The Bullet Vanishes (消失的子彈)
Hong Kong take on Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies, with director Law Chi-leung (羅志良) indulging in all kinds of cinematic trickery to give the film a roller-coaster feel as it wends its way through a complicated tale of death and betrayal. Detectives Song (played by Lau Ching-wan, 劉青雲) and Guo (played by Nicolas Tse, 謝霆鋒) are the Holmes and Watson duo, and they must deal with a series of execution style shootings. The mystery turns out to be that the bullets in all these incidents cannot be found. Is something supernatural at work? Is there a conspiracy? Law is so caught up in making sure that there is not a single dull moment on screen, that he over eggs the pudding with all kinds of action sequences, tense stand offs and technical CSI-type exposition that there is no time for the characters to establish themselves.
When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (南方小羊牧場)
Light-hearted romance set in Taipei’s cram-school street — Nanyang Street (南陽街) — near Taipei Railway Station, by director Hou Chi-jan (侯季然). It stars a list of well-known celebrities including the infamously buxom Kuo Shu-yao (郭書瑤), aka Yao Yao (瑤瑤), and veteran of stage and screen Tsai Chen-nan (蔡振南) doing his usual world-weary avuncular role. The central romance stars Kai Ko (柯震東), who made his musical and acting debut with last year’s hit You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年,我們一起追的女孩), and new talent Jian Man-shu (簡嫚書). They are slotted into a storyline about young love and broken hearts that is as cliched as it is implausible.
Due West: Our Sex Journey (一路向西)
Following on from a string of dubious Hong Kong softcore movies such as the Sex and Zen franchise, Due West: Our Sex Journey offers not much that is new. Director Mark Wu (胡耀輝) wrote and starred in last year’s 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, and his efforts to up the ante do not really come off. The film tells the story of Frankie (played by Justin, 張建聲), a young man looking for love, and good sex, after escaping from a domineering mother. His journey has a few laughs, plenty of crude jokes, but enjoyment relies heavily on one’s ability to stomach a crass objectification of women portrayed in a variety of outdated sex-doll stereotypes.
Magic Mike
Steven Soderbergh may well have his tongue in his cheek with Magic Mike, a film about a male stripper (Channing Tatum) who takes a young performer (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing and shows him how to party and make easy money. This is a movie for which there is a template, so it comes as no surprise that Magic Mike wants more; he wants something real (yawn!). He has an artistic bent, he finds a girl who is serious and doesn’t appreciate his lifestyle. Amid the acres of well-muscled and oiled bodies, there is a story about friendship, loyalty and self-realization. And then again, you can just enjoy the beefcake.
Trouble with the Curve
An amiable film with an amiable cast starring Clint Eastwood in a role of grouchy old man that he has made as much his own as he did Dirty Harry in his younger days. Trouble with the Curve is set against the background of baseball, but wants to be about father-daughter relationships, and to this end the ever likeable Amy Adams does her best. Perhaps it is just that she is a bit too nice, and there is none of the bitterness that might have given the film a bit of depth. That said, there is enough intelligent dialogue and an understated humor to make this above average entertainment.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50