VIEW THIS PAGE After his powerful study of alienation and skinhead culture in This is England, Shane Meadows’ Somers Town might come as a bit of a letdown. It’s shot in black and white, runs for a mere 75 minutes, and is not really about anything at all. Just two lads in London, one a runaway from the Midlands, the other the son of a Polish construction worker, getting up to some high jinks because they have nothing better to do.
Despite it being a comparatively slight work, Somers Town reflects Meadows’ deep understanding of youth set adrift in a world that has no obvious place for them. According to Variety magazine, the film was financed by Eurostar, and the London-Paris service and the new terminal at St Pancras are prominent both physically and as a narrative backdrop to the story. There are brief moments when the director’s responsibilities to his sponsors intrude ever so slightly, but Meadows has too clear a conception of what he wants to allow Somers Town to descend into a piece of extended product placement.
Thomas Turgoose, who made a stunning debut in This Is England, is back as Tomo, a runaway from the Midlands who is trying his luck in London. He is far from being a likable scalawag, and is clearly a grifter to his bones, never missing an opportunity to see what he can get out of even the most casual of contacts. He meets up with Marek, who is in London to spend time with his father, a worker on the new Eurostar terminal. Marek too is at a loose end, as his father works days and drinks away the night with mates.
The relationship between the boys is never quite easy, even though Tomo talks his way into bunking in Marek’s room without his father’s knowledge. The relationship is enlivened by Graham, a shady businessman who is constantly sorting through his garage filled with assorted goods of unclear provenance, and Maria (Elisa Lasowski), a French woman working in London who becomes the object of a romantic fantasy for the two lads.
The surface lightness hovers over a darker world that is acknowledged but then generally ignored. Instead of drifting into the world of street violence, as Turgoose’s character did in This is England, the lads are allowed to create an ephemeral paradise amid the rough streets of inner city London. Short as it is, Somers Town has plenty to enjoy, not least Meadow’s outstanding ability to capture the elusive mood shifts and listless enthusiasms of his two young leads. VIEW THIS PAGE
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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