Renowned international acts as well as the up-and-coming all have a place on the National Theater's Spring Dance Series
By Diane Baker
The National Theater creative team has put together an impressive package for this year's Spring Dance series: a mix of international and local companies, big and small, well-known names and new ones, with a very Gallic flavor.

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By Noah Buchan
Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe (原舞者) has long played an important role in the renaissance of Aboriginal culture taking place in Taiwan. The troupe's young performers aim to preserve and revive the disappearing songs and dances of their ancestors by exposing audiences to traditional stories and myths.

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Compiled By Noah Buchan
Asia's entertainment bosses seem to require celebrity debutantes and starlets to appear chaste and remain single (at least in public) for as long as possible to maximize their moneymaking potential. With the former, as the recent Edison Chen (陳冠希) sex-photo scandal demonstrated, displays of "naughty" - or human - behavior are enough to destroy a music career or kill a toothpaste endorsement. Those who tie the knot can expect to meet the same fate, which is probably why many members of the celebrity firmament marry into money.

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By Alita Rickards
With a line-up of performers that sounds like a who's who of the local foreign music scene, it's not surprising that the The Money Shot Horns' manager, Patrick Byrne, is touting the band as a "supergroup."

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By Ho Yi
When voting for the presidential elections ends at 4pm tomorrow, a group of Aboriginal, Hakka, Taiwanese and Han Chinese musicians will begin a two-hour concert in front of the Red Playhouse (紅樓劇場) in Ximending (西門町) for people who care more about society and the environment in which we live than the political scuffles between the pan-greens and pan-blues.

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By Queen Bee
LEO37 chuckles when asked how he acquired his nickname "The Sofa King." He retells a "sofa king" story that involves some drunken guys (including himself) hanging out in front of a 7-Eleven at 3am in Taipei. It's not exactly the kind of mischievous caper that you'd expect from a guy with a sophisticated demeanor, but you can't judge a book by its cover, and nor should you judge an MC by his or her ethnicity, because catching LEO37 (aka Leo Shia, a Canada-born Taiwanese) in action just might give you a new take on Taiwan's hip-hop music.

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By Ian Bartholomew
Feng Ya-min (馮亞敏) has an impressive track record in bringing high-end international labels to Taiwan; her highest profile success was the Camper label, which has shed its fashionista cachet and entered the high street.

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By Ho Yi
Three months after Pamirs moved to the bustling Taida (台大) area from Sindian (新店) in Taipei County, the eatery has secured a steady stream of customers with its home-cooked Xinjiang fare and wallet-friendly prices. Run by a couple who picked up their cooking skills during a stay in Urumqi, Pamirs has a homely feel and a clientele made up mostly of students and families.

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The two become friends in a sensitive American film set in Brooklyn that makes no secret of its political overtures
By Manohla Dargis
Half Nelson is that rarest of marvels - an American fiction film that wears its political heart on its sleeve. It's a small film with a long view, and its story hinges on an unusually nuanced relationship between a white man and a black girl, each of whom has landed in harm's way. The delicacy of its lead performances (more on them later) and its sense of everyday texture are each worthy of praise. But what makes Half Nelson both an unusual and an exceptional American film, particularly at a time when even films about Sept. 11 are professed to have no politics, is its insistence on political consciousness as a moral imperative.

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Paris Hilton stars in and produced 'The Hottie and the Nottie,' a would-be rom-com that evaporates before your very eyes
By Ty Burr
The problem with The Hottie and the Nottie is - wait, let me start again. The most crippling of the many problems afflicting The Hottie and the Nottie is the radical disconnect between the title and our perception of the movie's star. I'm not sure on what planet Paris Hilton is considered "hot" - one that involves hazmat suits and tongs, possibly - but it hasn't been Earth for some time.

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This horror remake is full of ocular references and screaming violins, but lacks the cleverness of the original
By Jeannette Catsoulis
"I want to see the world like everyone else," the blind violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) whines at the beginning of The Eye, the latest Western deconstruction of a successful Asian horror movie.

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Hong Kong director Tony Ching Siu-tung throws in a mixed bag of romance, warfare and martial arts along with an anti-war message in his latest flick
By Ho Yi
Hong Kong filmmaker Tony Ching Siu-tung, (程小東) the world-renowned action movie choreographer who made Hero (英雄), House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏) and most recently The Warlords (投名狀), returns to the director's chair for another big-budget Chinese martial arts epic, An Empress and the Warriors (江山美人).

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AGENCIES
Jackie Chan (成龍) and Jet Li (李連杰) say they had so much fun making their first movie together they are planning a second one, The Forbidden Kingdom. "The first day we started filming [the first movie], it felt like we had worked together for many years," Chan said, adding, "after filming this movie, we didn't have enough fun." "In four months (of filming), we went from friends to becoming brothers," Li said.

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BY TAIPEI TIMES STAFF