The Strangers
A couple trying to find common ground in their relationship hear strange, intimidating noises while at home one night, and to their misfortune it’s not just the wind. A home invasion follows and the terror begins. With the bar usually set quite high for horror films by most critics, this one managed to make a pile of cash and impress enough reviewers to get debuting director Bryan Bertino’s name out there. Expect more movies from him; in the meantime, gasp as Liv Tyler and her would-be hubby look masked death straight in the eye. If you’ve seen Funny Games (the US remake opens here in two weeks) you’ll sense what’s in store.
The Coffin
Here’s a custom that some Thais apparently swear by: Lying in a coffin for a night brings good fortune and good health. Huh? Unfortunately for the leads in this flick, the opposite is true. A Thai man and a Hong Kong woman hope to free their respective relationships of the specter of cancer, but end up unleashing something even more deadly. Stars Karen Mok (莫文蔚), who must have ignored the bit in Lonely Planet that warns travelers against casket accommodation.
Dive!!
This film might have been better off opening last week, given that the Beijing Olympics’ diving events are almost over. Still, Taiwanese audiences, girls in particular, might enjoy this melodrama featuring three young Japanese athletic hopefuls in hip-hugging swimwear hoping to make it big at the Olympics. Variety liked the diving sequences, but warned that the film has a bit of rear nudity, which the poster seems a little coy to admit to, blocking the lower front of the boys’ swimmers with the film’s title.
Sin Sangre
This Taipei Arts Festival presentation is a Chilean production that combines film with live performance. Murderous rule by the Chilean military is the metaphorical backdrop for this piece, which sees a childhood survivor of a home invasion grow to womanhood bent on revenge. But what will happen when she confronts the remaining tormentor? In a week of mediocre movie releases, this might be the one to see, but you’ll have to rush. There are only three performances at the Zhongshan Hall: tonight, tomorrow night and on Sunday afternoon. See www.taipeifestival.org.tw/Index.aspx for details in English.
Common sense is not that common: a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania concludes the concept is “somewhat illusory.” Researchers collected statements from various sources that had been described as “common sense” and put them to test subjects. The mixed bag of results suggested there was “little evidence that more than a small fraction of beliefs is common to more than a small fraction of people.” It’s no surprise that there are few universally shared notions of what stands to reason. People took a horse worming drug to cure COVID! They think low-traffic neighborhoods are a communist plot and call
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
The sprawling port city of Kaohsiung seldom wins plaudits for its beauty or architectural history. That said, like any other metropolis of its size, it does have a number of strange or striking buildings. This article describes a few such curiosities, all but one of which I stumbled across by accident. BOMBPROOF HANGARS Just north of Kaohsiung International Airport, hidden among houses and small apartment buildings that look as though they were built between 15 and 30 years ago, are two mysterious bunker-like structures that date from the airport’s establishment as a Japanese base during World War II. Each is just about
The female body is a horror movie waiting to happen. From puberty and the grisly onset of menstruation, in pictures such as Brian De Palma’s Carrie and John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, to pregnancy and childbirth — Rosemary’s Baby is the obvious example — women have provided a rich seam of inspiration for genre film-makers over the past half century. But look a little closer and two trends become apparent: the vast majority of female body-based horror deals with various aspects of the reproductive system, and it has largely been made by men (Titane and The First Omen, two recent examples
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