Taiwan's pride and joy, supermodel Lin Chih-ling (
Also appearing at the same awards ceremony was another Taiwanese beauty, Stephanie Hsiao (
The two beauty queens may look cozy together in the press photos and may have swapped niceties, but reading between the lines there is the inevitable
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
competition.
For film director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), this past week has been a a big success. Box-office receipts of his latest work, The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲), reached NT$7 million just two-and-a-half days after it hit the big screen. It is an amazing commercial achievement for the Taiwanese film industry since most Taiwanese films ticket sales are usually under NT$1 million. The subject matter of the film has drawn all kinds of audience members to try out the art-house experience. For example, many middle-aged, weird-looking men have reportedly emerged from nowhere to invade the theaters located in age-discriminatory, trendy districts. Tsai was said to welcome such new fans, believing it's a sign of greater acceptance of his work.
Family values and baby talk are still hot this week. Actress Lee Chien-rong (李蒨蓉) made her first public appearance yesterday after confirming the news of her second pregnancy. Lee proudly showed off her baby-bearing belly at Fendi's 2005 spring collection fashion show and couldn't stop her baby talk throughout the show. Singer Shun Zi (順子) is getting chubbier these days. When asked if she got pregnant before her November wedding, Shun Zi modestly replied that she wouldn't do something like ``get on the bus before buying a ticket.''
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Even though the gossip-generating couple, Jay Chou (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
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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