Riding the current of ultra-popularity and record-breaking sales in Asia, Stephen Chow (周星馳) has long been ready for Kung Fu Hustle's (功夫) US release in March. But one month before reaching the crest of the US-bigscreen wave, the US Classification and Rating Administration gave the movie a "R" rating.
The Great Daily News (大成報) reports that the record-breaking film was branded restricted because of the number of strong action scenes and the amount of violence. Audience members under 17 will need a parent or adult guardian to accompany them to the film, and this may inhibit the film's US ticket sales.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BVI
The film's distributor, Columbia TriStar, expressed regret over the rating and said that Chow had added in elements of American pop culture to help the North American audience better understand the film. They said it would be a pity if the film loses the teenage audience because of its action scenes.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BVI
Chow is scheduled to attend the Sundance Film Festival to promote his film and could not be reached to comment on the rating. Perhaps he should not express his frustration yet perhaps consult with his Hollywood-experienced colleague, Yuen Qiu (元秋) instead.
She played the landlady in Hustle and worked in Hollywood 30 years before Chow. The actress known for her vintage screen image -- hot-rolled hair and cigarette dangling from her lips -- acted as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Yuen admitted that she took a "very minor" role in The Man with the Golden Gun, and after the 007 film, she married and retired from acting to become a housewife. Kung Fu Hustle was her return to the silver screen.
The Great Daily News
reported that in the 007 film, Yuen played a student with superb martial arts skills and happened to save James Bond's (Roger Moore) life. She even had a topless scene -- only her long hair kept the film from being restricted for sexual content. Her near-breast-bearing scene still grabs attention and is reportedly on various Web sites in China.
Another chest has also been an attention-getter since one of its hairs has caused such a raucus. Fei Hsiang's (費翔) rug fiber was finally and legitimately sold on eBay to benefit tsunami victims. After last week's failed bid (the bidder of NT$150,000 never turned up), eBay held another sale and this time a female fan got to take the hair home for NT$120,000.
Fei was in good mood last weekend, not just celebrating the face-saving sale, but also celebrating good ticket sales of his concert. Fei had a blast at the post-concert party last Saturday.
Pop diva A-mei (張惠妹) starts her three-months language lesson in Boston University this week. According to the Apple Daily (蘋果日報), A-mei has just finished her placement test and is ready for her peaceful but busy life. Apart from learning English, she is scheduled to have one-on-one Saxophone lesson and also plans to visit all the art galleries in Boston.
"When I come back, ask me questions only in English!" A-mei said to local media before she left.
For Chinese diving star Tien Liang (田亮), fame is a double-edged sword. On Wednesday he was fired by the Chinese National Diving Team reportedly because he dived too deep into the entertainment business and became a TV actor.
The athlete nicknamed "prince of diving" has long been a world-diving champion and won one gold and one bronze medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He and the girlfriend at the time, Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶), were seen as king and queen of Chinese athletes and immediately became celebrities, each taking offers in TV commercials, TV dramas and films, just like Chen Shi-hsin (陳詩欣) in Taiwan.
A few months later, Guo and Tien split up. Guo is dating Ho Chi-gang (啟剛), son of a Hong Kong millionaire, but managed to quit acting and return to the Chinese diving team. Tien is not so lucky. He tried to do both by negotiating with the team, but the national diving team sacked him just a few days after he signed a contract with entertainment's Empire Group. "I was shocked and sad," the athlete and actor said to Chinese journalist Ta Kung Pao (大公報).
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would