Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this drama about a crusty, racist, epithet-spewing Korean War vet who is less than impressed with having Asians as neighbors. But Clint the director has a surprise in store. They are Hmong, a people who backed the US during the Vietnam War. Eventually he comes to know the family, and gets involved when violence comes knocking. The title refers to the main character’s prized car that he must care for and defend — and perhaps what it represents in a wider sense. Glowing reviews — and some debate — accompanied this latest effort from a legendary American actor-director.
Departures
This is the Japanese entry that beat Waltz With Bashir to the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. A cellist returns to his old home in the country with his wife and finds a job as a handler of corpses in preparation for their display at funerals. His challenge is not so much the sometimes-gruesome work, which he becomes captivated by, as reconciling his inner demons with the demands of family and face. It’s an offbeat, humorous and carefully detailed film that will delight those who want to see something unusual. Japanese title: Okuribito.
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Released in the wake of the economic disaster, this film suffers from an immediate loss of orientation in the same way that Collateral Damage did in depicting pre-Sept. 11 terrorism. Isla Fisher (the dynamic Aussie star of Wedding Crashers) is the confessor of the title, a New York columnist who simply can’t afford to shop like there’s no tomorrow — but does anyway. Directed by fellow Australian P.J. Hogan of Muriel’s Wedding fame, though fans of that benchmark Aussie comedy-drama might struggle to find similar sophistication here.
Defiance
Daniel Craig stars as one of four Belarusian brothers who set up a forest-based Jewish community that resists the Nazis in this recreation of a remarkable true story. Narrowly escaping from the Germans, the brothers head to the woods, only to be joined by a growing number of refugees. Eventually their numbers reach well over 1,000, and a mini-society forms as the threat lurks around them. Craig’s fans will have a good time, and there’s just enough action for it to be called a war movie. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond), who can’t seem to resist worthy subjects.
K-20: Legend of the Mask
A superhero film of sorts, K-20 rises above the pool of Japanese manga-based movies. Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) is a circus performer who is fingered for the crimes of a supervillain, but he escapes detention and sets out to clear his name by snaring “K-20,” his newfound nemesis. A strange retro urban setting (World War II never took place in the Japan of this film) is the canvas for a spectacular fight between whimsical good and eccentric evil.
Mapado 2
In the first Mapado (2005), a couple of lowlifes (gangster and crooked cop) arrived on a strange island in search of a woman with the key to a fortune but ended up getting comically nasty treatment from a group of elderly women. In this sequel from 2007, the ex-cop is back on an assignment and ends up again on the island by accident, again suffering at the hands of the five aggressive grannies, one of whom may carry a lucrative secret. Both films were surprise box office hits in South Korea. Also known as Mapado 2: Back to the Island, this is showing at Ximending’s Baixue theater.
Aftermath: Population Zero
The Scholar multiplex in Taipei and the second-run Wonderful Cinemas in Taichung are offering this made-for-cable National Geographic mockumentary for those who can’t get enough of the apocalypse (or don’t have cable). Anthro-apocalypse, that is. This film is not interested in how humankind perishes, but what would happen to the world in our absence if we simply vanished. Pets, cities, the environment, nuclear power plants … you get the picture. Desolation special effects abound. Narrated by Reg E. Cathey of TV’s The Wire.
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