The nominations list for the 43rd Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎華語影片競賽) was released last Monday and caused a tsunami of griping and whining, not least by director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮). With only two nominations in minor categories, namely Best Supporting Actress and Best Sound Effects, Tsai's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (黑眼圈) was rejected by jury members for being "too individualistic and indulging in personal style, so that it fails to move the general public."
An indignant Tsai declared he would never again participate in the annual flick fest since the event has turned into what he dubbed the "Golden Horse Genre Film Awards," as these are the only type of films the juries can understand.
Echoing the director's wrath, producer Wang Tsung (王琮) also threatened to withdraw the film from the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展) if the jury didn't make a public apology or issue an explanation.
The on-going brawl has caused alarm within the government. The Department of Motion Picture Affairs (電影處) under the Government Information Office (GIO) has already instructed the event's president Wang Tung (王童) to solve the issue as soon as possible otherwise the GIO will step in if necessary.
In this power play, Tsai seems to hold the trump card. It would certainly look very bad for the event if its opening film, the tickets for which have already sold out, gets pulled at the last minute.
International hot shot Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) is another star that has fallen out of favor with the Golden Horse organizers. Having failed to win a Best Actress nomination for her role in The Banquet (夜宴), the megastar snubbed the event by agreeing to attend the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, which has its awards ceremony one day before the Golden Horse hands out its gongs. Organizers are waiting for confirmation from Zhang's agent as to whether she will grace Taiwan's premier film event.
Local TV stars are dusting down their tuxedos and ball gowns in preparation for the annual Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎). The nomination list for this event was released last week.
Having rocketed to stardom based on her good looks, but lacking acting credibility, Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) has finally won recognition for her on-screen efforts; she has gained a place on the best female TV host award nomination list.
As for her male counterparts, pretty much all the big-name TV entertainers are on the list except for Hu Gua (胡瓜), who has been out of favor since he was accused of cheating at an illegal gambling venue last year. To rub salt into the wound, Hu's friend Peng Chia-chia (澎恰恰) is back on track after a nasty DVD sex scandal.
Over the years, local celebrities have come up with all sorts of innovative excuses for explaining why they were visiting a love hotel when cornered by members of the paparazzi. Using the bathroom, sharing a meal and discussing business are the most commonly used pretexts. In a new take on an old theme, entertainer and drag queen Topper (大炳) said he visited a love motel to use it's high-tech facilities: to play computer games that is.
The peppy gay entertainer was spotted last week visiting two motels on the same night. After spending two hours with a gentle-looking man at the first stop, Topper enjoyed an interlude of debauchery at a gay bar then headed to the WeGo Motel with the same guy and a female companion.
Is the funnyman a sex machine who needs it all night long, and even indulges in threesome action to finish off the evening? Topper's side of the story is he just likes playing innocent games and visiting love hotels once a week to go cruising.
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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located