All U People Theater (全民大劇團), the multimedia group that produced the wildly popular spoof politics TV show The Largest Political Party (全民最大黨), turns its satirical eye to soap operas starring entertainment industry idols for its third theatrical work, which will be performed at the Metropolitan Hall (台北市社教館城市舞台) from Feb. 10 to Feb. 19.
Written and directed by Hsieh Nien-tsu (謝念祖), Crazy Idol Soap (瘋狂偶像劇) stars TV soap actor James Wen (溫昇豪) as a successful TV producer who coaches supporting actress Megan Lai (賴雅妍) on how to become a female lead. The show features 16 songs with lyrics penned by pop master Vincent Fang (方文山).
“I aim not only to lampoon but also to celebrate the pop-idol-soap formula,” director Hsieh told the Taipei Times in an interview on Monday. “Soaps starring idols satisfy people’s lack of love when their ordinary lives are humble.”
Photo courtesy of All U People Theater
At a rehearsal earlier this week, Wen advised Lai, “if you want to be the female lead, throw out your garbage. Forget the past and then you can move on.”
Crazy Idol Soap’s story traces the lives of its two protagonists as they meet, argue, kiss, experience major trauma and misunderstandings and miss out on romantic possibilities.
“It took 30 versions for me to pinpoint this love story,” Hsieh said. “I have to admit love is the most timeless and moving topic of all.”
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
A dozen excited 10-year-olds are bouncing in their chairs. The small classroom’s walls are lined with racks of wetsuits and water equipment, and decorated with posters of turtles. But the students’ eyes are trained on their teacher, Tseng Ching-ming, describing the currents and sea conditions at nearby Banana Bay, where they’ll soon be going. “Today you have one mission: to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some of the kids grin, nervously. They don’t know it, but the students from Kenting-Eluan elementary school on Taiwan’s southernmost point, are rare among their peers and predecessors. Despite most of
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang
Feb. 10 to Feb. 16 More than three decades after penning the iconic High Green Mountains (高山青), a frail Teng Yu-ping (鄧禹平) finally visited the verdant peaks and blue streams of Alishan described in the lyrics. Often mistaken as an indigenous folk song, it was actually created in 1949 by Chinese filmmakers while shooting a scene for the movie Happenings in Alishan (阿里山風雲) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), recounts director Chang Ying (張英) in the 1999 book, Chang Ying’s Contributions to Taiwanese Cinema and Theater (打鑼三響包得行: 張英對台灣影劇的貢獻). The team was meant to return to China after filming, but