Mulan (花木蘭)
The legend of Hua Mulan returns to home soil after a spell with Disney’s animation team and is a much more sober affair. The young lady dons men’s clothes and signs up for the military in place of her sick father, rising through the ranks and encountering all manner of conflict — personal and physical. Worth a peek if you’re a fan of historical battle epics, even if this one is scaled down somewhat, but anyone looking for a feminist subtext can forget it. Stars Vickie Zhao (趙薇), a solid actress but way too good-looking to convince as a cross-dressing military genius, and directed by leading Hong Kong cinematographer Jingle Ma (馬楚成).
Hachiko: A Dog’s Story
After a string of Japanese cute animal movies, here’s an American production with possibly wider international appeal, though it is based on a Japanese legend and movie (it premiered in Japan, but its US release next week is disappointingly low-key). Richard Gere — delightful piece of casting — is a professor who adopts a stray dog. The legend is no secret: The professor dies, but the dog returns to the local railway station every day for a decade to wait for his master to come home. The surprise is that this version enjoyed strong audience feedback. Great supporting cast (Joan Allen as Gere’s wife, Jason Alexander, veteran Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) and directed by Lasse Hallstrom (appropriately enough), director of the well-loved My Life as a Dog (appropriately enough) from 1985, who has happily retained Japanese elements in the story. Warning: The word is that this movie will leave audiences in tears.
The Box
A stranger comes to the door of the home of Cameron Diaz and hubbie James Marsden, gives them a box with a button and informs them that pushing the button will make them instantly wealthy — but lead to the death of a stranger. From here things get complex, compromised and philosophical, as the protagonists’ moral compass spins ever more unsteadily. Sounds a bit like Peter Greenaway meets Hellraiser without most of the gore, though director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) might flinch at the comparison. Based on a story by Richard Matheson that was previously filmed as a Twilight Zone installment.
Pardon My French
The latest French comedy to hit Taiwanese screens stars Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello, also seen recently in Park Benches) as a sufferer of writer’s block so profound that she begins using a different first name. To make matters worse, she inspires an infatuation in a younger woman who just won’t stop being of use. Plot is not as important as tone and performances in this one, which should entertain Francophiles who enjoy offbeat material. Original title: Un Chat un Chat.
Ghost Train
Can’t remember the last time an Indonesian film enjoyed a commercial release in Taiwan, so this ghostly ride is special for at least one reason. Horror fans might be interested in the grafting of other Asian filmmakers’ horror motifs onto an Indonesian setting, though even more mainstream audiences might end up playing count-the-cliche. A girl disappears after boarding a late train; her sister and some dopey friends decide that they are best equipped to track her down despite paranormal activity in the paying area of the station. The Midnight Meat Train did all this better, and a lot bloodier.
The Ultimate Fight
We missed two Baixue theater offerings last week — one an apparent prequel to the German TV production Day of Disaster; the other an obscure animated film about dinosaurs (“Fantastic for all the family,” said the ad, even if the same can’t be said about the theater itself) — but if you’re desperate for some sub-DVD-standard fare in a stuffy, nearly deserted theater, then no look further than The Ultimate Fight (1998, also known as The Process), starring kickboxing icon Ernie Reyes Jr and Ernie Reyes Sr as a character called “Senior.” Reyes Jr is a foreigner who plunges into gangland violence on arrival in the US. It’s the kind of action movie that has a character called “Hitler,” but don’t knock Mr Reyes: His latest gig was stunt work on Avatar.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless