Dreams, a Journey Toward Wan Wan (帶著夢想去旅行)
There is nothing new about blogs turned into books turned into films. Taiwan Internet blogging sensation Wan Wan (彎彎) receives the cinematic treatment in this film by TV director Wang Chuan-tsong (王傳宗). Wan Wan, and the simple line-drawing character than dominates her blog, hit Taiwan’s office workers like a tornado back in 2004, providing a cutesy depiction of petty frustrations and dreams for a better life. When hits on her site broke 200 million in 2008, books and films soon followed. Dreams, a Journey Toward Wan Wan is a documentary that tells the tale of this strange phenomenon. Check out the Wan Wan Web site at cwwany.com.
Camino
Spanish film inspired by the life and death of Alexia Gonzales (a woman who is currently being considered for sainthood), Camino tells the story of a young Catholic woman’s struggles with debilitating illness and the effects it has on her deeply pious family, especially her mother, a devout member of the extreme Catholic group Opus Dei. The film picked up a slew of Spanish film awards last year, including the Goya Award in 2009 for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay, but its deep concerns with some of the more bizarre aspects of the Catholic faith may make it play less well in Taiwan. At 143 minutes, Camino is likely to prove a grueling experience.
Shrek Forever After
The fourth and, we are promised, final installment of the Shrek franchise. Given the poor reviews of Shrek the Third (2007), it’s just as well that this outing has the added gimmick of 3D to bring in the punters. Unsurprisingly, Shrek Forever After has failed to recapture the off-kilter humor of the first two Shrek movies. The desperation of the filmmakers is reflected in the high-concept “what if?” story scenario with Shrek finding himself transplanted by the evil Rumpelstiltskin into a world in which he has to become reacquainted with all his old pals. Instead of being fun or exciting, it’s all been seen before.
Echoes of the Rainbow (歲月神偷)
Hong Kong movie directed and written by Alex Law (羅啟銳) based on his own childhood and the tragic death of his brother from leukemia. The period detail is said to be very accurate of Hong Kong from 50 years ago, and likely to stir up memories. Strong performances by veterans Simon Yam (任達華) and Sandra Ng (吳君如) as parents of two boys eking out a precarious living as shoemakers and dealing with family tragedy. The pitfalls of a director going straight for the heartstrings have been avoided in Law’s careful and sensitive recollection of a Hong Kong very different from the one usually portrayed in cinema.
Gabai Granny 2
A follow-up to 2006’s Gabai Granny (Saga no Gabai-Baachan), based on a successful novel by Yoshichi Shimada about a young boy growing up poor but happy under the care of his grandmother, a practical and resourceful woman who teaches him many life lessons. This sequel, subtitled “Grandma I Want to Play Baseball,” picks up the same set of characters and adds a baseball theme. The main character experiences plenty of laughter and tears in his struggle to make it onto a school baseball team, helped with practical advice and comforting words from grandma.
No one saw it coming. Everyone — including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — expected at least some of the recall campaigns against 24 of its lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) to succeed. Underground gamblers reportedly expected between five and eight lawmakers to lose their jobs. All of this analysis made sense, but contained a fatal flaw. The record of the recall campaigns, the collapse of the KMT-led recalls, and polling data all pointed to enthusiastic high turnout in support of the recall campaigns, and that those against the recalls were unenthusiastic and far less likely to vote. That
Behind a car repair business on a nondescript Thai street are the cherished pets of a rising TikTok animal influencer: two lions and a 200-kilogram lion-tiger hybrid called “Big George.” Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and Tharnuwarht Plengkemratch is an enthusiastic advocate, posting updates on his feline companions to nearly three million followers. “They’re playful and affectionate, just like dogs or cats,” he said from inside their cage complex at his home in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand’s captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the
A couple of weeks ago the parties aligned with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), voted in the legislature to eliminate the subsidy that enables Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to keep up with its burgeoning debt, and instead pay for universal cash handouts worth NT$10,000. The subsidy would have been NT$100 billion, while the cash handout had a budget of NT$235 billion. The bill mandates that the cash payments must be completed by Oct. 31 of this year. The changes were part of the overall NT$545 billion budget approved
The unexpected collapse of the recall campaigns is being viewed through many lenses, most of them skewed and self-absorbed. The international media unsurprisingly focuses on what they perceive as the message that Taiwanese voters were sending in the failure of the mass recall, especially to China, the US and to friendly Western nations. This made some sense prior to early last month. One of the main arguments used by recall campaigners for recalling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers was that they were too pro-China, and by extension not to be trusted with defending the nation. Also by extension, that argument could be
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