The nomination list for the 44th Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) was announced last Saturday and the controversy it's stirred up augurs bickering for weeks to come. Naturally, Ang Lee's (李安) Lust, Caution (色,戒) leads the pack with 11 nominations including best film, best director and best leading actor and actress, but the rest of the list has raised film critics' eyebrows. All the major categories are dominated by Chinese productions that have shoved Hong Kong and Taiwanese movies into minor categories.
In the four acting categories, actress Chang Chun-ning (張鈞甯) is the only local candidate, up against the overseas troop while Qing Fei De Yi (情非得已之生存之道), a debut feature by Taiwanese actor-turned-director Doze Niu (鈕承澤), somehow got a slot in the best film category.
Jay Chou (周杰倫) is reportedly down in the dumps as his box-office success, Secret (不能說的秘密), earned only a few nominations in technical categories. Another disillusioned director, Chang Tso-chi (張作驥), considered withdrawing his latest film, Butterfly (蝴蝶), from the Golden Horse Film Festival (金馬影展), but later decided to let audiences judge the work, which took nearly three years to make and received no nominations, for themselves.
Heated debates on the professionalism of the festival jury members and impartiality of the voting system are likely to ensue. As far as star-chasers are concerned, this year's awards ceremony promises to be a lackluster affair.
On a happier showbiz note, boy band F4 received another straight-A report card from the Tourism Bureau (觀光局) for holding not one, but four separate fan get-togethers. Fans of the group descended on the capital from Japan, South Korea and even further afield.
Of the four members, Jerry Yan (言承旭) appeared to be the most accessible as a NT$300 ticket came with a chance to play basketball with the heartthrob. Ken Chu (朱孝天), on the other hand, asked NT$1,000 from fans for an intimate diner date that included delicacies made by a star chef. It is estimated that the foursome's efforts gave the economy a NT$100 million boost each day. We suspect album sales also went up.
What is the fastest way to make it onto the gossip front-pages if you are a nobody? Apparently, for a Chinese drag queen who calls him/herself Zcu Kaiyun (鄒開雲), the fastest shortcut to fame was to claim he was Tang Wei's body double in the steamy sex scenes with Tony Leung in Lust, Caution. Shortly after the creative publicity stunt, Zcu issued a public apology on his blog (i.mop.com/qvbgafcu).
In real life, Tony Leung (梁朝偉) is, reportedly, expected to tie the knot with his girlfriend, Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), who recently won the best leading actress gong at the Golden Rooster Awards (金雞獎), China's most prestigious movie accolades.
The speculation comes after Lau said she would seriously give marriage some thought before the awards ceremony. "When I am done thinking, I'll make the announcement," Lau was quoted as saying.
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
For anyone on board the train looking out the window, it must have been a strange sight. The same foreigner stood outside waving at them four different times within ten minutes, three times on the left and once on the right, his face getting redder and sweatier each time. At this unique location, it’s actually possible to beat the train up the mountain on foot, though only with extreme effort. For the average hiker, the Dulishan Trail is still a great place to get some exercise and see the train — at least once — as it makes its way
RSS