16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY Martin Williams

Valentine’s Day Best start with the most obviously You might as well live timed of the New Year slate of offerings. A huge cast that crosses the generations locks horns with a limited Based on a novel by one of Japan’s most acclaimed fiction writers of the 20th century, ‘Villon’s timeframe and a dozen plot lines to Wife’ possesses a cinematic presence rarely achieved by literary adaptations try to deliver romantic entertainment for the masses. With Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) at the helm, one might expect a brisk package of laughs and a few tears, but By Ian Bartholomew early reviews have largely dumped all over this one. Got a date? Staff Reporter Maybe you should consider ...

in Japanese (with Chinese empowerment comes when she It’s subtitles), and consists decides to give herself to a former I Love You Phillip Morris of two hours of people battling lover and lawyer as payment for Now this is a Valentine’s Day movie. against the belief that life is a the legal defense of her husband on Jim Carrey throws hypocritical crock, and generally having this charges of attempted murder. Hollywood pseudo-liberalism out the belief vindicated. Yet somehow, The emotional cues in Villon’s window and takes up his role as a through some magic that is hard Wife are refreshingly unexpected, comically shaded gay criminal with to pin down, Villon’s Wife (Viyon a fact that may stem from author devil-may-care gusto. In so doing no Tsuma) manages to be, not Dazai’s intimate relationship with he might lose a few fans (Variety wondered if the film “will give exactly uplifting, but at least life- self-loathing, guilt and suicide (he some fans of Ace Ventura heart attacks”), but he’s also bound to affirming. Moreover, although it is successfully killed himself in 1948 gain some, too. Carrey plays a real-life fraudster who ends up in based on a novel by Osamu Dazai, aged 38 after numerous attempts prison and smitten with Ewan McGregor. Directed by the writers published in 1947, the tremendous dating from his school days). For of the uproarious Bad Santa, which in itself is a reason to give performances from the principles, Dazai, the longing for death was this movie a chance, but with a warning that the humor will be in the tightly structured narrative not just a literary device, it was an your face. and the deceptively simple obsession, and this story manages cinematography give Villon’s to explore a life bereft of self- Wife a cinematic presence rarely control with clear eyes. The Wolfman achieved by literary adaptations. The romanticism of death Romance is in the back seat for this The appeal of the film is all suggests such poetic evocations faithful version of one of the oldest the more remarkable given its as Keats’ “To cease upon the — if less revisited — movie monster obsession with the themes of midnight with no pain/while thou traditions. Benicio Del Toro is the self-loathing and suicide. It tells art pouring forth thy soul abroad,” afflicted one, Anthony Hopkins is his the story of Sachi, a simple girl but Villon’s Wife never lets father, Hugo Weaving is the Scotland married to a talented but self- the audience forget the grubby Yard detective on the trail and Emily Blunt the woman caught up destructive writer, Otami, who, selfishness of self-destruction, in it all. Few previews available for this one, which usually suggests almost against his will, does Tadanobu Asano, above right, plays a self- undermining the romanticism that nervous distributors, and what reviews are out there are split down everything in his power to make destructive writer in Villon’s Wife, directed is so carefully cultivated in the the middle. Includes many computer animation effects, which her life intolerable. The potential by Kichitaro Negishi and based on a novel character of Otami. would not impress those of us brought up on The Howling and An for self-indulgent sentimentality is by Osamu Dazai. Photos courtesy of CatchPlay As Otami flounders in his own American Werewolf in London. But it does have Benicio. enormous, but director Kichitaro self-created hell, oscillating from Negishi, who has already picked vicious self-assurance to mewling up the Montreal World Film self-pity, Sachi clings on to the Percy Jackson & the Olympians: Festival prize for best director last baseline of her existence — her son, The Lightning Thief year, handles his material with a her femininity, and a vitality that Based on a series of popular books, non-judgmental sensitivity that she believes can survive even in the Percy makes it to the big screen but allows even the brutish Otami a barren soil of her relationship with without the massive publicity blitz claim on our understanding. Villon’s Wife Otami, who she feels committed to, and nurturing of critics that preceded The character of Otami, for better or worse. the first Harry Potter movie. In played with enormous subtlety (Viyon no Tsuma) Negishi is a deft storyteller, fact, as with The Wolfman, we’re two days out from a wide US by Tadanobu Asano, manages to making clever use of elision and release and there are virtually no reviews out there save those remain sympathetic despite his mood to carry the story forward of Australian critics in an earlier time zone. Percy is a normal drunken bouts, his infidelity, his DIRECTED BY: at a steady and assured pace. His youngster who suddenly discovers he has blood ties to the Greek dishonesty, and his self-pity. He is Kichitaro Negishi characters are often confined within gods, and this is not such a good thing if there’s trouble brewing a kind of poet of death, idolized by the tight frame of small streets around Mt Olympus. Directed by Chris Columbus, who also made young would-be intellectuals, who STARRING: and smaller houses, and when the the first two Harry Potter installments. Takako Matsu (Sachi), Tadanobu hates the very talent that makes camera opens up onto a beautiful Asano (Otami), Shigeru Muroi him so appealing. forest scene, this turns out to be the (Innkeeper, wife), Masato Ibu Hidden Diary His wife Sachi (Matsuda Seiko) (Innkeeper, husband), Satoshi chosen spot for suicide. starts off as one of those eternally Tsumabuki (Lawyer) Villon’s Wife has some fleeting A professional woman in Canada falls put-upon women so much beloved echos of the works of Yukio pregnant and returns to France; there, of Japanese soap opera, but grows RUNNING TIME: Mishima, a near contemporary, amid tensions with her mother, she into a luminous presence as time 114 MINUTES hinting at a similar schizophrenic discovers the diary of the title, which and again she overcomes the response to Japan’s defeat in belonged to her grandmother she never trials of her husband’s behavior Language: World War II and the crisis of knew, and whose sad experiences are — which range from stealing In Japanese with Chinese identity that it engendered. While recounted in flashback — or are they? A sober but searching family money from his regular drinking subtitles social context is deep in the drama with more than a hint of wistfulness, this stars Catherine house to attempting suicide background of this film, it still Deneuve as the mother and is a welcome adult entertainment for this with a death-infatuated fan. It is TAIWAN RELEASE: provides a resonant base note holiday season. French title: Meres et Filles. indicative of the fascinating twists TODAY that also makes Villon’s Wife an of this film that one of the greatest interesting portrait of a nation moments of Sachi’s liberation and struggling to find itself. Changing Sides The other French-language release of the week features another top actress, Sophie Marceau, as a woman FILM REVIEW who swaps working roles with her husband to save their marriage. In so doing, this crafty couple find that changing sides brings early frustrations but longer-term benefits, Brought to book but not without a few relationship crises along the way. The swap also pigeon-holes the book on which the film was based, resulting in charges of gross sexism on the part of the filmmakers ... which leads to the question: Assuming the original author was unhappy Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman are bigger than Albert and Allen Hughes’ new film with the film’s treatment of her work, why didn’t she have her name removed or changed? (Mme Alaina Smithee, perhaps?) By MANOHLA DARGIS scene works not only because it’s NY Times News Service, New York visually striking, but also because A road warrior of a different it’s a part of a meaningful piece in Bride Flight sort, the title character played by a story in which everything, nature Good to see New Zealand featuring on Denzel Washington in The Book and civilization included, has been The Book of Eli the big screen other than as a setting of Eli spends much of the story stripped away. Much like the land for hobbits, dwarves and monsters. traveling by foot across an eerie and narrative he travels through, In this Dutch period piece, three landscape, a long and quick knife Eli has been similarly reduced. DIRECTED BY: northern European women move to at the ready. The brown, dusty A loner, he doesn’t speak much, Albert Hughes and the Shaky Isles to start new lives with environs look familiar and not, even to himself. During the first Allen Hughes their hubbies-to-be, and the intrigue deepens as relationships form dotted with abandoned cars and few minutes of the movie, which and suffer in the process. For more discerning and adventurous the occasional corpse. When Eli opens in some barren woods STARRING: moviegoers who don’t want to be confronted by headlong comedy, pauses, the camera settles near with either falling snow or ash, Denzel Washington (Eli), this might be the Valentine’s Day pick. Rutger Hauer appears briefly his feet, and the sky opens above he remains silently fixed on his Gary Oldman (Carnegie), as the love interest on his deathbed in the present day. Mila Kunis (Solara), him like a sheltering hand. With task: bagging a pitifully thin cat. Ray Stevenson (Redridge), his green jacket and unsmiling His first companion is a mouse Jennifer Beals (Claudia) Boa mouth, he looks like a veteran (he offers it some roast cat), a Evan Jones (Martz) of an unknown war, a soldier creature that proves friendlier The last three movies this week started last week at the Baixue of misfortune — though, given company than most of the isolated RUNNING TIME: theater in Ximending as DVD promos, so get in quick if they the fog of religiosity that hangs people he encounters, the majority 118 MINUTES appeal. The first is a 2006 wildlife-on-the-loose flick from Thailand over the movie, he might be an of whom, as in The Road, would whose poster gets down to business: A bloodied babe somewhere avenging angel. like to cook him over a fire. TAIWAN RELEASE: in the Thai jungle is half-consumed by a ravenous constrictor. Of This is the first movie directed Shooting in high-definition Denzel Washington stars in The Book of Eli, an apocalyptic/survival thriller also starring TODAY course, there will be other youngsters on the menu. Really, boas by the talented twins Allen digital (with the Red camera) and Gary Oldman. Photo: Bloomberg don’t deserve this kind of press. and Albert Hughes since From working with the cinematographer Hell, their torpid, predictably Don Burgess (a frequent shooter on the wall behind him.) and her daughter, Solara (the hyperviolent 2001 take on Alan for Robert Zemeckis), with New After hunting the cat, a little miscast Mila Kunis), who despite in Who Framed Roger Rabbit: To Live and Die in Mongkok (旺角監獄) Moore and Eddie Campbell’s Mexico standing in for the US, human mayhem and a lot of the deprivations, appears to have “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that As with Boa, get in quick to see this pair of movies from vet Hong graphic novel about Jack the the Hugheses have created a atmospheric preambles. Eli swung by a Beverly Hills salon for way.” Even so, despite Solara and Kong producer-director-writer-actor Wong Jing (王晶) that didn’t Ripper. Although this new one has plausible post-apocalyptic world, wanders into a deadwood town and an eyebrow wax. her manicured brows, and the enjoy a proper theatrical release. In this one, co-directed by Chung its comic-book qualities, good and one that draws from the western the story kicks into gear, for better Oldman gives the movie, which increasingly pro forma action — Siu-hung (鍾少雄), Wong ups the self-conscious style quotient in a bad, the Hugheses have stanched (Hollywood, Sergio Leone) and if sometimes for disappointing at its most serious veers into Eli has what Carnegie wants, and strange tale of a gang member who gets out of prison, but only in the blood in The Book of Eli, the tradition of science-fiction worse. The happiest development is lugubriousness, a nice jolt and a so the bad man gives rabid chase the literal sense (the Chinese title means “Prison Mongkok”). Stars making it easier to pay attention dystopia. As George Miller proved the introduction of Gary Oldman as flinty presence that Washington — the movie keeps you watching Nick Cheung (張家輝) as the hapless gangster. to what else is happening on in his brilliant Mad Max cycle Carnegie, the leader of the outpost. can spark against. But the story and generally engaged. There’s a screen. They stage an early fight, — one of the Hughes brothers’ Fortified by his thugs, including that the two play out, beat by ticklish interlude at a house where for instance, entirely in silhouette, more overt cinematic touchstones some bulging muscle called beat, cliche by cliche, rarely rises Eli and Solara encounter a fine Underdog Knight (硬漢) so that the arcs of spurting gore here — and as Quentin Tarantino Redridge (Ray Stevenson, from the to their talents. Written by Gary pair named Martha and George, This earlier production by Wong Jing and directed by Ding appears black, not red. Like all reaffirmed with his two Kill HBO show Rome), Carnegie keeps Whitta, with some rewriting by played with energy and inviting Sheng (丁晟, whose Jackie Chan starrer Little Big Soldier the fight sequences, this one Bill films, the western can be the peace, doling out the scarce Anthony Peckham, the story takes humor by Frances de la Tour and starts in Taiwan in two weeks) also suggests that the king of is highly stylized: Set inside a reconfigured to suit any number of supplies to the ragtag inhabitants. a wrong turn once Solara enters the invaluable Michael Gambon. populist cinema is trying to extend himself a little, even if he tunnel with the camera low and contexts, themes and warriors. (In Among the few faces that stand out the picture, first as bait for Eli Despite the air of unease and wary is hampered by Chinese content restrictions. Liu Ye (劉燁) is a the sky serving as an illuminated one scene, when Eli settles into from the squinting, scurrying horde (he doesn’t bite) and then as his glances, when George cranks up People’s Liberation Army officer who becomes a simpleton after backdrop, it looks like a page out a room, a poster for the 1975 cult are a Mr Fixit (an amusing Tom unwanted traveling companion. a phonograph, and the disco song a diving accident; he then turns into a fighter for justice, albeit of a comic come to animated life. film A Boy and His Dog, another Waits); Carnegie’s lover, Claudia Kunis isn’t to blame. As Jessica Ring My Bell pours out, you’re hamstrung by his condition. Co-stars Anthony Wong (黃秋生) as a The graphic simplicity of this post-apocalyptic fairy tale, hangs (a sympathetic Jennifer Beals); Rabbit says, with knowing wit, happily, goofily hooked. sympathetic crook.