Featuring pop idol Ella Chen (陳嘉樺) as a betel nut beauty (檳榔西施) falling for a younger man, The Missing Piece (缺角一族) is fortunately more than the usual soap opera schlock. For his second feature, veteran TV director Chiang Fong-hung (江豐宏) produces a romantic, light-hearted comedy which balances the youthful love story with a look into the characters’ self-seeking quests. The movie boasts a finely tuned cast, comprising veteran thespian Tsai Chen-nan (蔡振南), young talent Austin Lin (林柏宏) and Chen.
At the center of the lively drama is Daofeng (Lin), a bashful college student who breaks from his humdrum city life and plans to hitchhike to a tropical town called Sunshine Village.
Along his trek, Daofeng meets Shasha (Chen), a jovial betel nut girl who wears flamboyant costumes in her transparent booth surrounded by vast, sun-baked grassland.
Photo courtesy of Three Giant Production
Another daily commuter is Uncle Tin Can (Tsai), who lives alone in a big house by the sea and spends his time recycling abandoned things. Uncle Tin Can and Daofeng become friends. Yet another encounter brings Daofeng to local villager Auntie Haichu (played by Lin Mei-chao, 林美照), who likes to eat her lunchbox in front of a tall chimney of a defunct sugar factory.
Daofeng’s new friends make him feel right at home. But the more he comes to know them, the more he realizes that underneath their blithe appearances, they are hurt and lost inside, longing for reconciliation with themselves and others. Meanwhile, Daofeng’s affection toward Shasha gradually grows.
Despite a fair amount of narrative untidiness, Chiang’s second feature is a feel-good movie that strikes a chord with the audience through universal themes of love, regret and reconciliation. Known for his life-long collaboration with film maestro Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), cinematographer Liao Pen-jung (廖本榕) injects buoyant exuberance. Bathed in vibrant hues, even the roadside betel-nut stand brings to mind a quaint cottage from a fairy tale.
Chiang’s decades-long career as a TV drama director gives him a keen eye for choosing the right actor for the role. Lin and Chen complement each other well as a couple with contrasting personalities. But the most noticeable performance is delivered by Tsai who effortlessly brings to life the many facets of his character, swinging from idiosyncrasy to graciousness.
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
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