The Divergent Series: Allegiant
There’s nothing more to say about the final chapter of a teen-oriented film series being split into two long, drawn out three-hour indulgement fests only for fans. It is the norm now, and they do not question norms in Hollywood. After all, to quote the bosses at Lionsgate, the final book in this dystopian trilogy by Veronica Roth is “ideally suited to two strong and fulfilling movies.” The problem is that Divergent simply has not been as strong a franchise as Hunger Games or, unfortunately, Twilight. The only watchable star in the film, Kate Winslet, was executed in the previous film (okay, there’s also Naomi Watts), but her main villain replacement of Jeff Daniels is not so shabby either. We finally find out what led to this version of dystopia — but that’s about it. You’ll have to wait til next year to find out what happens in the end.
Colonia
Set during of the Chilean military coup of 1973, this film is about the Colonial Dignidad, a colony often described as a cult where no one can escape. The colony has been rocked with scandals, from serving as a torture center and prison for political dissidents to massive weapon caches to child abuse. The drama by German director Florian Gallenberger stars Emma Watson as a young woman who decides to join the colony to save her boyfriend, who was hauled off by the dictatorship under suspicion of supporting the opposition. The film solves the problem of casting Europeans in Chile by setting Watson’s character as a Lufthansa flight attendant and her husband being a German artist visiting the country. The weird thing, as many reviewers point out, is that the Europeans speak English in the film, and so does the rest of Chile. Then it goes into the atrocities of the camp, if you’re still interested at this point.
Labyrinth of Lies
First screened during the “human rights movie screening” portion of the Memorial Foundation of 228’s ceremony this year, Labyrinth of Lies was Germany’s submission for the Academy Award’s Best Foreign Language Film category this year, though it wasn’t nominated. Set in the 1950s, a time when Nazi atrocities were not publicly discussed, the story follows a young and idealistic prosecutor (who doesn’t even know what Auschwitz is) who learns more about the Holocaust and World War II through the trial of an Auschwitz guard caught working as a schoolteacher. He soon starts pursuing other Nazi remnants, and finds out more than he ever wanted to know. Many films cover the Holocaust itself and the later international pursuit of Nazis in hiding, but the first trials of them in their own country after the war is a relatively obscure topic.
Mole of Life (黑白)
Another hot-blooded film about the Taiwanese underworld, Mole of Life is inexplicably described as “Taiwan’s first gangland epic” (yeah, let’s pretend Monga (艋舺) does not exist). The story is hardly imaginative — set in 1998 Kaohsiung, we have a man who just got out of jail for murder and wants to come clean, and his brother who just happens to be a cop. Their fates surprisingly intertwine as they are sucked into the power struggle between the mob and law enforcement, where things are less clear cut than they seem. Like all Taiwanese commercial flicks, it emphasizes that it has “touching themes of love and family.” We are not trying to slam every local commercial film that we come across, but this one is just not convincing.
Senior
Continuing the outrageous promotional claims, this latest Thai horror film promises to “change your perspective on ghosts forever.” We have two spirit detective buddies, both high school seniors, working together to solve a murder that happened 50 years ago. One of the detectives is a ghost who apparently died in the 1980s, and they apparently can work together since the other one can, um, smell ghosts (nope, can’t see ‘em). His identity becomes one of the main plot drivers as the two dig up witnesses and encounter vengeful spirits on their way to uncovering the truth.
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
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
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