The Hangover
By all reliable critics’ accounts this is a must-see comedy about a bunch of buddies for whom a bachelor party in Las Vegas goes seriously belly-up. Raunchy and smart, it also defies this Michael Bay era of non-existent characterization by putting genuinely interesting, funny, perverse and sympathetic characters in a world of pain (not just hangovers), starting with a missing groom, a mystery baby and a tiger in the hotel room. Features a cameo by Mike Tyson. These gentlemen, as lovable as they are, are surely fortunate they didn’t star in ...
Teeth
There are two posters for this envelope-pushing and gory horror comedy. The more subtle one shows a teenage girl’s head peering out of a bubble bath, while the other is a remarkably literal X-ray capture of this film’s central conceit: the nice young woman hides dangerous dentures where men would like them the least. And they come in useful, too, as award-winning actress Jess Weixler protects her virginal self from a range of gentlemen who might just get what they deserve. This film took more than two years to get a release here, and was directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein (Roy’s son), who many moons ago played the white gay lover in Ang Lee’s (李安) The Wedding Banquet. See it with someone you’d love to be docked.
Blood: The Last Vampire
This is a live-action remake of the heavily touted manga from 2000, this time with French director Chris Nahon at the helm. A centuries-old semi-vampire in the guise of a Japanese girl has a score to settle with a swathe of demon-like creatures, the apparent leader of which dispatched her father. There’s no shortage of bloody combat to be found, and the trailer is attractive enough, but there are rumblings out there about below-par special effects and fight sequences. In the end, it might come down to whether you prefer your carnage inflicted by a brooding, muscle-flexing male or a Japanese schoolgirl (OK, OK, so the actress is Korean). Tarantino fans will obviously go for the latter.
Paris 36
The trials and tribulations of a 1930s music hall in Paris is given the melodramatic effort that reminds one of Cinema Paradiso. Unlike that sentimental favorite, however, most reviewers did not get on side with this one, complaining of shallowness, tedium and generic elements as the music hall operators contend with ominous political developments, a lack of custom and criminal intrigue. But it’s pretty, with lots of music. Original title: Faubourg 36.
Children of Glory
A 2006 Hungarian production co-written by Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Showgirls), the story moves between two infamous water polo matches between the Soviet Union and Hungary and the actions of a young freedom fighter and her water polo-playing boyfriend during the infamous Soviet crackdown that followed the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Critics were divided, calling it overbearing, affecting and sincere by turns, and Eszterhas hasn’t had a screenplay filmed since. But sports fans intrigued by the politics behind sporting contests should find this fascinating, especially the brutal Melbourne Olympics climax.
Speeding Scandal
A box office smash in South Korea last year, this is a romantic comedy in which a has-been pop musician and radio disc jockey suddenly finds his plans for a comeback hitting the wall when a teenager shows up at his home claiming to be his daughter — with his “grandson” in tow, to boot. Initial suspicion and hostility in our professionally challenged hero gives way to something rather more heartwarming in this Baixue theater offering in Ximending. It helps that the kid is sweet — and that the media are lying in wait for any slip-up by the DJ.
My friends and I have been enjoying the last two weeks of revelation after revelation of the financial and legal shenanigans of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head and recent presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). Every day brings fresh news — allegations that a building had purchased with party subsidies but listed in Ko’s name, allegations of downloading party subsidy funds into his personal accounts. Ko’s call last December for the regulations for the government’s special budgets to be amended to enforce fiscal discipline, and his September unveiling of his party’s anti-corruption plan, have now taken on a certain delightful irony.
President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision for Taiwan to become an “AI island” has three conditions: constructing advanced data centers, ensuring a stable and green energy supply, and cultivating AI talent. However, the energy issue supply is the greatest challenge. To clarify, let’s reframe the problem in terms of the Olympics. Given Taiwan’s OEM (original equipment manufacturer) roles in the technology sector, Taiwan is not an athlete in the AI Olympics, or even a trainer, but rather a training ground for global AI athletes (AI companies). In other words, Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem provides world-class training facilities and equipment that have already attracted
The number of scandals and setbacks hitting the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in such quick and daily succession in the last few weeks is unprecedented, at least in the countries whose politics I am familiar with. The local media is covering this train wreck on an almost hourly basis, which in the latest news saw party chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) detained by prosecutors on Friday and released without bail yesterday. The number of links collected to produce these detailed columns may reach 400 by the time this hits the streets. To get up to speed, two columns have been written: “Donovan’s
Three years after JD Vance made his disparaging remark about “childless cat ladies” to the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican vice-presidential candidate is still seeking to explain, telling NBC on Sunday that he was making a joke, but also a “real, substantive point” about the US becoming “too anti-family.” As Vance keeps digging, let’s survey cat ladies — past and present, childless and not — to see just how miserable they are. MAGDALEINE PINCELOUP DE LA GRANGE To Vance, women who own cats and don’t have children are “miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made”