It was a sunny afternoon in the south of France as director Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛) escorted actress Yang Kuei-mei (楊貴媚) onto the blue carpet and into the Theater Claude Debussy for the Cannes screening of Robinson's Crusoe (魯賓遜漂流記).
Yang wore a white Christian Dior dress, a pair of sapphire-colored shoes and jewelry, worth a total of NT$4 million. "Bonjour!" she said, smiling to the crowds standing by the fence outside the theater.
It was Yang's third visit to Cannes, she first visited for Ang Lee's (李安) film Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女) and then for Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) The Hole (洞). At the screening of Robinson's Crusoe, she was the only film star from Taiwan appearing at Cannes this year.
The film's other cast members, including lead actor Leon Dai (戴立忍) and actress Chen Hsiang-chi (陳湘琪) were unable to make the trip because of filming commitments.
"Each time I come here, I'm always happy," said Yang on Thursday, who plays a business woman trading in real estate.
It was also Lin's third time to attend Cannes, though his first in six years. He previously turned up at the film festival for A Drifting Life (
Lin and Yang were loudly cheered as they walked in and out of the theater for the showing of their film Robinson's Crusoe, and they responded graciously to the crowds.
Lin's sixth film deals with the lives and loves of middle-class and middle-aged people in Taipei. The protagonist, Robinson (Leon Dai) sells luxury homes, but cannot buy, or even rent one, and settle down with his girlfriend.
The handsome loner lives in a designer hotel and dreams of running away and starting a new life.
His colleagues, girlfriend, families and friends are all trying hard to survive and seek love in the urban jungle of Taipei.
But he tries to turn away from the burden of love and the emotions of those acquaintances, to live on Crusoe Island in the Caribbean.
The metaphor seems to be that in the sea of Taipei's urban life, he is turning himself into an island.
Lin admitted the film mirrors his own mid-life crunch. "The film deals with my own inexplicable life crisis. Such a crisis does not involve any outward signs.
"The outside remains materially full, but it is spiritually empty ... something's just not right ... something is gone and may be irretrievably lost," Lin said of his experience.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
Mongolian influencer Anudari Daarya looks effortlessly glamorous and carefree in her social media posts — but the classically trained pianist’s road to acceptance as a transgender artist has been anything but easy. She is one of a growing number of Mongolian LGBTQ youth challenging stereotypes and fighting for acceptance through media representation in the socially conservative country. LGBTQ Mongolians often hide their identities from their employers and colleagues for fear of discrimination, with a survey by the non-profit LGBT Centre Mongolia showing that only 20 percent of people felt comfortable coming out at work. Daarya, 25, said she has faced discrimination since she
RSS