16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY Martin Williams

Antichrist

As a married couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) make love, their child plummets to his death. Then, as they retire to the countryside for therapy, the pair descend into psychological, physical and sexual violence amid surreal images and a doom-laden atmosphere. Excoriated by his enemies and lauded by a number of respected critics, this exorcism of director Lars von Trier’s own psychological demons is for those who want to see him inflict even more damage on the bodies of his two actors than did on world landmarks in 2012. By the way, if you think glimpsing Dafoe’s testes in this softer version of the film (as opposed to the “hard” version screened at Cannes) is worth the price of a ticket, then be warned: Taiwan’s censors have sharper scissors than those used on the female character’s private parts. Gainsbourg won Best Actress at Cannes for her role.

Best of INPUT 2009

Representing the International Public TV Screening Conference John Cusack, top right, stars in 2012, directed by Roland (INPUT), Taiwan’s Public Television Emmerich. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures Service (PTS) is showing some interesting material that challenges assumptions of TV programming. Screening at the Kaohsiung Film Archive from today to Sunday and at the Eslite Xinyi Bookstore in Taipei from Dec. 4 to Dec. 6. Entry is free but seating is limited. The Web site is at It’s the end of the world as bestinput.pts.org.tw. Exit Speed

It’s DVD promotion time again with this action flick starring Lea Thompson, who had a previous generation of young male moviegoers on side with appearances in Back to the Future and Howard we know it the Duck, and who has been doing a lot of TV work since. Armageddon is a real blast in ‘2012’ This is a more rigorous, violent outing, however, as a By Ian Bartholomew demented biker gang attacks a busload of passengers in Staff Reporter the middle of nowhere. Starts tomorrow at the Baixue theater in Ximending. oland Emmerich is in love with the end what they can, from exotic animals to art human love and conscience is in Emmerich’s of the world, and, boy, does he make a treasures, and individuals selected for their hands that it is difficult not to have some Desire R spectacle of it. Without a doubt 2012 genes or their wealth. A fleet of modern arks sympathy for this otherwise thoroughly is the biggest movie to open in Taiwan this will emulate the biblical Noah, preserving unpleasant character. At least Anheuser Also at the Baixue from tomorrow year, and not since the first Lord of the Rings human civilization from the deluge. isn’t going to sprout the usual cliches about 2012 is this Japanese oddity from 2004, opening in 2001 has the pre-release industry This is an excuse for some highly elaborate the dangers of losing our humanity, and he an erotic fantasy by prolific veteran screening attracted such hordes, filling sequences in which a small band, Jackson embodies, in however shallow a manner, the director Mamoru Watanabe, who the Ambassador Theater in Ximending to Curtis (John Cusack), an unsuccessful novelist, complexities attendant on the question of has made this kind of “pink” film bursting. It seems that Armageddon, the end his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet), their two whom to save from global annihilation. DIRECTED BY: Roland Emmerich since the late 1960s. A young woman of days, judgment day ... whatever you choose children and Kate’s new partner Gordon The film is not without its moments, with is infatuated with the husband of to call it, has enormous appeal, and on the big (Thomas McCarthy) discover their humanity some mildly amusing jokes scattered about to a relative, and — to the detriment screen Emmerich makes it a diverting, if not as they make a desperate escape from liven things up, and a lively performance by STARRING: John Cusack (Jackson Curtis), of the morals of all involved — an opportunity presents exactly riveting, experience. California, as it sinks into the sea, and find Woody Harrelson as a conspiracy-obsessed Amanda Peet (Kate Curtis), itself when he moves in nearby, but first she must dispose Emmerich is something of a virtuoso in their way to China and a place on the ark. The indie radio operator, who, not very surpris- Chiwetel Ejiofor (Adrian of her rival. Watanabe is nearly 80, so if anyone knows the depiction of the end of the world as we improbability of this human story is staggering, ingly, is the only one who has the whole Helmsley), Thandie Newton how to give this scenario a new hook, it’s him. know it, with a track record that includes but Cusack, a consummate professional, Noah’s Ark escape plan sussed out. It is some- (Laura Wilson), Oliver Platt Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998), throws himself into the role with great energy. what hard to get away from Sony’s rather (Carl Anheuser), Thomas and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). He is This story of the little people is balanced aggressive product placement, with the US McCarthy (Gordon Silberman), Omen the master of the big set piece of elaborate against an even less believable plotline that Navy and the White House clearly using only Woody Harrelson (Charlie CGI, improbable plot development and features Thandie Newton as the first daughter that company’s products. Frost), Danny Glover (President Three young men (played by a Thai hectoring sentimentality. In 2012 he achieves and Danny Glover, who as the US president 2012 has some bigger CGI effects than Thomas Wilson) boy band called D2B) find their new levels of spectacle and bombast. has some of the worst lines of dialogue in almost any picture before it, but there is lives under increasing threat after The date 2012 is taken from the Mayan a film with a literary ineptitude that makes nothing that is notable for its newness or RUNNING TIME: an accident leads to an encounter 158 MINUTES calendar, where it is regarded as the end of the Transformers’ Optimus Prime almost ingenuity. It is easy to be bowled over by with an old woman who seems to a solar cycle. In the film, this is marked by Shakespearean in his eloquence. the scenes of collapsing tower blocks or know what the future has in store. intense solar flares leading to huge shifts The essential goodness of the first family trains flying into the abyss. These pack a TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY This mild Thai horror film from 2003 in the geology of the Earth. As continents is put into contrast with the heartless political massive punch, but the film shows off no started last Saturday, and today is sink, oceans rise and tectonic plates float fixer Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt), for whom new moves, and despite its size, it is likely likely the last day it screens, so for those who simply about like canoes on a sea of magma, laudable sentiments need to be put aside to slip unobtrusively out of sight, rather as must see every work by writers Oxide Pang (彭順) and human civilization faces annihilation. The when the fate of the species is at risk. It is an California does in the film, after a few months Danny Pang (彭發), rush to the Baixue now. governments of the world prepare to save indication of how abrasive the treatment of of obscenely high box office takings. FILM REVIEW Empire of the rising sun ‘Pattenrai’ tells the story of the Japanese engineer whose projects turned an arid wilderness into one of Taiwan’s most important agricultural regions

By Ian Bartholomew Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta, Photos courtesy of Sky Films application to study, Pattenrai is Staff Reporter who while stationed in Taiwan perfectly adequate, nicely mixing There is nothing intrinsically conceived the hugely ambitious its preaching with a story of child- reprehensible about getting plan to irrigate the Chianan Plain hood friendship and of youngsters nostalgic for lost empire, but in (嘉南平原), turning it from an arid trying to break out from under the these days of post-colonialism, the wilderness into one of the island’s Pattenrai shadow their parents. While simple, robust imperialistic sentiments most important agricultural regions. 八田與一 the story is tightly structured, and expressed by Pattenrai, a Japanese The story is told from the point 一 嘉南大圳之父 shows the assured hand of director animation about the building of of view of two children, Chin- Noboru Ishiguro, who is best known the Chianan Canal (嘉南大圳) and yi (進一), the son of a Japanese for his work in fantasy anime. 烏山頭水 Wushantou Reservoir ( administrator, and Tianwen DIRECTED BY: Hatta remained in Taiwan for 庫) by the Japanese occupation (添文), the son of a local farmer. Noboru Ishiguro 28 years developing water conser- government in the 1920s, seem a Tianwen’s father violently opposes vancy infrastructure, including 10 little out of sync with the times. the reservoir project and sees his With the Voice Of: years working on the Wushantou The film has had considerable son’s participation in it as useless Tong Chi-wai (湯志偉) as Yoichi Reservoir. His contribution and pre-release publicity, with a screen- tampering with the natural order, Hatta dedication to his profession are ing last week in Tainan attended by despite the backbreaking daily undisputed, and that his memory President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and work of transporting irrigation RUNNING TIME: should be celebrated is certainly another earlier this week in Taipei water by bullock cart. 90 MINUTES commendable. That it should be in for former president Lee Teng-hui Tianwen, initially hostile to a Japanese production, however, (李登輝) and other political figures. Hatta, becomes intrigued by the Language: Mandarin and rather than a Taiwanese one, leaves This is part of an effort to have the possibilities of engineering and Taiwanese with Chinese a slightly odd taste in the mouth. reservoir and canal recognized as a decides to follow Hatta to become subtitles The subsequent history is World Heritage Site, but also serves an engineer. Hatta is shown as touched on in text notes at the end to highlight the somewhat ambigu- a man who, in his commitment TAIWAN RELEASE: of the film, which briefly outline ous relationship that Taiwan has to his profession, is indifferent TODAY Hatta’s death in the Philippines toward Japan. to race, fighting shortsighted during World War II and his wife’s Fortunately, Pattenrai need not Japanese bean counters as well suicide soon after the Japanese be viewed exclusively through the as stick-in-the-mud Taiwanese drama. There is an explosion that surrender — she drowned herself prism of nationalist ideology or peasants to achieve his goal. kills both Taiwanese and Japanese in the reservoir her husband built post-colonial political correctness, Pattenrai can be seen as a personnel, including Chin-yi’s rather than face repatriation to and as an inspirational story of a paean to the greatness of science, father, and almost derails the Japan. But these tragedies are visionary engineer who put the which in the hands of a man like project. Pattenrai has no doubts secondary to the debt that Taiwan interests of people in general before Hatta transcends the boundaries of that while the price of success is owes to the vision of a man who those of nations, it is certainly nations and works for the benefit of high, the benefits are undisputed. saw the island as a stage on which affecting and informative. all mankind. This sermon to science As a film to teach children about his engineering genius could be The hero of the tale is the is balanced with a bit of emotional the power of science and dedicated expressed.