A Hong Kong distributor has withdrawn a Chinese-made film from Taiwan's annual Golden Horse Film Festival, a Taiwanese official said on Tuesday, apparently under pressure from mainland officials.
A festival official said he was informed by the Hong Kong office of film distributor Fortissimo that Chinese authorities did not want the film The Go Master (吳清源) to be shown at the event.
Chang Chen (張震), who plays the strategy game master in the film, was nominated last month for best actor at the festival and was considered a front-runner for the award.
PHOTOS: AP
Beijing routinely bans Chinese films from the Taiwan-hosted Mandarin-language movie festival because of its long-standing political feud with the island.
Organizers and government officials officially launched Tuesday in Taipei the final 10-day countdown to the 2006 Taipei TV and Film Festival (TTF), the largest TV and film festival in Asia.
The annual festival, which will be from Thursday through next Saturday, includes three major events — the Taipei International TV, Film and Digital Contents Exhibition (TFCOM), the Taipei International Digital TV, Broadcasting and Film Forum and the Taiwan Film and TV Project Promotion.
"In only its third year, the festival has surpassed three major TV festivals in China and established a leading position in Asia, " said Lai Kuo-chou (賴國洲), chairman and CEO of Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV), the main organizer.
There will be more than 650 booths set up by 75 companies from 10 countries at the TFCOM, to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center, Lai said.
Licensing deals signed this year are expected to surpass NT$157.5 million, up from last year's US$3.5 million, according to Government Information Office Minister Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦).
The festival has been integrated by the GIO with the Golden Horse Awards and the Golden Bell Awards, into the Taiwan International Film and TV Expo, which runs Nov. 8 through Nov. 25.
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie said she accepted a role in the movie, A Mighty Heart, now shooting in western Indian city Mumbai, because she felt there should be dialogue between different cultures and faiths, news reports said.
"We are all from different backgrounds, even people on the panel and characters in the film," which is based on the life of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, Jolie told news agency IANS.
Jolie, who is playing Mariane Pearl, Daniel's wife in the film, flew into the city last week after over a month of shooting in Pune city, about 150km south-east of western Maharashtra state's capital Mumbai, where her bodyguards hogged the limelight by allegedly threatening and manhandling press photographers.
The actress and her partner Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and their three children have been under intense media scrutiny ever since they landed in India early last month.
The film A Mighty Heart is based on the book written by Mariane, deals with her husband who worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was abducted and killed in Pakistan four years ago.
Oscar-winning actor-director Warren Beatty will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at next year's Golden Globes, organizers announced Wednesday.
Beatty, 69, will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award in recognition of a glittering movie career that has seen him direct or star in several classics including Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.
Previous winners of the award, which is decided by a vote of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), include Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson.
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson has agreed to .a deal to make a film about his life, the movie industry daily Variety reported Wednesday.
Wilson, the lead songwriter of the legendary California-based 1960s supergroup, has signed an agreement with producer Mark Gordon for a biopic, according to Variety.
"I love the idea of there being a movie on my life, and I can't wait to see the script," Wilson was quoted by Variety as saying.
Wilson was responsible for some of the seminal songs of American rock music in the 1960s, including Surfin' USA, Good Vibrations and Help Me Rhonda. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds is regularly cited as one of the most influential American albums ever.
Wilson had a turbulent life. Deaf in one ear and bullied by an abusive father, he eventually suffered from depression, drug addiction and a nervous breakdown.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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