The Day of the Siege
An English-language movie from Europe directed by Renzo Martinelli is a vast historical epic about one of the crucial moments of Western history. The siege referred to is that of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks in 1683. It manages to be cynical, clumsy, offensive and boring. It does not help that the film is subtitled in many international releases as “September 11 1683,” claiming contemporary relevance in some sort of eternal clash between Western and Muslim forces. Some effort is made to provide a balanced portrayal, with The Turkish Pasha, Kara Mustafa (Enrico Lo Verso) shown to be as decent and brave as Polish King Jan Sobieski (Jerzy Skolimowski), but too much time is given to the priest Marco d’Aviano (F. Murray Abraham), who provides ill-delivered and bigoted polemics against Islam before leading the eventually victorious Christian troops to defeat their enemy. Offense is added to injury by the ham-handed dialogue and the cheap special effects, so that The Day of the Siege fails to engage on pretty much every level.
Amoureuse
A made-for-television movie from France from 2011 that has been brought to big-screens in this particularly sad week for the movies in Taiwan. There is a beautiful reporter, a leader of an extremist political party, a suave police agent and lots of intrigue. Amoureuse makes a play for contemporary relevance with its subject matter, with far-right politics and media involvement getting an airing, but it is essentially matinee fare with the politics simply a sophisticated background to a bland romantic drama that never really rises above its TV roots. Adequate acting and good TV production values, but you are not going to be holding your breath to discover the outcome.
On the Way to School
Four children from different parts of the world, all with the same problem. The long road to school. With good cheer and enthusiasm, they overcome monstrous obstacles in their arduous daily commute. This is an “uplifting” documentary about the power of the human spirit and the eagerness for education felt by people in remote parts of the world battling under the burdens of poverty and isolation. There is Jackson from Kenya, Carlito from Argentinian, Zahira from Morocco and Samuel from India. Getting to school for them is a huge trek, demanding endurance, commitment and cooperation from others. One cannot but be moved by the stories, but the presentation is so one-dimensional and relentlessly positive that even the children and their hardships can become a little hard to take.
Walking on Sunshine
Mama Mia! without the all-star cast. Built around the music of the 1980s, and featuring a string of hits ranging from the title track by Katrina and the Waves, to other pop hits such as Cindy Lauper’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Eternal Flame by the Bangles, Cher’s If I Could Turn Back Time, and Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. You won’t be making any new discoveries and the playlist is pretty predictable. Sadly, there are no so-awful-it’s-perfect moments like Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep singing When All Is Said and Done. Even the story doesn’t manage to shake of stale echoes of the earlier compilation musical, though the location has been moved to Italy, and the romantic dynamic has morphed from mother and daughter to two sisters. Maddie (Annabel Scholey) is about to marry Raf (Giulio Berruti), and invites her sister (Hannah Arterton), who turns out to be an old flame of Raf’s. Romantic contretemps follow, providing excuses for various members of the cast to break out into song and dance routines. There is nothing objectionable about it, but it all just feels a little stale.
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
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
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would