Water parks are always popular in the summer months, and northern Taiwan offers two facilities that rank with the best in the world
By Michael Kearney
Sitting in my inflatable tube, I knew Mala Bay's Magician Airship was going to be a good water slide because I couldn't see over the edge and, to protect themselves from falling off the top, the lifeguards were harnessed in.

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By Ho Yi
Cheer Chen's (陳綺貞) nine-year music career was officially launched in 1998 with the now defunct record label Magic Stone (魔岩). Although she only has four albums to her name, she is now rated by many as Taiwan's foremost indie songstress and her lyrical folk rock has spread far beyond Taiwan, her popularity built up through touring gigs at small venues and on campuses in Hong Kong and China, as well as at home.

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By Ho Yi
The Million Star Gang (星光幫) has dominated gossip rags for months now, and Pop Stop has been nothing if not indefatigable in following the group's struggle to stay fresh. The motley crew has taken publicity stunts to a new melodramatic level and now, in the latest installment, gang leader Aska Yang (楊宗緯) is being portrayed as a prince charming, involved in a love triangle with a gay twist, involving members Sharon Li (李宣榕) and Peter Pan (潘裕文).

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By RON BROWNLOW
Taipei's comedy scene is going from strength to strength. What started out four years ago as a few foreigners doing amateurish sets at Citizen Kane's open-mic night has blossomed into a second career of sorts for several people, with seasoned expat performers doing semi-regular shows at places like The Living Room and Sappho. In May, the city's first comedy club opened in the Shida area, and it currently hosts Chinese-language comedy shows featuring several comedians six nights a week. While the Chinese-language performances there tend to resemble off-Broadway shows more than the typical American or British stand-up act, they are a sign that the genre has crossed into the mainstream and established firm local roots.

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By MARCUS AURELIUS
One day you are a local DJ handing out flyers, throwing parties, getting people out to shows and making sure that everyone knows your name. Then, bang, it happens. All that blood, sweat and tears finally feels like it may pay big dividends. An e-mail arrives offering a good salary in an exotic land. Resumes and mixes are exchanged and negotiations seem to be going well. Soon, you have a flight and housing paid for and are the headlining resident at a big-name club in some small corner of Asia.

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'Turistas': The usual torture mixed in with gunplay, open wounds, beer, pot, discreet sex and naked female breasts
By Manohla Dargis
If stupidity were a crime, the nitwits in the cheap horror flick Turistas would be doing time in Attica. A grubby, lethally dull bid to cash in on the new extreme horror, the film turns on a conceit as frayed as Freddy Krueger's shtick: a group of hotties stumble into the lair of a madman. Carnage ensues. Here the hapless, clueless and braless are the English-speaking tourists of the film's title who, having gone abroad to party hearty, end up being batted about by a wacky cat with very sharp claws and a seriously sick sense of social justice.

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The computer-animated comedy canon has a new addition and it's brimming with birds, again
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Ever since Luc Jacquet's endearing documentary March of the Penguins persuaded Hollywood that penguins are the new Bambis, we have endured singing, wisecracking and even tap-dancing versions. Now, treading eagerly on the flippers of last year's Happy Feet, comes Surf's Up, a computer-animated comedy featuring birds on boards.

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'The Last Mimzy' scores well for wholesome viewing but suffers from jarring product placement - aimed at parents - and an overdependence on close-ups
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Invoking Lewis Carroll, E.T. and Tibetan Buddhism, The Last Mimzy is an overstuffed yet warmhearted sci-fi drama about a dying planet, resourceful kids and a science teacher firmly in touch with his spiritual side.

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Alexi Tan, John Woo's protege, has produced a star-studded flick that blends violence and romanticism
By Ho Yi
Selected to close the 64th Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug. 29 to Sept. 8, the highly anticipated gangster flick Blood Brothers (天堂口) boasts a cast comprising some of Asia's A-list stars, including Daniel Wu (吳彥祖), Shu Qi (舒淇) and Zhang Zhen (張震). Surprisingly, the blockbuster-to-be is Philippines-born, London- and New York-educated Alexi Tan's (陳奕利) directorial debut. The fashion photographer and music video director was spotted by John Woo (吳宇森), one of the film's producers.

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'Another Gay Movie' is exactly what its title presumes to subvert
By NATHAN LEE
Another Gay Movie spoofs its way through a parody of teen sex comedies and equally formulaic gay coming-of-age flicks. Senior year at San Torum High School has just ended for all-American Andy (Michael Carbonaro), the jock hottie Jarod (Jonathan Chase), a nerd named Griff (Mitch Morris) and the fiercely flamboyant Nico (Jonah Blechman). Goaded by Muffler (Ashlie Atkinson), a brash lesbian lady-killer who throws raucous parties at her fabulous apartment (the "maxi-pad"), the boys make a pact to experience anal sex before college.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, said on Wednesday it re-elected Sid Ganis to his third straight term as president and made actor Tom Hanks one of its vice presidents.

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By HO YI
What happens when three 20-something female fitness instructors decide to shift careers and enter the culinary business? The answer is a homelike barbecue restaurant that offers a wide variety of grilled delicacies spiced up with healthy sauces prescribed by practitioners of Chinese medicine.

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By NOAH BUCHAN
The recent closure of the WeCare chain of bakeries was a sad day for Taipei's bread-loving community. Living up to its name, WeCare offered a variety of healthy breads, many of which catered to vegetarians, and carefully listed the ingredients of each loaf on custom-made signs. Indeed, the franchise went a long way to disprove the claim that Taiwanese have a penchant for only sweet white bread.

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Theater

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