The Finest Hours
Directed by Craig Gillespie of Lars and the Real Girl fame, this film is based on the true story of a small group of US Coast Guards who made a daring rescue of an oil tanker that split in half due to a brutal nor’easter storm in 1952. To present an accurate story, the screenwriters not only referred to the 2009 book of the same name but also conducted interviews with survivors of the incident, and a Time Magazine article states that the film “largely sticks to the source material.” With the protagonist’s bride-to-be waiting at home while he performs the rescue that most people would consider a death mission, this film has all the elements of a classic rescue film — which is fine and all — it’s just unclear if it offers more than that. When the book first came out in 2009, one of the rescuers said that the story would make a pretty good popcorn movie — and here we are.
The Lobster
To those who actually enjoy being single — you are not welcome in this version of dystopia, where single people are brought to a hotel and given 45 days to find a mate, otherwise they will be turned into an animal and sent into the forest. To extend their deadline, the singles can also go and hunt down “loners” in the woods. Yeah, it’s pretty out there, but it’s seems like a pretty original concept (a rarity these days) that will probably turn out well, but carries the risk of turning into a forced plot device. It’s hard to tell with just reading the synopsis — the story revolves around David (Colin Farrell), who finds himself single after his wife leaves him for another man. Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, this movie should resonate with viewers in Taiwan, where it is sort of illegal (socially, at least) to be single.
Life
Unfortunately, this is not not a remake of the 1999 film featuring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, but no need to be disappointed. Reminiscent of last month’s The End of the Tour, this movie details the friendship between Life photographer Dennis Stock and actor James Dean as they travel together from Los Angeles to New York to Dean’s hometown in Indiana before the premiere of East of Eden, Dean’s first major screen role. During this time, Stock snapped probably the most iconic photo of Dean — the one of him smoking a cigarette in Times Square on a rainy day. Director Anton Corbijn, himself a celebrity photographer (U2, Bob Dylan and Bjork, to name a few) initially turned the film down but became interested in the “photographer and subject” dynamic of the two men rather than Dean’s life story, which is what drives this film.
The Boy
This “supernatural thriller” film by William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside) appears to be little more than an uninspired male version of Annabelle — the only difference is that the victim (played by Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead) was hired as a nanny to the porcelain doll, who is treated by his elderly “parents” as a real child. Speaking of scary male dolls, there’s already Chucky, so what does this film have to offer that’s not a retread of tired themes? Yeah, there’s going to be the jump scares and probably lots of blood, but it’s still hard to see how this will work at all. The genre is so often repeated that one starts to wonder why people do not simply run for their lives as soon as they see a potentially haunted doll.
Exposed
Originally titled Daughter of God, this film has been surrounded in controversy since Jamaican-American director Gee Malik Linton removed his name from the credits after claiming that the film changed radically after some heavy re-editing. The crime? According to reports, it was originally a surreal English-Spanish bilingual drama focusing on a Latina woman and a Dominican family, touching on themes of child abuse, violence toward women and police brutality on minority communities. But Lionsgate wanted it to be an action thriller, enhancing Keanu Reeves’ role and getting rid of subplots involving minorities. Further evidence can be found in the drastic difference between the original international trailer and the US one that came later. While it’s unclear whether such a move would actually boost ticket sales, one thing is for sure: the critics hate this film.
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
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