The King's Daughters, by Patricia Mazuy, France: A historical drama dealing with religion and humanity. Set in 17th century France, it tells the story of Madame de Maintenon, who, with the help of Louis XIV, created a school for young girls. The girls were educated to become independent women, which leads them to fall into traps set by religion. It is a beautiful but cruel story in which Isabelle Huppert's impressive acting drew attention at Cannes 2000.
Shower (Xizhao,
Monday, by Sabu, Japan: A salaryman wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened the day before -- attending a funeral, dating but annoying his girlfriend, getting drunk in a pub and getting to know a yakuza and his beautiful mistress, having a gun in his hand and...
This witty hybrid of adventure and satire was favorably received at the Berlin Film Festival this year.
Beau Travail, by Claire Denis, France: A riveting adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. In the strict and regimented life of the French Foreign Legion there is an undercurrent of emotion and eroticism between officers. In this atmosphere, inevitable jealousy turns into murderous hate.
Claire Denis successfully depicts a man's world of morals and rules, while also visualizing the beauty of male bodies. Poetic images and the gradually built up tension create a beautiful cinematic experience. Village Voice regards the film as one of the most important of 1999.
Sex: the Annabel Chong Story, by Gough Lewis, USA: In 1994, a Singapore-born porn star attempted to set a world record by having sex with 300 men over a period of 10 hours. She said she did so to challenge socially accepted female sexuality. She failed to set the record because the 251th man hurt her. The whole process was recorded and made into a documentary. Chong's actions expressed her rebellion against social norms and her middle class upbringing, but is she a fearless feminist or a victim of the sex industry? The film's premiere at Sundance Film Festival polarized the audience.
Many people noticed the flood of pro-China propaganda across a number of venues in recent weeks that looks like a coordinated assault on US Taiwan policy. It does look like an effort intended to influence the US before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) over the weekend. Jennifer Kavanagh’s piece in the New York Times in September appears to be the opening strike of the current campaign. She followed up last week in the Lowy Interpreter, blaming the US for causing the PRC to escalate in the Philippines and Taiwan, saying that as
Nov. 3 to Nov. 9 In 1925, 18-year-old Huang Chin-chuan (黃金川) penned the following words: “When will the day of women’s equal rights arrive, so that my talents won’t drift away in the eastern stream?” These were the closing lines to her poem “Female Student” (女學生), which expressed her unwillingness to be confined to traditional female roles and her desire to study and explore the world. Born to a wealthy family on Nov. 5, 1907, Huang was able to study in Japan — a rare privilege for women in her time — and even made a name for herself in the
This year’s Miss Universe in Thailand has been marred by ugly drama, with allegations of an insult to a beauty queen’s intellect, a walkout by pageant contestants and a tearful tantrum by the host. More than 120 women from across the world have gathered in Thailand, vying to be crowned Miss Universe in a contest considered one of the “big four” of global beauty pageants. But the runup has been dominated by the off-stage antics of the coiffed contestants and their Thai hosts, escalating into a feminist firestorm drawing the attention of Mexico’s president. On Tuesday, Mexican delegate Fatima Bosch staged a
Taiwan can often feel woefully behind on global trends, from fashion to food, and influences can sometimes feel like the last on the metaphorical bandwagon. In the West, suddenly every burger is being smashed and honey has become “hot” and we’re all drinking orange wine. But it took a good while for a smash burger in Taipei to come across my radar. For the uninitiated, a smash burger is, well, a normal burger patty but smashed flat. Originally, I didn’t understand. Surely the best part of a burger is the thick patty with all the juiciness of the beef, the
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