The Silent War (聽風者)
Directed by Infernal Affairs director Mak Siu-fai (麥兆輝), who has teamed up once again with The Lost Bladesman director Felix Chong (莊文強), The Silent War creates a big-budget story set during the war between China and Japan in the lead up to World War II. Great costumes worn by consummate professionals Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Zhou Xun (周迅) and Mavis Fan (范曉萱) ensure that there is plenty to hold the attention.
Contes Des Quatre Saisons
For fans of the moral parables of Eric Rohmer, this is a dream come true. A mini-festival at the Wonderful Theater (真善美戲院) which includes four classic films: Conte d’automne, Conte d’ete, Conte d’hiver and Conte de printemps. For fans of the glories of French cinema, it doesn’t get any better. Tickets are NT$180 each or NT$720 for all four films. Until Nov. 4.
Westgate Tango (西門町)
Feature debut by notable film critic Wang Wei (王瑋). The film takes Taipei’s trendy Ximending district, best known for its mix of alternative lifestyles, youth fashion and the antimony of adolescent life, and provides an upbeat story of damaged young people finding their purpose in life. The film’s upbeat tone may appeal to some, but the complexity of the background is obliterated by rom-com stereotypes.
Remember the Italian Auteurs
This second installment of the festival celebrating the best of Italian cinema puts the filmmaker Frederico Fellini in the spotlight with five of his films to screen at the Blossom Cinema (梅花數位戲院): Juliet of the Spirits, Otto e Mezzo, La Dolce Vita, Il Bidone, and I Vitelloni. Until Sept. 20.
The Watch
It’s profane, its juvenile, and its dumb; but sometimes that’s just what you are in the mood for. The Watch, with its strong cast of funnymen including Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade, manages to provide pretty much what is advertised on the poster.
Starbuck
Nothing to do with the overpriced coffee chain, Starbuck is a Canadian production (in French) by director Ken Scott that works off the now well-worn trope of children conceived by artificial insemination discovering their biological father. Think The Kids are Alright without the A-list cast.
The Ghost Tales (變羊記)
Taiwanese director Zuo Shi-qiang (左世強) makes a stab at creating a Taiwanese horror film. The story is inspired by a classic Chinese ghost story, aims for supernatural chills rather than horrific gore, and features veterans such as Tsai Chen-nan (蔡振南) to bolster a young cast.
Seven Something
A 7th anniversary production by Thai film studio GTH featuring three well-known Thai directors and a cast of top-shelf Thai celebs.
Attack the Block
Funky British sci-fi comedy by director Joe Cornish, of the critically acclaimed UK TV series The Adam and Joe Show from the late 1990s. Some of the same chaotic sensibility is on hand in this tale of a south London teen gang defending their block of an apartment complex from alien invasion.
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
It seems every few days one bumps into one of those “real man” comments in which Taiwan is urged to “face reality” or similar, and “make a deal,” with the speaker implying that soon it will be too late. “Deal” advocates always present themselves as having a superior grip on reality, and the manly ability to make the “hard choice.” Their testosterone-laden language often echoes that of Taiwan sellout advocates. Note that such commentary always specifies a process (“make a deal, work with, make progress”), never the end state of what occupation by a violent authoritarian colonialist state will entail. In
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest at the Legislative Yuan against comments made by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that in the event of an attack by China, he would never surrender, but would protect the nation by fighting to the end, even if he only had a broom. Chang had party members bring a wooden casket that they
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over
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