POP STOP

The 50th Asian Pacific Film Festival handed out its annual medals last Saturday, and crushed the Taiwanese delegates' high hopes of taking the top awards this year. Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲) was ruled out from the competition section for its explicit sexual content, while veteran actress Yang Kui-mei (楊貴媚) didn't get crowned as Best Female Actress, and only got the Special Jury Award to comfort her broken heart.

As the hostess of the festival's A Night of Taiwan section, Patty Hou (侯佩岑) was criticized by local media for being big-headed. Hou is said to have asked for special treatment and to have made lame excuses for being late for rehearsals.

The situation took a turn for the worse when Taiwanese delegates changed the name of the event from A Night of Taipei to A Night of Taiwan without warning. The organizers got upset and said it was their tradition to use the host city's name in order to tone down politically sensitive issues. Festival member countries then insisted on reversing the name change at the last minute. Everything comes down to politics eventually, it seems.

Opening today in Taiwan, Jackie Chan's The Myth (神話) has already grossed over NT$300 million in Asian countries. However, at a celebration party last week, the box-office hero surprised everybody by slamming Hong Kong's film industry, saying he was frustrated and planned to retire soon because people in the business just couldn't unite to improve Hong Kong movies.

Hong Kong actor Tony Leung (梁朝偉), usually a reserved man of few words, was offended by Chan's remarks. "You [Jackie Chan] are not a myth. You can't count on a few people's powers to create a myth and save the film market," he was quoted as saying in the Liberty Times (自由時報). Seems like Leung was really angry this time, because he rarely criticizes fellow actors.

Hong Kong actress/singer Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) has

totally transformed herself after getting together with Dutch boyfriend Jeroen, a plain-looking corporate man who used to be her English teacher. Cheung has not only tried to quit smoking and stop shopping for extravagant clothes, but moved out of her mansion and in to her sweetheart's shabby abode. From a man's point of view, it may be a good thing to be able to tame a wild, beautiful woman. But to women with a sober mind, the question remains: Is it really worth it? And how far is too far?

The local music scene

suffered serious turbulence last week. Mando-pop band F.I.R. (飛兒樂團) was attacked by fans for plagiarizing songs from foreign bands in their latest album Flower Season Dynasty (花季王朝). It is not the first time the band has been accused of plagiarism. The band responded to the allegations by saying, "We listen to various kinds of music from lots of different countries, and use our own creativity and local identity to make our own work," according to the Liberty Times.

A fan of extreme sports, rock star Chang Chen-yue (張震嶽) fell off a bike last Friday seriously fracturing his right leg. The doctor said he needed two-months in bed and that his injury would take six months to fully heal. So it will be a while before we witness a bunch of young kids go crazy and wild at the foul-mouthed musician's performances.