A helicopter shootout, street explosions and a hijacked airplane — these are common elements in Hollywood action flicks, but they are rarely, if ever, attempted by Taiwanese cinema. That is, until now. An action blockbuster released for the Lunar New Year, Black and White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault (痞子英雄首部曲:全面開戰) by Tsai Yueh-hsun (蔡岳勳) successfully turns up the heat with action sequences the like of which have never been seen in local productions. The fireworks are complemented by a star-studded cast led by Mark Chao (趙又廷) and China’s Huang Bo (黃渤).
There is already talk of a sequel as the current movie is billed as the prequel to Tsai’s popular TV drama Black and White (痞子英雄).
Set in a fictional metropolis named Harbor City, the movie begins with an illegal diamond deal gone wrong as small-time gangster Xu Dafu, played by Huang, finds there is more than one buyer salivating over his smuggled gems. A group of military men intercept the case of diamonds, killing everyone on the spot but Xu. He is rescued by Hero Wu, played by Chao, a young, upright police officer who believes there is no gray area in justice.
Photo courtesy of Universe Entertainment
It does not take long before the two are targeted and chased by rival hit men and militants.
The story unfolds when beautiful scientist Fan Ning (Angelababy, aka Yang Ying, 楊穎) comes along, explaining that the whole hullabaloo is not about the diamonds, but what else the case contains: an anti-matter bomb that could destroy humanity if it falls into the wrong hands.
The villains, in this case, are a militant group from Pawanda, a make-believe country in Southeast Asia, which is planning to set off the bomb in the city.
PhotoS courtesy of Universe Entertainment
Naturally, fingers are crossed that the unlikely duo will save the day.
Mostly shot in Kaohsiung with a hefty budget of NT$350 million, the movie is an ambitious project produced by a skilled crew of filmmakers.
The action choreography was created by French martial artist and actor Cyril Raffaelli, who works closely with Luc Besson, while a professional pyrotechnics studio from Hong Kong supervised the explosion scenes.
PhotoS courtesy of Universe Entertainment
Director Tsai and his team spent NT$30 million to have an aircraft mock-up made in the US. Now based in Kaoshiung, the plane is Taiwan’s first to be built specially for movies.
Needless to say, the resulting movie is packed with adrenaline-pumping action, all undertaken without stuntmen.
Chao is definitely an action star in the making. He jumps from a bridge, spins a car at high speed and drives through explosions.
There is a sparkling on-screen chemistry between Chao and Huang as the righteous cop and the smart-mouthed gangster. The two partners progress through finely choreographed set pieces that make good use of the diverse landscapes that the port city offers. From industrial docks, ultra modern skyscrapers to a bustling urban center, Kaohsiung looks like an amusement park for filmmakers, which will probably please the movie’s sponsor, the city’s government.
Though the action is top-notch, more often than not, the film prizes style over content.
The story and the motives of the characters are not properly outlined, and plot lines appear and disappear without sufficient exposition. As a result, the film gets a bit baffling toward the end as to what groups of characters are involved.
Nevertheless, director Tsai and his team deserve a round of applause for producing a slick Hollywood-style production.
Apart from Black and White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault, the Lunar New Year season sees a slew of Taiwanese movies hitting the big screen to entertain the holiday crowds. Both Flying Dragon, Dancing Phoenix (龍飛鳳舞) [see Around Town, page 13] and Din Tao: Leader of the Parade (陣頭) focus on local culture in the form of gezai opera and temple fairs, respectively. Meanwhile, Bang Bang Formosa (寶島大爆走) and Perfect Two (新天生一對) by slapstick director Chu Yen-ping (朱延平) target people with a taste for farcical comedy. Finally, romance blossoms in The Soul of Bread (愛的麵包魂), starring rising star Michelle Chen (陳妍希), and Doze Niu’s (鈕承澤) star-studded Love (愛), will be released on Feb. 10.
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
“Taiwan’s Opposition Leader Comes to US With a Message Straight Out of Beijing” read a May 31 headline in the Wall Street Journal. Top US administration officials and members of Congress almost certainly read the WSJ, and if there was a bullet point takeaway that people in Washington should absorb ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) arrival in DC on June 9, that headline is it. The last few columns have discussed this very topic, and the timing is not coincidental. While those top officials likely do not read the Taipei Times, judging by the number
With weighty, anxiety-inducing geopolitical topics dominating the headlines, checking in on the wild and weird state of local politics can take some of the edge off. This November’s elections will determine who will be in charge of fixing potholes in your neighborhood, not the potholes in Taiwan’s complicated geopolitical space. Recently, after an online interview with a Taipei-based journalist, I commented that Taipei journalists never go further than the MRT can take them. He laughed and agreed. Naturally, the Taipei mayoral race is eating up much of the press attention. TAIPEI CITY Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) has
As someone who normally steers clear of books with “transcendence” or “metaphysics” in their subtitles, this reviewer — a casual observer of local belief systems since the 1990s — found Fabian Graham’s Money God Temples in Taiwan a challenging read. Those who’ve only dipped their toes into temple culture will likely need to parse several sections with special care if they’re to keep up with the author, a British ethnographic researcher whose previous books have investigated religious practices among ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. This scholarly volume examines a facet of Taiwan’s religious landscape that didn’t exist a century ago, and
RSS