Brave
Pixar and Disney are back with another stirring tale of adventure laced with humor, this time set in a Scotland of the mythical past. The story of the feisty Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald, whose charming Scottish brogue alone is worth the price of admission), who disdains the advances of various suitors and whose willfulness unleashes a terrible evil into the land. Of course, she shows her mettle by stepping up to this challenge. A strong UK cast includes Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane and Julie Walters, give the characters depth and appeal, and though the story itself lacks a little in originality, and the fact that the attraction of the Celtic Revival score might be limited, production values are what you can expect from the makers of Toy Story and Wall-E.
Streetdance 2
Classy sequel to the surprisingly effective Streetdance, with a largely new cast, but a story of boy meets girl, rivalry and a big competition where the underdog proves that they can stand up to the biggest and best has played out innumerable times before. The 3D is used with restraint, and proves remarkably effective in highlighting the choreography, with effect achieved through the athleticism of the dancers (many street dance professionals) rather than through fancy camera work. A vast array of dancers from around the world are brought together by protagonist Ash (Falk Hentschel) to beat a crew calling themselves Invincible. Eighty-five minute running time keeps things brisk but does not provide enough time for characters to be given much more than a rough sketch.
Cesare deve morire
Walking the difficult line between documentary and drama, this new production by veteran directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani is a fascinating behind the scenes look at the staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar by inmates of the high security Rebibbia prison in Rome, home to Mafiosi, drug dealers and murderers, who are encouraged to provide their own take on the themes of loyalty and betrayal as they adapt the play, bringing in the rhythms of their native speech and highlighting aspects of their own lives. A number of the inmates turn in powerful performances on stage, though some of the supposedly casual comments seem too scripted to be taken entirely at face value. The film bubbles with ideas, which can be read has an indirect commentary about the nature of contemporary Italian politics, a meditation about the value of art and its psychological costs and much else.
Cheri
Director Stephen Frears (The Queen) and screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Atonement), the duo who brought us the delights of Dangerous Liaisons are back with a Belle Epoque romp starring Michelle Pfeiffer as an arch seductress who is commissioned by a rich and gossipy matron (Kathy Bates) to teach her 19-year-old son a thing or two about women. He learns all too fast and the scandal rings around elegant Paris society. Despite the extraordinary talent that has been brought together for this production, the concept and execution is all just a little too twee, with none of the barb and bite of their previous Dangerous collaboration.
Hotaru The Movie: It’s Only A Little Light In My Life
Yet another manga-based movie from Japan featuring two well-loved characters Hotaru Amemiya (Haruka Ayase), known for her school girl looks and large cup size, and Seichi Takano (Naohito Fujiki) taking a vacation and living their own private version of the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck classic Roman Holiday. This is a sequel to Hotaru no Hikari, in which Amemiya, a ditzy interior designer with no interest in relationships falls in love with her boss, who she marries at the end of the first film. This movie is their honeymoon, which in the nature of such productions, injects new interest into the story simply by shifting to an exotic location. Primarily for fans of Ayase and her mammary assets.
Father’s Lullaby (手機裡的眼淚)
Feature debut by architect and composer Simon Chang (張世), this drama pondering the capriciousness of fate is so full of coincidence that a total suspension of disbelief is required to engage with this story of a Mashiro, a student at a medical school in Taiwan who falls into despair following the March 11, 2011 tsunami in Japan. He is persuaded to take an occasional nuisance call from a Japanese girl with a fatal illness by a couple who he meets at the hospital, who have been battered after trying to intercede in a case of child abuse. Melodramatic tropes abound in a story that is riding the wave of the regional appeal of Japanese actor Tamio.
Steve Jobs Visionary Genius
This is a cinematic hagiography of Apple computer’s visionary leader. The film seems to go out of its way to see only the positive aspects of Steve Jobs and his accomplishments. It looks both at his private and public life, but frames the story as an epic struggle of a genius fighting against the constraints of mortality, foregoing any meaningful exploration of the nuts and bolts of his achievements as a marketing whiz kids or as one of the more extraordinary human beings of the 21st century.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s