Open to ridicule ... The Hills Have Eyes 2. They've also got one hell of a cheek, forcing this nonsense on us again: a sequel to last year's remake of the 1978 Wes Craven original. Once again, we are out in the middle of nowhere. It's an eerie, isolated stretch of New Mexico desert where nuclear testing half a century ago created a feral gang of mutant hillbillies hiding out in their own underground network of tunnels, killing innocent incomers and raping the womenfolk to perpetuate their deplorable race.
Now a group of US National Guardspersons, an elite group of the very best looking young men and women, are sent out there to accompany some civilian scientists: they arrive to find the brainiacs all dead and soon they too are being picked off, one by one. One of the group is pigheaded; another is a total babe; another has a temper; another is a bit of an anti-war pinko who thinks the president "lied" — leaving us to wonder who will turn out to have the most gutsy resourcefulness and military grit. The satirical content is more or less forgotten. Pure genre-pic boredom.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF FOX
July 1 to July 7 Huang Ching-an (黃慶安) couldn’t help but notice Imelita Masongsong during a company party in the Philippines. With paler skin and more East Asian features, she did not look like the other locals. On top of his job duties, Huang had another mission in the country, given by his mother: to track down his cousin, who was deployed to the Philippines by the Japanese during World War II and never returned. Although it had been more than three decades, the family was still hoping to find him. Perhaps Imelita could provide some clues. Huang never found the cousin;
Once again, we are listening to the government talk about bringing in foreign workers to help local manufacturing. Speaking at an investment summit in Washington DC, the Minister of Economic Affairs, J.W. Kuo (郭智輝), said that the nation must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high end manufacturing by 2040 to offset the falling population. That’s roughly 15 years from now. Using the lower number, Taiwan would have to import over 25,000 foreigners a year for these positions to reach that goal. The government has no idea what this sounds like to outsiders and to foreigners already living here.
Over the past year, a peculiar phrase has begun to litter Asian women’s social media accounts: “Oxford study.” An Asian woman vlogging about her dating life — and particularly about dating white men — gets commenters reacting to her updates with the words “Oxford study.” A young Asian student showing off her prom dress with her white boyfriend sees “obligatory Oxford study comment” on her TikTok. “I can already hear the oxford study comments coming,” one Asian woman captions a video of her dancing with her white partner. The phrase “Oxford study” refers to just that: an academic study out of Oxford
In spite of the next local elections being over two years away, there is already considerable intrigue and jockeying for position by politicians and their supporters. The local press runs quite a bit of content, mostly speculative, on who will run in what races and what the outcomes might be. This is an overview for English language readers to get a taste of the state of play. Four races in particular are drawing a lot of heat, those of mayors of New Taipei City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung because in all four the incumbent mayors will be term-limited out. In