Empire of the Wolves, the adaptation of Jean Christophe Grange's novel of the same name, is an addition to the genre in which a film's denouement comes only after apparently disparate, unconnected storylines take the viewer on a journey of mind-boggling situations that then collide in a big bang.
Set in Paris, Empire of the Wolves sees Anna, who is losing her mind, pick a psychiatrist at random in the hope of fixing her leaking memory. At the same time a youthful policeman played by Jocelyn Quivrin seeks the help of his erstwhile colleague, Schiffer, to clear up a series of gruesome killings of Turkish seamstresses. This good-cop-bad-cop team embark on some detective work when luckily enough Anna reveals she is of Turkish descent and the hand of a Turkish extremist group is uncovered in the murders.
This adaptation of a well-received book does not sit well with some movie pundits. "Although this is the kind of movie where a flying dagger pierces a man's throat as he's about to reveal a crucial name, venture takes itself way too seriously to be fun," writes Lisa Nesselson in Variety.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX MOVIES
However, members of the viewing public are less critical of the film. "Another great action/thriller from France. A little bit Bourne Identity, a little bit Carlitos Way ... a glimpse of From Dusk Till Dawn and Silence of the Lambs and you have a pretty entertaining 128 mins at your local cinema," a reviewer on the
International Movie Database Web site wrote.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
When 17-year-old Lin Shih (林石) crossed the Taiwan Strait in 1746 with a group of settlers, he could hardly have known the magnitude of wealth and influence his family would later amass on the island, or that one day tourists would be walking through the home of his descendants in central Taiwan. He might also have been surprised to see the family home located in Wufeng District (霧峰) of Taichung, as Lin initially settled further north in what is now Dali District (大里). However, after the Qing executed him for his alleged participation in the Lin Shuang-Wen Rebellion (林爽文事件), his grandsons were
I am kneeling quite awkwardly on a cushion in a yoga studio in London’s Shoreditch on an unseasonably chilly Wednesday and wondering when exactly will be the optimum time to rearrange my legs. I have an ice-cold mango and passion fruit kombucha beside me and an agonising case of pins and needles. The solution to pins and needles, I learned a few years ago, is to directly confront the agony: pull your legs out from underneath you, bend your toes up as high as they can reach, and yes, it will hurt far more initially, but then the pain subsides.
RSS