Man on Wire
Here is a highly decorated documentary that goes back to 1974 and captures the extraordinary moment when the Frenchman Philippe Petit illegally walked a tightrope back and forth between New York City’s brand new World Trade Center towers. Archive footage, interviews and dramatizations combine to tell how Petit and his colleagues set up the attempt. Critics raved about this rich, suspenseful and sometimes hilarious tale, which in a way reclaims the World Trade Center as a site for the better side of human ambition. Music by Michael Nyman.
100 Feet
Eric Red did some fine work back in the 1980s as the writer of The Hitcher and Near Dark but never really lived up to his potential as a director. 100 Feet may help him out of that rut, and some horror fans have really taken to this story of a woman who is sentenced to home detention for killing her abusive husband — and then falls foul of his prowling ghost. For many years horror movies were overwhelmed by smart-aleck humor, then more recently by torture scenes in lieu of suspense. This film transcends both by treating the viewer to old-fashioned atmosphere and shocks. Stars Famke Janssen of the X-Men movies and Michael Pare.
Mermaid
A cheery fantasy rooted in grim foundations, this Russian film focuses on a young woman with an unfortunate childhood and a gift for psychokinesis. When she starts a relationship with a non-committal professional man, the fantasy elements kick in as romantic rivalry comes to the fore. Winner of several awards at festivals around the world, this is a fine Russian response to the French flick Amelie. Original title: Rusalka.
8 Dates
This more episodic Spanish serio-comedy mixes romance and romantic insecurity as a range of characters find or fall foul of love in a number of interconnected scenarios. Most people in the audience will find a situation they can relate to, no doubt, but much of the film’s potency may require familiarity with Spanish celebrities.
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
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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