The 10th Pusan International Film Festival started last week with Hou Hsiao-hsien's (侯孝賢) latest movie Three Times (最好的時光) as its opening film. The 3,200 tickets for the film sold out in less than 14 minutes, proving Hou's attraction to the South Koreans. The leading lady Shu Qi (舒淇), startled the festival organizers by asking for sick leave from the opening ceremony at the last minute. Insiders said the star wasn't sick at all, but deliberately failed to attend in protest at the less-than-five-star treatment accorded her at the
festival.
Female director Robin Lee's (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Jackie Chan's (
boycott. Chan later explained he was commenting on the growing production gap between Hong Kong and South Korea and urged the public to support local movies.
Hong Kong entertainer Andy Lau (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Actor/singer Leon Lai
(
Supermodel Huang Hsiao-lei (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
But fear not, Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) is going to be back soon. Three months after falling from a horse in China, the supermodel was spotted looking in tip-top condition after a trip to Thailand. Lin said she felt a lot better after her holiday and would be ready to resume work soon.
Controversial figure Suzanne Hsiao (
surgeon enthusiast has been encouraging her friends and relatives to go under the knife. The star said her next move is to have her buttocks remodelled to look like Jennifer Lopez's fine assets. Hsiao's doctor has already promised her that he would travel abroad to seek the right material for her perfect-butt-to-be.
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
RSS