Taoyuan Nights

Just saw 300 in Taipei. I think this review describes it much better than I ever could. (Trailers here)

Warner Bros.

For those of you living in Taoyuan, I can confirm that the cinema in Taoyuan city centre has it showing 8 times per day right now, lunch till late, prices from 170 to 220 NTD. Don’t miss it.

UPDATE: I should probably add this little nugget about films & cinemas in Taiwan. Basically there are two main rules that are always observed:

Rule 1. Nobody likes surprises, so in every area with public transport, there should be several huge TVs blaring out trailers that spoil every plot twist of all the films currently at the cinema. The perfect example of this is Saw, where the front part of the Taiwanese DVD cover is a frame taken from the very end (if you’ve seen it, you can guess which plot twist I’m thinking of). Nice, real nice…

You see this in Taiwanese TV shows too. The last thing they do in each episode is a spoiler for every single plot twist in the next episode. Heaven forbid you actually enjoy the damned show.

Rule 2. People should be forcibly evacuated from cinemas starting approximately 1 millisecond before the last frame of the main feature - after all, who cares who made the film, anyway?? And as for the occasional easter egg that crops up if you watch right through the trailers? Forget it.

You just have to get used to the idea of some cinema rep standing up and screaming at everyone “GET THE HELL OUT OF MY G*DDAMN CINEMA YOU STUPID BUNTS! C’MON, WHAT ARE YOU MORONS WAITING FOR?? B*GGER OFF!!!” as the credits start to roll. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what he’s shouting. Then, they just turn the projector off. Very annoying.