The battle between the Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎華語影片競賽) and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival (APFF) over which will be the most star-studded event is intensifying as the award ceremonies approach. For the moment, the Golden Horse seems to have fallen behind in the celebrity stakes: its most recent setback has been the defection of Yang Kui-mei (楊貴媚).
A member of the Golden Horse Film Festival Committee, Yang claimed she would not attend the Golden Horse Awards and would embrace the APFF instead. The former Golden Horse queen is apparently furious that she wasn't nominated for the best actress award at Taiwan's premiere movie event.
Is this pettiness? Maybe. As for members of the Golden Horse Festival committee, they reportedly can't understand the betrayal.
National treasure Ang Lee (李安), however, showed off his diplomatic skills by declining invitations from both events, saying that he was both mentally and physically spent, and that his latest film project Lust, Caution (色戒) is far behind schedule.
According to gossip observers writing in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper), Lee is paying for his bold decision to work with a group of young and inexperienced actors such as ABT pop idol Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) and Ke Yu-lun (柯宇綸), who have so far failed to live up to the director's high expectations and need extra training in order to give presentable performances.
While Lee's mission to elevate local actors onto the world stage seems to have become an obstacle to his film, local pop diva A-mei (阿妹) is successfully continuing her quest to promote her tribe's culture. The Puyuma celebrity has recently purchased 10,000 ping (approximately 3,300m2) of land worth NT$30 million in Taitung after last year buying 6,000 ping of land for traditional Aboriginal ceremonies and gatherings.
The land is reportedly earmarked for an Aboriginal dreamland where an art village will be built for young Aborigines to learn music and dance. Playing down her ambitious project, A-mei said the land is just for her mom, who likes to farm, which makes no sense, as the huge area would be difficult to cultivate.
A-mei's gesture of generosity, however, may put her in debt. According to gossip insiders, the diva has an overdraft of nearly NT$50 million that was used to cover her expenses over the past two years. At the same time, she has turned down lucrative TV commercials, endorsements and concerts to make time for studying in the US, public service activities and the musical Carmen, which is slated to take to the stage at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋) by the end of the year.
The rumored romance between Shu Qi (舒淇) and Chang Chen (張震) that budded during the shooting of Three Times (最好的時光) last year is back on the front pages of the gossip rags as the two have paired up for Blood Brothers (天堂口), a film produced by John Woo (吳宇森), and are said to often sneak out for secret trysts after a hard day's work.
If what maybe a publicity stunt transforms into a genuine love story, the two would be coming together again after a number of detours: Earlier this year Shu was spotted touring Tokyo with playboy Wang Lee-hom while Chang openly displayed his admiration for his co-star Hong Kong's Karena Lan (林嘉欣) in Silk (詭絲).
A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one — shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains. A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20 percent. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age — and what we can do about it. “It’s a very robust finding,” said lead researcher Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University. And “women seem to benefit more,” important as they’re at higher risk of
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
Mother Nature gives and Mother Nature takes away. When it comes to scenic beauty, Hualien was dealt a winning hand. But one year ago today, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake wrecked the county’s number-one tourist attraction, Taroko Gorge in Taroko National Park. Then, in the second half of last year, two typhoons inflicted further damage and disruption. Not surprisingly, for Hualien’s tourist-focused businesses, the twelve months since the earthquake have been more than dismal. Among those who experienced a precipitous drop in customer count are Sofia Chiu (邱心怡) and Monica Lin (林宸伶), co-founders of Karenko Kitchen, which they describe as a space where they
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