Precious
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire to give the film its full title, is not easy to watch, but if you are looking for a cinematic experience to challenge glib optimism about the human condition, this is the movie for you. The performance by Gabourey Sidibe as the title character, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child, has already garnered intense critical acclaim, and other performances, including those by comedian Mo’Nique as Precious’ mother and, startlingly, Mariah Carey, as a social worker, seem all of a piece for a movie that is on track to becoming a definitive work about the early 21st-century American experience. Precious picked up two Oscars, a remarkable achievement for a film that skirts the edges of art house. But be warned: In Precious, hope is a distant and difficult prospect.
The Crazies
It is a question why George Romero would wish to preside over this inept remake of his own 1973 classic of the same name. Romero, who has an executive producer credit for this film, seems content to watch Breck Eisner, the director of such innocuous adventure fare as Sahara (2006), labor through yet another predictable take on the zombie genre. Critics have uniformly been unable to find anything new in his vision in terms of content or style. Stars Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, who lead a band of normal people out of the zombie infected regions.
Date Night
Despite the well-worn concept of a couple from the burbs having romance injected back into a humdrum existence when they visit the Big Apple, early reviews rate Date Night highly. Steve Carell and Tina Fey get caught up in a case of mistaken identity and plenty of comic goings-on for a mix of rom-com and adventure, with Mark Wahlberg stepping in to provide the muscle. Directed by Shawn Levy, who hits his stride in this film, despite a track record that includes The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at the Museum (2006).
It’s Complicated
The most complicated thing to work out about It’s Complicated is why it is so bad. After all, you have Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin in the lead roles as a divorced couple who have accidentally rediscovered their old spark, and Steve Martin as a possible suitor for Streep’s affections. There is acting talent to spare, but no chemistry. Director and writer Nancy Meyers specializes in deeply improbable romantic comedies with a veneer of sophistication. Her credits include Something’s Gotta Give (2003) and The Parent Trap (1998), which were reasonably appealing rom-coms that made good use of high-profile stars. Alec Baldwin as a laddish divorce lawyer playing against Streep’s tightly wound celebrity chef wife would seem to be a surefire hit, but the whole thing turns out to be a damp squib.
I Give My First Love to You (Boku no Hatsukoi Wo Kimi Ni Sasagu)
Japanese tearjerker based on a manga series, I Give My First Love to You pulls out all the stops to get you reaching for the tissues. Main character Takuma falls in love with Mayu, the daughter of his cardiologist. The reason Takuma is consulting with a cardiologist? He’s got a dickey heart — he might not make it past 20. As kids the two promise to marry, but after Takuma realizes that his life is likely to be cut short he begins to distance himself from Mayu, hoping that she will find a more suitable life partner.
Little Nicholas
(Le Petit Nicolas)
Having had its Taiwan premiere as part of the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival, Little Nicholas hits movie theaters today. The title character is based on illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempe for a French children’s book by Rene Goscinny. Sempe’s illustrations are hugely popular in Taiwan, rivaling Jimmy Liao (幾米) for the cute but bittersweet portrayal of an urban everyman. Humor and cuteness are all major selling points of this story of a little boy who suffers sudden anxiety when he faces the arrival of a little brother or sister. With the aid of school friends he concocts various ways of dealing with the competition. The film has already proved hugely successful with French audiences, and the appeal of retro European fashions and a slightly dated view of childhood innocence along with Sempe’s established reputation in Taiwan are set to make this a family favorite here as well.
Taipei Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival
(台北金馬奇幻影展)
Organized by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展), Golden Horse Fantastic celebrates the wacky, bloody and sexy aspects of cinema with a program that focuses mostly on B-movies and horror flicks, along with a mini retrospective on Roman Polanski’s early works and a segment of movies selected by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) titled Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Favorite Fantasy Films. Check out www.ghfff.org.tw for more information. NT$160 tickets are available at the door or through ibon kiosks at 7-Eleven stores. Runs until April 22.
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s