2009 Cross-Strait Films Exhibition
Here’s something different. A film festival where Taiwanese audiences watch Chinese product and vice versa. For one week, Taipei and Taichung will feature the premiere screenings of If You Are the One (非誠勿擾, see adjacent review), as well as Crazy Racer (瘋狂的賽車), Invisible Wings (隱形的翅膀), Life Today (江北好人), Postman in Shangri-la (香巴拉信使), Ta Pu (塔舖) and The Attack (致命追擊). Later this month Beijing and Tianjin will host six Taiwanese features. But you have to pity the Chinese audience: Any programming that includes Attitude (態度), a spectacularly awful documentary on the Taiwan Beer basketball team, can’t be taken very seriously. The festival could also have done with some entertaining commentary on the cross-strait relationship itself; sadly, Hong Kong’s God of Gamblers 2 (賭神2) didn’t make the cut.
Walled In
Straight to DVD in almost all territories, this thriller-cum-horror flick is getting a theatrical run in Taiwan. An up-and-coming demolition professional gets cracking on a very strange apartment building but runs into difficulties: Not only are people still living there, but there’s a whole lotta dead people in there, too. Like the House of Wax and Thir13en Ghosts remakes, this genre item is more likely to impress students of set design and architecture than horror fans.
The Girl from Monaco
The “girl” is a weather host who tries to seduce a hotshot lawyer defending a murder suspect. Meanwhile, the lawyer’s young, committed bodyguard has his work cut out ensuring that his client is safe from Russian killers. A hit in France, this film hit pay dirt with Louise Bourgoin’s ambitious, vivacious weather girl character in a way that will remind some of Nicole Kidman’s spectacular (if more sinister) showcase role in To Die For.
Cover Boy
A young Romanian immigrant hits Italy with a pal but soon has to fend for himself when the authorities take his friend away. He finds support in two locals whose ulterior motives take a time to emerge; the first is the Romanian’s much older flatmate who wants to bed him, and the other a professional photographer who wants to make him a model. This film was made two years ago and has struggled to find a home outside Italy and European festivals. Still, it has won a few awards and the ads claim it received a 15-minute standing ovation in Rotterdam. The original Italian title translates as Cover Boy ... The Last Revolution.
O’Horten
A railway engineer in Norway by the name of Odd Horten retires, but unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in About Schmidt, this agreeable fellow comes to terms with his sudden change in timetable and personal limitations without quiet trauma. Instead, the door is opened to the strangeness of his surroundings as the old man bemusedly takes in his new life and new acquaintances. Very good reviews met this light (but not lightweight) comedy-drama stateside.
One Million Yen Girl
Japanese actress Yu Aoi has a legion of fans and this unusual film — a somewhat existential Japanese road movie — will likely add to their number. Yu plays a young woman with little to show for herself who gets in trouble with the law over a minor incident and moves on to the next town — and the next, and the next — as she comes to terms with her life and what she needs to become. Funny and wry, this is also known as One Million Yen and the Nigamushi Woman.
Crayon Shin-Chan: The Legend Called: The Singing Buttocks Bomb
Every year our favorite Japanese kindergarten tyke Crayon Shin-chan gets up to mischief on the big screen, though readers not familiar with Japanese manga should still recognize this character by the minimalist face artwork and the guffaws that come from kids who delight in his naughty wordplay and other hijinks. And besides, any movie with a title like this deserves a wider audience. In this effort, Shin-Chan’s dog Shiro has a world-threatening munition attached to his butt by an alien while visiting Okinawa. Unmissable.
Mr. Housewife
This broad South Korean comedy starts out as an imitation of Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton, but then shoots off in a different direction as unemployed hubbie Han Suk-gyu finds his niche as a fish-out-of-water game show contestant. Also starring the wonderful Kim Soo-mi and Shin Eun-kyung as Han’s wife. Screening at Ximending’s Baixue theater, where gender politics is rarely of interest.
6D Movie Garden
The Living Mall in Taipei is holding an interesting activity aimed at youngsters: a smorgasbord of movies on the theme of the animal kingdom in which you change topics by moving from one theater to the next. The experience is meant to be educational as well as fun, and it’s the closest thing locals will get to the Disneyland experience without applying for a US visa. Screened in the late morning and midday, ticket prices are NT$390 for adults and NT$300 for children with discounts available.
Anyone who has been to Alishan (阿里山) is familiar with the railroad there: one line comes up from Chiayi City past the sacred tree site, while another line goes up to the sunrise viewing platform at Zhushan (祝山). Of course, as a center of logging operations for over 60 years, Alishan did have more rail lines in the past. Are any of these still around? Are they easily accessible? Are they worth visiting? The answer to all three of these questions is emphatically: Yes! One of these lines ran from Alishan all the way up to the base of Jade Mountain. Its
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