A Hong Kong distributor has withdrawn a Chinese-made film from Taiwan's annual Golden Horse Film Festival, a Taiwanese official said on Tuesday, apparently under pressure from mainland officials.
A festival official said he was informed by the Hong Kong office of film distributor Fortissimo that Chinese authorities did not want the film The Go Master (吳清源) to be shown at the event.
Chang Chen (張震), who plays the strategy game master in the film, was nominated last month for best actor at the festival and was considered a front-runner for the award.
PHOTOS: AP
Beijing routinely bans Chinese films from the Taiwan-hosted Mandarin-language movie festival because of its long-standing political feud with the island.
Organizers and government officials officially launched Tuesday in Taipei the final 10-day countdown to the 2006 Taipei TV and Film Festival (TTF), the largest TV and film festival in Asia.
The annual festival, which will be from Thursday through next Saturday, includes three major events — the Taipei International TV, Film and Digital Contents Exhibition (TFCOM), the Taipei International Digital TV, Broadcasting and Film Forum and the Taiwan Film and TV Project Promotion.
"In only its third year, the festival has surpassed three major TV festivals in China and established a leading position in Asia, " said Lai Kuo-chou (賴國洲), chairman and CEO of Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV), the main organizer.
There will be more than 650 booths set up by 75 companies from 10 countries at the TFCOM, to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center, Lai said.
Licensing deals signed this year are expected to surpass NT$157.5 million, up from last year's US$3.5 million, according to Government Information Office Minister Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦).
The festival has been integrated by the GIO with the Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Bell Awards, into the Taiwan International Film and TV Expo, which runs Nov. 8 through Nov. 25.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie said she accepted a role in the movie, A Mighty Heart, now shooting in western Indian city Mumbai, because she felt there should be dialogue between different cultures and faiths, news reports said.
"We are all from different backgrounds, even people on the panel and characters in the film," which is based on the life of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Jolie told news agency IANS.
Jolie, who is playing Mariane Pearl, Daniel's wife in the film, flew into the city last week after over a month of shooting in Pune city, about 150km south-east of western Maharashtra state's capital Mumbai, where her bodyguards hogged the limelight by allegedly threatening and manhandling press photographers.
The actress and her partner Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and their three children have been under intense media scrutiny ever since they landed in India early last month.
The film A Mighty Heart is based on the book written by Mariane, deals with her husband who worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was abducted and killed in Pakistan four years ago.
Oscar-winning actor-director Warren Beatty will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at next year's Golden Globes, organizers announced Wednesday.
Beatty, 69, will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award in recognition of a glittering movie career that has seen him direct or star in several classics including Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.
Previous winners of the award, which is decided by a vote of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), include Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson.
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson has agreed to .a deal to make a film about his life, the movie industry daily Variety reported Wednesday.
Wilson, the lead songwriter of the legendary California-based 1960s supergroup, has signed an agreement with producer Mark Gordon for a biopic, according to Variety.
"I love the idea of there being a movie on my life, and I can't wait to see the script," Wilson was quoted by Variety as saying.
Wilson was responsible for some of the seminal songs of American rock music in the 1960s, including Surfin' USA, Good Vibrations and Help Me Rhonda. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds is regularly cited as one of the most influential American albums ever.
Wilson had a turbulent life. Deaf in one ear and bullied by an abusive father, he eventually suffered from depression, drug addiction and a nervous breakdown.
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
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