| Compiled by Martin Williams | |
 | Chaotic Ana
Director Julio Medem, best known for his 2001 hit Sex and Lucia, creates another story that lives up to its title. Cave-raised Ana (Manuela Velles) is a young artist who accepts an offer to move to Madrid and join a commune. She then suffers mental problems after being attracted to a young painter, and is diagnosed by a hypnotist as channeling the oppression of women through the ages - which she then relives, climaxing in a messy scene that will enrage US neo-cons. Stylish, confusing and deeply personal, of all the films bravely opening against Indiana Jones this week, this is the one that screams "anti-Hollywood." |
 | Kids
The concept for this Japanese film is quite grim, even if the treatment is more upbeat. A strange youth has the power to transport injuries between bodies, including his own. He makes friends with another boy, a victim of domestic abuse, and the pair set about healing their friends and acquaintances by moving their wounds to the latter's despised father, now hospitalized. A sequel of sorts to last year's Calling You, this is based on the book by Otsu-ichi, which is part of a series exploring friendship. |
 | Art of the Devil 3
Drill-to-the-head torture and tongue-cutting on the big screen amid voodoo babble? Ah, it must be the Art of the Devil franchise from Thailand, ready to disgust all over again. Napakpapha Nakprasitte returns in this hit prequel as the schoolteacher from hell who wreaks bodily disaster on anyone standing in her way, with a little help from black magic of the grisliest kind. Unfortunately, her lust for vengeance seems to have extended to the film's official Web site, which is offline. Original Thai title: Long Khong 2. |
 | Gone for a Dance
In this Belgian film, a college professor relates the story of three men who devote themselves to their passion for dance at a cost to their personal lives. Humorous, romantic and filled with dance sequences, this French-language film has yet to make it to English-language markets. Stars Cecile de France (Haute Tension, Around the World in 80 Days) and veteran actor Jean-Pierre Cassel. |
 | Raging Inferno
This is trumpeted in local ads as a film released in the US and Germany by Warner Bros. But don't let the grindhouse-distributor hype or the extra theater bookings in Taipei and Taichung fool you; it's actually a German TV movie called Inferno: Das Flammen uber Berlin dressed up for theatrical release. Set in a modern-looking tower that is engulfed by flames, it stars Silke Bodenbender, which can't be a bad thing. Starts tomorrow. |
The canonical shot of an East Asian city is a night skyline studded with towering apartment and office buildings, bright with neon and plastic signage, a landscape of energy and modernity. Another classic image is the same city seen from above, in which identical apartment towers march across the city, spilling out over nearby geography, like stylized soldiers colonizing new territory in a board game. Densely populated dynamic conurbations of money, technological innovation and convenience, it is hard to see the cities of East Asia as what they truly are: necropolises. Why is this? The East Asian development model, with
June 16 to June 22 The following flyer appeared on the streets of Hsinchu on June 12, 1895: “Taipei has already fallen to the Japanese barbarians, who have brought great misery to our land and people. We heard that the Japanese occupiers will tax our gardens, our houses, our bodies, and even our chickens, dogs, cows and pigs. They wear their hair wild, carve their teeth, tattoo their foreheads, wear strange clothes and speak a strange language. How can we be ruled by such people?” Posted by civilian militia leader Wu Tang-hsing (吳湯興), it was a call to arms to retake
This is a deeply unsettling period in Taiwan. Uncertainties are everywhere while everyone waits for a small army of other shoes to drop on nearly every front. During challenging times, interesting political changes can happen, yet all three major political parties are beset with scandals, strife and self-inflicted wounds. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is held accountable for not only the challenges to the party, but also the nation. Taiwan is geopolitically and economically under threat. Domestically, the administration is under siege by the opposition-controlled legislature and growing discontent with what opponents characterize as arrogant, autocratic
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
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