Movie day

Went to the 2nd run theater today with Kieko and Hiyoshi to see "Motorcycle Diaries" and "The Interpreter." The bad thing was that MD is a film in Spanish. And guess what, here in Taiwan, the subtitles ain't in English, no sirree, they're in Chinese. So, I did my best to read those, but they go by just a little too quickly for me, so I missed quite a few of the nuances of the film. It was a good movie, though, about Che Guevara in his youth, when he was still just Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, traveling with his friend across South America on a beatup 1939 motorcycle, and the scenery is simply wonderful. The most touching scenes were filmed at a real leper colony, where Ernesto and his traveling companion did a medical internship, illustrating the love Che Guevara had for his patients there. This was not Hollywood makeup, but real people with a real affliction. I know just about zip about Che Guevara, other than he was with Fidel Castro in Cuba during the Cuban revolution and that his face is very popular on t-shirts over here, so it was interesting to see some of the experiences he had that pointed him in the direction he went.

Oh, and "The Interpreter" was OK, too, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than $70NT ($2.00US) to watch it.

Next week Jet Li's "Unleashed" will start, along with the unlikely companion "The Emperor's Journey" (or March of the Penguins, I think the US title was). Looking forward to both of those and to the eventual arrival of Tsui Hark's "Seven Swords" since I don't want to pay the equivalent of $8US for that one.

And hey, popcorn and other snacks are way cheap here. Popcorn was less than $2.00 (first I bought a small cup then bought a big cup for the 2nd feature, not as huge as the US, but still a lot), and sodas and candies run around $.75US, what a deal!