Rated G, directed by George Lucas, with Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Natalie Portman (Padme Amidala), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), running time: 135 minutes
We could have guessed long ago that Star Wars Episode II -- Attack of the Clones wouldn't live up to its hype by the pretentiously long title it was given, but it takes seeing the movie to truly let disbelief set in. Ten years after the events of The Phantom Menace, Padme is no longer the queen of Naboo, but a senator. She's assigned a security detail that includes Anakin Skywalker, who has come into his own as a Jedi knight. He is taken under wing by Ewan McGregor, whose Obi-Wan Kenobi portrayal is the only noteworthy performance in the film -- save Yoda's, that is. When the little green guru scrapes with the evil Count Dooku it's worth the price of admission for all those geeks who wore a Storm Trooper costume to the theater. No amount of naysaying will keep fans away and so, may the Force be with you.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
Perched on Thailand’s border with Myanmar, Arunothai is a dusty crossroads town, a nowheresville that could be the setting of some Southeast Asian spaghetti Western. Its main street is the final, dead-end section of the two-lane highway from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city 120kms south, and the heart of the kingdom’s mountainous north. At the town boundary, a Chinese-style arch capped with dragons also bears Thai script declaring fealty to Bangkok’s royal family: “Long live the King!” Further on, Chinese lanterns line the main street, and on the hillsides, courtyard homes sit among warrens of narrow, winding alleyways and
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