The big news this week was the opening on Wednesday of The Viral Factor (逆戰), the biggest and most expensive film by action/crime director Dante Lam (林超賢) starring Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒). The two stars were in Hong Kong for the premiere earlier this week, and both expressed confidence that the film would be the big money spinner of the Lunar New Year vacation. Despite freezing temperatures, huge crowds gathered to catch the opening screening of the film in far away Manhattan, and the reception in Asia has been equally enthusiastic. Despite this, Chou told Hong Kong’s Ming Pao (明報) that shooting the high-octane action thriller had been really exhausting and he did not think it likely that he would sign up for a sequel. He said that he is better suited to romantic tales, and suggested that there could be a sequel to his schmaltzy 2007 film Secret (不能說的秘密).
Ming Pao reported that asked if he would cast the latest J-girl (a moniker that refers to female stars who have been romantically linked to Chou), teenage model Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌), to costar in this sequel, The Chairman came out with his most strongly worded rebuttal of rumors of a burgeoning relationship.
“I never costar with people I am rumored to be connected with romantically,” he said. “And my relationship [with Quinlivan] is nothing more than media speculation. We are just friends.”
Photo: Taipei Times
Internet rumors suggest that Chou was unhappy with the high profile that Quinlivan had given to the relationship and had been avoiding her recently. These rumors point to an interview in which Quinlivan was asked when she might marry Chou, in which she replied: “You better ask him.” For the press, this was as good as a marriage proposal, and may well have got up the nose of the notoriously private superstar.
Tse’s romantic life also came under the spotlight with the release of The Viral Factor, but when the media pressed him on the status of his relationship with his former wife Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝), he emphasized that though he would be spending the Lunar New Year holiday with his children, Cheung would not be present. He refused to comment on the poor showing of a string of recent films in which Cheung has starred (some media are already labeling her “box office poison”) and ended an interview saying that if reporters asked him any more questions about Cheung, he would jump off a tall building.
In other news, Chantel Liu (劉香慈) might be something of a new girl on the block, but she is doing very well, thank you. She has rocketed to stardom as a sexy sergeant in two seasons of the hugely popular TV soap Rookies’ Diary (新兵日記). Originally best known as the busty girl friend of Aboriginal singer Biung Tak-Banuaz (王宏恩), she ditched him for a bloke originally dubbed “Bentley Man” (賓利男) by Next Magazine, and has now moved on to a fellow most notable for owning a BMW. This hardly seems a step up. She has also recently purchased a NT$20 million house in Greater Taichung, where Next speculates she intends to get cozy over the New Year. Let’s hope the place has a nice garage.
Singer Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) is looking forward to a good Year of the Dragon, following in the footsteps of Asian performers like Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai (梁朝偉) toward Hollywood riches. According to the Liberty Times, a collaboration with hip-hop superstar Kanye West to endorse sports products will earn him NT$30 million, the largest such deal for an Asian star to date. Following on from an advertising collaboration with Usher last year, Wang’s career is heading for international stardom. Wang, born in 1976, was a Year of the Dragon baby and his success is certain to provide plenty of excitement for celebrity-conscious astrologers.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50