Sing It! (唱歌吧!)
This Taiwanese documentary is being released with little warning or advertising, but the timing is crucial. A Bunun Aboriginal school principal, who cannot read music and has a sports education background, leads the local elementary school choir to national fame and a recording deal. As always, there are challenges along the way, including relationships with parents back home. But the events onscreen now have new currency given that the choir’s home village, Dongpu (東埔) in Nantou County’s Xinyi Township (信義), was badly hit by Typhoon Morakot — making this 64-minute film a valuable time capsule. Starts tomorrow.
G-Force
G-Force is a part-computer animated, part-live action thrill ride about a bunch of guinea pigs and other rodents who team up to defeat an evil big businessman who wants to take over the world using a bunch of malevolent gadgets. This is Jerry Bruckheimer territory, not Pixar, so expect exhaustion and kiddie crudity, not reflective or genuinely emotional moments. Screening in 3D in selected theaters, and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz and Steve Buscemi.
Coco Before Chanel
This French biopic tracks the childhood and early adult life of Chanel founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, delving into how the fashion innovator who created an empire grew out of a cabaret performer and emotional recluse. As the grown-up Coco, Audrey Tautou (Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) has impressed critics with her latest big role, though some wondered if this film’s sumptuous photography and overall elegance might not have been boosted by more emotional appeal.
Kabuli Kid
The “kid” of the title is a baby boy left behind in a Kabul cab, the driver of which can’t seem to work out how to get rid of the creature. Steering between realism and — perhaps — a hint of black comedy, this is a portrait of ordinary Afghans, the lives they lead and the mundane dilemmas they face — details obscured by the international media’s focus on the wider conflicts in the region and electoral woes.
Sanpei the Fisher Boy
This live-action film based on a classic manga dating back to the 1970s is director Yojiro Takita’s follow-up to this year’s Oscar-winning drama Departures. Sanpei is the grandson of a master fisherman who is happy to pass on his skills and enthusiasm to the youngster. One day Sanpei learns about a possibly mythical superfish — and immediately sets his sights on catching it, along with another fishing ace. It’s hard not to imagine this as a Japanese Huckleberry Finn — energetic and brimming with life, and there’s straw hats too.
Feces, vomit and fossilized food from inside stomachs have provided new clues into how dinosaurs rose to dominate Earth, a new study revealed on Wednesday. Scientists have discovered plenty about dinosaurs — particularly about how they vanished off the face of the planet 66 millions years ago. But “we know very little about their rise,” said Martin Qvarnstrom, a researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University and the study’s lead author. Dinosaurs first appeared at least 230 million years ago, fossils have shown. But they would not become the world’s dominant animal until the start of the Jurassic Period some 30 million years later. What caused this
Last week, the government rejected a petition to amend the law that would allow permanent residents a path to citizenship. This was widely expected, but it came amid a flurry of negative trends about the future of the nation’s labor force. There was much ironic commentary on the juxtaposition of that decision with its idiotic, abusive reasoning with the urgent demand for labor across a wide range of fields. This demand was highlighted by the government’s plans for five NT$10 billion (US$307.6 million) funds to promote development in key fields, including artificial intelligence (AI), “smart” healthcare and green growth announced
The Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) draws its name from the idea that each hiker starting at the summit of Jade Mountain (玉山) and following the trail to the coast is like a single raindrop. Together, many raindrops form life and prosperity-bringing waterways. Replicating a raindrop’s journey holds poetic beauty, but all hikers know that climbing is infinitely more appealing, and so this installment picks up where the last one left off — heading inland and uphill along the 49.8-kilometer Canal Trail (大圳之路) — second of the Greenway’s four sections. A detailed map of the trail can be found
“Bro, I can’t wait for my first dead body,” wrote an 11-year-old boy on Instagram in Sweden, where gangs recruit children too young to be prosecuted as contract killers on chat apps. “Stay motivated, it’ll come,” answered his 19-year-old contact. He went on to offer the child 150,000 kronor (US$13,680) to carry out a murder, as well as clothes and transport to the scene of the crime, according to a police investigation of the exchange last year in the western province of Varmland. In this case, four men aged 18 to 20 are accused of recruiting four minors aged 11 to 17
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