Prima Donna (當家花旦)
A documentary following the preparations for the 15th anniversary performance by the Snow White Entertaining Troupe (白雪綜藝劇團), an amateur troupe that has established itself as a nonpareil of local drag shows. The four men who are at the center of the show, all have daytime jobs, but when it comes to celebrating 15 years behind the footlights, they take every aspect, from the shade of eyeliner to the choreographing of the light show, with the utmost seriousness. The enduring popularity of this drag show provides unexpected insight into normally conservative Taiwan, and although there is something of the behind the scenes concert movie about it, Prima Donna is much more about being, and expressing, who you are.
The Triangle Land (幸福三角地)
A founding figure of Taiwan New Wave cinema, director-cinematographer Chen Kun-ho (陳坤厚) made several important works including Growing Up (小畢的故事, 1983), His Matrimony (結婚, 1985) and Osmanthus Alley (桂花巷, 1987). His most recent film is a venture in nostalgia for a rural Taiwan that is gradually disappearing, telling the story of a young boy growing up in a dysfunctional family who realizes that he must grow up fast if he is to escape the cycle of acrimony and shame that surrounds him and win the love of a new US-born student at his school. Heavy on sentiment and manipulative in manner, the cast list of young celebrities will still draw audiences.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Beasts of the Southern Wild has elicited words like “wondrous” and “magnificent” from critics, many of whom regard it as one of the best films of 2012. The heroine, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), is destined to be an icon of young adult culture together with the likes of Kaitness Everdeen of Hunger Games and Princess Mirida of Brave. Hushpuppy lives with her father Wink (Dwight Henry) in a small community at the end of the world. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. Hushpuppy has to be strong to face these dangers as she embarks on a journey to find her mother. The flood of contemporary hot topics, from climate change to the importance of family might prove too much for some, but the film manages to avoid the worst pitfalls of moralizing tales.
Monsieur Lazhar
Nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 2012 Oscars, Monsieur Lazhar has been sweeping up awards on the art-house festival circuit. The film explores the complex relationship between an Algerian immigrant, who is hired to replace a popular teacher who committed suicide in her classroom, and his students, teasing through the complex and fragile bonds of trust and respect that exist in a classroom. It also looks inward into the title character’s own experience of profound grief. The leading role is taken by Mohamed Fellag, whose performance has won lavish praise from critics for its sensitivity and humor (Fellag is a comedian and himself an exile from Algeria), and the film, written and directed by Philippe Falardeau gains much of its power from not asking specific questions, but rather simply looking at a situation with sympathy and humility.
Growing up in a rural, religious community in western Canada, Kyle McCarthy loved hockey, but once he came out at 19, he quit, convinced being openly gay and an active player was untenable. So the 32-year-old says he is “very surprised” by the runaway success of Heated Rivalry, a Canadian-made series about the romance between two closeted gay players in a sport that has historically made gay men feel unwelcome. Ben Baby, the 43-year-old commissioner of the Toronto Gay Hockey Association (TGHA), calls the success of the show — which has catapulted its young lead actors to stardom -- “shocking,” and says
The 2018 nine-in-one local elections were a wild ride that no one saw coming. Entering that year, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized and in disarray — and fearing an existential crisis. By the end of the year, the party was riding high and swept most of the country in a landslide, including toppling the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in their Kaohsiung stronghold. Could something like that happen again on the DPP side in this year’s nine-in-one elections? The short answer is not exactly; the conditions were very specific. However, it does illustrate how swiftly every assumption early in an
Inside an ordinary-looking townhouse on a narrow road in central Kaohsiung, Tsai A-li (蔡阿李) raised her three children alone for 15 years. As far as the children knew, their father was away working in the US. They were kept in the dark for as long as possible by their mother, for the truth was perhaps too sad and unjust for their young minds to bear. The family home of White Terror victim Ko Chi-hua (柯旗化) is now open to the public. Admission is free and it is just a short walk from the Kaohsiung train station. Walk two blocks south along Jhongshan
Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 In 1933, an all-star team of musicians and lyricists began shaping a new sound. The person who brought them together was Chen Chun-yu (陳君玉), head of Columbia Records’ arts department. Tasked with creating Taiwanese “pop music,” they released hit after hit that year, with Chen contributing lyrics to several of the songs himself. Many figures from that group, including composer Teng Yu-hsien (鄧雨賢), vocalist Chun-chun (純純, Sun-sun in Taiwanese) and lyricist Lee Lin-chiu (李臨秋) remain well-known today, particularly for the famous classic Longing for the Spring Breeze (望春風). Chen, however, is not a name
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