By Jules Quartly
The man behind Bellydance Superstars is an American with bleached hair, a booming voice and he's on an unlikely mission to bring peace to the Middle East. Apparently, a sexy veil, belly buttons and gyrating hips are just what the world needs after 911 and the invasion of Iraq.

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By Ron Brownlow
Stanley Tsai (蔡長泰) doesn't look like a man with uncontrollable obsessions. Sitting at a table in his Fatimaid cafe, dressed in a button-down shirt and wire-framed glasses, he could pass as just another Taiwanese office worker. But carefully tucked beside him is a model of a busty, doe-eyed Japanese anime character needing days of work to assemble and paint.

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By Diane Baker
Life and death. You cannot have one without the other. Both are on the program of Cloud Gate Dance Theater's (雲門舞集) spring program, which begins next Friday at the National Theater.

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Compiled by Ho Yi
Pop Stop would be negligent of its duty if it failed to report on the latest twists and turns of gossip rag fodder Terry Gou's (郭台銘) latest affair(s) of the heart and wallet. Recently admitting to gossip hounds that his feelings for Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) are genuine and serious, one of Taiwan's most minted men nevertheless shared the love by flying Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) in his private jet to host grand parties at his IT empire's redoubts.

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By Noah Buchan
Takashi Suzuki has a reputation for being merciless when training his actors. The founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), a retreat in the forests outside Tokyo, produces some of the world's best actors.

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By Gareth Price
Last weekend saw Taipei bump to a trio of successful house bashes with Junior, Megan and Fratzuki joining Yoshi at new night Melt on Friday at M Club (www.mclub-taipei.com.tw) while Cookie held court alongside SL, Nina and David S in a busy Onyx Room at Luxy. On Saturday, Vice returned with Code, Schism and Scotty Baller entertaining a 400-strong crowd at Hips, the former Barrios, which just goes to show there's life in the old party dog yet.

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He who laughs last, laughs loudest and Sacha Baron Cohen can be heard guffawing from miles away
By Manohla Dargis
Sometime in early 2005, a mustachioed Kazakh journalist known as Borat Sagdiyev slipped into America with the intention of making a documentary for the alleged good of his Central Asian nation. Many months later, the funny bruised fruits of his labor, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, hit the collective American conscience with a juicy splat. The Minutemen, those self-anointed guardians of American sovereignty, were watching the wrong border.

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By Manohla Dargis
The Hitcher isn't shy about declaring its intentions. The opening image is of a jackrabbit crossing a desert highway and being pulped by a car. Soon after, the vacationing young hero, Jim (Zachary Knighton), asks his girlfriend, Grace (Sophia Bush), to hold the wheel of his 1970 Oldsmobile 442 so he can hang out of the driver's side window and clean a splattered bug off the windshield. Message: Roadkill comes in all shapes and sizes.

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Tsai Ming-liang's ninth film, set in multi-ethnic Kuala Lumpur, is possibly his most accessible to date
By Ho Yi
After 15 years abroad, Kuching-born international director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) has set a film in his native Malaysia for the first time. Part of the New Crowned Hope festival initiated by the city of Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (黑眼圈) may well be Tsai's most accessible and emotionally saturated feature to date as it blends the director's cinematic trademarks with a personal commentary on the social underclass in a time of social unrest.

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Warning: ‘Premonition’ has mild sexual situations, strong language and terrible acting
Blind faith that all will be revealed can keep you glued to a movie long after the arrival of that sinking feeling that none of what you're seeing can possibly add up. As you watch Premonition, a psychological thriller that scrambles time in the life of a desperate housewife, you imagine that the director, Mennan Yapo, and the screenwriter, Bill Kelly, must have some notion of where they're heading, so you suspend your doubts, invest your emotions and go along for the ride. After all, aren't these Hollywood professionals who know something about storytelling? And didn't a major star (Sandra Bullock) sign on to the project?

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Christian Bale's technically brilliant performance fails to win our sympathy
By Stephen Holden
Christian Bale is an actor who tries harder. In Harsh Times, his immersion in the role of an unhinged war veteran running amok on the streets of South Central Los Angeles offers the latest evidence that he will go to any lengths to nail down a character. Yet Bales's spectacular technical performance of a toxic bad boy on the fast track to hell somehow lacks an inner core.

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Financial backing for director John Woo's (吳宇森) new Chinese epic has not been affected by the pullout of Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Woo's business partner said yesterday.

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Address: 23, Ln 283, Roosevelt Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路三段283巷23號)
Telephone: (02) 2365-2769
Open: Daily from 5am to 10pm
Average meal: NT$300
Details: English and Chinese; credit cards not accepted
By Ron Brownlow
Bongos' owner Andrew Lunman has opened Coda, a slightly more up-market eatery just around the corner from his first sit-down restaurant (reviewed in the Taipei Times 2006/06/09). In recent months Bongos — which serves North American dishes like hamburgers, sandwiches, quesadillas, and fish and chips — has been so popular that customers often need reservations to get a seat. Coda, which opened a few weeks ago, already seems to be enjoying a similar degree of success.

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Address: 2, Ln 160, Yanji St, Taipei (台北市延吉街160巷2號)
Telephone: (02) 2711-9922
Open: Tuesday to Sunday from 5:30pm to 1am
Average meal: NT$1,400
Details: Chinese and Japanese menu; credit cards accepted
By Ho Yi
Athlete-turned-chef Li Hsi-tsung (李錫宗) has built up a veritable Who's Who of regulars at his modest establishment on Dunhua Street. After 17 years, he finally gave in to requests from customers and opened a more refined version of his restaurant in the center of Taipei's East district. The upscale Japanese food served here also comes with a suitably upscale bill.

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Theater
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