New Year’s Eve
Similar in concept and execution to Valentine’s Day, which was released here in February. And that’s not surprising since it is by the same director, Garry Marshall, who also brought us such urban romantic fantasies as Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride and The Princess Diaries. If you liked any of these films, then you are well on your way to liking New Year’s Eve. Otherwise, you will probably be disappointed by the massive cast providing the kind of solid but disengaged acting that shows the true talent-destroying power of Hollywood. There are Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, and a whole host of others who are all capable of better work. For Sarah Jessica Parker, this is just more Sex in the City, and of course there is the usual celebration of the diversity, vitality and magic that some people seem to associate with New York.
Essential Killing
A challenging new film by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski that looks political at first glance, but the director has stated that his primary intention was to make a study of the “struggle of man against many.” Starring Vincent Gallo as an Afghan prisoner on the run from the US military in an unnamed Eastern European country after escaping from a prison vehicle. The film has virtually no dialogue (except for vicious interrogation scenes at the beginning), and not a single word is spoken by Gallo, whose character suffers appalling hardships trying to stay alive in a frozen wilderness. The morality of the US presence in Afghanistan, the use of torture and extraordinary rendition are all part of the narrative, but not really central to the thrust of the film, which transcends any particular conflict. The film picked up a best actor award for Gallo at Venice, where the director also received the jury award.
Dream House
“A modest effort” is about as complimentary as the critics were able to get about Dream House, a film that on paper looks hugely promising. Directed by Jim Sheridan, who came to prominence with My Left Foot and continued to impress with films like In the Name of the Father and The Boxer. While he has a superb cast to work with, including Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts, Sheridan seems out of his depth in the generic horror genre. Nice family moves into an idyllic new house that hides terrible secrets; bad things begin to happen. It’s all been done before, and much better.
My Back Page
Dense, nuanced, atmospheric and long, Nobuhiro Yamashita’s My Back Page paints a picture of Japan’s student protest movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which had some similarities with activities in the US at the time. Through a story of Sawada (Satoshi Tsumabuki), a young journalist finding his way around the protests, and Umeyama (Kenichi Matsuyama), an activist who feels the pull of more radical action, Yamashita takes his time in building to an energetic and powerful climax. Outstanding performances by the two male leads, while Yamashita, who is best known for his shoe-string budget indie comedies, is not afraid to dwell on the details of the political ambivalence of the period.
Almanya — Welcome to Germany
A comedy about Turkish immigrants in Germany by sisters Yasemin and Nesrin Samdereli parades and gently mocks various cultural stereotypes in its twin story about two cousins trying to work out their cultural identity. Although generally sympathetic to its characters on both German and Turkish sides of the cultural divide, the film is happy to look on the bright side of things, keeping the darker aspects of ethnic misunderstandings well in the background. Amusing and lighthearted.
Blood Prison
Based on a manga series by Masashi Kishimoto, Blood Prison is the fifth installment of the cinema adaptation of the Naruto: Shippuden series about a young ninja who aims to gain recognition as a master of his craft. In this installment, Naruto is framed for a series of murders and is placed in the notorious Blood Prison where he must prove his innocence or lose his life.
Peak: The Rescuers
A competent mountain rescue movie based on a manga by Shinichi Ishizuka. As the title suggests, it portrays the bravery of a mountain rescue team who put their lives at risk to save a group of climbers stranded on a mountainside with temperatures falling and bad weather brewing. There is plenty of heavy melodrama, with a good-looking cast trying its best to pretend that lives really are at stake. They don’t quite manage to do that, but that doesn’t stop the director from doing his best to wring some tears from the audience.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built