Whatever Works
Woody Allen is back in Manhattan after his cinematic sojourn in Europe that gave us Match Point (2005), Scoop (2006) and Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008). With Whatever Works, Allen is revisiting a philosophical vein, and uses Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld) to present Boris Yellnikoff, a more than usually abrasive take on the usual Allen character fighting off the emptiness of life with a dark wit and a taste for beautiful women. In this case, the woman is Melody (Evan Rachel Wood), who helps smooth the edge off a work that Allen fans may either like or hate for what seem to be its intentionally rough edges.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Formulaic action adventure based on a video game of the same name, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time manages to defy the low expectations of such adaptations and turn in a respectable piece of exciting family cinema. With the unexpected choice of Jake Gyllenhaal in the leading role, the action hero is given some degree of depth to justify our sympathy in his peril, though, since this is a Disney film, we know that all’s going to be well in the end. Supporting cast features A-listers Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina who are out to have some fun, and this is also passed on to the audience.
Women.Us Film Festival (Women • 我們影展)
Running until June 11, the Women.Us Film Festival at the Wonderful Cinema (真善美戲院, formerly the Majestic) features six art house films, many of them Oscar nominees with a strong female theme or about children. Titles include Seraphine, about painter Seraphine de Senlis, Caramel (Sukkar Banat), a romantic comedy about the daily lives of five Lebanese women living in Beirut, Fauteuils d’Orchestre, about a young woman’s discovery of Paris’ glamorous theater world, Vitus, about a young piano prodigy who rebels against his parents, A Touch of Spice (Politiki Kouzina), about a young Greek boy who discovers the power of the culinary arts, and Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic film with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson adrift in Tokyo. Tickets are NT$170. The festival runs through to June 11. Screening times can be found at www.movie.com.tw/wonderful.
Comedy Makes You Cry (拍賣春天)
Local sexy comedy that has been hailed by NOWnews as a radical departure from Taiwan cinema’s fatal passion for art house sensibilities. With it bevy of sexy ladies, including Hollywood actress Bai Ling (白靈), TV personality Lin Mei-shiu (林美秀) and model Lene Lai (賴琳恩), a story about working girls trying to make ends meet, a touch of black humor and a heavy dose of sentiment, this film clearly has the mass market firmly in its sights. As a venture into the mainstream, the heavy emphasis on innuendo, tits and ass might make lovers of Taiwanese cinema cry for all the wrong reasons.
Nodame 2
The sequel to Nodame, which was released in Taiwan on March 5, this film is based on a best-selling manga about romance and the minor tribulations of a down-at-heel orchestra taken over by an ambitious new conductor. A major selling point of the film version is the locations, with the story taking in the musical capitals of Europe, including Vienna, Prague and Paris. Slapstick comedy, a good-looking young cast and romantic contretemps mixed in with easy listening classical favorites are likely to make this an appealing concoction.
2nd Cross Strait Film Festival
(2010第二屆兩岸電影展)
The 2nd Cross Strait Film Festival will open today at Showtime Cinema (今日秀泰影城) located at 52 Ermei Street, Taipei City (台北市峨眉街52號). Tickets for all screenings at the festival, which runs until June 1, have already sold out. More information can be found at blog.sina.com.tw/csfe2010.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist