Movies

For more than 5 months I haven't watch TV in Taiwan. The cable in my room has BBC news, CNN news, National Geographic, Discovery, some Travelogues and Movies in English with Chinese subtitles. I can definitely say that doing without TV wouldn't kill you.


But I do have a membership in a movie rental store. I paid about 30NT($1US) for a five day rental. The rental store has a few movies from Taiwan and China that have English subtitles, if they don't have subtitles it is a waste of time as my Chinese is not good enough.

I know some people don't like to see the same movies again(and again) but I like to see the details I missed the previous times. Here are my recommendations:

Best Taiwanese movie:     Cape #7
Best Chinese movie:         Not One Less
Best NonChinese movie:   Apocalypto

Here are my comments on other movies I have seen in Tainan:

Not One Less            一个都不能少
    Totally a sad story, the life in rural China

Raise the Red Lantern     大红灯笼高高挂
    China's old attitudes towards women

To Live                    活着
    Great story of China in to Communist times

Happy Times            幸福時光
    Commentary on life in China, the blind girl is a metaphor for China

Taipei Au Revoir
    Cute, young people in Taipei

Manga
    Gangster movie in Taipei

Green Tea                    綠茶
    When they start talking about fortune tellers it just turns me off, I didn't finish the movie

Winds of September        九降風
    HS days in HsinChu, Baseball scandals

Eternal Summer            盛夏光
    Broke Back Mountain between HS and University

Prince of Tears                淚王子
    White Terror and the Waishengren - Ang Lee

Shanghai                    上還
    All the big names John Cusack(USA), Chow Yong Fat(HK), Gong Li(China), Ken Tanaka(Japan). Gong Li was good

Forever Enthralled            梅蘭芳
    Beijing Opera

Parking                        停車
    The tough life in Taipei, life's random events

It frosts me when the movie case has lots of English but the movies itself doesn't have English subtitles, whether there are English subtitles are hidden by the store labels. These movies are without subtitles, but with lots of English on the cover. Watch out.

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop  三枪拍案惊奇
City of Sadness                                 悲情城市
The Puppet Master                            戲夢人生
Seven Days in Heaven                       父後七日