Resident Evil: Retribution
Female action heroes are in pretty short supply, and if you except megastar Angelina Jolie, then the queen of this small category is indubitably Milla Jovovich, who seems to have been genetically engineered for the express purpose of killing people in exotic ways while wearing a spandex bodysuit. Retribution is the 5th in the Resident Evil franchise, and inevitably with such movies, the setting is now international (tag line: “Evil goes global”), and the villains more numerous and have bigger killing machines. And, it goes without saying, it will be in 3D.
Detachment
Another in a series of feature films with a revelatory agenda (eg: Larry Clark’s 1995 film Kids), in this case to expose the failure of America’s school system. Directed by Tony Kaye (who also directed American History X), Detachment provides a magnificent vehicle for its star Adrien Brody, whose performance as dedicated substitute teacher Henry Barthes is seen by some critics as his best work since The Pianist. The hectoring tone, stylistic gimmicks (deliberately crude animation sequences, direct address to camera) and tabloid sensationalism of the film have annoyed many critics, who nevertheless acknowledge that the film has visceral power.
Lucky
Director/writer Avie Luthra is both a filmmaker and a practicing psychiatrist, and although the dramatic development of his story of a Zulu AIDS orphan and a short-tempered Indian woman who comes to his rescue (initially for no more than financial gain) is predictable, the quality of the script and the acting make Lucky both warmhearted and real. The central character, Lucky (Sihle Dlamini), is anything but, and moreover, he is far from being a loveable youth. He is bitter and violent, and his savior, played by celebrated Indian stage actress Jayashree Basavaraj, is rapacious and mean. But people change, and Luthra handles these transformations with great sensitivity and insight.
The Prey (La Proie)
Action-packed French film from director Eric Valette and starring veteran tough guy Albert Dupontel. There are plenty of twists and turns in a tale of imprisoned armed robber Franck Adrien, who is a little too forthcoming to a cellmate. After this cellmate’s release, Adrien discovers that his revelations have put his family at risk. He escapes, and a many-tiered manhunt begins. The story is not original, and some of the action sequences a bit too obviously copied from Hollywood, but direction is taut and the cast of veterans provides efficient character portraits.
Vulgaria (低俗喜劇)
Publicity material proudly states that this film, directed by Edmond Pang (彭浩翔) was shot in just 12 days, and Vulgaria has all the qualities of a hastily cobbled together variety show comedy. Pang, whose career as a novelist, show host and filmmaker amply prove that he has his hand on the pulse of Chinese pop culture, may yet strike gold with this off-beat comedy about a unsuccessful film director who gets drawn into a film project in backwoods China financed by Mafia money and aimed at fulfilling various libidinous impulses of the film’s main backer.
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist