Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Taiwanese Film Series begins with Three Times (最好的時光), March 25.

Maridon Taiwanese Film Series

Maridon Museum's Taiwanese Film Series begins March 25 with Three Times (最好的時光), a 2005 movie that, Wikipedia says,
features three chronologically separate stories of love between May and Chen, set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, using the same lead actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen.
The show starts at 6:30 and is presented by Dr. William Covey of Slippery Rock University.

Pittsburgh Three Times 最好的時光Eat Drink Man Woman Inseparable

Two other movies comprise this spring's series: Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女) and Inseparable. The former is a 1994 Ang Lee film that is certainly one of Taiwan's best known. The latter is actually Chinese---a significant distinction for Taiwanese---and stars Kevin Spacey. Here's a lengthy plot summary from the Los Angeles Times blog 24 Frames:
“Inseparable” starts with an attempted suicide by a depressed man named Li Yue (played by the Hong Kong-American heartthrob Daniel Wu in his first major English-speaking role). Every day Li dons a suit and tie and heads to his suffocating office job at a prosthetic-limb company in an unnamed Chinese city. (The movie was filmed in Guangzhou.)

Li’s boss is corrupt, his wife, Pang (an investigative television reporter played by Gong Beibi), is always away, and he is recovering from a past trauma. But just as Li is about to hang himself from his living room ceiling, he is interrupted by his brash American neighbor Chuck (Kevin Spacey).

Together, they head out into the city in homemade superhero outfits to right the wrongs in a country suffering from widespread fraud and corruption, a vast wealth gap and a frustrated, angry populace. The wise-cracking expat Chuck proves to be both Li’s savior and nemesis.
The Maridon is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map) that presents Asian films from particular countries as part of its spring and fall series. Last year it was China and Vietnam.

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