Amal
Perhaps trying to capitalize on the success of Slumdog Millionaire, this Canadian-produced film from 2007 is enjoying an arthouse release. Life on — or near — the skids is the setting and virtue is the theme as Amal, the driver of an automated rickshaw in New Delhi, goes well out of his way to help an unfortunate woman involved in an accident. Meanwhile, a different kind of millionaire to the game show variety has the humble driver in his sights. This colorful melodrama has won several awards and will appeal to those who long for goodness and decency in their movie diet.
A Widow at Last
When her husband dies in a car accident, a woman suddenly finds that life is much more enjoyable without the old coot. But a desire to keep up appearances means that she can’t bring herself to admitting as much to her family, friends or even her long-time lover. This French comedy, which occasionally flirts with farce, is also known in English as The Merry Widow.
Dance, Subaru!
Subaru is the name of a Japanese teenager who, like so many dance movie heroines, must overcome family tragedy and other formidable obstructions to realize her goal of becoming a professional dancer — a ballerina, in fact. But this film is a much more mature and sober affair, with anguish much closer to the surface than Hollywood might tolerate, while the range of dance scenes reflects as much the necessary rigors of training and gaining expertise as throwing eye candy at the viewer. Which is to say, this is not Flashdance. Based on a manga.
Kitaro and the Millennium Curse
Pop idol Eiji Wentz is back as Kitaro, the famed half-human, half-spirit monster who has had an impact on Japanese popular culture for decades. Originally a manga, this Kitaro is a live-action sequel with lots of strange characters and amusing elements as our hero, Hercules-style, embarks on a mission to wrest five divine items from their monstrous protectors and so lift a curse affecting both the realm of the spirit monsters and the human world.
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