On the surface, the South Korean movie Ardor is a movie about a bored housewife having a passionate affair, in revenge for her husband's unfaithfulness, featuring sensual love scenes. But, in the background, director Byun Young-joo tries to tell a woman's story about gaining power, about her ego and about her desire. The film has a feminist message.
Housewife Mi-heun thinks her life is pure happiness, with a loving husband and a beautiful daughter, until one Christmas Eve she finds her husband's mistress in her bed. The illusion of a perfect life is shattered.
To help mend their marriage, Mi-heun and her husband move to the countryside, where she meets In-gyu, a charming doctor who plays around with women. In-gyu proposes a game of love to Mi-heun and a passionate affair begins between them. The rule of the game is that as long as one of them doesn't say "I love you," the affair may continue. Mi-heun decides to create a series of lies for her husband, in the same way her husband used to lie to her.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HWA JAAN FILMS
Actors Kim Yoon-jin and Lee Jong-won both give convincing performances. Kim, in particular, renders a depth of acting, shifting from a pure and vulnerable wife to a woman of secrets, also gaining vigor in life from the dangerous extra-marital relationship. Kim was the North Korean assassin in action thriller Shiri (1999); and the selfish woman in Mr. Iron Palm (2002).
But it is Ardor that sees her give her most polished performance. By getting the most out of his leading actress, director Byun makes this movie a film by a woman for women.
It is not a sugar-coated tale, telling you to expect Mr. Right, but the voicing of a woman's desire and independence in a gender-unequal society such as South Korea. With this movie as her first dramatic film, Byun (who was a prolific documentary maker prior to the film) also shows a sophisticated depiction of women's psychology in her detailed narratives.
The only pitfall of the movie is that the development of the story is a little predictable. For those who are used to a Hollywood style-housewife-having-an-affair movie, one might be disappointed to find no surprises toward the end of the movie.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
For the past five years, Sammy Jou (周祥敏) has climbed Kinmen’s highest peak, Taiwu Mountain (太武山) at 6am before heading to work. In the winter, it’s dark when he sets out but even at this hour, other climbers are already coming down the mountain. All of this is a big change from Jou’s childhood during the Martial Law period, when the military requisitioned the mountain for strategic purposes and most of it was off-limits. Back then, only two mountain trails were open, and they were open only during special occasions, such as for prayers to one’s ancestors during Lunar New Year.
A key feature of Taiwan’s environmental impact assessments (EIA) is that they seldom stop projects, especially once the project has passed its second stage EIA review (the original Suhua Highway proposal, killed after passing the second stage review, seems to be the lone exception). Mingjian Township (名間鄉) in Nantou County has been the site of rising public anger over the proposed construction of a waste incinerator in an important agricultural area. The township is a key producer of tea (over 40 percent of the island’s production), ginger and turmeric. The incinerator project is currently in its second stage EIA. The incinerator
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