iron man 3. love of siam . burlesque

Iron man 3

Great destruction sequences and for a change the man is saved by the damsel in distress- not only at the beginning but even at the end. And the villain is a oriental/islamicist chimera created by evil American business and politics. Polticially correct.

Love of siam

All that love in steeped in sadness. The friendship/love of two young boys – bot quite sexual? Or? And then the loss of a daughter and the fractures within a  family. Sentimental melodrama that loves its soft burn of tears.

Burlesque

Cher and Christina in a genre film that tells its story before it even begins. Truly terrible.

broken city. jack reacher

when both the films of a double bill have developers threatening older businesses and homes, and have macho strongmen stand up for the weak- you know that the whole world is going through the same traumas. tom cruise is strange and bloated as he bulldozes his was pretty easily into a quarry to kill the one eyed werner herzog; while mark wahlberg is caught in a pretty rudimentary builder-politician nexus in new york. 

contagion

is this also part of the asian paranoia that is currently driving america crazy? this time it is kowloon; or a bat and pig virus that begins in the forest near hong kong that spreads around the world killing millions through gwenyth paltrow. soderberg connects multiple stories about the american victims and doctors and an american scientist saves the world. 

dosti

the love between two boys.. not that kind- all of you who have been corrupted by american homophobia and immediately jumped to sex. it is very romantic and devotional- one is named ram and the other mohan. one is lame and the other is blind as they sing on the streets of marine drive. art deco vs slum- the grand battle. the melodrama has all the ingredients- death, floods, poverty, corruption, jealousy, guilt. and still the boy with beautiful eyes who cant see and the other sultry scholar rise above it all with perseverance, truth and all the other assorted ideals of early indian nationalism.
a barjatya film has very few villains and so does this one. there is even a dog called tuffy. 

the way that taichung meets the sea

the road leads beyond dadu mountain to the west to the empty and desolate landscape of the docklands. here empty buildings that once housed the imported goods being sold alternate with enormous storage facilities, container yards, a power plant and a steel mill. to the north the gaomei wetlands where birds stalk the mudflats and kids play army games in abandoned buildings while a red and white watchtower looks on. the village is clustered around the temple square and grows rice in the fields reclaimed from the sea by the bund wall. this bund wall runs all along the coast with windmills on the other side making cultivable land, duck farms and ponds for fishing on the weekend.

olympus has fallen

the only white american traitor changes his mind as he is about to die and gets patriotic again. reeking of racism and the fear of the other 'olympus has fallen' finds a new enemy skin colour. the korean terrorist is far more charismatic than the pudgy one man army- or the jawline president- but that does not matter- for what matters is that china phobia in america has found an easy outlet in the hatred for north korea. the siege is spectacularly mounted in the beginning. great action sequence but the film is then bogged down by being stuck inside the white house. 

taipei / housing, huashuang culture park, shilin night market

the streets in taipei are named and numbered in the order that you navigate the neighbourhoods. the houses range from the town houses within to the high rise luxury apartments on the edge. the huasuang culture park 1914 was an old factory now turned into a culture park. art cinemas and power yoga on the streets. but the alternative youth culture borrowed skateboarding and hip hop from american films. the shilin night market was a wild throng of people taking shelter from the rain on the first floor and the basement where we ate oysters in omlettes. 

taipei / longshan temple, xinmending

pink flowers everywhere at the longshan temple in the old town. lanterns and incense sticks. it was the birthday of the goddess - so i was told. matsu- the goddess of the sea. two streets away in an alley opposite the night market- the red light area of the city. large posters of pink women. 

at ximending, the young of taiwan walk around in their splendor saturday afternoon. girls wearing cardboard boxes promote a rock band that performed later at the square. i wanted to get my ear pierced and forgot.