16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY Martin Williams

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Sensational 3D animation and a healthy sense of humor are on the The invincible menu for families who flock to this movie about an island in the Atlantic plagued with gastronomic precipitation. A young inventor develops a machine that converts water into food, turning his island home from a sardine factory into a tourist draw. But things get out of control as the increasingly matriarch outrageous food growths threaten everything. Even 3D skeptic Roger Ebert was impressed, calling this the best technical presentation yet. Features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Selected as South Korea’s submission to the Oscars this year, James Caan, Bruce Campbell and Mr T. Also ‘Mother’ is another example of why director screening in IMAX format.

Bong Joon-ho is the country’s most brilliant young auteur Home A highlight among By Ho Yi this week’s new Staff Reporter releases is the French-language Swiss feature Home, a caustic, even surreal drama about a family whose property and very unity are compromised when Mother an old road nearby is converted into a motorway. Isabelle Huppert is the matriarch of the clan. Movie buffs, like some critics, will have noticed DIRECTED BY: the link to famous traffic panic sequences in Bong Joon-ho earlier French films, but the focus here is familial and environmental more than sociopolitical. Also STARRING: boasts a first-class poster depicting Huppert in the Kim Hye-ja (Hye-ja), kitchen and her eldest daughter in the yard giving Won Bin (Do-joon), a speeding truck the finger. Jin Goo (Jin-tae)

Language: Fish Story in Korean with Chinese subtitles The remaining five RUNNING TIME: releases this week 129 MINUTES are Japanese. The first, and probably TAIWAN RELEASE: best, is Fish Story, a TODAY humble production of varying tone but with real creativity and ambition to entertain.  Photos courtesy of CatchPlay Several interweaving stories over different periods of time eventually provide an answer to why the titular punk song from 1970s Japan could end up saving the world from a colossal heavenly proven by zooms in on maternal love pushed to The next day, one of Do-Joon’s tography poignant emotions object. Based on a book and not a manga, for his serial- extremes. It is both a well-executed golf balls is found next to a mur- helps to that haunt the once. killer mystery noir thriller and a disturbing portrait dered high school girl. An easy create an audience long after Memories of of motherhood. target for the lazy police to extract aura of the end credits roll. Murder (2003) The film opens with Hye-ja (Kim a confession, the young man is disquiet and foreboding with a stark Without a doubt, the film’s most Kamui Asand box-office record-breaking Hye-ja), a long-widowed mother, quickly convicted and jailed. palette of gloomy blues and greens. mesmerizing aspect is watching Alas, back to manga monster flick The Host (2006), chopping herbs inside a dingy herbal Finding no help from either The true genius of Bong is Hye-ja, the indomitable matriarch adaptations with South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho is a shop she runs to make ends meet in the cops or the lawyer, Hye-ja, shown in the director’s wedding gradually turn into an inhuman this historical action director who is adept at knitting a small town. All the while, she stays convinced that her son is innocent, genre conventions with his own force. The familiar small-town movie about a a high level of entertainment with alert to what happens on the street takes matters into her own hands idiosyncratic vision that, in the case setting is reminiscent of Bong’s talented young ninja socio-political commentary. where her mentally handicapped and embarks on a crusade to find of Mother, blends maternal devotion Memories of Murder in its ability who is rejected by For his latest work, Mother, Bong son Do-joon (played by the almost the real killer. with a diabolical murder to create to capture the mindset of a rural his criminal brethren returns to the crime-thriller genre to unrecognizable heartthrob Won Bin) Once the investigation begins, a disturbingly loving and vicious community. In Mother, the village and opts for near- tell a cleverly crafted story about a plays with a dog. Mother kicks into high gear, honing human portrait. is populated by scoundrels, whores hermitage. Unfortunately, as with so many loners widow’s attempt to clear the name Suddenly, a Mercedes Benz a polished murder mystery filled More surprisingly, Bong is able and idiots for whom Hollywood- of her mentally and emotionally knocks her son over and speeds off. with unexpected turns and twists. to tell the audience everything they style justice and moral naivete are in narratives like this, the poor fellow’s attempts handicapped son, who has been Unhurt, Do-joon and his foul-tem- Tensions escalate as the film spirals need to know about his compelling truly a fairy tale. to lead a quiet life are frustrated when a budding accused of murder. pered friend Jin-tae (Jin Goo) pursue in flashbacks and revelations that heroine even before the real In the last, flickering shot, a romantic relationship goes south at the hands of Revolving around the the automobile to a golf course, divulge dark secrets harbored inside narrative sets in. In the pre-credit murderer joins a group on a party his prowling former colleagues. Fanboys mocked commanding central performance by where the dim-witted Do-joon col- the rural community and yet refuse sequence, Hye-ja dances on a bus. The passengers sing and dance the computer-generated special effects even more veteran television thespian Kim Hye- lects several golf balls before he and to entirely mold the audience’s meadow to the imaginary music in like fools, while the murderer seems than the lack of action; the bigger question is why ja, the film tones down the director’s his friend get into a dustup with the knowledge of the killer’s identity. her head. She is graceful and alone, at once the most lucid and the CG should be necessary at all. The Lone Wolf and fondness for broad messages and well-to-do hit-and-runners. The mood-drenched cinema- her wide, vacant eyes exuding craziest of them all. Cub series didn’t use them ... say no more.

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror FILM REVIEW This different- looking anime production also stands out for More filth than wisdom featuring a female lead (Haruka) instead of the ‘Filth and Wisdom’ is the only movie so far to have been directed male teenager beloved of Western movies. Our by Madonna, which, judging from the results, is something to be grateful for motherless high school heroine is transported to an island world composed of things rejected By Ian Bartholomew by the human world, and she decides to set off Staff Reporter in pursuit of a lost hand mirror her mother once ince her star turn in Susan gave her — but there are forces unhappy at her Seidelman’s Desperately presence. Apparently based on a traditional tale, S Seeking Susan, Madonna the emotional quotient here might be enough has had over two decades to hone Filth and Wisdom to steer attendant parents in Haruka’s direction her celebrity persona. In Filth and instead of standard action and violence anime, Wisdom, in which the singer is such as ... credited not only as director and DIRECTED BY: Madonna scriptwriter, but also as “creator,” Naruto the Movie Vol. 6 the many aspects of this persona are dumped, unceremoniously and in an STARRING: Naruto the ninja is Eugene Hutz (A.K.), undigested heap, on the audience. back for even more Vicky McClure (Juliette), anime mayhem in It’s not pretty. There is kinky, there Holly Weston (Holly), is rebellious, there is cross-dressing, this, the third entry Richard E. Grant in the Shippuden there are slabs of dialogue straight (Professor Flynn), out of a motivational self-help manual, Inder Manocha (Sardeep), cycle featuring his and, of course, screeds about the Ade (DJ), Francesca Kingdon later exploits. All starving children in Africa. (Francine) hell is set to break Filth and Wisdom sets the scene loose when an evil figure is responsible for the with three remarkably improbable RUNNING TIME: disappearance of key ninja from various villages, flatmates. There is the singer A.K. 81 MINUTES setting them against one another. A celestial finale (played by Eugene Hutz, the lead pits him against Naruto and the manipulated singer of the gypsy punk band TAIWAN RELEASE: townsmen. Also known as Naruto Shippuden 3: Gogol Bordello, whose music  Photo courtesy of Cineplex TODAY Inheritors of the Will of Fire. features extensively in the film and is probably the most interesting part of the whole 81-minute and Wisdom seems on the verge One Piece Film: Strong World experience), who desperately tries of embarking in some interesting To finish this week, to get a gig while keeping body direction. There are times when those irrepressible and soul together as a dungeon- Madonna’s infatuation with style can manga/anime Straw master providing S&M lite to paying who works and pops pills at a drug from the first few minutes of sympathize with them, and the be briefly mistaken for profundity, Hat pirates are back customers. There is Holly the store owned by pharmacist Sardeep, the film. Throw in a blind poet philosophizing voice-over in a heavy but in the end, her dragnet of in their 10th feature. unemployed ballerina, who finds her who spends much of his time making (Richard E. Grant), whose poems Slavic accent — spoken by Hutz contemporary issues comes across Navigator Nami real self performing as a stripper at love to her coat in the cloak room inspire A.K.’s songs, and Francine — spouting pop psychology and as an adolescent attempt to impress. is abducted by a an upmarket gentleman’s club. A.K. as the only way of escaping from his (Francesca Kingdon), Holly’s tough referencing Nietzsche, is likely to For an effort by one of the sharpest fearsome pirate who is passionately in love with her, but harridan of a wife. love instructor in the arts of pole send many members of the audience players on the international celebrity sends the rest of her colleagues into a fearsome for all his wild, freakish behavior, Even for a Friends’-style dance, and it simply goes through either to sleep or out the door. scene, Filth and Wisdom is not only location filled with horrible creatures. One Piece finds it impossible to declare his romantic comedy, the improbability the roof. It is impossible to believe Although utterly inept, there something of a joke, but one that creator Eiichira Oda wrote this entry, which interest. And finally, there is Juliette, factor is astonishingly high right in any of the characters, let alone are many moments when Filth falls flat on its face. enjoyed extensive box office success in Japan.