16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES COMPILED BY IAN BartHolomeW Gangster Rock (混混天團) Following on from Buttonman (鈕扣人), a local gangster flick that managed to secure an international release of sorts back in Tolstoy hits 2008, director Joe Chien (錢人豪) is back with yet another vastly improbable gangland movie about a debt collector, Ah-Hau, played by Singaporean actor Leon Jay Williams (立威廉), who becomes involved with the music industry when he is asked to collect repayments on loans made to musician Ah-Hai — played by Van Fan (范逸臣), reprising his role from Cape No. 7 (海角七號) — who has been set up to take the fall for debts incurred by his record the end of company. The two men end up hitting it off, and Ah-Hau decides to help his new friend sell records and organize concerts to pay off the debts, only to discover that the music industry is even more corrupt than the life he is used to. Korean Film Festival 2010 A great selection of films the line from South Korea will be Ribaldry and gagged overacting mar what offered up by courtesy of film distributor CatchPlay could otherwise have been a moving account (which also brings us District 13: Ultimatum of the final days of the Russian author’s life this week). Most of the films are relatively recent, and highlight the stars, both in front and behind the camera, BY A.O. SCOTT that have made South Korean film and television such NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK runaway successes in Taiwan. The films range across gritty and violent character studies such as Joon Yang Ik’s Breathless (Ddongpari), young love/lust in The Five Senses of Eros (Ogamdo), dark fantasy in Hansel and Gretal, soppy tear-jerkers such as More Than Blue (Seulpeumboda deo seulpeun Iyagi), which reportedly rates off the charts if you want a good cry, and, as they say, much, much more. Sixteen films in all will be presented. For detailed information on the program, visit www.catchplay.com/korean. Screenings run through May 7 and will be held at the SKCineplex (台北新光影城) located at 36 Xining S Rd, Taipei City (台北市西寧南路36號). No More Cry (Nakumonka) A Japanese film about two brothers separated eo Tolstoy wrote enormous you are witnessing a world-histori- alienated Sofya. She complains, not eager to flaunt its own gravity and at birth who find their novels that reached the very cal feat of poultry impersonation. without reason, that Chertkov and good taste. The humor is mirthless; separate ways in life, one L pinnacle of literary art. He Mirren, as Sofya Tolstoy, the great his flunkies are trying to marginalize the pathos is daubed on like jam on as the potential heir to was a master of both quality and man’s wife, matches Plummer howl her and manipulate her husband into a blini, and the shuffling of books a successful restaurant quantity, which may be why The for howl. She smashes crockery, changing the terms of his will. and papers substitutes for real business and the other as a comedian. When the THE LAST StATION Last Station, a new movie about enters rooms in a state of operatic Valentin manages to gain the intellectual energy. Hoffman has, in brothers discover the existence of one another, a the end of Tolstoy’s life, confuses dishevelment or regal calm and confidence of both Tolstoys. Leo press materials, invoked the spirit chain of events is triggered that is intended to have DIRECTED BY: the two. You will certainly see seems determined to restore literal flatters the young man by inquiring of Chekhov, but instead of the audiences laughing through their tears. The script is by MICHAEL HOFFMAN better acting in a great many motion meaning to the word henpecked. after the progress of his work, while stringent, sympathetic intelligence Kankuro Kudo, who has a strong reputation as a writer STARRING: pictures (including from the cast of Not to be outdone, Giamatti twirls Sofya quizzes him on the state of that Chekhov would have brought and director, but No More Cry seems to lose itself in HELEN MIRREN (SOFYA TOLstOY), this one), but it is unlikely you will his moustache to denote his his love life. This centers on Masha to this material, there is bombast stodgy melodrama, making its 134-minute running time CHRIstOPHER PLUmmER see more. To say that the actors character’s villainy, and McAvoy (Kerry Condon), a fresh-faced Tol- and grandiosity. something of a trial. (LEO TOLstOY), PAUL — Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, does what he usually does, which stoyan who brings tea to Valentin’s Which is a pity, because a rich GIAMAttI (VLADIMIR CHERTKOV), Christopher Plummer and Paul is mime wet-eyed, stricken, lovable bedroom at the commune and and peculiar story lies underneath ANNE-MARIE DUFF (SASHA TOLstOY), Giamatti, among others — overdo it innocence, but this time in a more returns later to bestow other favors, the histrionics. Tolstoy’s fame was A Pierrot (Juryoku piero) KERRY CONDON would be an understatement. I can’t Russian way than he has before. in spite of the supposed Tolstoyan an early form of modern celebrity, Released as A Pierrot, (MASHA) AND JAMES MCAvOY handicap their Oscar chances, but McAvoy plays Valentin, a nervous commitment to celibacy. with proto-paparazzi ranged around this bizarre thriller is (VALENTIN BULGAKOV) isn’t there a scenery-eating contest young man hired to be Tolstoy’s sec- All well and good, but The Last the gates of Yasnaya Polyana and about two brothers, one every summer out on Coney Island? retary. In the twilight of his life the Station, written and directed by the rural train depot that gives the a geneticist, the other a RUNNING TIME: Plummer plays Tolstoy as a kind writer has ascended from man of let- Michael Hoffman (The Emperor’s film its title. His marriage could cleaner of roadside graffiti, 112 of volatile Russian Santa Claus. ters to spiritual guru, attracting dis- Club) and based on a novel by Jay have been a novel in its own right, who become involved in an When he laughs, it is a great, lusty ciples to a vaguely defined movement Parini, is the kind of movie that an epic of loyalty and betrayal. investigation into a series of arson attacks. The clues TAIWAN RELEASE: laugh. When he shouts, it is a deep, led by Vladimir Chertkov (Giamatti). gives literature a bad name. Not His temperament as grand and point back into their own childhood memories. Based TODAY abdominal bellow. And when he This utopian project, which includes because it undermines the dignity paradoxical as any in the annals of on a best-selling novel by Kotaro Isaka, many of whose capers around his bedroom cluck- a commune of sorts not far from Yas- of a great writer and his work, but literature. All grist for a fascinating mystery novels have been adapted for the silver screen. ing like a chicken, you can be sure naya Polyana, Tolstoy’s estate, has because it is so self-consciously movie, for sure. But this isn’t it. The film has done well at Japanese film festivals, and includes a respectable line up of young acting talent, including Ryo Kase, who had a supporting role in Clint CINEMA Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima. Mai Mai Miracle (Maimai Shinko to Sen-nen no Maho) The mainstream release of Cannes, the preview a Japanese animated film that was featured as part of the Taiwan International A press agency boycott is the only sour note as the 13-country lineup for the Cannes Film Festival is announced Children’s Film Festival earlier this month. Mai Mai BY LIZZY DAVies another by Nouvelle Vague hero festival — although his London- critic of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ongoing battle over the event’s Miracle is based on a book THE GUARDIAN, PARIS Jean-Luc Godard, Socialisme, filmed movie, You Will Meet a regime, has been in prison since his media coverage. by author Nobuko Takagi Mike Leigh, the Salford-born doyen appearing in the Un Certain Regard Tall Dark Stranger, is bound to arrest in Tehran last month. The Angry at moves to restrict the about a nine-year-old girl, Shinko, who discovers that of English cinema at its grittiest, category, it looks likely to be attract intense excitement on the decision had been taken for Panahi’s amount of time they will be permitted the place she lives is connected directly to the distant will return to the red carpet of the another modest year for the US. Croisette. “We tried to ask him to be “professional competencies,” Jacob to report on the festival, news agen- past. She and a friend make a magical journey back to Croisette next month as the only Only one US director, Doug in the competition for once and the said, but added: “From a human point cies including Reuters, the Associated the Heian Period, more than 1,000 years ago, when the British director in competition for Liman, is in the running for the Palme answer was ‘no,’” said Fremaux. of view, I believe that having him at Press and Agence France Presse boy- writer Sei Shonagon wrote her famous Pillow Book, the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes d’Or. His spy thriller Fair Game is Gilles Jacob, the festival chairman, the festival would be very good for cotted the press conference. “There a text which provides inspiration for some elements film festival.