The Monkey King 2
It is a bit odd that Cantopop king Aaron Kwok (郭富城), who played the main antagonist in the first installment, is now the hero as the Monkey King, replacing Donnie Yen (甄子丹) who reportedly had other commitments. Not that you can really tell anyway — the actors’ faces are practically unrecognizable under all the monkey makeup/special effects. Yen’s action director role was given to kung fu veteran Sammo Hung (洪金寶), which really shouldn’t make a difference either since the film relies on CGI more than live action combat. The story starts off 500 years after the first one, featuring the oft-portrayed White Bone Spirit scene where Monkey tries to protect his master from being eaten but ends up losing his companions’ trust due to the demon’s trickery. Enlisting production help from Hollywood teams, this is no Stephen Chow (周星馳) slapstick fantasy comedy — it is meant to be an international action blockbuster, and seeks to redeem itself from the poor reviews it received last go around.
The Hateful Eight
We were almost deprived of this film when Quentin Tarantino canceled it after the script was leaked in 2014 — luckily, the man changed his mind after a live reading session. Set to Ennio Morricone’s Golden Globe-winning score (this is Tarantino’s first film to use an original score), the movie depicts one night with eight morally suspect strangers who take refuge at a coach stop during a blizzard in the days of the American Wild West. There is all the Tarantino elements here — very dark humor, intriguing characters who talk a lot and spill lots and lots of blood as the story turns into a whodunnit murder mystery. Three of the hateful eight are played by former Tarantino collaborators: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell and Walter Goggins. With most of this 180-plus minute film taking place indoors, this is going to be very dialogue driven — but it is Tarantino. He can pull this off.
Freeheld
Based on the 2007 documentary of the same name, Freeheld tells the tale of a lesbian police officer who fights to have her pension benefits transferred to her domestic partner after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It is an important subject, but there’s a reason the original documentary was a short film — that is about it to the plot. I guess you can throw in some romance, comedy (not sure if a flamboyantly gay Steve Carell qualifies or is appropriate) and dramatic flair, but the bottom line is, it is a story that’s already compelling on its own and probably would not benefit from any embellishments. Anyhow, the bad guys here are the Ocean County, New Jersey’s Board of Chosen Freeholders — the state’s unique name for its county legislature — who unanimously struck down the officer’s appeal. The story made national headlines and was a landmark case in LGBT rights, but just judging from the trailer, this cinematic treatment seems incredibly cheesy.
Hong Kong Trilogy (香港三部曲)
Written, directed and filmed by Christopher Doyle, this Kickstarter-funded film is reported to be part-documentary, part-fiction, as it has live scenes and real people narrating fictional accounts based on their real experiences. Using this approach, Hong Kong is portrayed through three distinct stories told through the eyes of “preschooled children, preoccupied youth and preposterous old people.” It seems to be really light, gentle stuff, portraying everyday citizens in an almost unsettling, dreamy way, seemingly worlds away from the hustle of the big city nor the pervading tensions in society during the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement of 2014. While it loosely uses the protests as a unifying theme (it is the focus in only one of the segments), this just doesn’t seem like a very political film. As Doyle states, Hong Kong Trilogy is for Hong Kong and it’s people, and is “not a news report.”
Free! Starting Days
This movie version of a Japanese television animation is only being written about because there are only five new movies hitting the theaters this weekend. Let’s just directly translate the official synopsis: “The prequel of Free brings the audience back to the Nanase Haruka and Tachibana Makoto’s middle school days, giving us a glimpse of the tenderness of their immature past. The story focuses on the youngsters’ passion toward swimming as well as how the teammates learned to work together and encourage each other. It’s a youthful tale of togetherness and chasing dreams.” Watch at your own discretion. You’ve been warned.
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
On May 2, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), at a meeting in support of Taipei city councilors at party headquarters, compared President William Lai (賴清德) to Hitler. Chu claimed that unlike any other democracy worldwide in history, no other leader was rooting out opposing parties like Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That his statements are wildly inaccurate was not the point. It was a rallying cry, not a history lesson. This was intentional to provoke the international diplomatic community into a response, which was promptly provided. Both the German and Israeli offices issued statements on Facebook
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
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