The Monkey King 2
It is a bit odd that Cantopop king Aaron Kwok (郭富城), who played the main antagonist in the first installment, is now the hero as the Monkey King, replacing Donnie Yen (甄子丹) who reportedly had other commitments. Not that you can really tell anyway — the actors’ faces are practically unrecognizable under all the monkey makeup/special effects. Yen’s action director role was given to kung fu veteran Sammo Hung (洪金寶), which really shouldn’t make a difference either since the film relies on CGI more than live action combat. The story starts off 500 years after the first one, featuring the oft-portrayed White Bone Spirit scene where Monkey tries to protect his master from being eaten but ends up losing his companions’ trust due to the demon’s trickery. Enlisting production help from Hollywood teams, this is no Stephen Chow (周星馳) slapstick fantasy comedy — it is meant to be an international action blockbuster, and seeks to redeem itself from the poor reviews it received last go around.
The Hateful Eight
We were almost deprived of this film when Quentin Tarantino canceled it after the script was leaked in 2014 — luckily, the man changed his mind after a live reading session. Set to Ennio Morricone’s Golden Globe-winning score (this is Tarantino’s first film to use an original score), the movie depicts one night with eight morally suspect strangers who take refuge at a coach stop during a blizzard in the days of the American Wild West. There is all the Tarantino elements here — very dark humor, intriguing characters who talk a lot and spill lots and lots of blood as the story turns into a whodunnit murder mystery. Three of the hateful eight are played by former Tarantino collaborators: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Walter Goggins. With most of this 180-plus minute film taking place indoors, this is going to be very dialogue driven — but it is Tarantino. He can pull this off.
Freeheld
Based on the 2007 documentary of the same name, Freeheld tells the tale of a lesbian police officer who fights to have her pension benefits transferred to her domestic partner after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It is an important subject, but there’s a reason the original documentary was a short film — that is about it to the plot. I guess you can throw in some romance, comedy (not sure if a flamboyantly gay Steve Carell qualifies or is appropriate) and dramatic flair, but the bottom line is, it is a story that’s already compelling on its own and probably would not benefit from any embellishments. Anyhow, the bad guys here are the Ocean County, New Jersey’s Board of Chosen Freeholders — the state’s unique name for its county legislature — who unanimously struck down the officer’s appeal. The story made national headlines and was a landmark case in LGBT rights, but just judging from the trailer, this cinematic treatment seems incredibly cheesy.
Hong Kong Trilogy (香港三部曲)
Written, directed and filmed by Christopher Doyle, this Kickstarter-funded film is reported to be part-documentary, part-fiction, as it has live scenes and real people narrating fictional accounts based on their real experiences. Using this approach, Hong Kong is portrayed through three distinct stories told through the eyes of “preschooled children, preoccupied youth and preposterous old people.” It seems to be really light, gentle stuff, portraying everyday citizens in an almost unsettling, dreamy way, seemingly worlds away from the hustle of the big city nor the pervading tensions in society during the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement of 2014. While it loosely uses the protests as a unifying theme (it is the focus in only one of the segments), this just doesn’t seem like a very political film. As Doyle states, Hong Kong Trilogy is for Hong Kong and it’s people, and is “not a news report.”
Free! Starting Days
This movie version of a Japanese television animation is only being written about because there are only five new movies hitting the theaters this weekend. Let’s just directly translate the official synopsis: “The prequel of Free brings the audience back to the Nanase Haruka and Tachibana Makoto’s middle school days, giving us a glimpse of the tenderness of their immature past. The story focuses on the youngsters’ passion toward swimming as well as how the teammates learned to work together and encourage each other. It’s a youthful tale of togetherness and chasing dreams.” Watch at your own discretion. You’ve been warned.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built