettinellis, works particularly well and is an additional pleasure.
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
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