Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation
What a summer has it been for those who grew up in the 90s — with new installations of Jurassic Park, The Terminator and now Mission: Impossible. It’s a bit hard to believe that this is the fifth film in the spy-action franchise over 19 years, furthering speculation that Tom Cruise does not age. Without dinosaurs or time-traveling killing machines, Rogue Nation’s premise is simple: the Impossible Missions Force has been disbanded, but Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is closing in on terror organization The Syndicate (which only he believes exists) and refuses to stop, forcing the CIA to send Hunt’s former colleagues against him. Nope, nothing original here, but it seems that with thrilling sequences, death-defying stunts, a dose of humor and a deeper look into Hunt’s psyche — this film is widely considered the best action flick of the summer so far.
The Duke of Burgundy
This erotic bondage film is often compared to Fifty Shades of Grey, albeit an arthouse, thinking person’s, neurotic, more complex and more intelligent version — basically everything Fifty Shades is not. There’s no nudity in this story set in a castle, featuring the S&M relationship between butterfly professor Cynthia and her maid Evelyn. While Cynthia is the dominant one, it appears that Evelyn is the one orchestrating their sexual acts and routines. There are also no men in this film – “Duke of Burgundy” is a species of butterfly. With the end credits listing a “human toilet consultant,” this film is indeed kinky and almost sleazy, but it’s also a sexy, strange and tender love story.
Love Clinic
We find another sex-themed movie that ultimately isn’t really about sex itself. This South Korean flick is a “battle of the sexes” featuring a virgin female urologist and a sexually impotent male gynecologist who open clinics next to each other in the same building. They most likely end up bickering for most of the movie then fall in love with each other. The trailer mostly features the fiery urologist, including a scene where she gets drunk and repeatedly insults the “sizes” of men around her. As has become the formula with many South Korean movies, the male appears to be way meeker than his female counterpart. Let’s see if the premise brings any life to this tired genre.
Samurai Cat — A Tropical Adventure
As if last week’s Assassination Classroom wasn’t bizarre enough, here’s the sequel of a Japanese drama-turned-movie featuring a ruthless samurai who is tasked by a dog-loving gang to kill the beloved pet cat of a rival gang. When he meets the target, he cannot bring himself to do the act due to her cuteness, and ends up adopting and protecting the cat. That was in the first movie. This time around, the protagonists end up drifting through the Pacific Ocean, where on an island the adorable white cat meets a black cat prince who is supposed to be the love of her life. The film doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, and if you’ve watched enough cutesy Japanese movies by now, you should know not to as well. It’s entertainment, that’s all.
You’re Sleeping, Nicole
This 35mm black-and-white Canadian film follows fresh college grad Nicole and her idle summer in her small-town family home while her parents are away. It appears to be a dreamy portrayal of those hazy days of early adulthood where everything should, but has yet to fall in place. Nicole steals clothes from work, hangs out with her best friend Veronique, has casual sex and maxes out a credit card. But as Nicole’s trip to Iceland with Veronique falls through and her musician brother decides to use the house as a recording space for his band, she struggles with insomnia amid a heatwave. Nothing dramatic really happens here, but that may be the significance here: It’s one of Nicole’s last carefree summers, and while it may or may not be life- changing, things most likely won’t be the same again.
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