The Wingless Swallow (不能飛的鳥)/Fururi (不思議天使)
A package of two films set in Taiwan and Japan with the same crew and actors, this is an unusual exercise in mood and emotion suitable for older teenage girls in particular. Set in Taipei, The Wingless Swallow sees a young author of picture books struggle with family memories, but she finds a voice for her past after coming across children’s tales in an old library. Fururi looks at the frustrated dream of a young Japanese woman to become a flight attendant, and what happens when she meets a mysterious youth. From director Masayuki Koide.
Poker King (撲克王)
Just how many more crappy gambling films can Hong Kong come up with? Louis Koo (古天樂) has a special gift that allows him to calculate poker odds, and this comes useful in squaring off with Sean Lau (劉青雲), who has his beady eyes on Koo’s deceased father’s casino empire. Time Out Hong Kong pointed out in its dispirited review that the film was produced by the firm that owns the casino in the film. Even the film’s poster and title font seem tired. Next!
Troubled Water
Praise aplenty for this Norwegian film whose structure resembles a pared-down take on Rashomon. A young man released from prison after serving time over the death of a young child reinvents himself as a church organist, but fate cruelly brings the boy’s mother to his church. From there the fireworks proper are unleashed, but not before the mother’s alternative take on the story is delivered. Humane and rich, this is bound to be one of the highlights of the year.
Transsiberian
As the title almost suggests, this is a train mystery, with missing passengers, relentless police, drug dealers and murder most foul. Married couple Emily Mortimer (Match Point, The Pink Panther) and Woody Harrelson run into all sorts of intrigue and danger on the famed remote train route after encountering a couple of fellow passengers into drugs. Ben Kingsley is a Russian narc on the trail. Great locations and lots of surprises add up to a movie that Roger Ebert called “one hell of a thriller.”
I Come With the Rain
The weirdest release of the week takes no prisoners, on screen or off. Josh Hartnett is a traumatized ex-cop on an Asian hunt for the son of a pharmaceuticals mogul. His enquiries, with the help of a Hong Kong policeman friend (Shawn Yue, 余文樂, Infernal Affairs), lead to a young man (Takuya Kimura) living in a hut who performs bizarre healing ceremonies. Also hunting this prey is a marauding gangster (Lee Byung-hun) with a romantic score to settle. Extensively violent, gruesome and framed by religious motifs and serial killing flashbacks, this international production prefers style and symbols over story and was dismissed by Variety as “frequently incoherent,” though it has its defenders. From eclectic director Tran Anh Hung (Cyclo, The Scent of Green Papaya), who probably doesn’t care what Variety thinks.
Rahtree Revenge
More grisly stuff, but this time in a more conventional and comic format as Thailand’s Buppha Rahtree series clocks up its fourth entry. The female ghost Buppha and her would-be acolyte, a student/cartoonist, are still angst-ridden and morose in the Oscar Apartments building, but that razor-packing little girl with a serious jaw injury is still hanging around. Added to the mix are bumbling cops, a Cambodian shaman and an illegal gambling den. There’s even a cameo by a small Chinese-style hopping vampire. Fun for all who like Thai horror with plenty of sauce.
Pride
Two ambitious would-be opera singers duke it out amid wildly fluctuating fortunes (figuratively and literally) in Pride, a Japanese drama from director Shusuke Kaneko. Working class struggler Hikari Mitsushima (Death Note, Exte: Hair Extensions) and rich kid Stephanie (a singer in real life) star as the initially friendly, later combative, twosome who end up vying for the same romantic and musical opportunities. The Japan Times liked this one, calling it a “deliciously bumpy ride.”
Ander
Very little advance press for this Spanish film, but what exists is very positive. Ander is a farmer approaching middle age in the Basque country whose life is quiet and routine. An accident leaves him unable to work, so his family reluctantly hires a migrant laborer from Peru, leading to interpersonal revelations. Like My Beautiful Laundrette, this film crosses ethnic and class boundaries to unite ordinary people in life-changing relationships.
Villa Amalia
A composer and pianist (Isabelle Huppert) goes almost completely off the grid — existentially, not mentally — after discovering her husband’s infidelity and running into a childhood friend. Abandoning her career, Huppert takes a trek through Europe in search of inner peace, a journey that finishes at the title location, which brings its own complications. The implications of the story and the anomalous elements of the main character are sure to provoke debate among the few who see it.
5th Taiwan European Film Festival
This festival, a joint effort of the European Economic and Trade Office and the INFINE Art and Culture Exchange, is back. Feature films from all over Europe are on the menu, and it’s on a tour of university campuses and select other locations until Jan. 15. Screenings are in DVD format, but entry is free. Titles, times and locations are at www.infine-art.com/eufestival, though the English-language page is yet to be updated.
SEAL Team VI
A US counter-terrorist unit in Iraq just before Operation Desert Storm runs into grave danger (“Is there any other kind?”). Purportedly based on actual events. According to IMDb, debuting director Mark C. Andrews was also the film’s writer, producer, foley artist, underwater cameraman and assistant editor — who said auteurs died out? This DVD promotional release is at the Baixue theater in Ximending from tomorrow.
Seven hundred job applications. One interview. Marco Mascaro arrived in Taiwan last year with a PhD in engineering physics and years of experience at a European research center. He thought his Gold Card would guarantee him a foothold in Taiwan’s job market. “It’s marketed as if Taiwan really needs you,” the 33-year-old Italian says. “The reality is that companies here don’t really need us.” The Employment Gold Card was designed to fix Taiwan’s labor shortage by offering foreign professionals a combined resident visa and open work permit valid for three years. But for many, like Mascaro, the welcome mat ends at the door. A
The Western media once again enthusiastically forwarded Beijing’s talking points on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment two weeks ago that an attack by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Taiwan was an existential threat to Japan and would trigger Japanese military intervention in defense of Taiwan. The predictable reach for clickbait meant that a string of teachable moments was lost, “like tears in the rain.” Again. The Economist led the way, assigning the blame to the victim. “Takaichi Sanae was bound to rile China sooner rather than later,” the magazine asserted. It then explained: “Japan’s new prime minister is
NOV. 24 to NOV. 30 It wasn’t famine, disaster or war that drove the people of Soansai to flee their homeland, but a blanket-stealing demon. At least that’s how Poan Yu-pie (潘有秘), a resident of the Indigenous settlement of Kipatauw in what is today Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), told it to Japanese anthropologist Kanori Ino in 1897. Unable to sleep out of fear, the villagers built a raft large enough to fit everyone and set sail. They drifted for days before arriving at what is now Shenao Port (深奧) on Taiwan’s north coast,
Divadlo feels like your warm neighborhood slice of home — even if you’ve only ever spent a few days in Prague, like myself. A projector is screening retro animations by Czech director Karel Zeman, the shelves are lined with books and vinyl, and the owner will sit with you to share stories over a glass of pear brandy. The food is also fantastic, not just a new cultural experience but filled with nostalgia, recipes from home and laden with soul-warming carbs, perfect as the weather turns chilly. A Prague native, Kaio Picha has been in Taipei for 13 years and
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