The Men Who Stare at Goats
If it’s George Clooney, then it must be a liberal-leaning action movie or historical drama, right? In this case, it’s a bit of both. Based on a book that exposed purportedly real-life shenanigans by elements in the US Army over the years, this is a yarn that should delight fans of leads Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. Clooney is a special forces operative of mysterious purpose whose activities in Iraq turn out to be wackier than McGregor’s reporter could have dreamed ... and the fate of the titular goat is just the beginning.
20th Century Boys: The Last Chapter - Our Flag
The final installment in this manga-sourced Japanese trilogy of kiddie-induced apocalyptic madness arrives in Taipei to a ready-made audience. Part 3 concentrates on the final stages of the attempt by doomsday cult leader Friend to destroy the world. His long-time opponents — a rock star and his female relative — attempt to frustrate him both within his organization and from the outside. It’s worth noting that this intriguing and sometimes disturbing mixture of cults, children, terrorism, pop music and religion could never have been made in the US.
Crazy Racer (瘋狂的賽車)
Frenetic Chinese action comedy involves a disgraced cyclist whom fate further mistreats by ensnaring him in a mish-mash of drug-running, spouse murder and even more nefarious activities. There’s action to spare and some innovative elements, too. Perfect for getting crazy on a brainless night out on the town. This is a follow-on of sorts from director Ning Hao’s (寧浩) Crazy Stone (瘋狂的石頭) in 2006.
The Warrior and the Wolf (狼災記)
Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang (田壯壯), who made the fine drama The Blue Kite (藍風箏), is a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, this strange, messy film may not enhance that reputation. Maggie Q (Die Hard 4.0) is a luckless widow, Japan’s Joe Odagiri (Air Doll, which also opens today) is a warrior and Taiwan’s Tou Chung-hua (庹宗華, from Lust, Caution) is a fallen general in this cosmopolitan action fantasy set thousands of years ago. The film offers two pieces of advice among the battles, rape sequences and pretty vistas: (1) Don’t fornicate with wolf-women and (2) Don’t assume eclectic Asian co-productions will make money.
Sex, Party & Lies
What, no videotape? A hit in Spain, this teen drama seems to be mining territory (teens getting it on and getting out of control) that Larry Clark exhausted years ago, though the actors cast here seem a little older. If the version that screened at Cannes is the one released here, then the teen audience that this flick craves will be locked out. If you want to see Spanish filmmakers pushing the envelope, track down some of Pedro Almodovar’s earliest films instead. Original title: Mentiras y Gordas.
Conversations With God
We in Taiwan may get a regular supply of films about religious figures, but it’s not often an explicitly religious film gets a screening — let alone Christian. This one invites the viewer to join Neale Donald Walsh’s real-life transformation from street bum to super-wealthy self-help author thanks to some conversations with the Almighty when he was at rock bottom. Henry Czerny plays the itinerant-turned-publishing icon well enough, according to some reviews, but overall this effort left most critics conversing with themselves about their own career direction. Find God at the Changchun theater in Taipei.
Painters & Provence
Finally, the Majestic theater in Ximending is taking splendid advantage of the current Van Gogh exhibition at the National Museum of History by releasing this series of five made-for-TV documentaries by Charles de Lartigue about nine artists and their depictions of glorious Provence, France. Other featured artists include Goya, Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso. The festival runs until Jan. 29.
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
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
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
RSS