Kung Fu Panda 3
Taiwan is getting this film pretty late, as it already came out in January in China and South Korea. Anyhow, the cast and crew return — including director Jennifer Yuh Nelson and producer Guillermo del Toro — for another “legendary adventure of awesomeness” with our favorite pudgy black and white pugilist, who faces off against the franchise’s first supernatural villain, who, as Nelson claims, is the most formidable yet. It is hard to do wrong with this franchise — fun, lighthearted, touching and action-packed with all sorts of lovable anthropomorphic animals. It will probably never go deeper than its “be yourself and do the best you can” message, but it does not need to because of its sheer entertainment value. Oh and Po finally gets to meet some other pandas in this movie — as for whom? We will keep it a secret.
10 Cloverfield Lane
This sequel to the 2008 monster attack thriller Cloverfield is not really a sequel, as it was originally another film that JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions took over and reverse-engineered into something he calls a “blood relative” of the original film. And thankfully, this one is told from the third person perspective, eschewing the nausea inducing found footage format of its predecessor. Anyway, seems like the earth is already ruined at this point — or not — as we follow a young woman who wakes up in an underground bunker with two men, one of whom insists that the earth’s surface is no longer inhabitable and claims to have rescued her. It appears to be more psychological instead of big explosions and dying people, and Abrams says while the original monster is not in this film, there is something else that he is not willing to tell us about just yet.
Triple 9
You know this heist-thriller has a serious big-name cast when Kate Winslet is listed last on the movie poster. There is also Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Gal Gadot and Woody Harrelson, to name a few. Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless), the film revolves around a group of criminals and dirty cops who have to create a 999 situation — police code for “officer down” — to pull off an impossible heist, tasked to them by Russian mobsters. The plot gets way more complicated than this, as all the elements are in there for one over the top, bloody, grim, piece where everyone is bad, with seemingly no redemption to their actions. Depending on how it is handled, his type of film could either be wildly satisfying or leave you depressed and with no faith left in humanity.
The Fencer
The Academy of Fencing Masters loved this movie, not only praising the story but stating that “everything fencing-related is depicted exactly as it happened and is happening every day in any coach’s life.” Finland’s entry for the Oscars’ foreign language film award (directed by Finnish Klaus Haro) is set during Soviet times, tells the story of a young man on the run from the KGB who ends up in a sleepy Estonian town. He starts an after-school fencing club and bonds with the kids, but his past starts to catch up to him. The story is partially based on the life of Estonian fencing master Endel Nelis — whose fencing club is still in existence today.
The Bodyguard (特工爺爺)
This Sammo Hung (洪金寶) vehicle is his first directorial work since 1997’s Once Upon A Time in China and America and features cameos from a number of Hong Kong cinema veterans such as Andy Lau (劉德華), Tsui Hark (徐克) and several of his childhood comrades during his Seven Little Fortunes days. The Chinese film name, translated as “Special Agent Grandpa,” is much more imaginative and captures the essence of the film much better, as Hung plays a retired soldier with hidden martial arts skills who tries to atone for the disappearance of his granddaughter by helping a little girl’s father fight against local mobsters. Looking at the trailer, it seems like that 64-year-old is still kicking butt.
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
When picturing Tainan, what typically comes to mind is charming alleyways, Japanese architecture and world-class cuisine. But look beyond the fray, through stained glass windows and sliding bookcases, and there exists a thriving speakeasy subculture, where innovative mixologists ply their trade, serving exquisite concoctions and unique flavor profiles to rival any city in Taiwan. Speakeasies hail from the prohibition era of 1920s America. When alcohol was outlawed, people took their business to hidden establishments; requiring patrons to use hushed tones — speak easy — to conceal their illegal activities. Nowadays legal, speakeasy bars are simply hidden bars, often found behind bookcases