Lin Jing-jie's (林靖傑) directorial debut, The Most Distant Course (最遙遠的距離), is one of the most talked-about art-house movies of the year, attracting attention with a high-profile cast led by actress Guey Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) and a story about lone individuals struggling to find their inner selves.
The film follows three emotionally and spiritually crippled Taipei urbanites who are alienated from society.
Psychiatrist A-tsai (Jia Xiao-guo, 賈孝國), who has a talent for piercing the souls of his patients but is unable to cure his own wounds, journeys to Taitung in search of a lost love.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHI HSIA FILMS
Young sound recordist Tang (Mo Zi-yi, 莫子儀) is a mess after being dumped by his girlfriend. Hoping to salvage the relationship, Tang circumnavigates Taiwan, recording sounds of the island and sends tape after tape labeled "Sounds of Formosa" to his lover's apartment, now tenanted by Yun (Guey Lun-mei), an office worker suffocated by daily routines and her involvement in a love triangle.
Gradually brought back to life by the simple sounds of the land, Yun sets out on a journey to trace the source of the recordings. The three travelers have different reasons for escaping the capital, but their goal is the same: to find their true selves, which have long been buried and forgotten in the monotony and travails of life.
The script was originally written for director Lin's close friend Chen Ming-tsai (陳明才), an actor who suffered from bipolar disorder and took his own life at Dulan Bay (都蘭灣), Taitung, one year after the screenplay was finished. Nevertheless, hoping to reflect the quest for truth and reality, Lin saw the project through.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHI HSIA FILMS
The scene near the end of the film in which the psychiatrist snorkels on the freeway in a diving suit echoes the uncompromising spirit of the late artist who, in the eyes of Lin, refused to become a part of mainstream society and chose to walk a lone path rarely understood by others.
Though the story behind the film sounds depressing, the movie is beautifully shot and interspersed with humor. Mo is decently cast, while Jia delivers a slightly theatrical performance for the role originally written for Chen. Now a regular lead in local productions, Guey exposes her limits as she struggles to express the feelings of the paramour.
Although The Most Distant Course won the best film accolade at the International Critics' Week in Venice and the special jury award at the Taipei Film Festival (台北電影節), the plot is predictable and the story feels a little too familiar. The juxtaposition of gloomy urban landscapes and colorful, soothing scenes of nature is formulaic to the point of being cliche. Despite that, the movie does touch viewers' hearts.
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory — and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested the best-available scientific predictions about how the climate functions. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next. But they are still debating what might have contributed to this
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