Based on short stories penned by director Pang Ho-cheung (彭浩翔), Trivial Matters (破事兒) is a series of vignettes on love, sex, friendship and as the title suggests, all the Trivial Matters in life. Entertaining, witty and sometimes downright absurd, the seven segments assemble several of Hong Kong's pop idols, who seem - from the delivery of the project - to be having a big, A-list ball.
A video recording of a couple talking about their sex life opens the film with Hong Kong entertainer Jan Lam (林海峰) starring as an off-screen therapist. The reenactment of the couple's bedroom activities by two other actors adds a comic punch to the otherwise "she says, he says" routine.
In the wake of Edison Chen's (陳冠希) sex photo scandal (in which hundreds of images featuring female Hong Kong stars in erotic poses with Chen were posted on the Internet), the segment offers a poignant comparison with real life: The star plays a dandy picking up girls at a nightclub.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF GROUP POWER
Ah Wai - The Big Head, one of the most developed segments, stars Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) and her real-life boyfriend Juno Mak (麥浚龍). It portrays friendship not as an expression of loyalty and love but as a hodgepodge of selfishness, pride and carelessness.
The subject of love is affectionately tackled in Recharge starring Chapman To (杜汶澤) as an actor who is addicted to paid sex. Junior, on the other hand, is a charming example of director Pang's absurd humor that stars Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛) as a PR representative from an assassination firm and Shawn Yue (余文樂) as a hitman-in-training who enjoys smoking pot with his target.
The vignettes fluctuate between engaging viewers and drifting off, but still show Pang as a rising star who dares to produce something different from Hong Kong cinema's mainstream fare.
May 26 to June 1 When the Qing Dynasty first took control over many parts of Taiwan in 1684, it roughly continued the Kingdom of Tungning’s administrative borders (see below), setting up one prefecture and three counties. The actual area of control covered today’s Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. The administrative center was in Taiwan Prefecture, in today’s Tainan. But as Han settlement expanded and due to rebellions and other international incidents, the administrative units became more complex. By the time Taiwan became a province of the Qing in 1887, there were three prefectures, eleven counties, three subprefectures and one directly-administered prefecture, with
It’s an enormous dome of colorful glass, something between the Sistine Chapel and a Marc Chagall fresco. And yet, it’s just a subway station. Formosa Boulevard is the heart of Kaohsiung’s mass transit system. In metro terms, it’s modest: the only transfer station in a network with just two lines. But it’s a landmark nonetheless: a civic space that serves as much more than a point of transit. On a hot Sunday, the corridors and vast halls are filled with a market selling everything from second-hand clothes to toys and house decorations. It’s just one of the many events the station hosts,
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world
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