▲▲COMPILED BY MARTIN WILLIAMS
Detroit Metal City
We’ve all heard stories of professional musicians who pay their dues performing music they can’t stand. This manga adaptation from Japan takes this predicament to the wackiest level, as a good-natured rural boy with a thing for easy listening finds himself forced to retain the identity of a death metal icon caked with gothic makeup after his titular band DMC hits pay dirt. This feverish metal revisiting of the Mrs Doubtfire theme has had audiences in stitches on both sides of the Pacific. And yes, if the title weren’t already a giveaway, Gene Simmons makes a late appearance.
Suite Dreams
The release of director Koki Mitani’s The Magic Hour two weeks ago allows this handsome, impressive Japanese comedy from three years ago to hit Taiwanese theaters. The scene is a large hotel, the time is New Year’s Eve, and the players are a bunch of powerful and/or eccentric guests and staff. Mitani respects his characters and how they interact, and the result is a wide and detailed canvas of hilarity and drama that has delighted critics and audiences.
700 Days of Battle: Us vs the Police
Another Japanese release, but a polar opposite in terms of sophistication. Based on part of a “hit” blog serial (as measured by Web site hits, presumably), 700 Days proceeds through a litany of comical clashes between some high school friends and a cop. Broad and family-friendly, this is recommended for anyone who thinks youthful rebellion only ends with a pie in the face of authority rather than drug addiction or a debilitating police record.
Memory
With Billy Zane, Dennis Hopper and Ann-Margret in a movie, there should be something for everyone, but the reaction to this little-seen chiller from 2006 was less than generous. Zane is afflicted with “memories” that may or may not have been his own. One would hope not, seeing as they included abducting and killing kids. The response to this potentially horrifying scenario seems to have largely focused on the viability of Zane’s hair and why the market forgot to send it straight to DVD. That forgetfulness now extends to the Taiwanese market.
The Gig
Another promotion for TiVo product makes its way to Taipei’s Baixue theater in Ximending. The shadow of Porky’s looms large as a bunch of Thai college friends set about capturing the girls of their wet dreams by forming a group called “The Gig.” The first rule in associating with women, so the newspaper ad sagely tells us, is “don’t fall in love with the girl you’re banging.” Got that straight? This 2006 release made enough money to get a sequel filmed the following year. Starts tomorrow.
There is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plot to put millions at the mercy of the CCP using just released AI technology. This isn’t being overly dramatic. The speed at which AI is improving is exponential as AI improves itself, and we are unprepared for this because we have never experienced anything like this before. For example, a few months ago music videos made on home computers began appearing with AI-generated people and scenes in them that were pretty impressive, but the people would sprout extra arms and fingers, food would inexplicably fly off plates into mouths and text on
From censoring “poisonous books” to banning “poisonous languages,” the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tried hard to stamp out anything that might conflict with its agenda during its almost 40 years of martial law. To mark 228 Peace Memorial Day, which commemorates the anti-government uprising in 1947, which was violently suppressed, I visited two exhibitions detailing censorship in Taiwan: “Silenced Pages” (禁書時代) at the National 228 Memorial Museum and “Mandarin Monopoly?!” (請說國語) at the National Human Rights Museum. In both cases, the authorities framed their targets as “evils that would threaten social mores, national stability and their anti-communist cause, justifying their actions
On the final approach to Lanshan Workstation (嵐山工作站), logging trains crossed one last gully over a dramatic double bridge, taking the left line to enter the locomotive shed or the right line to continue straight through, heading deeper into the Central Mountains. Today, hikers have to scramble down a steep slope into this gully and pass underneath the rails, still hanging eerily in the air even after the bridge’s supports collapsed long ago. It is the final — but not the most dangerous — challenge of a tough two-day hike in. Back when logging was still underway, it was a quick,
US President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on semiconductor chips has complicated Taiwan’s bid to remain a global powerhouse in the critical sector and stay onside with key backer Washington, analysts said. Since taking office last month, Trump has warned of sweeping tariffs against some of his country’s biggest trade partners to push companies to shift manufacturing to the US and reduce its huge trade deficit. The latest levies announced last week include a 25 percent, or higher, tax on imported chips, which are used in everything from smartphones to missiles. Taiwan produces more than half of the world’s chips and nearly all
RSS