Starring Jay Chou (周杰倫) and teen-idols Edison Chen (陳冠希) and Shawn Yue (余文樂) from Hong Kong, the most talked-about Chinese movie of the year, Initial D (頭文字D), finally hit the big screen last Friday in Taiwan. With a string of terrible reviews because of the poor acting of its protagonist, the movie nevertheless grossed over NT$7 million in ticket sales in the first half day of screenings.
No surprises there. A blockbuster movie is never about good-quality performances and intelligent story-telling. It's all about grand promotions, well-plotted publicity stunts and behind-the-scene stories that the press can happily chew on for weeks.
The three young male idols
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
involved know all the tricks. And like their female counterparts, they understand the importance of lavish outfits and accessories. Showing up at their press conference in Taipei, Shawn smiled confidently with his NT$160,000 necklace (almost invisible to the untrained eye) and Edison strutted out of the car in a pair of Adidas sneakers worth NT$40,000. As for Jay, he didn't need to try hard -- or even try at all -- with the title King of Mando-pop under his belt.
It hasn't all been smooth sailing, though. Bad-boy Edison reportedly got pissed off by Chou's steeply rising star and felt frustrated enough about being ignored by the media during promotional tours to make a noise about it.
Petty break-up news from the self-absorbed celebrity circle is as follows: Following the break-ups of Big S (大S) and Lan Zheng-long (藍正龍), Elva Hsiao (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
TV hostess Momoko Tao (陶子), on the other hand, happily showed off her two-year relationship with actor Lee Lee-ren (李李仁) by talking about the possibility of marriage in a promotional event on Monday. As an ordinary-looking woman, Tao admitted she once wanted to get her whole body revamped with plastic surgery, but said, as reported by the Apple Daily (蘋果日報), ``on second thought, there must be a beautiful side of me -- otherwise how could I have landed such a great-looking boyfriend?''
Truth is, wealth and power can can get most people (male or female) what they want and they don't have to be good-looking to get it.
Although she's one of the least-favored movie stars in the eyes of the Chinese press, Zhang Zi-yi (章子怡) has been gaining increasing popularity and recognition in the West. She has recently been honored by becoming a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she's so hot there that the big-hearted Chinese media have accused her of being a snob who's forgotten where she came from and who doesn't give a shit about Chinese-speaking markets.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Hong Kong beauty Maggie Q is another Asian actress who's made it to Hollywood. According to the Great Daily News (
The four-piece boy band F4 is going to have a girl version soon, according to the local media. But while the boy band uses pretty faces as their selling point, the F4 girls will take pride in their voluptuous breasts -- that is, all four band members are required to have F-cup equipment. The band has already recruited three big-bosomed babes, all college girls. If you want to join the band and have the right stuff, hurry to get your application form in. This is your chance to be counted and join "Fantasy 4."
Taiwan has next to no political engagement in Myanmar, either with the ruling military junta nor the dozens of armed groups who’ve in the last five years taken over around two-thirds of the nation’s territory in a sprawling, patchwork civil war. But early last month, the leader of one relatively minor Burmese revolutionary faction, General Nerdah Bomya, who is also an alleged war criminal, made a low key visit to Taipei, where he met with a member of President William Lai’s (賴清德) staff, a retired Taiwanese military official and several academics. “I feel like Taiwan is a good example of
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
The blockbuster GLP-1 drugs that have reshaped the treatment of diabetes and obesity may help prevent multiple substance use disorders — and reduce the tragic outcomes they cause, a large new study finds. An analysis published Wednesday in a medical journal looked at electronic health records from more than 600,000 US Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes. It found that those treated with medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro were less likely to develop addictions to alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, opioids and other substances than those treated with a different class of drugs. In those already addicted, the GLP-1 drugs were linked to lower
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