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The latest action flick from French writer-producer Luc Besson is notable for enjoying sustained box office success in the US nearly two months after its release. Liam Neeson is a former US spook who comes to the rescue of his kidnapped daughter, now apparently bound for a Middle Eastern harem. Carnage follows in his wake as he puts paid to his mid-life crisis — as well as a white slavery network. Sensitive souls might find this one a little hard to watch in the next few weeks given the sad fate of Neeson’s real-life wife, Natasha Richardson.
Young@Heart
Genuinely emotion-filled release of the week is this British documentary from 2007 about a choir of senior citizens with an average age of about 80 and who specialize in modern, rock-oriented fare. It follows their rehearsals, a number of individual stories and the last-minute deaths of choir members before closing with energetic performances. Winner of several awards, this film has real heart and has left audiences teary and delighted at the same time.
Make It Happen
Poor reviews in Britain and Australia may have helped keep this formulaic aspirational teen dancer movie from a US release, but Taiwanese youngsters besotted with dancing might find something of interest, though even they might be disappointed at the number of dance sequences on show. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Bruce Willis’ daughter in Die Hard 4.0) is a rural lass dreaming of entering a Chicago dance academy, but has to triumph the hard way, etc etc.
Stars on Earth
Bollywood identity Aamir Khan directs this drama from 2007 about a precocious but dyslexic and misunderstood child whose condition is recognized by a sympathetic teacher. Not many Bollywood features reach Taiwan, and this one is rather atypical, though its length (more than two-and-a-half hours) is not. Child actor Darsheel Safary has impressed many with his lively performance. Also known as Little Stars on Earth and Taare Zameen Par: Every Child is Special.
Homeless Boy
Based on a best-selling autobiography, Homeless Boy is the latest import to coincide thematically with the economic crisis. The boy is Hiroshi, whose already depleted family suffers a double blow when they are evicted and the father leaves the kids behind. Hiroshi follows suit and hits the streets, but, as the Japan Times observes, his fate is far kinder than most street people might experience, and casting an overaged pop star in the role hardly helps. This is no Vagabond or Pixote, then, but most of the kids who see this feel-good flick will probably be grateful for that.
Kamome Shokudo
In a treat for fans of Japanese cinema and the offbeat, the Spot theater in Taipei is screening the two most recent films from Japanese writer-director Naoko Ogigami. Kamome Shokudo (2006) follows the exploits of three Japanese women in Finland who end up working at the restaurant of the title. Quiet, subtle and charming, this film can be added to the list of fine features over the years that have seduced audiences by prominently featuring good food. Also known in English as Kamome Diner or Seagull Diner.
Megane
In Megane (2007), Ogigami sets the action much closer to home, though still rather remotely for most Japanese. Okinawa offers another space for older Japanese women to experience life as it isn’t lived back in the suburbs, and the results are equally quirky and slightly surreal. Their adaptation process and the eccentric locals in this case have hints of that underwatched British classic, Local Hero, and with a psychological payoff to match. English title: Glasses. VIEW THIS PAGE
Crop damage from Typhoon Danas “had covered 9,822 hectares of farmland, more than 1.5 percent of Taiwan’s arable land, with an average loss rate of 30 percent, equivalent to 2,977 hectares of total crop failure,” this paper reported on Thursday last week. Costs were expected to exceed NT$1 billion. The disaster triggered clashes in the legislature last week between members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China-aligned lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) argued that opposition lawmakers should take responsibility for slashing the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MOA)
July 14 to July 20 When Lin Tzu-tzeng (林資曾) arrived in Sansia (三峽) in 1830, he found the local conditions ideal for indigo dyeing. Settlers had already planted indigo across the nearby hills, the area’s water was clean and low in minerals and the river offered direct transport to the bustling port of Bangka (艋舺, modern-day Wanhua District in Taipei). Lin hailed from Anxi (安溪) in Fujian Province, which was known for its dyeing traditions. He was well-versed in the craft, and became wealthy after opening the first dyeing workshop in town. Today, the sign for the Lin Mao Hsing (林茂興) Dye
Asked to define sex, most people will say it means penetration and anything else is just “foreplay,” says Kate Moyle, a psychosexual and relationship therapist, and author of The Science of Sex. “This pedestals intercourse as ‘real sex’ and other sexual acts as something done before penetration rather than as deserving credit in their own right,” she says. Lesbian, bisexual and gay people tend to have a broader definition. Sex education historically revolved around reproduction (therefore penetration), which is just one of hundreds of reasons people have sex. If you think of penetration as the sex you “should” be having, you might
As the world has raced to understand how Taiwan can be both the world’s most important producer of semiconductors while also the pin in the grenade of World War III, a reasonable shelf of “Taiwan books” has been published in the last few years. Most describe Taiwan according to a power triangle dominated by the US and China. But what of the actual Taiwanese themselves? Who are they? And should they have any say in the matter? Chris Horton’s Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival is perhaps the first general history of Taiwan to answer
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