Two Taiwanese comic books are to hit the screens as live-action adaptations, as part of a program to promote adaptations of works by local artists.
Veteran animation and visual effects director Kent Chang (張永昌) has always dreamed of creating a fantasy, he said, adding that he had had his eyes set on Scrolls of a Northern City (北城百畫帖, Pei Cheng Pai Hua Tieh) by comic book artist AKRU, otherwise known as Shen Ying-chieh (沈穎杰).
The graphic novel is a romantic fantasy set in a coffee shop in Japanese colonial-era Taipei during the reign of Japanese Emperor Showa, he said.
Photo courtesy of Kent Chang
Taking a multidisciplinary approach, Chang wants to turn the comic into a live-action movie, he said, adding that he has received about NT$4 million (US$137,231) in grants from a Ministry of Culture program that supports such projects.
Taiwanese actors Chang Ting-hu (張庭瑚) and Lee Chia-ying (李佳穎) are to star in the film, Chang said.
The main challenge of adapting the comic into a film lies in recreating the Japanese-era scenery, he said, citing his experience filming a pilot for the film.
Photo provided by Kent Chang
For example, careful archival research was needed to revive Taiwan’s first department store, the Kikumoto Department store on the intersection of what are now Taipei’s Hengyang (衡陽路) and Boai (博愛路) roads, Chang said, adding that 3D modeling the buildings is very expensive and Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) teachers had to be brought in to help the actors learn their lines.
All of this was done in the hopes of recreating the original setting, he said.
The team has finished filming the pilot and is awaiting funding to turn its dream into reality, he said.
Photo courtesy of Yuan-Liou Publishing Co
Meanwhile, Sanlih E-Television (SET) has announced that it has purchased the rights to Ruan Guang-min’s (阮光民) Yong-jiu Grocery Store (用九柑仔店) and plans on turning the comic book into a television series.
Yong-jiu Grocery Store depicts old customs and practices in rural Taiwan, and last year won the Golden Comic Awards for Best Comic for Young Adults and Comic of the Year.
In the comic, young protagonist Chun-lung (俊龍) returns to the countryside to take over a grocery store from his ailing grandfather, and reconnects with the land and his childhood memories.
The television series is to be produced by Lin Chih-chin (林知秦) and adapted into a screenplay by Chen Chieh-ying (陳潔瑩), the TV network said.
Ruan looks forward to what the comic will look like on screen because the people in the story “originally only lived on paper,” he said.
Filming is expected to begin at the end of the year, with the series to be screened from next year.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods