A cclaimed Taiwan-born film director Ang Lee (李安) will work on the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a consultant, organizers said yesterday.
The Oscar-winning 52-year-old Lee will join American filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Yves Pepin, head of the French entertainment group ECA2, and Ric Birch, director of the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony, as special consultants for the Beijing Games, which begin on August 8, 2008.
Chinese director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) will serve as chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies.
PHOTO: AP
James Joseph Dresnok, the last US defector to North Korea still living in the isolated nation, offers no apology for slipping over the Cold War frontier more than four decades ago.
None is needed, he says in a British-financed documentary film in which he finally gets the chance to tell his tale. “I really feel at home. I wouldn't trade it for nothing.”
Narrated by Hollywood actor Christian Slater, the documentary Crossing the Line had its world premiere at the Pusan International Film Festival here.
Its executive producer Paul Yi went into the festival hoping to spark some interest in the work, but after Pyongyang carried out its first ever atom bomb test Oct. 9, sparking global outrage and UN Security Council sanctions, it quickly became one of the most-talked about at the festival.
The film uses archive footage interspersed with interviews with Dresnok to explain his life-changing decision to cross the no-man's land between the two Koreas one day in 1962.
Steven Spielberg presented a documentary about the Nazi massacre of tens of thousands of Jews at the Babi Yar ravine in Ukraine, several weeks after Ukraine marked the 65th anniversary of the tragedy.
The film by Ukrainian director Serhiy Bukovsky, Spell Your Name, for which Spielberg worked as co-executive producer, contains the testimony of Jewish survivors who escaped brutal execution and those who rescued friends and neighbors during the Holocaust.
The massacre began in late September 1941 when Nazi forces occupying Kiev marched Jews to the brink of the steep Babi Yar ravine and shot them. More than 33,700 Ukrainian Jews were killed over 48 hours. In the ensuing months, the number of people killed at Babi Yar grew to more than 100,000, and included Roma, or Gypsies, as well as other Kiev residents and Red Army prisoners.
In a follow-up to his recent 9/11 drama World Trade Center, filmmaker Oliver Stone plans to direct a movie about the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Paramount Pictures said on Monday. The film will be based in part on Jawbreaker, a recent book chronicling the US-led assault on the al Qaeda stronghold in eastern Afghanistan's Tora Bora region, a spokeswoman for Paramount, the studio behind the project said.
Helena Bonham-Carter will star as the diabolical meat-pie manufacturer Mrs. Lovett opposite demon barber Johnny Depp in a movie version of Sweeney Todd.
The British actress was tapped for the role by partner Tim Burton, who will direct the movie version of the famous Stephen Sondheim musical.
Bonham-Carter has been a regular collaborator in Burton's movies before, starring in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish and Planet of the Apes as well as providing the title voice for Corpse Bride.
Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston are still a couple despite tabloid press reports to the contrary and recent photographs showing the comic actor kissing a mystery blonde, a London lawyer said on Tuesday. The lawyer, Simon Smith, said he had been instructed by Vaughn to sue Britain's Sun and Mirror newspapers and the New York Post for publishing a photo of the actor “kissing a mystery blonde whilst attending a charity event ... at London's Old Vic theater.”
Just after 6am, I walked up to the ticket gate at Taipei Main Station and entered the Taiwan Railway platform without scanning any ticket; instead, I flashed the Sanrio Fun Rail pass on my phone to the gate worker and was admitted. I found my train and prepared to board. My destination? This very same station. I was embarking on a 13-hour journey on one of two round-the-island trains operated by ezTravel. They run each day, one counterclockwise around the island and one clockwise. They differ in a number of ways from an ordinary Taiwan Railway train and can make for
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
On Thursday, former Taipei mayor and founder of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Seven others related to the case were also handed prison sentences, while two were found not guilty. It has been a bad week for the TPP. On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) with suspicion of taking part in Beijing-directed election interference. Xu has strong links to the TPP, which once offered her a party list legislator nomination. Tuesday also
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