 | The Witnesses
AIDS is the subject of this French production. The story takes us back to just before it all began, revisiting the confusion of a number of friends and family in the mid- 1980s as an unknown disease impacts on their sexually eclectic lives. The emphasis here is humanism and hope in the face of cruel mortality, and critics have painted this as superior to the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia - though to be fair, the stories and sociopolitical contexts are completely different. It features a powerhouse cast (Michel Blanc, Emmanuelle Beart, Julie Depardieu) and an eye for the upbeat. French title: Les Temoins. |
 | Scandalous Those who were put off movie musicals for life by the porn-laced The Wayward Cloud and its quintessential Taiwanese despair might find this dance-filled Spanish flick to be just the right tonic. The Web site for Manchester's Cornerhouse arts center says Scandalous "brings together three generations of a sevillana family, a hapless detective, counter-cultural Okupa [squatter] communities and a Buddhist retreat," while the trailers are exuberant and a little surreal. The original title translates as "Why do they rub their little feet together?" See the film to find out why, and be prepared to make a spectacle of yourself when you dance in the aisles. |
 | Tekkonkinkreet A Japanese animated film from last year, and apparently the first to be directed by a foreigner - American Michael Arias, to be exact, a video game and film-related software whiz and the producer of The Animatrix - this more adult-themed work has been praised not just for its superbly rendered and dynamic visuals but also for deeper themes of belonging, community and self-belief. Two street children with strange powers - that include soaring through the air - team up with a sympathetic yakuza boss to defeat evil property speculators who want to destroy the older part of their city. Showing at the Spring Cinema Galaxy in Ximending. |
 | Beauty and the Seven Beasts (七擒七縱七色狼) You have to hand it to Wong Jing (王晶). The prolific and populist producer-director-actor survived not only the collapse of the Hong Kong film industry, but also the far more painful Golden Horse Awards ceremony in Taipei two weeks ago (he was the only one on the night to elicit bellylaughs from the audience). The Wong-produced Beauty is his latest foray into the kind of ramshackle, anachronistic comedy that Hong Kong used to be famous for. It's set in the 1970s and features seven men in loud shirts getting into a flap over a sexy youngster played by newcomer Natalie Meng Yao (孟瑤). Screening at the Baixue theater in Ximending, but not for long. |
Last week Elbridge Colby, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy, a key advisory position, said in his Senate confirmation hearing that Taiwan defense spending should be 10 percent of GDP “at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defense.” He added: “So we need to properly incentivize them.” Much commentary focused on the 10 percent figure, and rightly so. Colby is not wrong in one respect — Taiwan does need to spend more. But the steady escalation in the proportion of GDP from 3 percent to 5 percent to 10 percent that advocates
A series of dramatic news items dropped last month that shed light on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitudes towards three candidates for last year’s presidential election: Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It also revealed deep blue support for Ko and Gou from inside the KMT, how they interacted with the CCP and alleged election interference involving NT$100 million (US$3.05 million) or more raised by the
While riding a scooter along the northeast coast in Yilan County a few years ago, I was alarmed to see a building in the distance that appeared to have fallen over, as if toppled by an earthquake. As I got closer, I realized this was intentional. The architects had made this building appear to be jutting out of the Earth, much like a mountain that was forced upward by tectonic activity. This was the Lanyang Museum (蘭陽博物館), which tells the story of Yilan, both its natural environment and cultural heritage. The museum is worth a visit, if only just to get a
More than 100,000 people were killed in a single night 80 years ago yesterday in the US firebombing of Tokyo, the Japanese capital. The attack, made with conventional bombs, destroyed downtown Tokyo and filled the streets with heaps of charred bodies. The damage was comparable to the atomic bombings a few months later in August 1945, but unlike those attacks, the Japanese government has not provided aid to victims and the events of that day have largely been ignored or forgotten. Elderly survivors are making a last-ditch effort to tell their stories and push for financial assistance and recognition. Some are speaking
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