Rated G, directed by Jessie Nelson, with Sean Penn (Sam Dawson), Michelle Pfeifer (Rita Harrison), Dakota Fanning (Lucy Dawson), Lucy Dawson, Diane West (Annie), running time: 132 minutes.
Sam is a grown man and single father with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. When social workers decide he is incapable of raising his daughter and move to seperate them, Sam gets himself a high-powered, highly caffeinated lawyer in the form of Michelle Pfeifer, who represents him in a court case that lasts the duration of the film. The filmmakers pull no punches with their audience by taking sides in the case. The social workers aren't made out to be monsters, but the voices of reason. Sam is shown as a loving father, but his liabities are obvious. But I Am Sam ultimately fails to be a great film -- despite Penn's remarkable performance -- because its main character is incapable of change, bringing the plotline to a standstill halfway through the film.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATA
Oct. 14 to Oct. 20 After working above ground for two years, Chang Kui (張桂) entered the Yamamoto coal mine for the first time, age 16. It was 1943, and because many men had joined the war effort, an increasing number of women went underground to take over the physically grueling and dangerous work. “As soon as the carts arrived, I climbed on for the sake of earning money; I didn’t even feel scared,” Chang tells her granddaughter Tai Po-fen (戴伯芬) in The last female miner: The story of Chang Kui (末代女礦工: 張桂故事), which can be found on the Frontline
There is perhaps no better way to soak up the last of Taipei’s balmy evenings than dining al fresco at La Piada with a sundowner Aperol Spritz and a luxuriant plate of charcuterie. La Piada (義式薄餅) is the brainchild of Milano native William Di Nardo. Tucked into an unassuming apartment complex, fairy lights and wining diners lead the way to this charming slice of laid-back Mediterranean deli culture. Taipei is entirely saturated with Italian cuisine, but La Piada offers something otherwise unseen on the island. Piadina Romagnola: a northern Italian street food classic. These handheld flatbreads are stuffed with cold
There is considerable speculation among foreign, and particularly US, observers of when Beijing will launch an invasion — made existential with Monday’s military drills around Taiwan. The most famous is the “Davidson window,” named after then admiral leading the US Indo-Pacific Command Philip Davidson, who told a Senate Armed Services Committee in 2021: “I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact in the next six years.” Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) has told the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. CIA Director William Burns, however, has said that a military conflict is
President William Lai’s (賴清德) National Day speech was exactly what most of us expected. It was pleasant, full of keywords like “resilience” and “net zero” and lacked any trolling of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Of course the word “Taiwan” popped up often, and Lai reiterated the longtime claim of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a claim that now dates back 30 years on the pro-Taiwan side. But it was gentle. Indeed, it was possible to see the speech as conciliatory, leaving room for the PRC to make a gesture. That may have been one of its purposes: if