The Culturatti

Cape No. 7

Dir: Te-sheng Wei (魏德聖)

When a tiny little movie that cost $50 million NTD ($1.6 million USD) to make earns over $350 million NTD (around $11.6 million USD) in just over a month to become the highest-grossing domestic film in Taiwanese history, you kind of have to go see it.

And it’s worth seeing.  While it falls prey to some of the same problems as any rom-com, there’s enough here to differentiate it from the norm and make it an entertaining film.  Not a great, outstanding film, but solidly decent.

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y month has been marked with more movies worth mentioning than most. In many moments, I’m of a mind to meander as I mouth off on motion pictures. But might I make the move to minimize my meditation, and motion to maintain a modest amount of mulling for these media as I masticate? Maybe… (more…)

I don’t think I have ever been more excited about a movie in my life. I also don’t think I have ever had as much trepidation about a movie before either. Even though I have recently found some troubling aspects in the original three features, I still cannot deny that they are among my favourite films. Raiders, Temple, and Last Crusade are comfort food, and an instant portal to childhood.

I never really wanted another Indiana movie. I felt that the finale of Last Crusade, the four heroes riding off into the sunset, made the perfect ending to the trilogy. So when rumours of a fourth began to circulate, and circulate, and then die down, and then circulate some more, I, to quote Indy, was beginning to have “a bad feeling about this.” I felt there was no way that they could make a movie as good as Raiders, or as good as Last Crusade (my personal favourite). Making a film better then Temple would not, in my mind, be much of an accomplishment. But I suppose the real threat, and I in no way hold the trinity of Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford accountable for this, was that there was no way they could make a movie as good as my childhood memories of the first three.

And they haven’t.

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Turns out, I am not the world’s only Indiana Jones fan. As a kid I would watch the first three Indy films (still sounds weird to say that) endlessly. The Temple of Doom was on TV last night, and S stopped on it for a second just as I came into the room to get something. I knew it was on without even looking at the screen, and I immediately quoted the next line of dialogue before the character had said it. I’ve watched them so many times that they are almost beyond criticism –- but, fortunately for you, dear reader, not quite. However, I have a dilemma. It has occurred to me of late that perhaps the Indiana Jones films, and TofD in particular, are not the out-and-out fun-filled spectacles that I took them to be so many years ago.

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