Nanking
This US documentary chronicles the 1937 assault on Nanking and massacre of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers. It's one of the most important films of the year. But few will see it thanks to a limited release, little promotion and a restricted rating due to blood-curdling archival footage of atrocities. Oscar-winning director Bill Guttentag and co-director Dan Sturman describe how a number of Europeans saved the lives of ordinary Chinese - including through Nazi connections - as Japanese soldiers ran amok. The Europeans are played by actors such as Jurgen Prochnow, Stephen Dorff, Woody Harrelson and Mariel Hemingway, while other interviews are of actual witnesses to the carnage, including victims of unspeakable violence. Prompted by the bestselling 1997 historical study by Iris Chang (張純如), who committed suicide in late 2004, Nanking has been shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar, no doubt to the dismay of the Japanese government.
Chaos
This flick's distributor seems to have looked through the filmography of lead actor Jason Statham (familiar to Taiwanese audiences because of The Transporter with Shu Qi (舒淇) and Rogue Assassin with Jet Li (李連杰) for something to release - and came up with this 2005 heist drama. Statham is a disgraced police negotiator called in to deal with a hostage situation at a bank robbed by a gang led by Wesley Snipes. The gang escapes, but ... all is not what it seems. This went straight to DVD in the US, perhaps unfairly.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
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