Wrath of the Titans
Why does Sam Worthington do it? For that matter, why are names Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Rosamund Pike and Bill Nighy on the cast list of this swords-and-sandals fantasy based on Greek mythology. A sequel to Clash of the Titans, which received less than stellar reviews from the critics, this new film perseveres in very much the same format, playing to a fan base whose main concern is big monsters rampaging across the screen in 3D. One critic described Clash as “there are titans, they clash,” and an equally succinct summary of Wrath is that “there are titans, they are very angry.” Worthington’s Perseus is the only person who can prevent the utter destruction of the world by the angry titans and various monsters.
The Lorax
Based on characters created by that genius of the nonsense fable Dr Seuss (real name Theodor Seuss Geisel), The Lorax is yet another in a line of high production value 3D animations. Judging from the initial response, the film looks likely to establish itself among the classics, along with Toy Story and Wall-E. With a voice cast that includes pop star Taylor Swift and actors Zac Efron and Danny DeVito, and animated by the same company that made Despicable Me, The Lorax manages to step out of the kiddy entertainment market segment and appeal to a relatively broad audience. The cute animal humor has mostly been done before, as has the cautionary ecological tale, but the whole thing has been put together with a degree of love and care for the material that makes it more than just the sum of its somewhat derivative parts.
The Intouchables
French movie about relations between a white paraplegic and his black carer that manages to pick up on the most egregious racial stereotypes and turn back the clock many decades on issues of racism. Created by writer and director Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the film plays up stock gags of a boy from the projects taking pot shots at high culture, and Omar Sy, a fine actor and appealing screen presence, gets led into an unseemly Uncle Tom role. A score with plenty of catchy tunes and good acting give The Intouchables an appealing veneer, but that’s not enough to gloss over the ideological problems at the heart of the film.
2012 Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival (台灣國際兒童影展)
The 2012 Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival (台灣國際兒童影展) opens today with a diverse lineup of 89 animation, documentary, short and fictional films, as well as television programs, selected from 27 countries. Tickets cost NT$50 per film, available through FamilyMart (全家) FamiPort kiosks. Screenings will be at Vieshow Cinemas Taipei Xinyi (台北信義威秀影城).
On the Net: www.ticff.org.tw
The Billionaire (Top Secret: Wai Roon Pun Lan)
Described as a Thai version of The Social Network, The Billionaire tracks the rise of social misfit Tob Ittipat, a computer game addict compulsively trying out all kinds of get-rich-quick schemes. Parents, teachers and even his girlfriend give up on him, but then he stumbles on a recipe for making a seaweed snack that he distributes through 7-Eleven and strikes gold. The film makes the melodramatic most of Ittipat’s early life, failing in one venture after another, building up to the inevitable big payoff. Directed by Songyos Sugmakanan, the film is a slick production that packs a few surprises.
Vincent will Meer
German road movie about a young man suffering from Tourette’s syndrome who takes off with two other residents from the care facility at which they are staying. All three have their own unique problems, and it is from these quirks and tics that the movie derives much of its humor. Using mental illness as a source of comedy is a difficult path to take, and director Ralf Huettner tries to avoid giving offense by making his characters so one-dimensional that we don’t really care about them.
Taiwan’s overtaking of South Korea in GDP per capita is not a temporary anomaly, but the result of deeper structural problems in the South Korean economy says Chang Young-chul, the former CEO of Korea Asset Management Corp. Chang says that while it reflects Taiwan’s own gains, it also highlights weakening growth momentum in South Korea. As design and foundry capabilities become more important in the AI era, Seoul risks losing competitiveness if it relies too heavily on memory chips. IMF forecasts showing Taiwan widening its lead over South Korea have fueled debate in Seoul over memory chip dependence, industrial policy and
“China wants to unify with Taiwan at the lowest possible cost, and it currently believes that unification will become easier and less costly as time passes,” wrote Amanda Hsiao (蕭嫣然) and Bonnie Glaser in Foreign Affairs (“Why China Waits”) this month, describing how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is playing the long game in its quest to seize Taiwan. This has been a favorite claim of many writers over the years, easy to argue because it is so trite. Very obviously, if the PRC isn’t attacking Taiwan, it is waiting. But for what? Hsiao and Glaser’s main point is trivial,
And so, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s trip to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), all the experts on the Strait of Hormuz suddenly became experts on US-China-Taiwan relations. The Internet has certainly expanded human knowledge. Lots of these sudden experts made noise this week about Trump’s words after the meeting with PRC dictator Xi Jin-ping (習近平). Trump is going to sell out Taiwan! Longtime Taiwan commentator J. Michael Cole summed the situation up neatly in the Guardian: “We need to keep in mind that he has a tendency to say many things — sometimes contradicting himself within
It took 12 years and months of standing in the same mountain location for director Liang Chieh-te (梁皆得) to capture a few seconds of footage: Taiwan’s largest resident raptor locking talons with its mate and spinning through the air in a courtship ritual. With only about 1,000 left in the wild and very short flight windows, the mountain hawk-eagle remains among Taiwan’s most elusive birds. The species generally produces only one offspring per year. Using forest cameras, the film crew and research teams document the arduous process the monogamous pairs go through for the chick to hatch and grow up, weathering
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