2009 Cross-Strait Films Exhibition
Here’s something different. A film festival where Taiwanese audiences watch Chinese product and vice versa. For one week, Taipei and Taichung will feature the premiere screenings of If You Are the One (非誠勿擾, see adjacent review), as well as Crazy Racer (瘋狂的賽車), Invisible Wings (隱形的翅膀), Life Today (江北好人), Postman in Shangri-la (香巴拉信使), Ta Pu (塔舖) and The Attack (致命追擊). Later this month Beijing and Tianjin will host six Taiwanese features. But you have to pity the Chinese audience: Any programming that includes Attitude (態度), a spectacularly awful documentary on the Taiwan Beer basketball team, can’t be taken very seriously. The festival could also have done with some entertaining commentary on the cross-strait relationship itself; sadly, Hong Kong’s God of Gamblers 2 (賭神2) didn’t make the cut.
Walled In
Straight to DVD in almost all territories, this thriller-cum-horror flick is getting a theatrical run in Taiwan. An up-and-coming demolition professional gets cracking on a very strange apartment building but runs into difficulties: Not only are people still living there, but there’s a whole lotta dead people in there, too. Like the House of Wax and Thir13en Ghosts remakes, this genre item is more likely to impress students of set design and architecture than horror fans.
The Girl from Monaco
The “girl” is a weather host who tries to seduce a hotshot lawyer defending a murder suspect. Meanwhile, the lawyer’s young, committed bodyguard has his work cut out ensuring that his client is safe from Russian killers. A hit in France, this film hit pay dirt with Louise Bourgoin’s ambitious, vivacious weather girl character in a way that will remind some of Nicole Kidman’s spectacular (if more sinister) showcase role in To Die For.
Cover Boy
A young Romanian immigrant hits Italy with a pal but soon has to fend for himself when the authorities take his friend away. He finds support in two locals whose ulterior motives take a time to emerge; the first is the Romanian’s much older flatmate who wants to bed him, and the other a professional photographer who wants to make him a model. This film was made two years ago and has struggled to find a home outside Italy and European festivals. Still, it has won a few awards and the ads claim it received a 15-minute standing ovation in Rotterdam. The original Italian title translates as Cover Boy ... The Last Revolution.
O’Horten
A railway engineer in Norway by the name of Odd Horten retires, but unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in About Schmidt, this agreeable fellow comes to terms with his sudden change in timetable and personal limitations without quiet trauma. Instead, the door is opened to the strangeness of his surroundings as the old man bemusedly takes in his new life and new acquaintances. Very good reviews met this light (but not lightweight) comedy-drama stateside.
One Million Yen Girl
Japanese actress Yu Aoi has a legion of fans and this unusual film — a somewhat existential Japanese road movie — will likely add to their number. Yu plays a young woman with little to show for herself who gets in trouble with the law over a minor incident and moves on to the next town — and the next, and the next — as she comes to terms with her life and what she needs to become. Funny and wry, this is also known as One Million Yen and the Nigamushi Woman.
Crayon Shin-Chan: The Legend Called: The Singing Buttocks Bomb
Every year our favorite Japanese kindergarten tyke Crayon Shin-chan gets up to mischief on the big screen, though readers not familiar with Japanese manga should still recognize this character by the minimalist face artwork and the guffaws that come from kids who delight in his naughty wordplay and other hijinks. And besides, any movie with a title like this deserves a wider audience. In this effort, Shin-Chan’s dog Shiro has a world-threatening munition attached to his butt by an alien while visiting Okinawa. Unmissable.
Mr. Housewife
This broad South Korean comedy starts out as an imitation of Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton, but then shoots off in a different direction as unemployed hubbie Han Suk-gyu finds his niche as a fish-out-of-water game show contestant. Also starring the wonderful Kim Soo-mi and Shin Eun-kyung as Han’s wife. Screening at Ximending’s Baixue theater, where gender politics is rarely of interest.
6D Movie Garden
The Living Mall in Taipei is holding an interesting activity aimed at youngsters: a smorgasbord of movies on the theme of the animal kingdom in which you change topics by moving from one theater to the next. The experience is meant to be educational as well as fun, and it’s the closest thing locals will get to the Disneyland experience without applying for a US visa. Screened in the late morning and midday, ticket prices are NT$390 for adults and NT$300 for children with discounts available.
JUNE 30 to JULY 6 After being routed by the Japanese in the bloody battle of Baguashan (八卦山), Hsu Hsiang (徐驤) and a handful of surviving Hakka fighters sped toward Tainan. There, he would meet with Liu Yung-fu (劉永福), leader of the Black Flag Army who had assumed control of the resisting Republic of Formosa after its president and vice-president fled to China. Hsu, who had been fighting non-stop for over two months from Taoyuan to Changhua, was reportedly injured and exhausted. As the story goes, Liu advised that Hsu take shelter in China to recover and regroup, but Hsu steadfastly
On Sunday, President William Lai (賴清德) delivered a strategically brilliant speech. It was the first of his “Ten Lectures on National Unity,” (團結國家十講) focusing on the topic of “nation.” Though it has been eclipsed — much to the relief of the opposing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — by an ill-advised statement in the second speech of the series, the days following Lai’s first speech were illuminating on many fronts, both domestic and internationally, in highlighting the multi-layered success of Lai’s strategic move. “OF COURSE TAIWAN IS A COUNTRY” Never before has a Taiwanese president devoted an entire speech to
Small, fuzzy and baring sharp teeth, Chinese toymaker Pop Mart’s Labubu monster dolls have taken over the world, drawing excited crowds at international stores and adorning the handbags of celebrities such as Rihanna and Cher. Beijing-based Pop Mart is part of a rising tide of Chinese cultural exports gaining traction abroad, furry ambassadors of a “cool” China even in places associated more with negative public opinion of Beijing such as Europe and North America. Labubus, which typically sell for around US$40, are released in limited quantities and sold in “blind boxes,” meaning buyers don’t know the exact model they will receive. The dolls
Focus Taiwan reported last week that government figures showed unemployment in Taiwan is at historic lows: “The local unemployment rate fell 0.02 percentage points from a month earlier to 3.30 percent in May, the lowest level for the month in 25 years.” Historical lows in joblessness occurred earlier this year as well. The context? Labor shortages. The National Development Council (NDC) expects that Taiwan will be short 400,000 workers by 2030, now just five years away. The depth of the labor crisis is masked by the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers which the economy absolutely depends on, and the
RSS