It was a remarkably satisfying conclusion to the Potter franchise earlier this week at a 3D press screening at the Showtime Cinema on Linsen North Road in Taipei, but the excitement among the crowd of media and movie industry workers was considerably more muted than the very palpable anticipation of the much more massive crowds that were present for the first screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon last month.
As has been pointed out more than once, those invested in the Harry Potter series will not want to miss this final installment, but given the serpentine intricacy of a plot developed over eight long feature films, those who aren’t probably couldn’t care less. The release in 3D for this last installment was an unnecessary piece of froufrou that was wholly inadequate to capture the interest of those whose only interest is in witnessing the latest cinematic spectacle.
So, disposing of the 3D issue, for anyone who has given the Harry Potter series any attention over the past decade, the finale has everything that one might hope for. It is conceived on an epic scale, and climbs on the shoulders of the more pedestrian and difficult Deathly Hallows: Part 1, drawing the story to a conclusion that is suffused with melancholy. Many characters who played major roles in previous films are given cameos, almost as if taking their curtain call, and many details of the plot are explained.
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros Entertainment
With its wealth of detail and picking up themes from many of the earlier installments, this final chapter is likely to get many people returning to the series to follow it through once again from the beginning.
The film is unabashed about leaving behind anyone who hasn’t boned up on their Harry Potter lore, diving into the complex endgame of the story with a minimum of preamble. This has been the policy of David Yates since he took over with the fifth Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007), and on the whole it has paid off, giving him more time to craft an appearance of depth and body to J.K. Rowling’s convoluted mythologizing. For newcomers, it makes the film all but incomprehensible. It must be said, that with its oodles of Gothic atmosphere, high melodrama and some clever effects, the film provides a visual feast that helps carry the audience along even when aspects of the narrative may be far from clear.
The three main characters, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), for all the hype that surrounds them, have been given parts that are underwritten, and Potter’s charisma is not particularly evident in Radcliffe’s rather shuffling performance. There are, of course, the romantic resolutions, and the big kissing scene between Potter and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), and also that between Ron and Hermione, seem unearned and cheesy. Yates is better with the dark side of the conflict, and doesn’t shy away from showing the death of much-loved characters as the cost of victory.
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros Entertainment
A few cameos put the still immature talent of the stars in a startling and not particularly welcome perspective. An early scene with John Hurt as Ollivander, the maker of wizarding wands, provides some exposition about the importance of a certain magical artifact. It is a rather thankless role that Hurt manages with superb conviction, and even playing a shriveled old man, his screen presence overwhelms Radcliffe’s heroic efforts. It is splendid to see Maggie Smith letting her hair down as a re-invigorated professor Minerva McGonagall, but other fine actors, Ciaran Hinds and Kelly Macdonald in particular, are little better than extras.
Yates manages the pace of the film extremely well, and the denouement comes as a relief after the painful and sluggish buildup in Deathly Hallows: Part I. There are numerous loose ends, but this doesn’t matter all that much, for Yates has got fully to grips with the main points of the narrative, and barrels ahead, hardly leaving his audience time to catch breath. On the other hand, the set is full of little nuances that will keep Potter fans involved for repeated viewings, delighting in spotting some nice little detail here and there, and acknowledging that the director, for all his determination to bring the big show to a rousing close, has not ignored the finer points of the story.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government in May last year agreed to allow the activation of a spent fuel storage facility for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門). The deal ended eleven years of legal wrangling. According to the Taipower announcement, the city government engaged in repeated delays, failing to approve water and soil conservation plans. Taipower said at the time that plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) remained stuck in legal limbo. Later that year an agreement was reached
What does the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) era stand for? What sets it apart from their allies, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? With some shifts in tone and emphasis, the KMT’s stances have not changed significantly since the late 2000s and the era of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) current platform formed in the mid-2010s under the guidance of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and current President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity. Though their ideological stances may be a bit stale, they have the advantage of being broadly understood by the voters.
In a high-rise office building in Taipei’s government district, the primary agency for maintaining links to Thailand’s 108 Yunnan villages — which are home to a population of around 200,000 descendants of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) armies stranded in Thailand following the Chinese Civil War — is the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). Established in China in 1926, the OCAC was born of a mandate to support Chinese education, culture and economic development in far flung Chinese diaspora communities, which, especially in southeast Asia, had underwritten the military insurgencies against the Qing Dynasty that led to the founding of
It’s fairly well established that strength training is helpful at every age: as well as building muscle, it strengthens tendons and ligaments, increases bone density and seems to have protective effects against everything from osteoporosis to dementia. But a new study based on data collected over two decades in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suggests that another physical attribute might be just as important — and it’s one that declines even faster than strength as the years go by. The good news? It might also be less uncomfortable, and even slightly safer, to improve. Also, it will probably make you better
RSS