Mozart's unrelievedly solemn 'Idomeneo' makes its Taiwanese debut at the National Theater, Taipei
By Bradley Winterton
"Idomeneo is a treasure in operatic history." So says Tseng Dau-hsiong (曾道雄), who will both direct and conduct Mozart's opera at Taipei's National Theater for three performances next week.

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By Bradley Winterton
After nearly a year's search, the management of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has finally announced the appointment of a Music Director Designate. It's the 55-year-old German conductor Martin Fischer-Dieskau.

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By Blake Carter
Some call it "experimental," some call it "avant-garde" and some call it "sound art."

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By Noah Buchan
Tsai Po-chang (蔡柏璋) confesses to an obsession with television serials. It is a strange admission coming from a theater director and playwright. Stranger still, Tsai says his love of the genre influenced the writing and production of his play K24 Chaos, a six-hour marathon that is currently running at the National Experimental Theater.

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COMPILED BY Noah Buchan
Chinese New Year is quickly approaching, and it's time to contemplate the auspiciousness of the year ahead. Pop Stop, however, is unashamedly more concerned with "wardrobe malfunctions" and the fate of booze-addled celebrities.

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By Diane Baker
One of the most eagerly awaited dance performances in months will preview in Ilan tomorrow before arriving in Taipei next Thursday. It's 37 Arts, by the newly reconstituted LAFA, the company founded by former Martha Graham Company principal dancer Sheu Fang-yi (許芳宜) and her long-time partner, choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava (布拉瑞揚).

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By Tom Leeming
With a collaborative remix electronica album available for free download, virtual weekly gigs on the Second Life Web site and a live set with hip-hop acts Kou Chou-ching (拷秋勤) , Chang Jui-Chuan (張睿銓) and Andre van Rensburg tomorrow, the Vinyl Word caught up with Taichung-based Moshang via e-mail to get the scoop on a very busy man.

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By Noah Buchan
Bamboo Village lives up to the old adage that good things come in small packages. One restaurant might prepare great food. Another might offer prompt and attentive service. A third might create a unique atmosphere free of pretence. Finding all three qualities in one place - too often a rarity among eateries - means you've hit the jackpot. Bamboo Village, an izakaya, or a Japanese drinking restaurant, which opened last year, is just that.

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By Ho Yi
In the vicinity of Jhongjhen Rd (中正路), Sindian City (新店市), close to the Huanhe Expressway (環河快速道路), there once stood a cluster of juan cun (眷村), or veteran's villages, where Mainlanders from all parts of China made the neighborhood a hub of the country's various culinary traditions. Cement apartment buildings now stand on the site where this outpost of the Mainlander community once stood, but the culinary legacy of northern Chinese food at bargain prices continues to thrive. One such popular location is the Beiping Huatai Restaurant.

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Rendition can't be called an unbiased look at the war on Iraq, but it is even-handed, giving each character - a North African police chief, an innocent prisoner, an American official, a senator, a CIA analyst and a jihadist - sympathetic treatment
By A. O. Scott
Given the tenor of political discussion these days, it is inevitable that someone with a loud voice and a small mind will label Rendition anti-American. (But look! A quick Internet search reveals that some people already have, many of them without even bothering to see the movie.) It is, after all, much easier to rant and rave about treacherous Hollywood liberals than to think through the moral and strategic questions raised by some of the policies of the US government. But it is just these questions that Rendition tries to address, in a manner that, while hardly neutral - it may not shock you to learn that the filmmakers come out against torture, kidnapping and other abuses - nonetheless tries to be evenhanded and thoughtful.

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'Atonement' is an almost classical example of how pointless, how diminishing, the transmutation of literature into film can be
By A. O. SCOTT
Joe Wright's Atonement begins in the endlessly photogenic, thematically pregnant interwar period. The setting is a rambling old British country estate where trim dinner jackets and shimmering silk dresses are worn; cigarettes are smoked with sharp inhalations that create perfect concavities of cheekbone; and the air is thick with class tension and sexual anxiety. Heavy clouds are gathering on the geopolitical horizon, which lends a special poignancy to the domestic comings and goings. This charged, hardly unfamiliar atmosphere provides, in the first section of the film, some decent, suspenseful fun, a rush of incident and implication. Boxy cars rolling up the drive; whispers of scandal and family secrets; coitus interruptus in the library, all set to the implacable rhythm of typewriter keys.

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Lee Kang-sheng's second feature, 'Help Me Eros,' explores the alienation and unrest brought on by shameless materialism
By Ho Yi
Actor Lee Kang-sheng (李康生), muse to filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) for more than a decade, returns to the director's chair five years after his debut feature The Missing (不見). Adhering to his mentor's brand of cinema, Help Me Eros (幫幫我愛神) reflects on the anomie engendered by consumer culture through a kinky hodgepodge of sex, food, marijuana and betel nut beauties.

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Hong Kong director Johnnie To reveals his feminine side in 'Linger,' a story about a couple parted by death
By Ho Yi
Johnnie To's (杜琪峰) films are always highly anticipated and well received. Gangster movies like The Mission (鎗火), PTU and Election (黑社會) earned him the status of a world-class director. In light of that, his latest work, Linger (蝴蝶飛), may catch his fans by surprise as the director swerves into romantic territory. Taiwanese heartthrob Vic Chou (周渝民) of boy band F4 fame and China's Li Bingbing (李冰冰) turn in competent performances in this tale of love, loss, regret and rebirth.

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AGENCIES
Now that Christmas and New Years are over, award season unofficially begins. The People's Choice Awards revealed the stars of Grey's Anatomy and Pirates of the Caribbean ranking high with fans. The 34th ceremony was pre-taped due to the writer's strike. Trophies to music, film and television stars were delivered on location.

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BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF
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OTHER RELEASES

COMPILED BY Martin Williams

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Top Five Mandarin Albums

BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF

1.Lollipop (棒棒堂) and GyaShan (哪裡怕) [ FULL STORY ]

BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF

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