In movies, TV and music, last year was characterized by only a few innovations and too many tragedies. There were some bright moments, for sure, but even these only seemed great against the gloomy background of sad news and pop-culture industries in general decline.
Below, Pop Stop revisits the good, the bad and the ugly stories that kept Chinese pop culture chugging along last year.
1) Taiwan Thunderbolt Fire (台灣霹靂火) captivated TV audiences and added to the Chinese lexicon with the now-classic, witty quips muttered by the show's star, Liu Wen-tzong (劉文聰). Six months on, just tell people you're going to give them a match and a can of gasoline and they'll know you want them dead.
2) Hong Kong's movie industry kept its stride with the star-studded trilogy Infernal Affairs(無間道). The first movie in the series hit like a bomb, thrilling audiences with its mind-teasing plot twists and beautiful faces, but the follow-up movies lost some of the original verve and ended up, for the most part, simply confusing audiences -- especially Chinese audiences, who saw a different, censor-pleasing ending to the first installment, which rendered the subsequent two installments nonsensical.
3) On April 1, one of Hong Kong's brightest stars, Leslie Cheung (張國榮), committed suicide in a fittingly dramatic fashion by throwing himself off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hong Kong's Central district. Cheung, who starred in Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬), Days of Being Wild (阿飛正傳), Happy Together (春光乍洩), to name just a few of his movies, and who was known to his fans simply as Big Brother (哥哥), rose to stardom in the 1980s through his flamboyant stage performances and remained a mega-star until his death.
4) Another sad event came when Taiwan's own Evel Knievel and adored actor and singer Ke Shou-liang (柯受良) died on Dec. 9 in Shanghai of an asthma attack triggered by excessive alcohol consumption. Ke was arguably the best stunt choreographer in Asian film and his amiable personality made him a favorite TV variety show co-host, notably on the show of his close friend Jacky Wu (吳宗憲).
5) Mayday (五月天) broke the record in Taipei for attendance at a live music concert, previously held by the prince of pop himself, Michael Jackson, with a crowd of over 40,000 screaming fans. Not two months later, David Tao bested Mayday's record by a hair at his first solo concert in Taipei.
6) Taiwan saw the underground release of its first hard-core porno, called Taiwan Plumber (台灣水電工). The two actors in the movie, A-hsian (阿賢) and Hsuan Hsuan (宣宣), have subsequently tried to launch acting careers from the notoriety gained in their skin flick, but so far, have encountered only a string of snubs.
7) The black metal band Chthonic (閃靈) stunned everyone by snagging the award for best group at the Golden Melody Awards in August. Known for their heavy gothic makeup and a sound that appeals to a microscopic niche, the prize raised questions about the judging criteria at the awards, but in Pop Stop's opinion, cast a refreshing spotlight on Taiwan's vibrant and unjustly overlooked independent music scene. While Mando-pop singers churned out much of the same formulaic and disposable pop sounds, indie groups like Chthonic, WonFu (旺福) and Tiho Brothers (鐵虎兄弟) added some spice to this year's rather bland musical selections.
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