16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY IAn Bartholomew

Precious Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire Something’s rotten in to give the film its full Something’s rotten in title, is not easy to watch, but if you are looking for a cinematic experience to challenge glib optimism about the human condition, this is the movie for you. The performance by Gabourey Sidibe as the title character, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child, has already garnered intense critical acclaim, and other performances, including those by comedian Mo’Nique SwedenSweden as Precious’ mother and, startlingly, Mariah Carey, as a social worker, seem all of a piece for a movie that is A disgraced journalist and a tattooed hacker on track to becoming a definitive work about the early 21st-century American experience. Precious picked with scores to settle investigate a series of up two Oscars, a remarkable achievement for a film that skirts the edges of art house. But be warned: In grisly murders in this sadistic Agatha Precious, hope is a distant and difficult prospect. Christie-style mystery The Crazies By Ian Bartholomew Staff Reporter It is a question why George Romero would wish to preside over this inept remake of his own 1973 classic of the same name. Romero, who has an executive producer credit for this film, seems content to watch Breck Eisner, the director of such innocuous adventure fare as Sahara (2006), labor through yet another predictable take on the zombie genre. Critics have uniformly been unable to find anything new in his vision in terms of content or style. Stars Timothy ased on the first part of Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, who lead a band of the Millennium Trilogy by Swedish normal people out of the zombie infected regions. author Stieg Larsson, a hugely successful with European crime series, The Girl With the the established Date Night BDragon Tattoo has made some compromises for its norms of sexual politics, and Despite the well-worn cinematic debut. Fortunately the compromises are this is certainly part of the appeal of this concept of a couple from few, and mostly superficial. European release (it is unlikely that an upcoming the burbs having romance The first and most regularly commented on Hollywood remake will push these issues as far). injected back into a of these compromises is the title: In the Swedish The relationship between hero Blomkvist and humdrum existence when original, it is the direct, if, rather pertinent, “Men his sidekick Lisbeth is an interesting one, and long they visit the Big Apple, Who Hate Women.” There are plenty of men who before the credits roll it already has you longing early reviews rate Date Night highly. Steve Carell and hate women in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, for a sequel. This is always a positive sign of strong Tina Fey get caught up in a case of mistaken identity and to some extent the women get their own back, characters well-realized, for in the end, the solution and plenty of comic goings-on for a mix of rom-com but this is far more complicated than your standard to the mystery is subordinate to the development and adventure, with Mark Wahlberg stepping in to exploitation movie. The film has many faults, but of the characters, an idea that most Hollywood provide the muscle. Directed by Shawn Levy, who oversimplification is not one of them. filmmakers have been very slow to grasp. hits his stride in this film, despite a track record that Sexual politics is at the heart of The Girl With While character development takes place in the includes The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at the the Dragon Tattoo, a title that titillates in a way that background, director Niels Arden Oplev spins a Museum (2006). is just a trifle unsavory after you have seen the film. highly complex web over a wide range of suspects, Sure, this is about a girl, or woman, who likes to be most of them very unattractive. There are issues on top and who has a tattoo of a dragon down her with Nazi sympathies, anti-Semitism, misogynism, It’s Complicated back, but this is a very minor part of the appeal of torture, humiliation and indifference to the social The most complicated this well-crafted serial killer flick. What there is, is a underclass. As with many of the great works of thing to work out about good measure of hate, mixed with a subtle blend of detective fiction, such as the books of Raymond It’s Complicated is why something that might be called love — depending on Chandler, the social background that creates the Noomi Rapace, top, and Michael Nyqvist, above, star in The Girl With it is so bad. After all, one’s taste — as well as fear and lust and curiosity, crimes is as important as the crime itself. Despite the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Oplev. Photos courtesy of iFilm you have Meryl Streep and pride and arrogance, and then more fear topped its considerable length — more than two-and-a-half and Alec Baldwin in the off with another dash of hate. hours — Dragon Tattoo rarely sags, and at times one lead roles as a divorced couple who have accidentally Hate is not just the force that drives the villains wishes for a bit more detail to put the complicated rediscovered their old spark, and Steve Martin as a in this movie, it is also what drives the hero — if jigsaw into context (the original book is well over possible suitor for Streep’s affections. There is acting Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), the bondage-goth- 600 pages, and the film never gives up on its efforts talent to spare, but no chemistry. Director and writer hacker who lives at the very heart of this movie, to give us as much of the book as possible). Nancy Meyers specializes in deeply improbable can be described as a hero. Watching coldly while There are no great action sequences, a marker romantic comedies with a veneer of sophistication. Her the bad guy gradually ignites — no quick explosion of the staid European film. Blomkvist has smarts, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo credits include Something’s Gotta Give (2003) and The to ease the pain — and burns to death in his but no abs to speak of, and Salander, with her Parent Trap (1998), which were reasonably appealing overturned car is not what good guys are supposed pugnacious sexuality, is not your usual female lead. (Man Som Hatar Kvinnor) rom-coms that made good use of high-profile stars. Alec to do. For that matter, neither is taking retribution She wears a spiked dog collar to an interview with a Baldwin as a laddish divorce lawyer playing against by sodomizing bad guys with an over-sized dildo. parole officer and has multiple piercings. Streep’s tightly wound celebrity chef wife would seem You get the idea. The dramatic lead, though With its strong theme of sexual violence, DIRECTED BY: to be a surefire hit, but the whole thing turns out to be supposedly subordinate to Mikael Blomkvist Dragon Tattoo may offend some, but it is part of a Niels Arden Oplev a damp squib. (Michael Nyqvist), a disgraced journalist hired by larger fascination with the deeper extremes of the STARRING: an aging industrialist to solve the case of a little girl psychological spectrum that have already been so who went missing 40 years ago, is not altogether a Michael Nyqvist (Mikael Blomkvist), Noomi Rapace successfully exploited in the novels of crime writers (Lisbeth Salander), Lena Endre (Erika Berger), I Give My First Love to nice sort of sidekick. She has serious issues with such as Val McDermid and Patricia Cornwell. The Peter Haber (Martin Vanger) You (Boku no Hatsukoi men. Flashbacks of her past history graphically focus on the story allows Dragon Tattoo to drift very Wo Kimi Ni Sasagu) indicate that she is not a girl who should be close to being a big-screen treatment of made-for-TV RUNNING TIME: Japanese tearjerker based crossed. The brilliance of Dragon Tattoo is that this content — perilously close in fact — and it is mostly 152 MINUTES vengefulness is linked not to super powers, but to a up to Rapace’s stylized yet intimate presentation of on a manga series, I Give My First Love to You profound vulnerability. her character to give this film its cinematic force. TAIWAN RELEASE: pulls out all the stops Clearly author Larsson enjoyed playing games She comes through more than adequately. TODAY to get you reaching for the tissues. Main character Takuma falls in love with Mayu, the daughter of his cardiologist. The reason Takuma is consulting with a cardiologist? He’s got a dickey heart — he might not make it past 20. As kids the two promise to marry, FILM REVIEW but after Takuma realizes that his life is likely to be cut short he begins to distance himself from Mayu, hoping that she will find a more suitable life partner.

The joke’s on Zhang Yimou Little Nicholas (Le Petit Nicolas) ‘A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop’ translates the Coen brothers’ ‘Blood Simple’ into slapstick, but the comedy backfires Having had its Taiwan premiere as part of the By Ho Yi Chen (Mao Mao, 毛毛). A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop Taiwan International Staff reporter In the film’s farcical opening, assembles a legion of errenzhuan Children’s Film Festival, Gone are the swordsmen, heroes a Persian merchant stops by and performers including Zhao Benshan, Xiao Little Nicholas hits and women crushed by a pernicious sells a gun to the wife, who has had Shenyang, Cheng Ye and Mao Mao, as well movie theaters today. The title character is based patriarchal system. Zhang Yimou (張 enough of her abusive husband. as veteran actors such as Sun Honglei and on illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempe for a French 藝謀), the once powerful auteur, has Meanwhile, corrupt police deputy Yan Ni. Photos courtesy of Sky Films children’s book by Rene Goscinny. Sempe’s illustrations turned his hand to slapstick comedy Zhang San (Sun Honglei, 孫紅雷) are hugely popular in Taiwan, rivaling Jimmy Liao (幾 in A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle secretly approaches the cuckold 米) for the cute but bittersweet portrayal of an urban Shop (三槍拍案驚奇) (previously titled Wang to inform him of his wife’s everyman. Humor and cuteness are all major selling A Simple Noodle Story in English), ongoing affair with Li. The husband points of this story of a little boy who suffers sudden a remake of the Coen brothers’ 1984 is furious and hires the stone-faced anxiety when he faces the arrival of a little brother Blood Simple. Zhang to murder the adulterers. or sister. With the aid of school friends he concocts In Zhang’s garish adaptation, the But the plot takes an unexpected A Woman, a Gun and various ways of dealing with the competition. The Coens’ bleak and noirish treatment of turn and the A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop film has already proved hugely successful with French human nature is lost amid boisterous a Noodle Shop moves to darker Sadly, the comical segments are audiences, and the appeal of retro European fashions and boorish regional humor. territory as the killer’s hidden farcical farragoes cooked up by 三槍拍案驚奇 and a slightly dated view of childhood innocence along The film is aimed at neither agenda surfaces, leading to a string the cast’s flamboyant acting, silly with Sempe’s established reputation in Taiwan are set the international market nor fans of misunderstandings, double- dialogue and crude humor. Even the to make this a family favorite here as well. DIRECTED BY: of Zhang’s earlier works, but the crossings and the age-old problem cameo by celebrated comedian Zhao Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) masses of China, who reportedly of how to dispose of a corpse. The Benshan (趙本山) as a boggle-eyed paid some US$32.4 million to see film abruptly changes tempo and police chief is nothing more than a Taipei Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival STARRING: (台北金馬奇幻影展) the movie within three weeks of it style when, with a nod to the thriller gimmick for cheap laughs. Yan Ni (閻妮) as the wife, Xiao opening there in December. genre, the murderer executes his It’s as if Zhang couldn’t care less Shenyang(小沈陽) as Li Si, Sun Organized by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival The Texan bar in Blood Simple crime with precision. about the discord that arises from Honglei (孫紅雷) as Zhang San, Ni (台北金馬影展), Golden Horse Fantastic celebrates the becomes a noodle shop in the vast As Coen fans may notice, the panoramic shots of awe-inspiring Dahong (倪大紅) as Wang Mazi wacky, bloody and sexy aspects of cinema with a deserts of Shaanxi. plot closely follows the original, but barren landscapes (recalling the program that focuses mostly on B-movies and horror At the roadside mom-and-pop the film is quintessentially Chinese, Zhang calls on errenzhuan stage director’s Hero (英雄)) populated by RUNNING TIME: flicks, along with a mini retrospective on Roman operation lives miserly owner Wang crammed with comical brawls and actors Xiao Shenyang (a showbiz buffoons in gaudy costumes. 95 MINUTES Polanski’s early works and a segment of movies Mazi (Ni Dahong, 倪大紅), his young gags borrowed from the tradition of sensation after his appearance on The film’s highlight may be the selected by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝 wife (Yan Ni, 閻妮), her paramour errenzhuan (二人轉), a folk art form China Central Television last year), cast’s hip-hop routine, accompanied TAIWAN RELEASE: 賢) titled Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Favorite Fantasy Films. Li Si (Xiao Shenyang, 小沈陽), an from northeast China that involves Mao Mao and Cheng Ye to elicit by Zhang rapping in his native TODAY Check out www.ghfff.org.tw for more information. apprentice, and two dim-witted storytelling, singing, dancing and wows and laughs with tongue-twisting Shaanxi dialect, during the end NT$160 tickets are available at the door or through servants, Zhao (Cheng Ye, 程野) and clowning about. wordplay and acrobatic feats. credits. ibon kiosks at 7-Eleven stores. Runs until April 22.