Author Archives: Danny

The Count Lucanor

The Count Lucanor gives you a fascinating gothic castle to explore, absolutely stuffed with puzzles, secrets, and mysteries. Yet it’s the disturbing and inexplicable characters that bring those castle chambers alive, imbuing the narrative with a deep sense of lore and uncomfortable morality.

Evil Dead (2013)

By the end of Evil Dead’s ninety-minute runtime, these formulaic elements come together to remind you why stories like this became classics in the first place. This is perhaps the best example of a brilliant thing, and if you’ve got the stomach for it, I could hardly think of a better movie for Halloween.

Superhost (2021)

Even though you’ll likely spot the twists and turns coming, Superhost remains a brilliantly vivacious ride, invigorated by the energy of its four cast members. Gracie Gillam in particular runs wild as the titular Superhost Rebecca, presenting a funny, freaky, and fresh take on the psycho-killer. Seek this one out if you’ve got a penchant for twisted laughs – we were grinning from start to finish.

Battle Royale (2000)

Long before Fortnight gave kids an island upon which to do battle in pop-culture fancy dress, there was Kinji Fukasaku’s violent, bloody horror film Battle Royale. You’ll find no Arianna Grande avatars here, though. Instead, you’ll be dragged kicking and screaming through ninety minutes of teenage melodrama, youthful anger, and buckets of blood.

Politics and Controversy at the 2020 Olympics

I’m writing this in 2021, as C.Y. Chuang is two sets deep into a game of table-tennis against Omar Assar. The tiniest of balls ricochets back and forth at ridiculous speeds, changing direction with the flick of a wrist. Both men are locked into the game, focussed, intense, and, frankly, wet. It must be theContinue reading “Politics and Controversy at the 2020 Olympics”

A Mountain for Lunch

The path up Nanshijiao Mountain twists back and forth the entire journey, tempering each successful climb with a sharp, narrow corner. An older man, perhaps in his sixties, with skin like leather in folds along the back of his neck, cycled up beside me. His calves tensed as he pushed down on the peddles, and he grinned jovially on the overtake.

I growled and got back on my bike.

A Stranger’s Tea Party

For tourists and locals alike, Elephant Mountain is far and away the most well-known and well-travelled destination along the Taipei skyline. And for good reason; it’s a short hike, to rather spectacular views, made all the more surprising by the sprawling streets of Taipei in miniature below.

The Mystery of the Travelling Stars

We passed the time by pointing out the brightest stars, the formations we could just about recognise. Eventually, with the breeze against my face, I drifted towards sleep.

Which was when I heard a shout – my flatmate, breathless and excited. “Hey, look, that star is moving!”

“Climbing is about imagination.”

“When you climb,” Joe tells me, “you understand your body. Sometimes I complete a challenge and think: Oh! I can do this movement, it’s unbelievable! Maybe it sounds like I am overstating, but it’s exactly true in my mind. Recently, I learned to jump between handholds, and the feeling was just amazing. I can feel my body changing, getting better.”