The Killer Elite
Not to be confused with the Sam Peckinpah film of the same name, The Killer Elite directed by Gary McKendry and starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen, is a fast-paced action film about a vigilante group of SAS soldiers who decide to take things into their own hands after the assassination of members of their unit. The film, which is based on a novel by Ranulph Fiennes, flaunts its credentials as being based on real events, even though the book, The Feather Men, released in 1991, was described by the UK Ministry of Defence at the time as “just another example of the Special Forces’ reputation being exploited for commercial gain.” The film is full of highly improbable tough guy action, but high production values and the attractive cast make it a more than adequate action flick.
Abduction
The release of Abduction will delight fans of Taylor Lautner, who rocketed to fame after taking his top off in the Twilight Saga series of films to show off his six-pack. He now has a starring role in an action-packed adventure by director John Singleton, who is also responsible for such forgettable dross as Shaft and 2 Fast 2 Furious. The film has managed to keep a remarkably low prerelease profile, which suggests that the makers may well have something to be ashamed of. The story, about a regular teen who discovers himself listed on a missing persons Web site, tries to find out about his past and unleashes bloody mayhem as a result, is no more improbable than you might expect, but Lautner’s thespian talents don’t seem likely to make him the next Jason Bourne.
Love in Space 全球熱戀
Tony Chan (陳國輝) and Wing Shya (夏永康) scored a huge hit with Hot Summer Days (全城熱戀 — 熱辣辣) last year. They return with a similar rom-com starring many of the same cast members and featuring the same lighter-than-air romance. Three stories are woven together: Rene Liu (劉若英) plays an astronaut assigned to the same space station as an ex-boyfriend; Guey Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) is an obsessive-compulsive living in Australia; and Angelababy (楊穎) is an actress researching the role of a waitress. Everything about Love in Space is a million miles away from the real world, and that is exactly where it wants to be. The dialogue shifts from Mandarin to Cantonese to English, and while the film has an unmistakable Hong Kong groove, it is an international release under the Warner Bros label.
The First Beautiful Thing (La prima cosa bella)
Nostalgia, pathos and a love of the small things in life pervade Paolo Virzi’s The First Beautiful Thing. There are elements of Cinema Paradiso and other similar broad market tragicomedies that cast a sentimental eye on living through tough times, in this tale of Italian family life. There is an appealing performance by Stefania Sandrelli as a beautiful and promiscuous single mother who attempts to give her kids a normal life, but who in the end alienates them. An aging and misanthropic son returns to her bedside when she is dying of cancer, making peace with his past and coming to an understanding of the forces that shaped her life and his. At 122 minutes, the film feels too long, and the sentimentality gets cloying long before the end. Showing at SKC (新光影城, Shin Kong Cineplex), 4F, 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號4樓), tel: (02) 2314-6668. On the Net: www.skcineplex.com.tw.
Nora’s Will
Comedy from Mexico about suicide in a Jewish family that sounds improbable even for the alternative film circuit. But Nora’s Will, by first-time writer-director Mariana Chenillo, manages to find humor in the most improbable circumstances, and without undermining the powerful emotions felt by the characters. Jose, played by septuagenarian Mexican TV star Fernando Lujan, is an aging, erudite Jewish atheist and all-around sourpuss. One afternoon, he discovers that the ex-wife he left 30 years ago has finally succeeded in committing suicide, a few days before her elaborate annual Passover dinner. This presents serious emotional and logistical problems that are ripe for a formulaic laughter-and-tears movie.
Once Upon a Time in Tibet 那一年在西藏
Big emotions and bigger landscapes feature in this Chinese film by Dai Wei (戴瑋) about an American airman during World War II who crash-lands in the wilderness of Tibet’s high plateau during a flight over the Himalayas. The aviator, played rather stiffly by male model Joshua Hannum, inevitably falls in love with his rescuer Yongcho (played by Song Jia, 宋佳), who is accused by her own people of being a witch. The romance comes under threat when a foreigner is accused of killing a local woman. The acting quality is uneven, and the real star of the show is Taiwan-born cinematographer Mark Lee (李屏賓) for making great use of the splendid backdrop to this otherwise conventional romantic melodrama.
Point Blank (A bout portant)
Highly praised thriller that pushes the boundaries of improbability but manages to hold things together all the way to the end. Bearing some similarities to John Boorman’s trippy noir movie of the same title, Point Blank goes for breakneck pacing that hardly lets the audience draw breath from the first scene to the last. There are corrupt cops, assassination, brutal violence and also the requisite heroics from the star Gilles Lellouche, who embarks on a 90-minute roller-coaster journey to save his wife from execution.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
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