The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The first installment of The Hunger Games set the bar pretty high as a teen action-adventure movie, mostly due to excellent performances, but also due to its ability to weave political ideas into its fabric with commitment rather than condescension. The ideas might not be deeply sophisticated, but compared to the philosophical aspirations of many recent sci-fi efforts, The Hunger Games is way ahead of the pack. Catching Fire takes the political allegory of the story a step further than the original, focusing more on the intrigue behind the scenes, giving bigger roles to the likes of Donald Sutherland’s President Snow. Even though there is the occasional dull moment of exposition, the excellent cast, with the ever feisty Jennifer Lawrence in the lead, delivers a film that provides a solid adrenaline action rush fortified with deeper emotional and social currents. But for those looking for an action movie sequel that will outstrip the original, Catching Fire may disappoint.
The Sapphires
A lovely little movie from Downunder by director Wayne Blair might be a bit sloppy and sentimental, but it is so full of heart and soul that its faults don’t matter; not much, anyway. Based on a true story about four Australian Aboriginal women who build their hopes of a better life in forming a singing group and going to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They find themselves a manager in the form of Dave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd), a drunken musical promoter touring the backwoods of Australia. He reluctantly helps them achieve their dream, and saves his own soul in the process. There are some inspired takes on racism, racial identity and popular music, but the ugly racial politics of 1960s Australia (notable for the Lost Generation of Aboriginal children taken from their parents by the government), may not be handled with the subtly or sophistication that such a politically charged topic may demand. But music, dreams and committed performances by all concerned are likely to win the heart of all but the most curmudgeonly ideologue.
The Best Offer
A film built around yet another fine performance by Australian actor Geoffrey Rush in a film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (who brought us the ageless classic Cinema Paradiso). Rush plays Virgil Oldman, a solitary, cultured man whose reluctance to engage with others, especially women, is matched only by the dogged obsessiveness with which he practices his profession as a high-end antiques auctioneer and valuer. He becomes involved with Claire (Sylvia Hoeks), an heiress with a vast collection of art to sell. Oldman does not get to see Claire, and this sparks an obsession to know more about her that takes him to the edge of madness. The central story is supported by fine performances by Donald Sutherland and Jim Sturgess, and there is plenty of talk about what is fake and what is real, in art and in love. At 131 minutes, the film often feels overlong, but Tornatore will not be rushed and effectively builds up the tension to a startling denouement that is well worth the wait.
Bends (過界)
Debut feature by Hong Kong writer-director Flora Lau (劉韻文) is a typically atmospheric film fest product that has some interesting ideas, lovely images and a profound lack of drama. The story focuses on Hui, a chauffeur who lives in China’s Shenzhen and who commutes daily to Hong Kong to work for Anna. Hui, played by Chinese matinee idol Chen Kun (陳坤) wants to smuggle his pregnant wife over the Hong Kong to give birth to their second child, and Anna, played by Hong Kong veteran Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), tries to keep up the pretense of a lavish lifestyle after her rich husband suddenly goes AWOL amid financial difficulties. Chen is not noted for his powerful acting style and is too bland for this role, leaving Bends without an anchor. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle gives the film a very attractive look, but the screenplay fails to generate any sparks in a film which is centered on a dialogue across social and economic levels.
Why Don’t You Play in Hell?
Gonzo schlock fest from the prolific Japanese director Sion Sono might be all a bit too Tarantino for some viewers, and certainly there are plenty of not particularly edifying cinematic references in what seems like a bit of pure indulgence by the director, who only last year released a surprisingly sober-minded drama addressing the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? embarks on a drunken revel into ultra-violence in a story about a film director who decides to put himself in the middle of a gangland turf war so that he can make the ultimate movie masterpiece. Hiroki Hasegawa plays a director obsessed with moviemaking, and the film has the same cine-literate aspirations of the Tarantino oeuvre, but at the same time tends to neglect more creative developments in the interests of creating the most onscreen mayhem possible. There is much that is funny and absurd, but as a whole Why Don’t You Play in Hell? manages to be oddly formulaic and soulless.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s