Always one to speak candidly, if not always eloquently, Jackie Chan (
The official release party for Sun Yanzi's (孫燕姿) new album was held Wednesday at the Far Eastern Hotel in Taipei, the highlight of which was a sneak preview of an 8-minute film that's like the extended remix of the first video off the album for My Love (
PHOTO: AP
A final decree was issued last week by China's Ministry of Culture, which serves as the gatekeeper for publication imports, declaring that Alex To's (杜德偉) album Take it Off (脫掉) would be barred from distribution within the country. The album was released in July, but had been stalled by censors concerned about the propriety of the highly suggestive sexual tone of To's album. To's label, Rock Records, said in response, that it plans to package the album with other soon-to-be-released products in China. Pop Stop has heard from sources in China, though, that the album was out there long ago in pirate form and was pretty much already forgotten.
PHOTO: AP
Hong Kong singer/actress Kelly Chen (
Perhaps the most exciting news of the past week was the announcement that Godzilla will be awarded a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The nuclear monstrosity, who's often conflicted and always misunderstood by humans in his movies, will get to make his imprint in the pavement in front of the city's Chinese Theatre on Nov. 29, which will mark the world premiere of the 28th and last Godzilla movie Godzilla Final Wars. Before hanging up his rubber suit, in the last flick Godzilla gets to indulge in an orgy of city stomping, this time through Shanghai, Paris, New York and Sydney.
Not long into Mistress Dispeller, a quietly jaw-dropping new documentary from director Elizabeth Lo, the film’s eponymous character lays out her thesis for ridding marriages of troublesome extra lovers. “When someone becomes a mistress,” she says, “it’s because they feel they don’t deserve complete love. She’s the one who needs our help the most.” Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller based in north-central China’s Henan province, is one of a growing number of self-styled professionals who earn a living by intervening in people’s marriages — to “dispel” them of intruders. “I was looking for a love story set in China,” says Lo,
It was on his honeymoon in Kuala Lumpur, looking out of his hotel window at the silvery points of the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers, that Frank decided it was time to become taller. He had recently confessed to his new wife how much his height had bothered him since he was a teenager. As a man dedicated to self-improvement, Frank wanted to take action. He picked up the phone, called a clinic in Turkey that specializes in leg lengthening surgery — and made a booking. “I had a lot of second thoughts — at the end of the day, someone’s going
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake. Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which we explored in part one of this series, “Ko Wen-je, the KMT’s prickly ally,” (Aug. 16, page 12). Ko was open to cooperation, but on his terms. He openly fretted about being “swallowed up” by the KMT, and was keenly aware of the experience of the People’s First Party
Standing on top of a small mountain, Kim Seung-ho gazes out over an expanse of paddy fields glowing in their autumn gold, the ripening grains swaying gently in the wind. In the distance, North Korea stretches beyond the horizon. “It’s so peaceful,” says the director of the DMZ Ecology Research Institute. “Over there, it used to be an artillery range, but since they stopped firing, the nature has become so beautiful.” The land before him is the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, a strip of land that runs across the Korean peninsula, dividing North and South Korea roughly along the 38th parallel north. This
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