Horror movies are still hip? At least the three directors in Three -- Experiences (三更二), the sequel of well-sold Three (三更) try to believe so. The three segments may not be so scary for those looking for terror sensations. But each tries to be a sophisticated story, rather than a hyper-gory picture.
Box, by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, is a visually beautiful story about love and jealousy. Kyoko Hasegawa is a sick, beautiful novelist who obviously carries with her a deep fear about a past of tragedy, which reflects in her constant nightmares of being suffocated with a plastic bag.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATA ENTERRTAINMENT
Back in her childhood, she and the sister were acrobats in a local circus in northern Japan. The climax of their performances is when the two skinny little girls crouch in two small boxes and their stepfather -- the lead performer -- shoots darts at the boxes.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATA ENTERRTAINMENT
But whenever the show finishes, the father compliments one sister only, leaving Kyoko in despair.
Dumpling by Fruit Chan (陳果) continues Chan's sarcasm about the poverty gap in Hong Kong society. In the sequence it is darker than his previous films.
Mrs. Lee (Miriam Yeung, 楊千嬅) is a bored housewife of a rich businessman. She finds in the back alleys of Kowloon the most expensive dumpling in Hong Kong.
This segment features the excellent acting of Bai Ling (白靈), the dumpling seller from Shenzhen, China, and the sophisticated cinematography illustrates the delicacy and the interesting process of making the dumplings. But the story behind rejuvenation is too scary and a bit far-fetched.
The South Korean sequence, Cut, features one of the most exaggerated performances among the three. The story is a Catch-22 situation, in which a rich and successful film director and his wife are kidnapped. He is strapped in the corner of the house and she is tied by the piano. The terrorist gives him two choices: to strangle an innocent young stranger the terrorist brings, or to watch his wife have her fingers cut off one by one.
The thrill of the story of course focuses on his choice, also the moments the beautiful wife becomes fingerless.
Earlier this month Economic Affairs Minister Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝) proposed buying green power from the Philippines and shipping it to Taiwan, in remarks made during a legislative hearing. Because this is an eminently reasonable and useful proposal, it was immediately criticized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). KMT Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡) said that Taiwan pays NT$40 billion annually to fix cables, while TPP heavyweight Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) complained that Kuo wanted to draw public attention away from Taiwan’s renewable energy ratio. Considering the legal troubles currently inundating the TPP, one would think Huang would
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) last week told residents to avoid wearing scary Halloween costumes on the MRT so as not to alarm other passengers. Well, I thought, so much for my plan to visit Taipei dressed as the National Development Council’s (NDC) biennial population report “Population Projections for the Republic of China (Taiwan): 2024-2070,” which came out last week. Terms like “low birth rate” and “demographic decline” do not cut it — the report is nothing short of a demographic disaster. Yet, in Taiwan, as in other countries, it is solvable. It simply requires a change in mindset. As it
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