Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull schooled the competition last weekend as the fourth appearance of Harrison Ford in the role of the adventuring archaeologist raked in nearly US$127 million at the North American box office, contributing to an estimated US$312 million worldwide. But the film, which takes place in Peru, has many Peruvians angry after seeing the movie’s many clumsy — and often insulting — mistakes about their country. Peruvians are also angry at seeing Maya warriors from Central America speaking Quechua in the Peruvian jungle, where hundreds of native languages, but not Quechua, are spoken. The movie also shows quicksand, man-eating ants and enormous Hawaiian waterfalls, all of which do not exist in the Peruvian Amazonia.
In what is perhaps the biggest insult, director Steven Spielberg and writer George Lucas place the Maya pyramid of Chichen Itza, located in Mexico, in the Peruvian jungle.
Historian Manuel Burga, the former head of the University of San Marcos, said that Spielberg and Lucas were given bad advice.
PHOTO : AP
“Even if it is fiction there are many incorrect facts,” Burga said. “This is going to be damaging to many people who do not know our country, because it shows a Peruvian landscape that is not real.
Historian Teodoro Hampe is scathing in his view of they way Americans view the geography of Latin America: “For them Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia or Peru are all the same.”
French fashion house Christian Dior said yesterday it has dropped Sharon Stone from its Chinese advertisements and released a statement from the actress apologizing for saying the earthquake that struck China may have been the result of bad “karma” over its treatment of Tibet. The 50-year-old actress said she was “deeply sorry” for causing anguish and anger among Chinese people with her remarks in an interview last week. Stone models for Christian Dior, and the company’s Shanghai office issued the statement. A public relations manager for Dior in Shanghai said Stone would no longer appear in the company’s advertisements in China.
“Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people,” Stone said in the statement. “I am willing to take part in the relief work of China’s earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people.”
On TV, the fate of brutal North Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano may have been unclear when hit TV series The Sopranos ended last year, but his wardrobe is headed for a certain ending: it’s being auctioned for charity.
James Gandolfini, who played Soprano for six seasons over eight-and-a-half years, is selling his personal costume wardrobe in a Christie’s pop culture auction in New York on June 25, with all proceeds going to a charity that helps wounded US troops.
The 24 lots include a bloody outfit worn when Soprano was shot at the beginning of season six by Uncle Junior in a fit of dementia, which is estimated to fetch up to US$3,000, and his signature white tank top, light blue striped boxer shorts, striped short robe and leather scuffs that could make US$1,500.
Also up for grabs are a selection of costumes worn by other Sopranos characters, including Junior Soprano, Paulie Walnuts and A.J. Soprano.
As for the movie Sex and the City, which will be released in Taiwan May 20, the big question is: Do Carrie and Mr. Big marry or don’t they? Despite the success of the TV series, Sarah Jessica Parker said it was still a struggle to get the movie made.
“To make a movie about four women over 40 is really not the way Hollywood likes to spend their money,” she said, adding that the studio was swayed by the devotion of the show’s fans.
But there was also the problem of signing up all the stars, especially Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha and was initially unwilling to make a film — but not because of a supposed rift with Parker, which both women laughed off.
“What a difference four years makes,” said Cattrall, who blamed exhaustion, a divorce, the end of the series, and her father’s diagnosis with dementia for her initial reluctance.
Kristin Davis, who plays Charlotte, and Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, both said the movie was a dream come true. “We thought we were dead and we were resurrected,” Nixon said.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight last month symbolized the closest humanity has ever been to global catastrophe In this context, the legislature remains gridlocked over the general budget, mirroring tensions simmering across the globe. According to local soothsayers, this “extreme speed and violent conflict” is no coincidence as the Year of the Horse is the year of bingwu (丙午), the rare “Fire Horse Year” (火馬年) that occurs once every 60 years, a configuration carrying an energy that shapes everything from personal fortunes to international crises. “For some people, it can be a
Feb. 16 to Feb. 22 Pai Ko’s (白克) film career appeared poised to reach new heights in 1962 with the completion of the highly-anticipated, star-studded Romance of Longshan Temple (龍山寺之戀). Despite being mainly in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), the film promoted harmony between those born in China and Taiwan, aligning with the official cultural policy at the time. However, he soon disappeared. Colleagues found out he was arrested and accused of colluding with communists. It was not his first run-in with the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). As a university student in China, he joined the anti-Japanese Anti-Imperialism League and
Taiwan is especially vulnerable to climate change. The surrounding seas are rising at twice the global rate, extreme heat is becoming a serious problem in the country’s cities, and typhoons are growing less frequent (resulting in droughts) but more destructive. Yet young Taiwanese, according to interviewees who often discuss such issues with this demographic, seldom show signs of climate anxiety, despite their teachers being convinced that humanity has a great deal to worry about. Climate anxiety or eco-anxiety isn’t a psychological disorder recognized by diagnostic manuals, but that doesn’t make it any less real to those who have a chronic and
When Bilahari Kausikan defines Singapore as a small country “whose ability to influence events outside its borders is always limited but never completely non-existent,” we wish we could say the same about Taiwan. In a little book called The Myth of the Asian Century, he demolishes a number of preconceived ideas that shackle Taiwan’s self-confidence in its own agency. Kausikan worked for almost 40 years at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reaching the position of permanent secretary: saying that he knows what he is talking about is an understatement. He was in charge of foreign affairs in a pivotal place in
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