Taiwanese film Night Market Hero (雞排英雄) has continued an impressive run at the local box office, grossing more than NT$90 million (US$3.05 million) and setting itself up possibly as the next blockbuster hit following Monga (艋舺) and Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
Night Market Hero, the feature debut of director Yeh Tien-lun (葉天倫), focuses on the night market culture of Taiwan and follows a group of vendors at a bustling night market whose lives are filled with rivalries and unspoken romances until they find a common cause to resist politicians and property developers eyeing the land on which the vendors have made their living for a decade.
The film features model-turned-actor Blue Lan (藍正龍), Chu Ke-liang (豬哥亮), a popular stand-up comedian and TV host, and -comedienne Lotus Wang (王彩樺).
Photo courtesy of Chinlai Artists Agency
Jackie Liu, from the local office of film distributor Twentieth Century Fox, said yesterday that box office receipts had reached NT$90.93 million by Sunday since the film’s Jan. 28 release.
Although still far behind last year’s box office hit Monga, which grossed NT$258 million, and the 2008 hit Cape No. 7, which amassed about NT$530 million, Night Market Hero has performed well from the start.
In the first weekend following its release, the film earned NT$12.56 million, and within 10 days, it had reached NT$54 million, Liu said.
Local film critic Lan Tzu-wei said on his blog that Night Market Hero might not show many new ideas on an artistic level, but its portrayal of stereotypes of Taiwanese culture has made it a major draw.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS