What Women Want (我知女人心)
A Chinese-language remake of the Mel Gibson romantic comedy of the same title released in 2000. Starring Andy Lau (劉德華) and Gong Li (鞏俐) and directed by China-born, US-trained director Chen Daming (陳大明), this is a big feel-good confection that does not aspire to offer anything either new or even particularly exciting. Whatever one might have thought about the original, it was a reasonably sophisticated example of its genre, but Chen’s remake has stripped the story of sexiness and has made the lead woman cold, passive and ultimately a little pathetic. Despite the presence of two of Chinese cinema’s biggest names, What Women Want does not give its audience what it wants: a good time at the movie theater.
Redline
Futuristic racing car anime that has been many years in production and seems to have been anxiously awaited by fans. Directed by Takeshi Koike, an anime artist deeply influenced by Western graphic art and the French artist Jean Giraud. The minimal story, about an illegal road race conducted on an authoritarian planet that will dedicate all its military resources to preventing the race from finishing, is a triumph of style over content — but in the best possible sense. One staff reviewer on Anime News Network describes the film as “potentially one of the most daring and important anime movies for a very, very long time.” With a soundtrack made up mostly of high-octane techno and its ground-breaking graphic style front and center, Redline may offend anime purists, but love it or hate it, this is much more than your usual anime fare.
Hermano
The debut feature by Marcel Rasquin, this film from Venezuela tells the story of two brothers from the slums of La Ceniza who have an opportunity to break out of poverty and crime through their talents on the soccer pitch. But even when on the verge of success, dirty money, criminality, and an act that demands vengeance get in the way of their hopes and dreams. The film was nominated as Venezuela’s entry for the Oscars and has some solid acting, a realistic portrayal of life on the wrong side of the tracks in Venezuela, and a score that features local popular music.
Gantz: The Perfect Answer
The second part (part one was released in March) of a live-action adaptation of a well-known manga by Hiroya Oku. Gantz is an action adventure in which Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato die in a train accident and are revived as fighters by a mysterious agency called Gantz, which deploys a band of “dead” humans in a battle against an alien race. The original manga is famous for its violence, nudity, and the tendency to present humanity as being pretty reprehensible. The movie has toned much of this down to create a mainstream science fiction action film, angering many hardcore fans of the original manga.
Sound of Noise
Experimental music comedy by Swedish directors Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjarne Nilsson about a tone-deaf policeman tasked with tracking down a crew of musical terrorists who threaten to lay the beat down for the whole city. The cop is called Amadeus Warnebring, and the terrorists start their campaign by making music on the anesthetized body of a TV personality in hospital for a hernia operation. Lots of originality by the creative team, the really remarkable thing about Sound of Noise is that despite its film school anarchic streak, it actually makes some sort of sense. A perfect accompaniment for those already excited by the percussion lineup of the Taiwan International Percussion Convention (台灣國際打擊樂節) [see story on page 13].
The Sentiment of Flesh (Le sentiment de la chair)
Softcore porn with intellectual aspirations, The Sentiment of the Flesh tells the story of a passionate affair between Helena, a student in anatomical drawing, and Benoit, a young radiologist. These two find a professional as well as a sexual interest in each other. Helena memorizes every feature of her lover’s body, while Benoit wants to get intimate with every internal aspect of Helena. Make of that what you will. The attractive cast members spend much of their time with their clothes off, but the film’s efforts to be more than a bit of unconventional titillation can get a bit trying.
William and Kate
A made-for-TV movie that is being put on the big screen here for anyone who hasn’t had enough of the exhaustive television coverage of the royal wedding. This is a rather hastily put together, US-made biopic, and is full of every romantic cliche ever invented. This royal soap opera features some capable UK talent including Serena Scott Thomas (sister of Kristin Scott Thomas) as one of the Middleton sisters and Ben Cross as Prince Charles, but accents for the US cast are a little less predictable. Passable filler for those still locked into royal wedding mode.
Women in Trouble
A straight-to-DVD conflation of cinematic tropes taken from Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino, Women in Trouble at its best fails to achieve what either of those erratic directors can put together at their worst. Full of overworked cliches, the attempt at portraying the lives of eight women doesn’t bring together enough insight to be sufficient for even one.
Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night
Japanese take on the Paranormal Activity franchise, this is not to be confused with the American sequel Paranormal Activity 2. In a surprising move, Paramount Pictures authorized a series of international sequels based on the success of the original, Tokyo Night being the first. Directed by Toshikazu Nagae, Tokyo Night does not depart much from the format of the original, and generally delivers the goods. The pacing is a little tighter than the US counterpart, but given the faithful adaptation of the original, if you didn’t like the US version, you’re not likely to enjoy this one.
Zebraman and Zebraman 2
Following the release of Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins last week, distributor Catchplay is screening the director’s iconic 2004 Zebraman superhero spoof and its 2010 sequel Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City, which for anyone who appreciates Miike’s rather twisted vision of the life cinematique, are absolute must-sees. If a chubby schoolteacher dressed in a zebra suit fighting oceans of green slime and dealing with aggressive eggplants and a pea-green baby is your kind of thing, you’ll be hard pressed to find it done better.
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return. After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the US to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal. For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has
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