Fantastic Four
The summer of sequels, sequels of sequels and sequels that are actually reboots is out of control. Premiering this week is the third Fantastic Four film (also stylized as Fant4stic), the superhero team’s first big screen appearance in eight years. Twentieth Century Fox curiously decided to embargo reviews until the day of its release, but later moved it back one day — which may or may not suggest that even the makers think this film is bad. When the reviews finally came in, they didn’t look so hot, with at least three critics writing that the movie feels like a protracted trailer for a nonexistent sequel. That’s the problem with superhero reboots — there’s often a revised origin story that has to stand against the original, which ends up taking over the movie, and just as you feel like you understand the character, the credits roll. If you do go watch it, keep in mind that this film is not a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, so there’s no need to stay until the credits end.
Inside Out
You just can’t hate this latest Pixar film, where 11-year-old Riley’s emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust) come to life inside her brain as they jostle each other for control while navigating Riley through her life as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. From the premise to the trailer, the film seems fresh and poignant, which has been somewhat lacking in Hollywood this summer. Riley’s brain is a colorful Willy Wonka-type operations plant with a master control room and a “train of thought.” Things go wrong when joy and sadness end up in the far side of the brain and have to make their way back to the control room, where the remaining three emotions are all Riley has for the time being. It could be both a whimsical tale and a deep look into the human psyche, wildly entertaining and also emotionally charged. Pixar seems to have nailed it again with a film that’s fit for all ages.
Thanatos, Drunk (醉生夢死)
Chang Tso-chi’s (張作驥) latest film won big at last month’s Taipei Film Festival, netting the Grand Prix, best feature, best actor, supporting actor, supporting actress and press award. The film’s Chinese title refers to living life as if you were either dreaming or drunk, basically muddling through life in a haze. Chang returns to his familiar subject matter as the film revolves around an unmotivated young punk who works at a market stall, his gay brother who just returned from the US and their gigolo friend. Other characters include the brothers’ alcoholic mother and a mute prostitute. Just as its title suggests, many reviews criticize the film as being “purposeless” as well. After all, it seems to be a “slice of life” story where nothing really happens, but it does explore the emotions underneath these mundane events and the everyday despair of city life.
Open! Open!
Since its creation in 2005, 7-Eleven mascot Open-Chan has released an album and launched a shopping mall and theme park. Now he (or she?) is the star of Taiwan’s first live-action and animation film. Open-Chan is dog from another planet that likes to eat pineapples and onigiri (Japanese rice balls), can become friends with anyone and possesses a magic wand. Open-Chan arrives on Earth and is adopted by unconfident female protagonist named Flower (花花) who is secretly in love with the dashing Pineapple Head (鳳梨頭). Along with his alien dog pals, Open-Chan tries to help Flower, “opening” (no, no pun there) the way for a whole ‘nother adventure. With high-pitched cartoonish voices and exaggerated comedic effects, this film is Taiwanese-style cuteness to the extreme, so watch at your own discretion.
To the Fore (破風)
To the Fore appears to be another ultra-inspiring Taiwanese movie about the glory of youth not giving up on your dreams. Except the director is from Hong Kong and while 70 percent of the film is shot in Taiwan, the cast also includes Chinese and Korean stars. The story is pretty self-explanatory, featuring a cycling team trying to make it in the international racing world. Lines like “Are you not confident?” and “It’s bubbling out,” pretty much set the tone. More noticeable is the camera work, which consists of plenty of dramatic wide angles and expansive bird’s-eye shots that highlight the beautiful landscape of Taiwan as well as China, Italy and Korea. For that, the film has been dubbed the bicycle version of Beyond Beauty — Taiwan from above (看見台灣).
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