Gangster Rock (混混天團)
Following on from Buttonman (鈕扣人), a local gangster flick that managed to secure an international release of sorts back in 2008, director Joe Chien (錢人豪) is back with yet another vastly improbable gangland movie about a debt collector, Ah-Hau, played by Singaporean actor Leon Jay Williams (立威廉), who becomes involved with the music industry when he is asked to collect repayments on loans made to musician Ah-Hai — played by Van Fan (范逸臣), reprising his role from Cape No. 7 (海角七號) — who has been set up to take the fall for debts incurred by his record company. The two men end up hitting it off, and Ah-Hau decides to help his new friend sell records and organize concerts to pay off the debts, only to discover that the music industry is even more corrupt than the life he is used to.
Korean Film Festival 2010
A great selection of films from South Korea will be offered up by courtesy of film distributor CatchPlay (which also brings us District 13: Ultimatum this week). Most of the films are relatively recent, and highlight the stars, both in front and behind the camera, that have made South Korean film and television such runaway successes in Taiwan. The films range across gritty and violent character studies such as Joon Yang Ik’s Breathless (Ddongpari), young love/lust in The Five Senses of Eros (Ogamdo), dark fantasy in Hansel and Gretal, soppy tear-jerkers such as More Than Blue (Seulpeumboda deo seulpeun Iyagi), which reportedly rates off the charts if you want a good cry, and, as they say, much, much more. Sixteen films in all will be presented. For detailed information on the program, visit www.catchplay.com/korean. Screenings run through May 7 and will be held at the SKCineplex (台北新光影城) located at 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號).
No More Cry (Nakumonka)
A Japanese film about two brothers separated at birth who find their separate ways in life, one as the potential heir to a successful restaurant business and the other as a comedian. When the brothers discover the existence of one another, a chain of events is triggered that is intended to have audiences laughing through their tears. The script is by Kankuro Kudo, who has a strong reputation as a writer and director, but No More Cry seems to lose itself in stodgy melodrama, making its 134-minute running time something of a trial.
A Pierrot (Juryoku piero)
Released as A Pierrot, this bizarre thriller is about two brothers, one a geneticist, the other a cleaner of roadside graffiti, who become involved in an investigation into a series of arson attacks. The clues point back into their own childhood memories. Based on a best-selling novel by Kotaro Isaka, many of whose mystery novels have been adapted for the silver screen. The film has done well at Japanese film festivals, and includes a respectable line up of young acting talent, including Ryo Kase, who had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima.
Mai Mai Miracle (Maimai Shinko to Sen-nen
no Maho)
The mainstream release of a Japanese animated film that was featured as part of the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival earlier this month. Mai Mai Miracle is based on a book by author Nobuko Takagi about a nine-year-old girl, Shinko, who discovers that the place she lives is connected directly to the distant past. She and a friend make a magical journey back to the Heian Period, more than 1,000 years ago, when the writer Sei Shonagon wrote her famous Pillow Book, a text which provides inspiration for some elements within the film.
The Descent: Part 2
The sequel to what was by a fairly decent take on the horror genre. Part 2 picks up where the original left off, with a rescue mission, including one traumatized survivor, heading back into the dark, clammy caves of the Appalachian mountains to find out what happened to a caving expedition. The fate of the women who made up the expedition was covered in graphic detail in the first film, in which director Neil Marshall also exhausted most of the movie potential of the “chicks with picks” idea. The standard format does not prevent him from producing a couple of real scares, so if that’s what you’re looking for, The Descent: Part 2 will probably do the job.
Toy Story
Marketing has reached a whole new level with this week’s release of Toy Story 1 and 2 in a double bill, priming audiences for the release of Toy Story 3, which is scheduled to hit screens on June 19 (the original Toy Story came out in 1995). As a trip down memory lane, the double feature, which opens today, might serve as a pleasant enough journey, but the upgrade to digital 3D is probably irrelevant, given that Toy Story remains, in its 2D version, one of the milestones of modern animation filmmaking.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50