Minions
If you don’t know what a Minion is, you may as well have been living under a rock. These skittish, cute, pill-shaped creatures first appeared on the big screen in the 2010 animated film Despicable Me and soon became a global cultural phenomenon, their popularity surpassing the main characters. Thus, the only reasonable course of action for a film company was to, yes, make an entire movie about Minions. The resulting production (featuring 899 Minions, all voiced by co-director Pierre Coffin) appears to fall more on the slapstick comedy side than the Despicable Me films, revealing the backstory of the Minions who have been looking for evil masters to serve since the beginning of time. Three Minions (named Kevin, Stuart and Bob) are the protagonists, tasked with finding a new master. Despite the seemingly ramped up silliness, let’s hope that Minions, like its predecessors, will also prove entertaining for adults. And if you have kids, better buy your tickets now. Fun fact: This is Sandra Bullock’s first time playing an evil character in almost 30 years of acting.
The Gallows
If you aren’t nauseous enough (or scared enough) after last week’s V/H/S: Viral, you’re in luck, because for the second week in a row a found footage horror film is hitting the box office. The Gallows is produced by Jason Blum, who also brought us the Insidious and Paranormal Activity series. Twenty years after a student is accidentally hanged in a high school play, the school prepares to resurrect the play in an attempt to honor the victim. However, things go wrong when a few students break into school to sabotage the play. Obviously you can’t sneak into school during the day, and at night is when scary things happen. As expected, the place is haunted (as if high school wasn’t scary enough), the doors are all suddenly locked and an invisible force starts dragging students into the sky with a noose around their necks. Hopefully, there’s more to the plot than that in 81 minutes of screen time.
Gatao (角頭)
After Monga (艋舺) comes another hot-blooded Taiwanese gangster movie, where yiqi (義氣, loyalty and righteousness,) and power are the conflicting driving forces between people’s actions. Gatao tells the story of two gangs battling for control over Jianguo Market (建國市場). This main plot branches into various subplots exploring a variety of relationships: a young, foreign-educated third-generation gang boss challenging the calm, battle-tested leader of a rival organization, a recently released inmate torn between his grandmother and loyalty to his underworld brothers, a man who hides his feelings from the woman he loves to keep her safe and finally, a power struggle between friends. The trailer is packed with violent encounters, a brief sex scene, a tear-jerking moment, an epic street battle, lots of clubs, knives and guns and lots of angry people. Should be at least entertaining, even if it might, as some local critics may say, “corrupt social values.”
Aferim!
Set in Romania during Ottoman rule, Aferim! with its ironic title (meaning “Bravo” in Turkish) depicts a father-and-son lawman team tracking down an escaped gypsy slave who had been sleeping with his master’s wife. Shot in 35mm black and white film, the trailer shows an absurd, over-the-top satirical comedy, but a dark one at that, exploring racism, sexism and other manifestations of human cruelty. The reality is stark — gypsy slavery was widespread in Romania until the mid-1800s, and even today they suffer from discrimination. Described as a furious yet beautiful road trip movie on horseback, perhaps this is the only way to explore a past that many filmmakers would rather avoid. Yet, the comedy is just a vehicle. Laugh, but also reflect. History, whether we like it or not, often remains unchanged. This movie netted Radu Jude the 2015 Silver Bear for Best Director award at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
The Chambermaid Lynn
The Chinese title of this German film, translates as Woman Under the Bed (床底下的女人). And no, it’s not a cheesy horror film. Lynn is an obsessive-compulsive chambermaid at a large hotel who is withdrawn but desires intimacy. She tries to get closer to humanity by doing things like trying on guests’ clothes, scrutinizing their belongings and … hiding underneath their beds. One day, Lynn observes a session between androgynous dominatrix prostitute Chiara and her client. The two then begin an unlikely relationship. Despite the provocative plot devices, critics say the film focuses less on the expected themes of sadomasochism and sexual awakening, than it does the shift in relationship balance that happens when opposites collide.
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ！). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
At Computex 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) urged the government to subsidize AI. “All schools in Taiwan must integrate AI into their curricula,” he declared. A few months earlier, he said, “If I were a student today, I’d immediately start using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Grok to learn, write and accelerate my thinking.” Huang sees the AI-bullet train leaving the station. And as one of its drivers, he’s worried about youth not getting on board — bad for their careers, and bad for his workforce. As a semiconductor supply-chain powerhouse and AI hub wannabe, Taiwan is seeing
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