This weekend, if you're in the mood for slapstick comedy, spend NT$220 and check out Chu Yen-ping's (
Two Birds with One Stone is a China-Taiwan co-production, with Chu's Yen-ping Films and the Beijing-based Time Films (
Starring the notorious TV host Jacky Wu (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
The film is intentionally a parody and mocks some hit martial-arts movies of recent years, such as Zhang Yi-mou's (
Chu's films often insist on using poor taste to mock the classics and Two Birds with One Stone is no exception. But he seems to overdo this technique and forgets to tell a complete story. The only character that works is played by Wu in a convincing performance as a slacker who secretly adores the minister's daughter.
Behind the Palace, Beyond the Horizon (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
In 2003 the National Palace Museum underwent a series of cultural exchange projects in hopes of refreshing its public image. One of them was a "visiting artists" program that invited international artists to visit Taiwan and the museum. The program inspired this PTS documentary.
Film director Wang Hsiao-ti (
Dutch animation filmmaker Gerrit van Dijk is known for his unique style, which uses collage and deformation of images. During his visit to the museum, he is especially intrigued with a Ming-dynasty block print, Stories of the West Chamber (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
Van Dijk praised the work as so refined that he found its execution centuries ago simply unbelievable. And his 40-second animation is made like an impressionist painting, inspired by the block print and also infused with his personal impressions of his Taiwan visit.
French pottery artist Jean Girel owns the title of Maitre d'Art, presented by the French National Committee of Art. Girel came to see the Soong-dynasty china that he had been longing to see. He was also impressed by the animal-shaped ornaments on the bronze wares of the Bronze Age that depict bears, horses and birds.
Apparently, Girel was moved by the spirit of ancient people worshiping the universe and nature. His pottery work, which was made in the studio of Taipei Teacher's College reflects such a spirit. It is graceful artwork, simulating the thick and solid quality of bronzeware and at the same time demonstrates an experimental variation of glazed colors.
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
As director Wang Hsiao-ti puts it, the relation between the collection pieces and the new artwork is the flow and transformation of creativity, and proves that such an old place like the Palace Museum can still generate new ideas and new creations.
The most valuable part of the film deals with seven architecture and design students and their works. Some were inspired by the art of calligraphy and invented a mechanism that looks like a huge writing brush. Others designed an imaginary world of plastic tubes that was inspired by Qing-dynasty snuff bottles.
From the young creative spirits shown in the film, Wang vividly paints a picture of those ancient collections being infused with new life. They no longer stay static in history but have become part of people's lives.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
The last couple of weeks I have been traveling across the island of Panay in the Philippines, visiting my wife’s family. Inevitably, I have spent a lot of time on the trip comparing the Philippines to Taiwan and contemplating the rich, ancient connections between them. I could wax eloquent on politics or history, but today I’m going to talk about that most lowly of food items, the humble green. That’s what I miss the most whenever I leave Taiwan, and of all the nations around Taiwan, the Philippines presents the sharpest contrast on this topic. Our benighted, myopic tourism bureau may
The cool, clean river water quickly evaporates as I warm myself in the tropical sun, still strong at midday even in November. Below me is a bend in the river, and a deep emerald pool has formed here alongside the concrete platform I am sitting on, which once served as a check dam, but today serves as the perfect place to launch myself into the water. On shore, children splash in the water as parents sit nearby under awnings. Above me, a hawk traces out lazy circles against the bright blue sky. In the distance, a train emerges from a
Feb. 6 to Feb. 12 The plan was to break out of jail, seize the facility’s ammunition, release the inmates and broadcast their “declaration of Taiwanese independence” to the world at the nearby Broadcasting Corporation of China station. Chiang Ping-hsing (江炳興) and his fellow political prisoners at Taiyuan Prison (泰源監獄) hoped that this action would attract international attention and spark a nationwide rebellion that would overthrow Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) authoritarian regime. It was originally planned for Feb. 1, 1970, but due to various setbacks they weren’t able to strike until the noontime guard change at the prison on Feb. 8. They attacked the
Milf Manor is the house that Freud built. Eight women aged between 40 and 60 arrived at this beachside villa in Mexico to film a dating show, somehow missing the twist: the lineup of young men they’d be in the villa with would include… their sons. The show premiered in the US last week, and I have screamed hoarsely through every video I can find, shouting, “I HATE IT I HATE IT OK ONE MORE CLIP I HATE IT!” into my arm. You know how Big Brother and its fellow reality shows used to claim they were sociological experiments in order