 | The Witnesses
AIDS is the subject of this French production. The story takes us back to just before it all began, revisiting the confusion of a number of friends and family in the mid- 1980s as an unknown disease impacts on their sexually eclectic lives. The emphasis here is humanism and hope in the face of cruel mortality, and critics have painted this as superior to the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia - though to be fair, the stories and sociopolitical contexts are completely different. It features a powerhouse cast (Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Beart, Julie Depardieu) and an eye for the upbeat. French title: Les Temoins. |
 | Scandalous Those who were put off movie musicals for life by the porn-laced The Wayward Cloud and its quintessential Taiwanese despair might find this dance-filled Spanish flick to be just the right tonic. The Web site for Manchester's Cornerhouse arts center says Scandalous "brings together three generations of a sevillana family, a hapless detective, counter-cultural Okupa [squatter] communities and a Buddhist retreat," while the trailers are exuberant and a little surreal. The original title translates as "Why do they rub their little feet together?" See the film to find out why, and be prepared to make a spectacle of yourself when you dance in the aisles. |
 | Tekkonkinkreet A Japanese animated film from last year, and apparently the first to be directed by a foreigner - American Michael Arias, to be exact, a video game and film-related software whiz and the producer of The Animatrix - this more adult-themed work has been praised not just for its superbly rendered and dynamic visuals but also for deeper themes of belonging, community and self-belief. Two street children with strange powers - that include soaring through the air - team up with a sympathetic yakuza boss to defeat evil property speculators who want to destroy the older part of their city. Showing at the Spring Cinema Galaxy in Ximending. |
 | Beauty and the Seven Beasts (七擒七縱七色狼) You have to hand it to Wong Jing (王晶). The prolific and populist producer-director-actor survived not only the collapse of the Hong Kong film industry, but also the far more painful Golden Horse Awards ceremony in Taipei two weeks ago (he was the only one on the night to elicit bellylaughs from the audience). The Wong-produced Beauty is his latest foray into the kind of ramshackle, anachronistic comedy that Hong Kong used to be famous for. It's set in the 1970s and features seven men in loud shirts getting into a flap over a sexy youngster played by newcomer Natalie Meng Yao (孟瑤). Screening at the Baixue theater in Ximending, but not for long. |
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
On Sept. 27 last year, three climate activists were arrested for throwing soup over Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh at London’s National Gallery. The Just Stop Oil protest landed on international front pages. But will the action help further the activists’ cause to end fossil fuels? Scientists are beginning to find answers to this question. The number of protests more than tripled between 2006 and 2020 and researchers are working out which tactics are most likely to change public opinion, influence voting behavior, change policy or even overthrow political regimes. “We are experiencing the largest wave of protests in documented history,” says
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