Prisoners
Despite his long sojourn as Wolverine, we have always suspected that Hugh Jackman had some dramatic talent. Prisoners is a fast-paced police thriller about a father (Jackman) who is not content to leave the investigation into the abduction of his daughter in police hands. How far is he prepared to go? This is not exactly an original movie scenario, and the development is rooted in the grand tradition of the exploitation genre, but director Denis Villeneuve gives the film a poetic intensity that draws comparison with the likes of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River. Villeneuve, who hails from Quebec, is making his English-language debut with Prisoners. Jackman plays against Jake Gyllenhaal, the cop who is handling the case, and the two develop a powerful dynamic that survives the 146-minute running time. Despite the length, Prisoners maintains a pace and power that rarely slackens.
Gravity
Alfonso Cuaron, who established his arthouse credentials with the Spanish-language film Y Tu Mama Tambien and his Hollywood stature with arguably the best of the Harry Potter movies (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), is back after a long hiatus following on from the workmanlike Children of Men (2006). Many critics see this new work as a candidate for the best film of 2013. There is much talk about Gravity restoring faith in big-screen moviemaking as something more than just special effects gimmicks. The story is simple: Two people try to survive in the vast airless expanse of space after an accident leaves them adrift. Curaron is working together with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, and together they walk a dangerous line between art house minimalism (echoes of Silent Running) and big budget effects. The general consensus is that Cuaron has succeeded in finding a balance, though some purists have suggested that the spirit of existential dread that drives the film is tainted with a compassion that drifts into sentimentality.
The Family
It is an indication of how far Robert De Niro has fallen as a serious actor that this Luc Besson comedy-slash-mob flick provides one of his meatiest roles in years. Unfortunately, Besson tries yet again to pack too much into a single film and The Family never manages to settle down, veering from comic family drama, slapstick action, to brutal violence. There are some beautifully entertaining moments, and the cast of De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, together with Glee cast member Dianna Agron and John D’Leo — who make up the wife and two kids set up — works well. De Niro’s mob boss, now relocated to Normandy under the witness protection plan, and his family, don’t settle well into small town French life, and they have their own ways of reacting to the not always welcoming local folk. But it is not long before old colleagues get wind of De Niro’s new identity, and genial xenophobia gives way to big time action.
Rhythm of the Rain (聽見下雨的聲音)
Debut feature by director Vincent Fang (方文山), best known as a lyricist, particularly for hits by Jay Chou (周杰倫). The film offers yet another reprise on the theme of young love and rock ‘n’ roll, telling the story of Ah Lun (played by Alan Ko, 柯有倫), a young band leader who is trying to take his motley crew of rockers to their first record deal. On the way he falls for Yu Jie (played by Ginnie Han, 韓雨潔), but in the band’s struggles in the face of their first success, the flame of passion with Yu Jie sputters, and as cinema convention will always have it, he then meets up with old flame Sharon (played by Vivian Hsu, 徐若瑄), and new sparks are rekindled. There are plenty of opportunities for rousing Mando-pop performances, talk of rock cred versus financial success, and the usual rifts off themes like friendship, love and regret. Fang has brought in plenty of cameos from the entertainment industry, so for those in the know, there are many opportunities for celebrity spotting as well.
My Lucky Star (非常幸運)
Chinese romantic comedy starring Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and Leehom Wang (王力宏), among other A-listers, that has more to distinguish it than just its superstar cast. Zhang has executive producer credits for the film, her second following Sophie’s Revenge (非常完美:奪愛大作戰) in 2009, to which it also serves as a prequel. Sophie (played by Zhang) is a telephone operator who loves to daydream, and one day she wins a luxury visit to Singapore. She meets the most amazing man (played by Wang), who happens to be a secret agent, and Sophie inevitably gets caught up in a complex deal over stolen diamonds. With location shoots all over Asia, including luxury locations in Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Beijing, the film offers a wish fulfillment fantasy in its purest form. The humor is also more accessible to Western audiences, a fact that may be explained by the presence of Dennie Gordon in the director’s chair. Gordon has credits in television for Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, The Practice and 30 Rock, and with My Lucky Star becomes the first US director to helm a production targeted at a domestic Chinese audience.
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