The Hangover
By all reliable critics’ accounts this is a must-see comedy about a bunch of buddies for whom a bachelor party in Las Vegas goes seriously belly-up. Raunchy and smart, it also defies this Michael Bay era of non-existent characterization by putting genuinely interesting, funny, perverse and sympathetic characters in a world of pain (not just hangovers), starting with a missing groom, a mystery baby and a tiger in the hotel room. Features a cameo by Mike Tyson. These gentlemen, as lovable as they are, are surely fortunate they didn’t star in ...
Teeth
There are two posters for this envelope-pushing and gory horror comedy. The more subtle one shows a teenage girl’s head peering out of a bubble bath, while the other is a remarkably literal X-ray capture of this film’s central conceit: the nice young woman hides dangerous dentures where men would like them the least. And they come in useful, too, as award-winning actress Jess Weixler protects her virginal self from a range of gentlemen who might just get what they deserve. This film took more than two years to get a release here, and was directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein (Roy’s son), who many moons ago played the white gay lover in Ang Lee’s (李安) The Wedding Banquet. See it with someone you’d love to be docked.
Blood: The Last Vampire
This is a live-action remake of the heavily touted manga from 2000, this time with French director Chris Nahon at the helm. A centuries-old semi-vampire in the guise of a Japanese girl has a score to settle with a swathe of demon-like creatures, the apparent leader of which dispatched her father. There’s no shortage of bloody combat to be found, and the trailer is attractive enough, but there are rumblings out there about below-par special effects and fight sequences. In the end, it might come down to whether you prefer your carnage inflicted by a brooding, muscle-flexing male or a Japanese schoolgirl (OK, OK, so the actress is Korean). Tarantino fans will obviously go for the latter.
Paris 36
The trials and tribulations of a 1930s music hall in Paris is given the melodramatic effort that reminds one of Cinema Paradiso. Unlike that sentimental favorite, however, most reviewers did not get on side with this one, complaining of shallowness, tedium and generic elements as the music hall operators contend with ominous political developments, a lack of custom and criminal intrigue. But it’s pretty, with lots of music. Original title: Faubourg 36.
Children of Glory
A 2006 Hungarian production co-written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls), the story moves between two infamous water polo matches between the Soviet Union and Hungary and the actions of a young freedom fighter and her water polo-playing boyfriend during the infamous Soviet crackdown that followed the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Critics were divided, calling it overbearing, affecting and sincere by turns, and Eszterhas hasn’t had a screenplay filmed since. But sports fans intrigued by the politics behind sporting contests should find this fascinating, especially the brutal Melbourne Olympics climax.
Speeding Scandal
A box office smash in South Korea last year, this is a romantic comedy in which a has-been pop musician and radio disc jockey suddenly finds his plans for a comeback hitting the wall when a teenager shows up at his home claiming to be his daughter — with his “grandson” in tow, to boot. Initial suspicion and hostility in our professionally challenged hero gives way to something rather more heartwarming in this Baixue theater offering in Ximending. It helps that the kid is sweet — and that the media are lying in wait for any slip-up by the DJ.
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
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