District 13 — Ultimatum (Banlieue 13 — Ultimatum)
Luc Besson gives us plenty of style and some good action sequences held together in what might generously be called a plot that is about nefarious dealings in the French government put right by an alliance of street gangs under the guidance of super cop Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli). Don’t expect it to make too much sense. All the racial stereotypes also come out of the woodwork, with Arian Nation, Asian, Latino, black and Islamic crime syndicates all sporting ethnic/punk fashions. It’s pretty good humored, and Tomaso and sidekick Leito (David Belle) have some seriously appealing moves. The pace is frenetic and at 101 minutes, it’s over before you start asking yourself too many questions.
The Back-up Plan
Originally scheduled to open last week,
this Jennifer Lopez vehicle about a single woman who finalizes
her artificial insemination plans on the same day
as she meets the man of her dreams — in this case Australian hunk Alex O’Loughlin — seems off-puttingly gynecological, and
is only made worse by a script and acting that has made-for-TV written all over it. Some good supporting performances, but
no chemistry in the
lead roles.
The Maid (La Nana)
A Chilean film about the lot of a domestic helper, this low-key work has impressed critics. In addition to a slew of Latin American awards, it also picked up the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema category for director Sebasian Silva and Special Jury Prize for lead actress Catalina Saavedra at the Sundance Film Festival last year. The story of a maid who has been with the same family for 23 years, facing rivalry from a new, younger home helper looks deeply into the tensions of an intimate and yet unequal relationship. Violence simmers beneath the surface and little household secrets make life uncomfortable for all.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
If you haven’t had enough of Freddy Krueger, then here is yet another dose. It is 25 years and a million miles from the original Wes Craven feature, and the primal fear once inspired by Krueger has now become the stuff of pop culture. Directed by Samuel Bayer and produced by Michael Bay, the volume is turned up on all the familiar riffs from the previous Nightmare movies, but really it’s just more of the same. The addition of CGI effects in this latest version is generally agreed to be less than successful, and while the rest of the movie is perfectly competent, Freddy Krueger is no match for the weight
of history.
Romantic Women Film Festival (善變女人心影展)
A film festival organized by the art house Wonderful Theater (真善美戲院, formerly The Majestic) brings together a gaggle of recent art house releases under a single banner, all relating to love, however tenuously. Films include Breakfast on Pluto, A French Gigolo, Facing Window, Black Ice, Irina Palm, The Valet, The Unknown Woman, Rabbit Without Ears, and Whatever Lola Wants. The festival runs until May 28. Books of four tickets are available for NT$600, and eight tickets for NT$1,080. For more information about screening times, visit the festival Web site at www.movie.com.tw/wonderful.
Welcome
This French film with dialogue in French, English and Kurdish, Welcome has had a successful run on the European festival circuit. A drama dealing with love amid the chaos of the largely Middle Eastern refugee camps around Calais, Welcome tells the story of Kurdish boy Bilal, who, after a massive trek across Europe, faces the final hurdle of reaching England. He decides to swim the Channel, and gets help from swimming instructor Simon, who is in the throes of a divorce. A strong script and acting, along with sensitive handling by director Philippe Lioret, make a topical issue come to life.
During the Japanese colonial era, remote mountain villages were almost exclusively populated by indigenous residents. Deep in the mountains of Chiayi County, however, was a settlement of Hakka families who braved the harsh living conditions and relative isolation to eke out a living processing camphor. As the industry declined, the village’s homes and offices were abandoned one by one, leaving us with a glimpse of a lifestyle that no longer exists. Even today, it takes between four and six hours to walk in to Baisyue Village (白雪村), and the village is so far up in the Chiayi mountains that it’s actually
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
These days, CJ Chen (陳崇仁) can be found driving a taxi in and around Hualien. As a way to earn a living, it’s not his first choice. He’d rather be taking tourists to the region’s attractions, but after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region on April 3, demand for driver-guides collapsed. In the eight months since the quake, the number of overseas tourists visiting Hualien has declined by “at least 90 percent, because most of them come for Taroko Gorge, not for the east coast or the East Longitudinal Valley,” he says. Chen estimates the drop in domestic sightseers after the
It’s a discombobulating experience, after a Lord of the Rings trilogy that was built, down to every frame and hobbit hair, for the big screen, to see something so comparatively minor, small-scaled and TV-sized as The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The film, set 183 years before the events of The Hobbit, is a return to Middle-earth that, despite some very earnest storytelling, never supplies much of an answer as to why, exactly, it exists. Rohirrim, which sounds a little like the sound an orc might make sneezing, is perhaps best understood as a placeholder for further cinematic
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