The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Falling somewhere between the exoticism and heightened sentiment of a Merchant Ivory production and the deft, lighthearted character drama of something like Made in Dagenham, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel takes a group of British retirees and puts them into the colorful chaos of modern India. Director John Madden has been blessed with a cast that includes Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Ronald Pickup and Penelope Wilton, so that even if the concept is a trifle twee, the effortless characterizations by these fine actors are a delight to watch. The film also stars Dev Patel, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, who holds up well and proves that he should be forgiven for his part in The Last Airbender.
Common Heroes (貧民英雄)
Following on from the success of Night Market Hero (雞排英雄), another movie about the average Taiwan Joe making a difference, this new movie feels the need to buy into the current superhero craze and play out various low-rent spoofs. The point of departure is once again corruption, in this case a financial scam. Four victims of the deception get together, and more by accident than design, kidnap the villain’s wife. There is a string of celebrity cameos and rumor has it that a Hollywood post-production team was brought in to give the special effects a boost. But judging by the trailer, the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
Nightfall (大追捕)
Described in its press blurb as being part of a new wave of Hong Kong crime thrillers, Nightfall is directed by Roy Chow (周顯揚), and sports not only a strong cast, but also impressive noir atmospherics. The film stars Nick Cheung (張家輝) as a man who has served 20 years for murder. On his release, he is immediately caught up in events that turn the police spotlight back on to the crime for which he was originally convicted. Cheung is a tough outsider who is once again on the run, and his only hope is a cop played by Simon Yam (任達華), who is hell bent on chasing him down. There are some brutal fight scenes and a good chase, but the pacing is uneven, and Chow is less than assured in handling the convoluted plot.
My Own Love Song
In My Own Love Song, sentimentality weighs down an eye-catching cast that includes Renee Zellweger, Forest Whitaker, and Nick Nolte. Director Olivier Dahan, who made his name in music videos, is not one for subtlety. His last major release, La Vie En Rose (2007) was a melodramatic telling of the tumultuous life of chanteuse Edith Piaf. With My Own Love Song, he continues his focus on music, though this time taking his addiction to heightened emotion and mystical belief in the power of love and music to such lengths that no amount of fine acting can prevent the dialogue from sounding cheesy. Zellweger, a singer who has fallen silent after being confined to a wheelchair following a car accident, is at her most frumpy and screechy. She embarks on a journey of rediscovery with her best friend (Whitaker), who has also suffered personal tragedy. There is almost no respite from the self-help platitudes.
Lockout
Prison breakout movie starring Guy Pearce that does not try to be much more than a solid genre entertainment. Despite the silly concept — the president’s daughter gets held hostage in a prison located in outer space, and only one man has the talents to rescue her — it is well staged and well paced, and despite containing every genre cliche in the book, is reasonably entertaining. Pearce proves once again that he is a versatile and appealing screen presence, and he puts his own stamp on a role that is pretty much a rehash of Kurt Russell’s in John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.
War of the Arrows
Period drama with a focus on action, this South Korean production has drawn comparison with Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto for its breathless action sequences and minimal narrative material. The story is set at the beginning of the 17th century and spans two invasions of the Korean peninsula by the Chinese forces of the Qing Dynasty. The central character Nam Yi (Park Hae-il) is a great archer who takes up his bow to seek vengeance on soldiers who have captured his sister. He finds himself pursued by a team of crack Chinese archers. Director Kim Han-min has put great thought into staging scenes in which the power of the bow and arrow is seen in diverse scenarios.
Documentary of AKB48: To Be Continued and Show Must Go On
A double feature documentary about the Japanese girl band AKB48, a musical group with a total of 64 members that has achieved enormous popularity in Japan and which has spawned a huge industry around every aspect of its existence. Documentary of AKB48, directed by Shunji Iwai (Love Letter and All About Lily Chou-Chou), follows the band over a two-year period, chronicling the band’s activities in great detail over four hours of running time. Crafted from more than 1,000 hours of footage, including concerts, rehearsal sessions and interviews with band members, the documentary charts the complex balance of friendship and competition that exists between band members, and takes a look at the more personal side of a multimillion US dollar music industry monster.
Mae Nak 3D
Mae Nak 3D continues Thailand’s efforts to give its own tradition of horror a high-tech facelift. The legend on which it draws has been adapted for the cinema innumerable times, and this new version by Pichai Noirod does not add much to the story. The plot centers on a couple who fall deeply in love, and then who are separated when the man is called away for military duty. His wife waits tirelessly for him, and the family rejoices when he finally returns. It then transpires that his wife actually died in childbirth when he was away. Has love made the spirit of the dead linger in this world? And what will this ghost do when its true nature is revealed?
Balla con noi — Let’s Dance
Italian movie that pretty much rips off the plot of dance movie Step Up, in which dancers from street and classical backgrounds learn to dance together, fall in love, fight, then dance some more. There is plenty of pretty-looking dance to watch, but the quality of the acting does not even aspire to the polish of Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. You’ve seen it before, with higher production values.
Thomas and Friends: Day of the Diesels
An animated feature film with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends that is a lively entertainment for very young audiences. Running time is just 60 minutes to keep it manageable for little ones. Fans of the television series will already know what to expect.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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