Star Wars: The Force Awakens
It’s finally here. Ten years after Revenge of the Sith came out, the ever-beloved Star Wars is returning to the big screen with episode VII, set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi with brand new protagonists and recurring characters. The power of the Force is such that after three rather uninspiring followups to the classic trilogy, the world is still mighty excited about this new film. Franchise creator George Lucas, who either directed, produced or co-wrote the past six films is largely out of the picture, stating in January that he doesn’t really know what the new story is about. The film is now firmly in the hands of director J.J. Abrams, who at least enlisted Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of the original trilogy, to help out. Abrams’ sci fi-oriented resume includes directing the recent Star Trek films, writing Cloverfield and co-creating the Lost series, so he’s no slouch in the genre. And he’s made at least one decision so far that should make many people happy: Jar Jar Binks will not appear in the movie.
The Program
We all know Lance Armstrong deserved what happened to him, but it’s still a bit cruel to make a movie about his fall from grace just three years after it happened. What is there to tell that can make the cyclist’s story more dramatic than it already is? Well, the movie is based on journalist David Walsh’s book, Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong, his account on his 13-year effort to uncover Armstrong’s use of banned substances. The tagline says it all: “Champion, Hero, Legend, Cheat,” and the story does follow Armstrong’s life in that order. But again, what don’t we know? The 2013 documentary The Armstrong Lie seems much more interesting as it started out as a feel-good film about Armstrong’s comeback, and the scandal broke mid-production. However, director Stephen Frears did a phenomenal job with his previous docudrama, Philomena, so we’re still hoping for great things.
The Surprise
Dutch director Mike Van Diem hasn’t made a feature film after winning an Oscar for Character 18 years ago, instead turning to commercial work. The plot of his latest movie, a black rom com, seems interesting — two people who want to die have signed irreversible contracts with an agency that specializes in causing “surprise” deaths, meaning they don’t know when, where or how they will die. The problem is that they fall in love and decide to live, but the terms of the contracts still remain and they have to outsmart the agency and run for their lives. Perhaps we really find meaning in our lives when every moment might be our last. The film is one of the first high profile projects to be crowdfunded through Symbid, where investors receive a share of box office sales.
The Club
Known for his films set during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile, Pablo Larrain now turns to the Catholic Church and its scandals of abuse. The “club” here is a secluded house in a beach town where four priests, who have committed various crimes ranging from pedophilia to stealing babies from unwed mothers, spend their days tended to by a nun, who establishes the rules of the house. Things change when a fifth priest arrives, triggering a series of chain events that disturb the “tranquil” life at the club and force the priests to confront their past. After playing a serial killer, morbid mortician and an ad guy trying to get Pinochet re-elected, Alfredo Castro continues his roles in Larrain’s films as what he does best — the unlikeable protagonist.
Love the Coopers
You can’t avoid it — we have on our hands another American Christmas comedy with a terrible title, narrated by Steve Martin, who fortunately plays the family dog and doesn’t actually appear in the film. All the Coopers, portrayed by some big name actors, gather for their yearly reunion, and the family matriarch has that one wish: for everyone to “have the memory of a perfect Christmas.” Now that’s impossible in a Christmas comedy (or real life) as not everyone exactly wants to be there, and most of them are probably ridiculously dysfunctional. The trailer proves the point right, in addition to rude and food-throwing children to add to, uh, the drama? There’s really nothing much to say here, it’s seems to be a formulaic feel-good holiday movie that will appeal to many people, but those who don’t like this type of film know very well to steer clear of it.
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