In local movie news, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (
It is a movie about the mood and atmosphere of a certain period, which for the lead characters of each segment, are the best of times, said Hou.
The music, he said, would play a vital part in painting the aura of each period. For example, the story of a billiard room lady is in fact Hou's own teenage memory, of skipping school and hanging around at billiard rooms.
"I had this crush on one scorekeeping lady who made me show up at the pool table every day. I remember the radio constantly played Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," he said. "After she quit the job, I even tried to look for her, taking a bus from Kaohsiung to Taipei to find her," he said. The film is set to finish shooting at the end of March.
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Last week, on the heels of the recall election that turned out so badly for Taiwan, came the news that US President Donald Trump had blocked the transit of President William Lai (賴清德) through the US on his way to Latin America. A few days later the international media reported that in June a scheduled visit by Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) for high level meetings was canceled by the US after China’s President Xi Jinping (習近平) asked Trump to curb US engagement with Taiwan during a June phone call. The cancellation of Lai’s transit was a gaudy
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As last month dawned, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in a good position. The recall campaigns had strong momentum, polling showed many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers at risk of recall and even the KMT was bracing for losing seats while facing a tsunami of voter fraud investigations. Polling pointed to some of the recalls being a lock for victory. Though in most districts the majority was against recalling their lawmaker, among voters “definitely” planning to vote, there were double-digit margins in favor of recall in at least five districts, with three districts near or above 20 percent in
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