Legend
Rejoice if you like Tom Hardy — you’ll be seeing two of him throughout Legend as he plays both of the infamous Kray twins, the charismatic and violent leaders of the 1950s and 60s London gang, The Firm. Outside of their criminal activities, the twins mingled with the rich and famous as nightclub owners and were considered celebrities themselves. “Me and my brother ruled London,” Ronnie Kray would later state in his autobiography in reference to those times.
Based on the book The Profession of Violence by John Pearson, the film is narrated by Francis Shea (Emily Browning), Reggie Kray’s wife — which is an odd choice, as they were only married for two months and she committed suicide in 1967. The twins were reported to have distinct personalities — Reggie was cool, charming and calculating, while Ronnie was psychotic, violent and openly gay or bisexual — unusual for those times. The film plays on their differences as Reggie faces mounting pressure to keep Ronnie under control. Seems like there is plenty of material for an entertaining crime thriller here, but why such a generic title?
Bus 657
Speaking of crime thrillers with generic titles, it’s probably a good thing that Heist is being released outside of the US as Bus 657, which is a bit more creative, except that wasn’t it originally billed as Bus 757 when the project was first announced last year? According to screenwriter Stephen Sepher, the distribution company changed it because they were concerned that 757 would remind people of the Boeing aircraft bearing the same number. Anyhow, there seems to be nothing new here, as the story revolves around a casino worker (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who robs US$3 million from the establishment to pay for his daughter’s medical treatment. Unfortunately, the casino owner happens to be Robert De Niro, and you just don’t cross Robert De Niro, otherwise bad things happen and you end up, um, hijacking a bus full of passengers. With the cops and De Niro’s henchmen in pursuit, the wheels of the bus must continue going round and round.
Manglehorn
A movie starring Al Pacino and Holly Hunter while scored by American post-rock icons Explosions in the Sky (their second collaboration with composer David Wingo after 2011’s Prince Avalanche) just seems a bit strange, given the band’s emotional, atmospheric sound. This festival-circuit film doesn’t seem like a typical Pacino feature either, as he plays a reclusive keymaker who spends his days with a fluffy white cat and writing letters to Clara, a long, long lost love. It’s up to Holly Hunt, a cheerful bank teller, to perhaps bring him back to life. Finding love at old age films almost always have their charm, but the plot seems to be a bit thin and it just isn’t clear if much happens throughout the film besides Pacino being depressed. Director David Gordon Green’s last two films, Prince Avalanche and Joe, were pretty much extended character studies based on unlikely friendships, and this one appears to follow a similar vein. It should be cool to see the larger-than-life Pacino tone it down for a more reflective, indie piece. Can he make it work?
Lies of the Victors
A newsroom movie involving an army veteran who commits suicide by literally throwing himself to the lions? Finally, an attention-getting plot that makes you pause for a second, brought to us by German director Christoph Hochhausler, who is known for The City Below. Ok, so here’s how it happens: a star investigative reporter struggles with a story about army veterans and is somehow assigned an ambitious young intern, whom he assigns the lion incident thinking it would just simply amount to a juicy tabloid story. The intern starts digging further and things start to unravel. That’s just the surface of it, as there seems to be layers and layers to the complicated storyline that involves toxic waste, lobbyists, politicians and more. It’s moody, neo-noir stuff that you probably have to stay focused to enjoy, but hey, we like films like that after watching too much Hollywood.
Port of Call (踏雪尋梅)
Widely considered Hong Kong critic-turned-director Phillip Yung’s (翁子光) best work so far, this movie starring the immortal Cantopop king Aaron Kwok (郭富城) was named best picture at Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and is nominated for several Golden Horses. Port of Call is based on the 2008 dismemberment of a Chinese teenage prostitute living in Hong Kong that shocked the public, especially with the speculation that parts of her flesh may have been unknowingly sold at a local market. What should make this film awesome is the cinematography by Christopher Doyle, who is able to turn dreary events into dreamy colorscapes as evidenced in his work with Wong Kar-wai (王家衛). The film follows the life of the victim from months before her death to the months after, with Kwok playing the detective investigating the incident. It’s bleak and contemplative, and despite its crime elements, appears to be more of an exploration of humanity than a police thriller.
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
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