Badges of Fury (不二神探)
A crime thriller featuring martial arts superstar Jet Li (李連杰), who plays veteran police officer Huang. His partner is young buck Wang (played by Wen Zhang, 文章) who is constantly getting the two into hot water. There are echoes of the Bad Boys and Lethal Weapon franchises in the mix of high-octane action and buddy movie humor. For those looking to balance out the muscular antics of Li and his police pal, there is also Liu Shishi (劉詩詩), Michelle Chen (陳妍希) and Liu Yan (柳岩), who provide plenty of eye candy and cross-Strait appeal. The story, as far as it goes, involves the duo, who are forced to go undercover to trace a killer, entering the glamorous world of aspiring movie star Liu, and engaging in some very improbable wire-assisted combats with various bad guys. This is the third collaboration between Li and Wen as a martial arts duo, and the film is helped by the good chemistry between the two.
Caught in the Web (搜索)
Based on an award-winning Internet novel, Caught in the Web is this year’s nomination from China for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. The story that starts with a seemly minor infringement of civic etiquette — a young woman refusing to give up her bus seat to an elderly man, caught on video and posted online by an intern journalist — sparks a public outcry and shakes up the lives of the young woman (Gao Yuanyuan, 高圓圓), the intern journalist (Wang Luodan, 王珞丹) and many of their friends and associates. Directed by Chen Kaige (陳凱歌), the creator of classics such as Farewell My Concubine and self-indulgent dross such as The Promise, Caught in the Web shows, despite its heavily melodramatic tone, a certain edginess by being rooted in the digitally savvy, status conscious and wealthy new China.
The Internship
The first problem with The Internship is that it is a bit too much like a two-hour commercial for Google. The second problem is that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have done this comedy duo before, and better. The third problem is that director Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Date Night) mistakes persistent efforts at charm as a substitute for actual humor. And I could go on, and on, and on. Two middle-aged goofballs find their careers in marketing obliterated by technology, and then find themselves in an intern program for Google as it selects the best and brightest. They form a team with a bunch of other losers, and inevitably, find new self-belief as they struggle against hopeless odds and a total disconnect with the modern digital world. You know the rest.
Monsters University
If you loved Monsters Inc then you will love Monsters University, a prequel with attitude, that happily covers much the same ground as the original film, without much originality or new inspiration but with plenty of energy and good humor. Solid craftsmanship ensures that most audiences are unlikely to be disappointed, and a voice cast that includes Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Helen Mirren provides a depth of characterization that is constantly entertaining. On the other hand, for fans of Pixar’s groundbreaking early work, Monsters University might disappoint, for though it is a return to form following the failure of Cars 2, it is a long way from the cutting edge of animation filmmaking that it once inhabited.
My Awkward Sexual Adventures
Billed as “the funniest Canadian sex comedy ever” in the trailer, which kind of puts the film in perspective. How many Canadian sex comedies have you seen? This one is occasionally funny and occasionally gross, as a conservative accountant enlists the help of an exotic dancer to guide him on a quest for sexual experience so that he can win back his girlfriend. Genitalia jokes get a full workout, but rather than finding inspiration from its characters, the film takes the easy route of working through a variety of stock scenarios that sees the film’s lead being a fish out of water in strip clubs and massage parlors, and attempting cross-dressing and S&M.
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