2333 Second quartet of July August 2012 films with Life of the Rileys the best

In the second week of July2012 I experienced a moving film Formosa Betrayed described as a political thriller and which exposes the treatment of the indigenous people of the of the Islands of Taiwan in the South China Sea and which has remained a football between the Communist and anti Communist forces of the mainland.

 

The factual history of the Island is that following the victory of the Communists on mainland China in 1949 the then government of China moved to Formosa claiming sovereignty over all China and Mongolia establishing in effect a military dictatorship on the country and suppressing the rights and interests of the indigenous people. As with many other people around the world the USA in particular was prepared to tolerate the abuses of human rights, the political imprisonment and the killings because the state was Anti Communist, and other Western nations followed suit. However since the democratisation of the country and the introduction of the freedom of the press, health care and public education as well as economic development which makes the country with a powerful economy and high per capita income, only 22 minor nations and the Vatican state formerly recognise the Government. Of the 22 there are several nations of significance in central and South America including Haiti, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

Portuguese sailors named the Island Formosa, Beautiful Island, in the sixteenth century. It is understood that the forefathers of the indigenous people did originate from China as farmers 2000 BC followed by the Dutch East India Company and the Spanish with the islands subsequently proving a battleground for the French in their war against China. The Japanese moved in in 1894 to 5, The Japanese rule developed the country attempting to assimilate the population in the 1930‘s with the consequence that that tens of thousands of locals served in Japanese Military during World War II and which helped to colour the view of the mainland Chinese subsequently. Japanese bases and industrial centres on Taiwan were the subject of heaving USA bombing.

After the war the mainland power put down resistance from the ingenious people with brutal ferocity with an estimated 18000 to 30000 civilians executed in the educated and management classes. When the Communists gained ascendancy an estimated 2 million mainlanders, comprising the government and military with families increased the population by a quarter bringing with them gold and art treasures and foreign currency reserves. Martial law was imposed and lasted four decades. An estimated 140000 civilians were executed often tortured for being suspected communist sympathisers although in truth as in all such situations anyone who challenged or criticised officials put themselves and their families at risk. It was not until 2008 that the extent of the horror was admitted and regretted although no compensation, restitution or formal investigation into the crimes has been initiated.

 

It was not until the deaths of Chiang Kai-shek and his son that an indigenous born subject came to power and progressed democracy and liberalization. The leading coalition party in government agreed that Taiwan should have a separate identity from China but with 64% favouring the status quo with less than 20% seeking full independence and 5% wanting unification.

This then is the background to the 2009 USA film Formosa Betrayed when an FBI agent is sent to Taiwan after a Taiwanese Professor is murdered at University covered by Chicago. In 1981 Professor Chen Wen-Chen of Carnegie Mellon University. He returned to this beloved homeland with his family but was held in custody over his comments about the totalitarian nature of the regime and was found dead without explanation to the cause. In the film the FBI agent is sent to Taiwan and is with a cover story which attempted to link the Professor to criminal gangs responsible for his death.

The FBI agent is treated as an honoured guest but given the run around but with the help of local journalist and others begins to uncover the truth about the nature of the totalitarian state and USA complicity which also involves the Chinese Mafia as well as the Kuomintang. The film also uses the assassination of Journalist Henry Liu in California by Chinese gang members under the direction of the Kuomintang secret service. He had become a naturalised USA citizen.

The other face of the USA is portrayed in the Fighting Seabees with John Wayne playing of his heroic and romantic roles as the tough boss of a construction company contracted to build airstrips in the Pacific for the US Navy during World War II and who is persuaded to head the first Construction battalion after his well intention intervention after some of his men are killed in a Japanese attack results in a military counter offensive plan being wrecked. Susan Hayward plays a war correspondent assigned to cover the activities of the construction unit and provides the romance when she is pursued by the local military commander but has eyes only for Wayne who is not the marrying kind. She nearly dies but ends up with Wayne as the film ends. The second part of the film demonstrates that with military trained the unit plays an important role in the defence of an island leading to the defeat of the enemy. The film also stared William Forrest.

I am still not sure what to make of Across the Line the Exodus of Charlie Wright. The Direction of this film is intended for us to have some sympathy for Charlie Wright whose business is revealed as a Ponzi scheme, He is therefore a bad man who causes financial ruin to greedy people. He is assessed as having stolen eleven million dollars. He is pursued by an FBI agent who comes close to capturing him but the man escapes and disappears.

Charley has in fact gone to Tijuana the Mexican Border city in search of the woman he abandoned two decades earlier. He forms a relationship with a lonely whore as she ages and spends her money on expensive formula creams to mask her aging. Charlie lives simply and forming a relationship with the woman he learns that his former love has died but has a daughter who entered the USA illegally. I was confused as whether he manages to locate his daughter and have a conversation with her or has a conversation with someone who knows of his daughter and that she is content.

The story is complicated by a group of Gangsters and another of Mercenaries who seek to kidnap and use Charlie for their own ends. An FBI agent on holiday in the city spots Charlie much to the disbelief of the pursing FBI agent who nevertheless goes to Mexico to check out the sighting. Charlie surrenders himself as a means of escape from his pursuers but is allowed to continue his exile when the FBI learns that Charlie has only a few months to live from cancer and because he provides the information on where the money is deposited. Charlie end his days sitting on a bench by a beach supposedly at peace, although why he should be is not something I understand.

James Gandolfini

came to international attention through his award winning role as Tony Soprano in the six season series which I have watched with continuous episode showing over the past year. I was therefore interested to see him in the film Welcome to the Rileys which I viewed at the end of July 2012. While he is Tony in several mannerisms and through his bulky being, he plays a very different, interesting and sympathy arousing character who has been unable to have normal marital relations with his wife who has been unable to leave her home since the death of their daughter when only fourteen years or so of age. He consoles himself with a waitress although it is evident they share a bed for a few hours it is not clear they have penetrative sex. He offers to take her on a trip to New Orleans to attend a business convention attending by his business partner/manager. Before this she suddenly dies and this is event which tips over the edge in his grief.

New Orleans before and since Katrina remains a city where men go to conventions and enjoy the drink, the jazz and the sex and in this instance Gandolfini encounters a under age stripper prostitute no more than his daughter, said to be sixteen in the film. For a brief moment I thought this was to turn out another Breezy in which middle aged William Holden picks up and has an affair with a teenage hippie kind of girl. Welcome to the Rileys ( no relation to the Mother Riley films by the way) is a very different film in which Gandolfini follows the girl to where she is living in a slum and offers her $100 a day to live in the same house which he cleans up and escorts her to and from work. He announces he is giving up his business and tells his wife he had decided to stay in New Orleans for a while.

Before leaving on the trip she, played by Kirsten Stewart, discovers the extent of his grief and guilt over the death of his daughter (a without knowing his grief over the death of the waitress) and she determines to leave the house and go to him. Her effort to leave the house and get to New Orleans is undertaken with warmth and humour so it is a shock to her when she finds her husband staying with a foul mouthed young whore. The nature of their previous relationship, the shared tragedy and the people they are still leads her to understand what has happened and she too also sees something of their lost daughter in this girl as some of her background is revealed. The three form an unconventional family but the situation does not last and eventually the girl runs off and the couple return to their home and commence to move on in their lives re-engaging with the world. The film ends as the girl contacts them. She is on her way to Los Vegas but James reassures her that she has the love and support of himself and his wife and she should not hesitate to turn to them if need arises.

The film has attracted positive responses with the director awarded a prize at the Sundance Festival. Kristen Stewart best actress at the Milan Festival with James a Best Actor nominee. While the response of critics has been mixed this in my view is best of the July and August bunch.