Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Sensational 3D animation and a healthy sense of humor are on the menu for families who flock to this movie about an island in the Atlantic plagued with gastronomic precipitation. A young inventor develops a machine that converts water into food, turning his island home from a sardine factory into a tourist draw. But things get out of control as the increasingly outrageous food growths threaten everything. Even 3D skeptic Roger Ebert was impressed, calling this the best technical presentation yet. Features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell and Mr T. Also screening in IMAX format.
Home
A highlight among this week’s new releases is the French-language Swiss feature Home, a caustic, even surreal drama about a family whose property and very unity are compromised when an old road nearby is converted into a motorway. Isabelle Huppert is the matriarch of the clan. Movie buffs, like some critics, will have noticed the link to famous traffic panic sequences in earlier French films, but the focus here is familial and environmental more than sociopolitical. Also boasts a first-class poster depicting Huppert in the kitchen and her eldest daughter in the yard giving a speeding truck the finger.
Fish Story
The remaining five releases this week are Japanese. The first, and probably best, is Fish Story, a humble production of varying tone but with real creativity and ambition to entertain. Several interweaving stories over different periods of time eventually provide an answer to why the titular punk song from 1970s Japan could end up saving the world from a colossal heavenly object. Based on a book and not a manga, for once.
Kamui
Alas, back to manga adaptations with this historical action movie about a talented young ninja who is rejected by his criminal brethren and opts for near-hermitage. Unfortunately, as with so many loners in narratives like this, the poor fellow’s attempts to lead a quiet life are frustrated when a budding romantic relationship goes south at the hands of his prowling former colleagues. Fanboys mocked the computer-generated special effects even more than the lack of action; the bigger question is why CG should be necessary at all. The Lone Wolf and Cub series didn’t use them ... say no more.
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror
This different-looking anime production also stands out for featuring a female lead (Haruka) instead of the male teenager beloved of Western movies. Our motherless high school heroine is transported to an island world composed of things rejected by the human world, and she decides to set off in pursuit of a lost hand mirror her mother once gave her — but there are forces unhappy at her presence. Apparently based on a traditional tale, the emotional quotient here might be enough to steer attendant parents in Haruka’s direction instead of standard action and violence anime, such as ...
Naruto the Movie Vol. 6
Naruto the ninja is back for even more anime mayhem in this, the third entry in the Shippuden cycle featuring his later exploits. All hell is set to break loose when an evil figure is responsible for the disappearance of key ninja from various villages, setting them against one another. A celestial finale pits him against Naruto and the manipulated townsmen. Also known as Naruto Shippuden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire.
One Piece Film: Strong World
To finish this week, those irrepressible manga/anime Straw Hat pirates are back in their 10th feature. Navigator Nami is abducted by a fearsome pirate who sends the rest of her colleagues into a fearsome location filled with horrible creatures. One Piece creator Eiichira Oda wrote this entry, which enjoyed extensive box office success in Japan.
Climate change, political headwinds and diverging market dynamics around the world have pushed coffee prices to fresh records, jacking up the cost of your everyday brew or a barista’s signature macchiato. While the current hot streak may calm down in the coming months, experts and industry insiders expect volatility will remain the watchword, giving little visibility for producers — two-thirds of whom farm parcels of less than one hectare. METEORIC RISE The price of arabica beans listed in New York surged by 90 percent last year, smashing on Dec. 10 a record dating from 1977 — US$3.48 per pound. Robusta prices have
A dozen excited 10-year-olds are bouncing in their chairs. The small classroom’s walls are lined with racks of wetsuits and water equipment, and decorated with posters of turtles. But the students’ eyes are trained on their teacher, Tseng Ching-ming, describing the currents and sea conditions at nearby Banana Bay, where they’ll soon be going. “Today you have one mission: to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some of the kids grin, nervously. They don’t know it, but the students from Kenting-Eluan elementary school on Taiwan’s southernmost point, are rare among their peers and predecessors. Despite most of
The resignation of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) co-founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as party chair on Jan. 1 has led to an interesting battle between two leading party figures, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如). For years the party has been a one-man show, but with Ko being held incommunicado while on trial for corruption, the new chair’s leadership could be make or break for the young party. Not only are the two very different in style, their backgrounds are very different. Tsai is a co-founder of the TPP and has been with Ko from the very beginning. Huang has
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang