By Ho Yi
Athletic performers pound out the thundering beats of wadaiko in the meticulously choreographed displays of intensity. They do the splits, leap, toss their arms, legs and torsos about in perfectly synchronized routines slicked up by the stylized stage design, lighting and special effects, which give each section a different look and feel. It's the exciting blend of wadaiko sound and movement from the Japanese drumming ensemble Tao that will storm the capital with their show this weekend at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋).

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By Ron Brownlow
Hurricane Katrina. Mardis Gras. A Streetcar Named Desirea. Is this all you know about the southern US state of Louisiana? Not to worry. The American Institute in Taiwan and US trade groups are organizing the New Orleans Jazz and Cajun Flavors Promotion, a Taiwan-wide event that's shaping up to be one of the larger food promotions the country has recently seen.

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By Diane Baker
The star-crossed lovers of Verona have attracted audiences for hundreds of years and in scores of languages and formats since William Shakespeare's original play. There have been operas, films, ballets, poetry and musicals. One of the latest versions is the French pop opera Romeo et Juliette de la Haine e l'amour, by the composer Gerard Presgurvic, which took the French-speaking world by storm after it premiered in Paris on Jan. 19, 2001.

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Compiled by Ho Yi
The invincibility of Asia's king of pop Rain has been called into question after tickets for his Taoyuan (桃園) concert last week failed to sell like hot cakes. An unwise choice of location and hasty preparation are said to have contributed to the lackluster sales with 40 percent of tickets left unsold: Could the South Korean megastar's sex appeal be waning?

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By Ron Brownlow
So many bands, so many stages, so little time.

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By Noah Buchan
As part of the CKS Cultural Center's 20th anniversary celebrations, composer Philip Glass will play at the National Concert Hall, Taipei, on Wednesday and Thursday with The Philip Glass Ensemble. Hailed as a man that never stops working and one of the most innovative and influential composers of the latter part of the twentieth century, Glass and his band mates will perform a retrospective featuring some of his best-known work.

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By Gareth Price
The times they are a'changin'. Or so we are led to believe. Room 18 had its warm up re-opening last Friday and grand opening on Wednesday. Both nights were packed with a three-deep queue stretching 25m. The roof was opened up for a VIP bash. The main room still plays the same vapid muzak that barely passes for pop. However, sticking with a tried-and-tested formula isn't always a bad idea: on the plus side, in 18 Lover SL and the residents are still banging out solid house on Fridays.

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One of the most exciting British movies this year is Danny Boyle's sci-fi epic, ‘Sunshine,’ which puts the divine back into a genre that had lost its way
By Mark Kermode
At a key moment in Danny Boyle's radiant new sci-fi film Sunshine, a character is asked, "Are you an angel?" With its retina-scorching visuals, which blaze from the screen into the dark abyss of the cinema auditorium, this extraordinary epic certainly seems to burn as brightly as a host of fiery angels. Set in 2057, Sunshine follows the crew of the spaceship Icarus II as they attempt to deliver a thermonuclear payload into the heart of the sun, lending new light to our galaxy's inexorably darkening star. En route, they pick up a distress signal from their lost predecessor, Icarus I, which disappeared into the void seven years earlier. Like an interstellar Marie Celeste, the first Icarus now hangs in space like a ghost ship, seemingly without a soul in sight. But as the reason for its mission failure is gradually revealed (more psychological than scientific), the crew of Icarus II fall prey to the eternal inner demons which haunt those who fly too close to the sun.

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Julie Waters plays an aging thespian who finds it impossible to tell the truth and battles for the soul of her assistant
By Stephen Holden
Driving Lessons belongs to that hardy niche of British comedies designed as star vehicles for distinguished actresses (preferably Dames) of a certain age whose assignment is to win awards by devouring the scenery. Julie Walters, who does the chomping in Driving Lessons, isn't yet a Dame like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright, who specialize in such tasks. But the movie carries Walters, who established her scenery-chewing credentials with Educating Rita, a step in that direction.

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Just what the world has been missing: a faith-bereft heroine, imperiled child, satanic cult, supernatural mystery. With the biblical plagues, no less. Happy Passover, everybody! First-borns get in at half price!

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With strong performances from all the leads, ‘Bridge to Terabithia' is able to handle adult topics with nuance and sensitivity
By Jeannette Catsoulis
Despite an ad campaign suggesting wall-to-wall special effects, Bridge to Terabithia is grounded in reality far more than in fantasy. Adapting Katherine Paterson's award-winning novel, the screenwriters David Paterson (Ms. Paterson's son) and Jeff Stockwell have produced a thoughtful and extremely affecting story of a transformative friendship between two unusually gifted children. The result is a movie whose emotional depth could appeal more to adults than to their offspring.

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'Wild Hogs' deserves credit for a small but significant measure of originality. Its soundtrack is full of classic, open-road rock 'n' roll songs
By A. O. Scott
The Four Little Piggies — Wild Hogs, the real title, doesn't work as well — is a comedy about male midlife anxiety. Some of us may not find the subject so funny, but never mind. Somebody needed to revive the City Slickers formula, and this time the job has gone to Brad Copeland, who wrote the screenplay, and Walt Becker, who directed.

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Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes famously broke his silence in the 1970s to denounce a fake autobiography, a yarn he considered more wild and imaginative than any script he had ever seen in Hollywood.

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Address: 51 Yunhe St, Taipei (台北市雲和街51號)
Telephone: (02) 2368-5222
Open: 12pm to 2pm and 5:30pm to 9:30pm; closes at 10:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays; closed Mondays
Average meal: NT$160 to NT$300
Details: English and Chinese menu; credit cards not accepted
On the net: www.maryjanepizza.com
By Ron Brownlow
For the last three years, Maryjane Pizza off Shida Road (師大路) has been serving satisfying thin-crust pizzas at extremely reasonable prices. So it's somewhat surprising how little attention the place has received from English-language media, blogs and other Web sites included.

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Address: 9, Ln 13, Tienmu W Rd, Taipei (台北市天母西路13巷9號)
Telephone: (02) 2876 7206
Open: Daily from 12pm to 2:30pm; 5:30pm to 10pm
Average meal: NT$500 to NT$600
Details: menu in English and Chinese; credit cards accepted On the net: www.tandoor.com.tw
By Ho Yi
One of Taipei's oldest and most reputed Indian restaurants, Tandoor Indian Restaurant, has recently found a new home in the multicultural Tienmu neighborhood serving the same authentic North Indian cuisine and an enchanting interior design mixing elegance with modern chic.

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Theater

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