He has been labeled as another Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) and his work has been compared to that of Krzysztof Kieslowski. He is Lou Ye, one of the most charismatic of China's sixth generation filmmakers.
Compared to contemporaries Jia Zhangke (
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Lou pays lots of attention to the light and color in his films, and his stories are more likely to revolve around topics like love and fate, coincidences and possibility.
Suzhou River, Lou's previous film, tells such a story of a man encountering two mysterious women who look almost identical. One is an ordinary little girl, the other a bar performer who wears a mermaid costume. At different times and in places, he falls for each of them, and they proceed to change his life and that of the people around him. The film was selected by Time magazine as one of the best films of 2000.
In Purple Butterfly, Lou uses non-lineal narration and handheld camera to tell a story of the glamor of Shanghai between the wars. Purple Butterfly fails to knit together as well as Suzhou River, and Lou gets a little self-indulgent in exploring how fate manipulates people, a preoccupation that he pursues at the expense of building characters we can believe in. Ultimately, it is more visually impressive that narratively effective.
For all that, Lou has managed, in just three films, to establish himself as an important Chinese filmmaker. No mean feat.
Last week the story of the giant illegal crater dug in Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃) emerged into the public consciousness. The site was used for sand and gravel extraction, and then filled with construction waste. Locals referred to it sardonically as the “Meinong Grand Canyon,” according to media reports, because it was 2 hectares in length and 10 meters deep. The land involved included both state-owned and local farm land. Local media said that the site had generated NT$300 million in profits, against fines of a few million and the loss of some excavators. OFFICIAL CORRUPTION? The site had been seized
Next week, candidates will officially register to run for chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). By the end of Friday, we will know who has registered for the Oct. 18 election. The number of declared candidates has been fluctuating daily. Some candidates registering may be disqualified, so the final list may be in flux for weeks. The list of likely candidates ranges from deep blue to deeper blue to deepest blue, bordering on red (pro-Chinese Communist Party, CCP). Unless current Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) can be convinced to run for re-election, the party looks likely to shift towards more hardline
The depressing numbers continue to pile up, like casualty lists after a lost battle. This week, after the government announced the 19th straight month of population decline, the Ministry of the Interior said that Taiwan is expected to lose 6.67 million workers in two waves of retirement over the next 15 years. According to the Ministry of Labor (MOL), Taiwan has a workforce of 11.6 million (as of July). The over-15 population was 20.244 million last year. EARLY RETIREMENT Early retirement is going to make these waves a tsunami. According to the Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the
Sept. 15 to Sept. 21 A Bhutanese princess caught at Taoyuan Airport with 22 rhino horns — worth about NT$31 million today — might have been just another curious front-page story. But the Sept. 17, 1993 incident came at a sensitive moment. Taiwan, dubbed “Die-wan” by the British conservationist group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), was under international fire for being a major hub for rhino horn. Just 10 days earlier, US secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt had recommended sanctions against Taiwan for its “failure to end its participation in rhinoceros horn trade.” Even though Taiwan had restricted imports since 1985 and enacted
RSS