Taiwan Day Eleven: Straight! Go!

All week I’ve been trying to get everyone to go see a movie while we’re here, especially one that probably won’t open in the States. Currently, the Japanese movie Quill is the film of choice and today, after much lazing about at home, we went out to see it.
That is, all except Lynn, who a) didn’t want to see it, b) was still recovering from a slight cold, and c) was going to be taken out today by Mama to the fortune tellers up in the forest nearby. I know that sounds more interesting than seeing a film, at least blogwise, but I didn’t get to go.
We got there at about 3:30, but the ticket counter told us the 3:10 showing hadn’t started yet, so we jumped in. This cinema is tiny (maybe 50 seats at most), the screen is poor, and the sound is hollow, but compared to some of the Taiwanese viewing experiences my friend William has had, acceptable. “Quill” is a cute and often sad little movie about a seeing-eye dog, and I’ll write more soon about it on my movie blog. (BTW, “Straight! Go!” is one of the commands the Japanese owner uses to control his seeing eye dog.)
Afterwards, we walked a little ways home, and stopped at Barista coffee to just relax and talk about dogs and such. We also stopped at a computer store while Jessica mulled over buying a 17 inch LCD monitor for work. One thing about computer and electronics stores is that unknown or hinky-sounding brands get major shelf space alongside major companies. But with the side-to-side comparisons (all monitors were playing the same HQ slideshow), it was obvious the best monitor was by Samsung.
Later in the evening, Baba took us out to one final night market on the west side of town, and getting a little lost while driving there. How long has he lived here, we joked. I ate some “oya-zen”–an oyster omelet draped in a red sauce. S’good.
Tonight, after packing, I backed up all our photos onto two CDRs, so they wouldn’t be trapped on mama’s computer. On the TV was a long documentary about the worldwide transvestite beauty contest, and they were following Taiwan’s entry, who looked a bit like Namie Amuro, but not in a good way. The cameraman and host soon lost interest and instead pursued Miss Thailand, who looked so much like a cute japanese idol it was disturbing. There were no telltale signs of “Mr. Lady”-ness about her. Mike was rattled. France’s entry, however, looked like a stringy old dude in a dress.