VIEW THIS PAGE The Last House on the Left
Two girlfriends accept an offer of some dope from a teenager and end up abducted and brutalized — and worse. In a twist lifted from Ingmar Bergman’s Virgin Spring, the attackers inadvertently end up in the home of one of the victims and every circle of hell breaks loose when the parents discover who they are. If this remake of an American exploitation classic had aimed for the same impact today as Wes Craven’s original in the early 1970s, we would have to sit through a nauseating marathon of rape, molestation, torture and murder. So credit this version from co-producer Craven and director Dennis Iliadis for taking its characters more seriously. But it’s still too brutal for most tastes, especially the coda, which might remind alert viewers of Takashi Miike’s Audition. Marketing trivia: The trailer makes splendid use of a Taken by Trees cover of Sweet Child O’ Mine, while the Taiwanese distributor (Universal), in a cute advertising ploy, calls the remake one of the 10 most banned films in history — a clever deception, given that its target audience wasn’t born when Craven’s drive-in opus came out and probably know nothing of it or its notoriety.
God’s Puzzle
Now here’s some real Takashi Miike. Japan’s prolific maverick director had a fairly quiet 2008, directing a TV series and this very strange feature, in which theories of physics and catastrophe frame a philosophical adventure of sorts, together with helpings of comedy and a bit of romance. A twin fills in for his brother and convinces a female prodigy to share her talents in building a doomsday machine. Something for everyone, it appears, yet despite all this, Variety called this film “Miike’s most conventional pic” — but still entertaining.
Twentieth Century Boys: Chapter Two — The Last Hope
More manga action and drama as the mysterious, masked cult leader from the first film consolidates his power and leads the world (well, Japan) toward total disaster. Set in 2015, our heroes from the first film are tasked with stopping this train of events, though critics wondered if the compression of masses of manga source material into a two-hour-plus exposition wouldn’t get in their way. Perhaps naive in places, the imagery remains quite potent, and the sense of dread and powerlessness seems better suited now to Asian countries struggling with their economies. Part 3 opens in Japan in August.
Happy Flight
Made with the blessing and assistance of Japan’s All-Nippon Airways, this is an ensemble melodrama that starts with a run-through of the aviation industry and ends with an Airport-style drama on a plane forced to return to Tokyo despite an approaching typhoon. Viewers suspicious at the idea of a potential disaster movie supported by a real airline may find themselves surprised at the entertainment on offer as a wide range of characters spice up proceedings aboard the craft and back on the ground.
The Gig 2
Part 1 of this romantic comedy series from Thailand screened at Ximending’s Baixue theater in January; this 2007 sequel is at the same theater, and carries the same payload of klutzy young men chasing a bunch of young women who spend a good chunk of time talking the nonsense that such films require. More corny than raunchy, despite the American Pie references, and contains enough “gay panic” and fat jokes to remind the viewer that not all Thai youngsters prefer to see homosexual hit men and rotund ladyboy ghosts on the big screen. Also known as Gig Number Two.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50