The 10th Pusan International Film Festival started last week with Hou Hsiao-hsien's (侯孝賢) latest movie Three Times (最好的時光) as its opening film. The 3,200 tickets for the film sold out in less than 14 minutes, proving Hou's attraction to the South Koreans. The leading lady Shu Qi (舒淇), startled the festival organizers by asking for sick leave from the opening ceremony at the last minute. Insiders said the star wasn't sick at all, but deliberately failed to attend in protest at the less-than-five-star treatment accorded her at the
festival.
Female director Robin Lee's (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Jackie Chan's (
boycott. Chan later explained he was commenting on the growing production gap between Hong Kong and South Korea and urged the public to support local movies.
Hong Kong entertainer Andy Lau (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Actor/singer Leon Lai
(
Supermodel Huang Hsiao-lei (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
But fear not, Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) is going to be back soon. Three months after falling from a horse in China, the supermodel was spotted looking in tip-top condition after a trip to Thailand. Lin said she felt a lot better after her holiday and would be ready to resume work soon.
Controversial figure Suzanne Hsiao (
surgeon enthusiast has been encouraging her friends and relatives to go under the knife. The star said her next move is to have her buttocks remodelled to look like Jennifer Lopez's fine assets. Hsiao's doctor has already promised her that he would travel abroad to seek the right material for her perfect-butt-to-be.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and