August: Osage County
A drama about dysfunctional families do not get more star-studded than this. Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tracy Letts and starring a super A-list of veteran performers, August: Osage County manages the transition from stage to screen with skill and sophistication, creating a work that will likely appeal to fans of the play as much as people approaching the work for the first time. The film takes a look at the lives of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Oklahoma house they grew up in. Predictably, things start to get violent, mostly verbally, but with some plate smashing in the background, as the strongly opinionated women and their accompanying men folk go for each other’s throats. The scene is darkly comic, as the likes of Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Margo Martindale, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch cross barbs, dredging up past and picking at current sources of contention. The result is explosive, if not exactly cheerful. A film that packs a solid dramatic punch.
Mr Peabody & Sherman
A 3D computer-animated adventure-comedy based on the characters from the “Peabody’s Improbable History” segments of the 1960s animated television series TheRocky and Bullwinkle Show. Mr Peabody & Sherman is a story that is bound to captivate young audiences. Directed by Rob Minkoff, who brought us the incomparable The Lion King, the film manages to preserve the kind of charm and innocence that is gradually disappearing from more sophisticated animated feature films with a firm eye on providing laughs and excitement for grownup audiences as well. The premise is that Mr Peabody, a talking dog and a super intelligent being adopts a child, Sherman, whose unconventional background brings him into conflict with other kids at school. Then he accidently-on purpose gets a little girl, Penny, sent back in time in Mr Peabody’s time machine, and dog and boy then have to embark on an adventure to bring back Penny and stop space and time from disintegrating. The likeability of the characters and the tight script hold together a film that is largely episodic in structure.
The Past
Following on from his Oscar-winning film A Separation, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has come out with yet another intense drama that looks at the themes of separation, loss and the difficulty, even impossibility, of people connecting with others once loved. The Past is a bravura performance by the director, showing off his skill at picking through the web of relationships, and some critics have suggested that in this new film he has taken the story past the verge of plausibility. As with much great tragedy, plausibility takes second place to the ability to tap into deep universal truths about people, and Farhadi has assuredly achieved this in The Past. The film is anchored by a mesmeric performance by Berenice Bejo as Marie Brisson, who has called her estranged husband from Iran back to Paris to participate in divorce proceedings and generally make an amicable departure from their children. The children are full of their own muddled emotions and the situation is made worse by the presence of Marie’s new partner. Bad decisions, good intentions and much else get dragged into a horrible tangle, and melodrama is never far off, but the clear eye of the director and fine supporting roles keep the film on track.
The Face Reader
Big-budget period drama from South Korea directed by Han Jae-rim knows what it is aiming for and manages to tick all the right boxes for its target audience. A mix of high stakes political intrigue, dastardly crimes, a flawed super sleuth, seductive women and the occasional battle scene gives The Face Reader a deceptive cinematic richness which dresses up a pretty conventional piece of period drama. It does break some ground in giving the starring roles to less mainstream characters, in this case Nae-gyeong (Song Kang-ho), a skilled physiognomist, who solves a crime that gets him noticed, then becomes embroiled in a palace feud as warring factions seek to discover traitors in their midst. The plot occasionally veers into incoherence, but a generally solid cast and the sure hand of the director give the impression that everything is under control. It isn’t really, but that hardly matters, as the film builds to a surprise finish, making its 139-minute running time almost worth while.
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
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