District 13 — Ultimatum (Banlieue 13 — Ultimatum)
Luc Besson gives us plenty of style and some good action sequences held together in what might generously be called a plot that is about nefarious dealings in the French government put right by an alliance of street gangs under the guidance of super cop Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli). Don’t expect it to make too much sense. All the racial stereotypes also come out of the woodwork, with Arian Nation, Asian, Latino, black and Islamic crime syndicates all sporting ethnic/punk fashions. It’s pretty good humored, and Tomaso and sidekick Leito (David Belle) have some seriously appealing moves. The pace is frenetic and at 101 minutes, it’s over before you start asking yourself too many questions.
The Back-up Plan
Originally scheduled to open last week,
this Jennifer Lopez vehicle about a single woman who finalizes
her artificial insemination plans on the same day
as she meets the man of her dreams — in this case Australian hunk Alex O’Loughlin — seems off-puttingly gynecological, and
is only made worse by a script and acting that has made-for-TV written all over it. Some good supporting performances, but
no chemistry in the
lead roles.
The Maid (La Nana)
A Chilean film about the lot of a domestic helper, this low-key work has impressed critics. In addition to a slew of Latin American awards, it also picked up the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema category for director Sebasian Silva and Special Jury Prize for lead actress Catalina Saavedra at the Sundance Film Festival last year. The story of a maid who has been with the same family for 23 years, facing rivalry from a new, younger home helper looks deeply into the tensions of an intimate and yet unequal relationship. Violence simmers beneath the surface and little household secrets make life uncomfortable for all.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
If you haven’t had enough of Freddy Krueger, then here is yet another dose. It is 25 years and a million miles from the original Wes Craven feature, and the primal fear once inspired by Krueger has now become the stuff of pop culture. Directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay, the volume is turned up on all the familiar riffs from the previous Nightmare movies, but really it’s just more of the same. The addition of CGI effects in this latest version is generally agreed to be less than successful, and while the rest of the movie is perfectly competent, Freddy Krueger is no match for the weight
of history.
Romantic Women Film Festival (善變女人心影展)
A film festival organized by the art house Wonderful Theater (真善美戲院, formerly The Majestic) brings together a gaggle of recent art house releases under a single banner, all relating to love, however tenuously. Films include Breakfast on Pluto, A French Gigolo, Facing Window, Black Ice, Irina Palm, The Valet, The Unknown Woman, Rabbit Without Ears, and Whatever Lola Wants. The festival runs until May 28. Books of four tickets are available for NT$600, and eight tickets for NT$1,080. For more information about screening times, visit the festival Web site at www.movie.com.tw/wonderful.
Welcome
This French film with dialogue in French, English and Kurdish, Welcome has had a successful run on the European festival circuit. A drama dealing with love amid the chaos of the largely Middle Eastern refugee camps around Calais, Welcome tells the story of Kurdish boy Bilal, who, after a massive trek across Europe, faces the final hurdle of reaching England. He decides to swim the Channel, and gets help from swimming instructor Simon, who is in the throes of a divorce. A strong script and acting, along with sensitive handling by director Philippe Lioret, make a topical issue come to life.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and