A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2009 FESTIVAL FILM REVIEW And they’re under starter’s orders 淚王子

By Ho Yi DIRECTED BY: Staff Reporter Yonfan (楊凡)

For local cineastes, the highlight will attend the event. STARRING: Wing Fan (范植偉) AS Ding of the year is just around the Award-winning works from Ke-chiang, corner as the 2009 Golden Horse this year’s Cannes, Venice and (張孝全) AS Sun Han-sun, Terri Kwan 台北金馬影展 Film Festival (2009 ) Berlin film festivals are on (關穎) AS Madame Ou-Yang Liu, gets set to show more than 200 the bill, as are the latest flicks Zhu Xuan (朱璇) AS Ping, feature, documentary, short and by world renowned directors Lin Yo-wei (林佑威) AS Master Qiu animation films from around the including Michael Haneke’s world starting Thursday evening. The White Ribbon, Jane RUNNING TIME: The lineup includes the Campion’s Bright Star, Sweet 122 MINUTES festival’s popular LGBT program, Rush by Andrzej Wajda and The films about Joy Division, Patti Dust of Time by Theodoros Language: Smith, Sid Vicious of the Sex Angelopoulos. In Mandarin with Chinese and Pistols as well as a section The three-week long festival English subtitles featuring digitally restored runs from Thursday through Nov. masterpieces including Jean-Luc 26 at Shin Kong Cineplex (新光影 release: 城 Today Godard’s 1965 Pierrot le Fou and ), 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City Photo courtesy of Warner Bros 1948’s The Red Shoes. (台北市西寧南路36號) and Vie Show This year’s directors in Cinema, Xinyi district (信義威秀影 focus are Japan’s Jun Ichikawa, 城), 18 Songshou Rd, Taipei City who passed away last year, (台北市松壽路18號). and American director John Individual tickets cost NT$230 Cassavetes, whose films are per screening (NT$200 for relatively unknown in Taiwan. students with ID and people with History repeats itself as farce This edition of the Golden disabilities). A booklet of tickets Horse turns the spotlight on costs NT$2,900 for 15 screenings, various film professionals this available through ERA ticket Yonfan’s overly self-conscious ‘Prince of Tears’ treats the White Terror period with a year, screening films made by outlets or at www.ticket.com.tw. glib sentimentality that can best be described as political terror as soap opera cinematographer Mark Ping-bing For more information, visit Lee (李屏賓) and starring French the festival’s bilingual Web site at actress Isabelle Huppert. Both www.goldenhorse.org.tw By Ian Bartholomew The story centers on Sun (Joseph Chang, costumes, and Joseph Chang is also likely Staff Reporter 張孝全), a handsome and loyal Air Force to find an appreciative audience, but this officer who lives with his second wife Ping is all pop idol glam-infused camera work he White Terror is one of the most (Zhu Xuan, 朱璇) in what must be one of the without even a hint of depth. fraught and controversial episodes neatest little veterans’ villages, or juan cun Yonfan tries for a mood of tragedy, in Taiwanese history, and the (眷村), ever to have been built. They have but what he ends up with is a sort of high T fact that it has been picked as the two daughters, one by his previous wife. camp period drama that cares more about setting for -based Taiwanese A close family friend Ding (Wing Fan, 范植 recreating a mythology and wallowing director Yonfan’s (楊凡) lushly romantic 偉) has a bit of a yen for Ping, but spends in nostalgia than it does about looking period drama Prince of Tears (淚王子) most of the movie with a sour look and a  Photo courtesy of Warner Bros at the past. In an interview quoted in the is arguably in rather dubious taste, an Phantom of the Opera facial disfigurement publicity materials, Yonfan said that he did offense the director aggravates with a glib that is so profoundly fake that one expects lover of Ping’s. She is now married to a not re-create the period. “I create with my sentimentality that can best be described as him to take it off at any time. general, but has dark secrets hidden in her memories of the past and make something political terror as soap opera. The idyllic life of Sun and his past. And this is just the tip of a very large that you have never seen before,” he said. Putting aside this fundamental wife begins to unwind when they fall and murky iceberg. It is remarkable that If that was his goal, then Prince of issue, which may well be sufficient to under suspicion of being Communist although Prince of Tears is supposedly Tears may be accounted a success of put some people off the film, it is only sympathizers. Sun is taken off and shot, based on, or at least inspired, by a real sorts, but for the most part it is turgid fair to say that the visual aesthetic is while Ping secures her safety by marrying story, every transition seems contrived, stuff made worse by its artistic and not uninteresting (relying heavily on Ding, who is implicated in her husband’s and the emotional responses of the historical pretensions. Some of the most supersaturated colors and airbrush effects death. In this harsh world, compromises characters are often rather bewildering. interesting footage is the documentary that Taiwan’s wedding photographers need to be made. A narrated voiceover by the director material — recordings, film and photos are likely to appreciate), though so self- Sun’s youngest daughter is close keeps the plot on track, and also relieves — that plays at the opening of the film and consciously artistic that it often loses friends with the daughter of Madame the cast from the painful necessity of accompanies the credits at the end. This Cheng Wen-tang’s Tears will open the 2009 Golden Horse Film Festival next Thursday touch with any sense of reality and at Ou-Yang Liu (Terri Kwan, 關穎), a former acting out the story. Ou-Yang looks at least seems to be about something more evening. Photo courtesy of Golden Horse Film Festival times verges on self-parody. girlfriend of Sun’s, and possibly a former an absolute dish in her lavish period than Yonfan’s own fevered imaginings. CLASSIFIEDS