Les Spectacles du Reel (POP Cinema)
Another of the regular POP Cinema mini-festivals, Les Spectacles du Reel is the first time that a foreign curator has been invited to take charge of the program. Jean Perret, who only recently stepped down as founding director of Visions du Reel, the highly influential documentary film festival held in Nyon, Switzerland since 1995, is a frequent visitor to Taiwan. He has put together a program of documentary and documentary-style films that opens today at SPOT — Taipei Film House (台北光點), 18, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市中山北路二段18號), and runs until Nov. 5. Les Spectacles du Reel overlaps with the 2010 Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival (2010紀錄片雙年展), which opens on Oct. 22. Tickets are NT$200 (NT$170 for SPOT members), and books of 10 tickets are available for NT$1,800. Tickets can be bought at SPOT, through NTCH ticket outlets or online at www.artsticket.com.tw. Full program details are available at www.twfilm.org/spectacles.
RED
The big-buck, big-bang release of the week seems to be yet another reworking of a tried and tested formula. First we had Space Cowboys (2000), which brought Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner together in a movie of old guys kicking ass that was entertaining for the charm with which the old-timers had aged rather than any intrinsic cinematic quality. More recently we had Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables (2010), which brought together aging musclemen in a cigar-chomping romp through every action movie cliche ever invented. Now comes RED, which we quickly find out means “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” and is a spooks version of the above, and in terms of star power, is equally impressive. Bruce Willis mans the helm, but among the other oldies packing guns are Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren, all playing retired agents who are about to get whacked because of what they know. But, of course, the youngsters who want to take them down stand no chance. Directed by Robert Schwentke (Flight Plan (2005) and The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)), who has proven more than adept at combining pace and complexity, RED promises to provide excellent entertainment.
Grown Ups
Reunion comedy starring usual suspects Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade, along with the rather surprising presence of Salma Hayek in a predictable comedy about five former basketball teammates who get together after a couple of decades and discover how different they have become and that the boys haven’t grown up. Lots of slapstick with men being boys and kids finding the childish antics of their fathers thoroughly embarrassing.
Leo’s Room (El Cuarto de Leo)
Top-notch film by Uruguayan writer-director Enrique Buchichio about a young boy trying to explore his sexuality without actually committing to anything. Protagonist Leo (Martin Rodriguez) holes up in his room after having been dumped by his girlfriend and finds acceptance though an online gay community. A relationship blossoms, but Leo can’t stand the glare of attention that coming out of the closet might bring. Nobody else, including Leo’s mother seems to care very much whether he is gay or not, which is an appealing change from the angst-ridden treatment such material is usually given. Leo finds some degree of comfort when he meets up with Caro, a childhood sweetheart who is suffering from depression because of a family tragedy. Mutual consolation through shared music and platonic hugs provides an undercurrent of bliss not to be found in more conventional romance. The director manages to avoid stereotyping and sentimentality in this carefully crafted mood piece that is both gentle and incisive. Although superficially a gay interest movie, Leo’s Room should have much wider appeal.
LOL (Laughing Out Loud)
French teen movie characterized by a plethora of beautiful people, a glossy contemporary veneer and some rather flat jokes. The cast is led by Sophie Marceau, gorgeous single mother of Lola (Christa Theret), a blossoming teen entering, along with her flawless and well-dressed peers, the world of sexual awareness and social independence. As the title suggests, this is a film for the tech-savvy text-message generation, and finds much of its humor in the fact that all the technology in the world does not make meaningful communication any easier than it was in the old days. A little too smug for its own good.
Child’s Eye
Yet another supernatural spectacle from the fevered mind of Oxide Pang (彭順), one of the most prolific directors of Chinese-language horror flicks working today. Despite his credentials, there seems to be little that is original about his newest outing, which features three young couples checking into a dodgy Bangkok hotel after their travel plans are disrupted by political disturbances. Strange children start to appear, boyfriends disappear, and the film’s color palate shifts to the dirty brown and mucus green much favored by the director as a way of building atmosphere. The cast includes well-known singers Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) and Elanne Kwong (江若琳) and actors Gordon Tung (林家棟) and Shawn Yue (余文樂), whose star appeal will make up for any lack of real frights.
Gintama: The Movie
Based on a manga that mixes samurai epic and science fiction, Gintama has already been filmed in a 189-episode animated television series. The story unfolds against an Edo-period setting; its point of departure is the conquest of Japan by aliens called the Amanto. The main character is Gintoki Sakata, who with a number of others, fights a war of resistance against the aliens, frequently rescuing maidens in distress. An expensive production made in collaboration with Warner Japan, Gintama: The Movie broke box office records for anime when released in Japan earlier this year.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: Awakening of the Trailblazer
For those who take their toys seriously, Gundam 00 breaks out new designs in this venerable anime and merchandising franchise. The Gundam series began in 1979, and centers around the exploits of a paramilitary organization called Celestial Being, whose agents don advanced Transformer-like “mobile suits” and do battle with a variety of adversaries, all in the quest for world peace. This is the first full-length feature in over a decade (the franchise has remained active through television and toys), but is highly anticipated, especially for its wide-screen high-definition animation format and the new model mobile suits that it introduces. High-quality visuals might make this flick appealing, but as the narrative draws on a highly complex backstory, first-time viewers might the film a little hard to follow.
Lourdes
Blurring the line between fiction and documentary, Lourdes, originally scheduled for release in August, is a film about the famous Catholic pilgrimage site in the Pyrenees. A woman visits Lourdes with a half-hope that the magic of the place will bring her some relief from the multiple sclerosis that keeps her confined to a wheelchair. Directed by Jessica Hausner, the film moves forward at a leisurely pace, letting the vast complex of Lourdes, home to shysters hawking cheap salvation, and a real concern for the Christian ministry and the working of faith, tell their own stories.
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby