Gangster Rock (混混天團)
Following on from Buttonman (鈕扣人), a local gangster flick that managed to secure an international release of sorts back in 2008, director Joe Chien (錢人豪) is back with yet another vastly improbable gangland movie about a debt collector, Ah-Hau, played by Singaporean actor Leon Jay Williams (立威廉), who becomes involved with the music industry when he is asked to collect repayments on loans made to musician Ah-Hai — played by Van Fan (范逸臣), reprising his role from Cape No. 7 (海角七號) — who has been set up to take the fall for debts incurred by his record company. The two men end up hitting it off, and Ah-Hau decides to help his new friend sell records and organize concerts to pay off the debts, only to discover that the music industry is even more corrupt than the life he is used to.
Korean Film Festival 2010
A great selection of films from South Korea will be offered up by courtesy of film distributor CatchPlay (which also brings us District 13: Ultimatum this week). Most of the films are relatively recent, and highlight the stars, both in front and behind the camera, that have made South Korean film and television such runaway successes in Taiwan. The films range across gritty and violent character studies such as Joon Yang Ik’s Breathless (Ddongpari), young love/lust in The Five Senses of Eros (Ogamdo), dark fantasy in Hansel and Gretal, soppy tear-jerkers such as More Than Blue (Seulpeumboda deo seulpeun Iyagi), which reportedly rates off the charts if you want a good cry, and, as they say, much, much more. Sixteen films in all will be presented. For detailed information on the program, visit www.catchplay.com/korean. Screenings run through May 7 and will be held at the SKCineplex (台北新光影城) located at 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號).
No More Cry (Nakumonka)
A Japanese film about two brothers separated at birth who find their separate ways in life, one as the potential heir to a successful restaurant business and the other as a comedian. When the brothers discover the existence of one another, a chain of events is triggered that is intended to have audiences laughing through their tears. The script is by Kankuro Kudo, who has a strong reputation as a writer and director, but No More Cry seems to lose itself in stodgy melodrama, making its 134-minute running time something of a trial.
A Pierrot (Juryoku piero)
Released as A Pierrot, this bizarre thriller is about two brothers, one a geneticist, the other a cleaner of roadside graffiti, who become involved in an investigation into a series of arson attacks. The clues point back into their own childhood memories. Based on a best-selling novel by Kotaro Isaka, many of whose mystery novels have been adapted for the silver screen. The film has done well at Japanese film festivals, and includes a respectable line up of young acting talent, including Ryo Kase, who had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima.
Mai Mai Miracle (Maimai Shinko to Sen-nen
no Maho)
The mainstream release of a Japanese animated film that was featured as part of the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival earlier this month. Mai Mai Miracle is based on a book by author Nobuko Takagi about a nine-year-old girl, Shinko, who discovers that the place she lives is connected directly to the distant past. She and a friend make a magical journey back to the Heian Period, more than 1,000 years ago, when the writer Sei Shonagon wrote her famous Pillow Book, a text which provides inspiration for some elements within the film.
The Descent: Part 2
The sequel to what was by a fairly decent take on the horror genre. Part 2 picks up where the original left off, with a rescue mission, including one traumatized survivor, heading back into the dark, clammy caves of the Appalachian mountains to find out what happened to a caving expedition. The fate of the women who made up the expedition was covered in graphic detail in the first film, in which director Neil Marshall also exhausted most of the movie potential of the “chicks with picks” idea. The standard format does not prevent him from producing a couple of real scares, so if that’s what you’re looking for, The Descent: Part 2 will probably do the job.
Toy Story
Marketing has reached a whole new level with this week’s release of Toy Story 1 and 2 in a double bill, priming audiences for the release of Toy Story 3, which is scheduled to hit screens on June 19 (the original Toy Story came out in 1995). As a trip down memory lane, the double feature, which opens today, might serve as a pleasant enough journey, but the upgrade to digital 3D is probably irrelevant, given that Toy Story remains, in its 2D version, one of the milestones of modern animation filmmaking.
The recent decline in average room rates is undoubtedly bad news for Taiwan’s hoteliers and homestay operators, but this downturn shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. According to statistics published by the Tourism Administration (TA) on March 3, the average cost of a one-night stay in a hotel last year was NT$2,960, down 1.17 percent compared to 2023. (At more than three quarters of Taiwan’s hotels, the average room rate is even lower, because high-end properties charging NT$10,000-plus skew the data.) Homestay guests paid an average of NT$2,405, a 4.15-percent drop year on year. The countrywide hotel occupancy rate fell from
March 24 to March 30 When Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) needed a name for his new cooking oil shop in 1958, he first thought of honoring his previous employer, Heng Tai Fung (恆泰豐). The owner, Wang Yi-fu (王伊夫), had taken care of him over the previous 10 years, shortly after the native of Shanxi Province arrived in Taiwan in 1948 as a penniless 21 year old. His oil supplier was called Din Mei (鼎美), so he simply combined the names. Over the next decade, Yang and his wife Lai Pen-mei (賴盆妹) built up a booming business delivering oil to shops and
In late December 1959, Taiwan dispatched a technical mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Comprising agriculturalists and fisheries experts, the team represented Taiwan’s foray into official development assistance (ODA), marking its transition from recipient to donor nation. For more than a decade prior — and indeed, far longer during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule on the “mainland” — the Republic of China (ROC) had received ODA from the US, through agencies such as the International Cooperation Administration, a predecessor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than a third of domestic investment came via such sources between 1951
For the past century, Changhua has existed in Taichung’s shadow. These days, Changhua City has a population of 223,000, compared to well over two million for the urban core of Taichung. For most of the 1684-1895 period, when Taiwan belonged to the Qing Empire, the position was reversed. Changhua County covered much of what’s now Taichung and even part of modern-day Miaoli County. This prominence is why the county seat has one of Taiwan’s most impressive Confucius temples (founded in 1726) and appeals strongly to history enthusiasts. This article looks at a trio of shrines in Changhua City that few sightseers visit.
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