16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY Martin Williams Where do you go when you live at the edge of the world? The Final Destination Part 4 of this fading series of gory match-ups By Ian Bartholomew between Death and heavily disadvantaged Staff Reporter Spunky Young Things brings back Part 2 director David R. Ellis. The veteran stuntman delivered a fantastic freeway disaster omewhere I Have Never Travelled street cleaner, still longs for the wife premonition in the earlier film’s opening 帶我去遠方 ( ), a film about the trials who left him years ago, and finds scene, but it’s hard to see how he can top it S of growing up on the coast of comfort in his collection of discarded here, especially given that the carnage takes southern Taiwan, is the debut feature of shop store mannequins. Ah-Gui’s place at a (sigh) NASCAR meet. Car racing? If the producers had explored 傅天余 director Fu Tien-yu ( ), a protege of burning desire to escape seems almost the determinism of Death’s design with a little more wit, they might have the prolific playwright and director Wu sweet when compared to her father’s focused on Death hunting down stock brokers and bankers who survived 吳念真 Nien-chen ( ). The movie possesses resigned acceptance of his fate. While last year’s crash. Screening in 3D in select theaters. many of the strengths and weaknesses Ah-Gui’s dreams are entirely unrealistic, of Wu’s own work — a strong script she continues to dream. For the adults, combined with an excessively overt however, dreams have long since died, Che: Part One and Che: Part Two “Taiwanese” consciousness — but buried in a graveyard of shattered This four-hour Steven Soderbergh biography of the makes a solid effort to explore the hopes and aspirations. Latin American revolutionary is being screened in experience of coming of age in small- This “serious” tone, handled two parts under the titles The Argentine and Che town Taiwan, where the rest of the largely by the non-professional cast, (also titled Guerrilla), so you’ll have to fork out world seems hopelessly distant. is balanced by the impressive cameos twice to see Che Guevara preside over the Cuban The film’s unspecified coastal town, of professional entertainers such as Revolution before finding oblivion in Bolivia. 梅芳 林 which might be in the Kaohsiung Mei Fang ( ) and Lin Mei-shiu ( Many critics didn’t know what to make of this 美秀 area (where some of the location ), who provide the film with a idiosyncratic production, while others took turns shooting took place), appears to be welcome dose of humor, as well as attacking and praising it. But for those who know a desperately bleak place in which some linguistic color. The movie’s little about modern Latin American history, this Small town, to spend one’s formative years. The more comedic sections are fun and, could be a splendid introduction. Stars Benicio Del Toro as Che. ocean’s unforgiving horizon offers even if slightly contrived, work well nothing but emptiness and oblivion in juxtaposition with the adolescent to Ah-Hsien, a young man discovering sullenness that characterizes much of Lady Cop & Papa Crook (大搜查之女) his homosexuality, and Ah-Gui, a girl the dialogue of the two leads. This Hong Kong/Chinese crime drama was who suffers from color blindness, an While the film certainly does not made before another Alan Mak (麥兆輝)/Felix big ambitions affliction that is not recognized or lack charm, it is, at its core, a deeply Chong (莊文強) feature, Overheard, which was understood by those around her. The sad film, though this poignancy released here last week. The Infernal Affairs duo’s travails constitute the bulk of the is tarnished by Fu’s tendency to (無間道) buddies like mixing right and wrong, film’s story line, though Somewhere I melodramatically fawn over her and in this case the police work with crooks Have Never Travelled manages to be talented young cast. Luckily, Fu had to solve the kidnapping of the young child of a good deal more interesting than this the sense to make Somewhere I Have a triad heavy. The filmmakers had to make bald synopsis suggests. Never Travelled an ensemble piece: compromises of their own: Variety reports that the Chinese government The specter of “social issues” floats as such, the deficiencies of the young ordered sanitizing material be added (scenes were also deleted, no doubt) just beneath the surface of the film, actors are never too glaring and their to secure a much-delayed release. but is fortunately kept in check by more experienced peers are always the director’s overriding concern for available for backup. her young non-professional actors as Sophie’s Revenge (非常完美:奪愛大作戰) individual characters, not as vehicles The dynamic Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) is the main through which to advance a social draw for this stylish, crowd-pleasing, slightly agenda. Ah-Hsien’s homosexuality and surreal comedy set in a very spruced-up Ah-Gui’s color blindness seem just Somewhere I Have Beijing. Zhang is Sophie, a cartoonist whose a trifle contrived and are ultimately good-looking Korean beau (So Ji-sub) falls for superfluous, irrelevancies compared to Never Travelled a movie star (Fan Bingbing, 范冰冰). The walls the relentless isolation of their world. 帶我去遠方 come crashing down, almost literally thanks Thankfully, Fu handles these to computer animation, as Zhang seeks a way issues in such a manner that they Directed by: to get back on her feet and get her man back. Enter Taiwanese Peter Ho are not unduly intrusive, choosing to Fu Tien-yu (傅天余) The young cast members ��������������������test their mettle to (何潤東), who agrees to help Sophie in her quest but is not without his own focus on the strong bond between baggage — including a growing desire for Sophie herself (subtext alert!). good effect in�� Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, the two friends. The movie contains Starring: a sad film about the stifling surroundings of a many genuinely charming character Li Hsin (游昕) as Ah-Gui (youth), small town in southern Taiwan. interactions, as well as numerous Li Yun-yun (李芸妘) as Ah-Gui April Bride  Photos courtesy of Wu’s Production Company (child), Lin Mei-shiu (林美秀) as expressions of unfiltered intimacy, In Japan, if you make a movie about a when the two young people take solace travel agent, Mei Fang (梅芳) as grandma, Li Yung-feng (李永豐) as gorgeous bride with terminal breast cancer in their shared sense of being different and cast the hottest young actors, you can from those around them. Ah-Gui’s father, Lin Po-hUng (林柏宏) as Ah-Hsien (阿賢) make a lot of money. Whether or not it will These moments are the highlight encourage female viewers to have their of the movie, and the duo’s isolation Running time: breasts checked regularly is another matter. is masterfully encapsulated by Fu’s 96 minutes Nana Eikura is the unfortunate woman, use of the bleakly beautiful coastal whose diagnosis and a mastectomy send her scenery, which speaks volumes about Language: fleeing from her perfect boyfriend (played by Eita), who manages to track the circumscribed world the two In Mandarin and Hoklo with her down in time to propose. Based on a true story. protagonists inhabit. Their struggle Chinese subtitles is juxtaposed with the experiences of the cast of adult characters, who Release: Franklyn have grown accustomed to this limited Today Eva Green, so memorable opposite Daniel existence. Ah-Gui’s father, an alcoholic Craig in Casino Royale, is in a cast of seeming thousands in this dark fantasy of a future gone wrong and the present that leads there. It’s set in London and a sinister FILM REVIEW somewhere in the future called Meanwhile City that may or not be the same place. Splendid visuals are offset by likely confusion and dislocation for many viewers. But the cast is handsome, including the Crimes and misbehaviors wonderful Art Malik. Rian Johnson flaunts his knowledge of cinematic forms and genres in con artist caper ‘The Brothers Bloom’ Puccini and the Girl What is it about composers and their romantic misadventures that gets filmmakers By STEPHEN HOLDEN going? Ken Russell remains the king of NY Times News Service, New York composer biopics, but this unusual effort Rian Johnson’s globe-trotting caper from Italy has a similar spirit, with dialogue comedy The Brothers Bloom is the movie heavily trimmed in a stylized yarn about the equivalent of an elaborate juggling act THE BROTHERS BLOOM death of a maid at the Puccini home. Like whose performers keep dozens of pins Franklyn, style reigns over substance, but for wheeling in the air. As much as you admire most music buffs there’s substance enough in the sound track. the stagecraft and the technical skills on Directed by: display, when all is said and done, that’s all Rian Johnson it is: a fancy, not-quite-two-hour stunt. 2009 Escents Film Festival What you take away from this snazzy- Starring: Rachel Weisz (Penelope), Adrien The cosmetics firm Escents is behind this two-day looking fantasy about fraternal grifters festival that hopes to raise money for victims of embarking on a final con are its travel Brody (Bloom), Mark Ruffalo (Stephen), Rinko Kikuchi (Bang Typhoon Morakot. There are six films, each screened brochure-pretty pictures of colorful twice: The Mistress of Spices (2005) from the US, locales including Prague, St Petersburg Bang), Maximilian Schell (Diamond Dog), Robbie Coltrane the Greek-Turkish co-production A Touch of Spice and Montenegro. Beyond that your (the Curator), Ricky Jay (2003), the award-winning Taiwanese documentary response to the movie, which takes (Narrator) Chronicle of the Sea: Nan-Fang-Ao (南方澳海洋紀 too conspicuous a delight in its own 事) from 2004, and two more recent releases: The cleverness, is likely to be a shrug and a Running time: Grocer’s Son from France and the excellent Lemon “so what?” Like those airborne pins, The 113 minutes Tree from Israel. The highlight for many, though, Brothers Bloom never lands. would be the 170-minute director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso. Get in quick: Johnson is certainly talented. Four Taiwan release: The festival starts today and finishes tomorrow night. years ago his debut feature, Brick, a Adrien Brody, left, and Mark Ruffalo, right, bite off more than they can chew when they try to scam ������Rachel Today film noir spoof set in a contemporary Weisz, center,��� in The Brothers Bloom. photo courtesy of Endgame Entertainment high school, announced the arrival of a Love Twisted director with a prodigious knowledge of Late last year we previewed Man, Woman glibly cynical philosophy that the best prevails upon a reluctant Bloom to join in who is an expert in explosives. film genres and a visual flair to match. and the Wall (2006), a Japanese erotic con is one in which everybody gets his ultimate con: the fleecing of Penelope Not long after meeting Penelope, But emotionally there was no there thriller steeped in voyeurism. Love Twisted what he wants. In Stephen’s diabolically (Rachel Weisz), a wealthy, eccentric New Bloom falls in love with her, but the there. Flashier and glossier, The Brothers was made in Japan two years earlier, but complex plots he is the only player who Jersey heiress who lives like a hermit in affair has little traction. It all builds up to Bloom is a sideways move into a related shares the theme, as well as crossover porn knows what is real and what is fake, her castle. Penelope, who suggests an an anticlimactic “is it real or is it fake?” genre: the more vacuous realm of the star Sora Aoi in one of her first non-porn and the guessing games go on until the artier descendant of Weisz’s character in finale in which Stephen may have met his Ocean’s Eleven movies and their ilk. roles. Imagine Fatal Attraction with more last second. the first two Mummy movies, embraces match in treachery. Rather like an Indiana Jones film, The nudity and set in a really depressing housing As the put-upon assistant and tag- con artistry with a fearless zest. Extraneous characters who pop in and Brothers Bloom layers movie styles, from complex. Starts tomorrow. noir to adventure serial to screwball along in these schemes, Brody projects Once Weisz appears, The Brothers out, unnecessarily complicating matters, comedy, to conjure a timeless present. the soulful anxiety of a man who, after Bloom acquires some effervescence. are Diamond Dog (Maximilian Schell), Instead of George Clooney and 25 years of being a willing collaborator Penelope’s talent for learning new skills the brothers’ double-dealing mentor in Into the Faraway Sky Brad Pitt, the eternally naughty boys in his brother’s scams, longs to live an is shown in an early montage in which con artistry, and the Curator (Robbie Taiwanese actor Chang Chen (張震) has unscripted life. Their story is introduced she demonstrates her mastery of a Coltrane), a smuggler of Belgian antiques. suckering marks in a life of never-ending a supporting role in this 2007 film set in with a facetiously flowery narration by circus’s worth of weird hobbies. With The Brothers Bloom Johnson adventure are played by Mark Ruffalo Hokkaido about offbeat villagers standing Ricky Jay, describing how the brothers As the brothers lure her into a joins the company of younger directors and Adrien Brody. Ruffalo plays the in the way of an airport project and the were shuttled from foster home to scheme that involves the theft, smuggling like Wes Anderson who equate smart, older brother and the team’s conceptual government man sent to fix the problem. foster home. An early con game, in and resale of a priceless antiquarian serious filmmaking with manipulat- maestro, Stephen, who plots each scam The Taiwanese distributor, ahead of a DVD which they collect US$2 from their book, Penelope emerges from her ing genres and copping attitudes. The like a novel in which his younger sibling, rollout, has changed the Chinese title to link schoolmates, is shown. shell. Accompanying them on their flourishing of all that talent is exciting as identified only as Bloom (Brody), is cast it to the otherwise unconnected Taiwanese as the protagonist. After the prologue the movie leaps international jaunt is a mute sidekick, far as it goes. But it is only a first step in production Orz Boyz! (冏男孩). Starts tomorrow. Stephen also voices the movie’s ahead to the present, when Stephen Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi, from Babel), turning movies into art.