Vicky Chen (陳文淇) is a laid-back 14-year-old with an easy smile, but the Taiwanese actress is already a force to be reckoned with, nominated for two major awards at the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars. Chen could make history tonight as the youngest ever contender to be crowned best actress at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展) awards.
Local media have dubbed her a “prodigy” able to play complex characters in movies that tackle a range of difficult subjects.
Chen is nominated for the best actress award for her role in Angels Wear White (嘉年華) directed by China’s Vivian Qu (文晏), in which she plays a runaway who witnesses a sexual assault and struggles between her conscience and saving her job by staying quiet.
Photo: AFP
DOUBLE NOMINATION
She is also up for best supporting actress in Taiwanese director Yang Ya-che’s (楊雅?) thriller The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful, where she takes the role of an upper-class heiress in a family gripped by dark political and business intrigues. The film includes a scene in which her character is raped. Chen describes the roles as “very challenging.”
“I wanted to try them out, even though I felt nervous,” Chen said.
“I am very young so there are some things I don’t understand. I rely on communicating with my seniors, other actors and the director about any questions I have over the script.”
Chen’s acting career started four years ago when she was cast in a film in China, where her family is based. She went on to appear in a number of movies and TV dramas before landing a lead role in Angels Wear White, which competed at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
“I like acting because I feel very happy and accomplished after finishing a scene,” she said.
ORDINARY CLASSMATE
Giving back-to-back interviews ahead of tonight’s ceremony, Chen appeared poised, but said days can be long as she balances her acting commitments, school work and private tutoring. Teachers and fellow students are not treating her any differently after the nominations, she said.
“My classmates see me as their classmate and my teachers see me as their student. I don’t put too much pressure on myself,” she said. “Perhaps the most difficult part for me is to get up early and go to sleep late.”
In the wake of more than 100 women coming forward to accuse Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct — ranging from harassment to rape — there is a spotlight on the global film industry and its treatment of young actresses.
Chen said she was aware of the issues but felt she was in safe hands, with her family and management constantly by her side.
“I am very well protected and I am also careful,” she said.
Her ambition is to continue with her studies alongside her movie career — she counts Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman and Australian singer-actor and YouTube sensation Troye Sivan among her role models. While she has made her name by taking on heavy-duty parts, Chen says she would next like to play a “sunny girl,” which is closer to how she sees herself. Director Yang said he has no doubts about her potential.
“She has talent of course,” he said.
“But most importantly, she has a lot of passion.”
Nothing like the spectacular, dramatic unraveling of a political party in Taiwan has unfolded before as has hit the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over recent weeks. The meltdown of the New Power Party (NPP) and the self-implosion of the New Party (NP) were nothing compared to the drama playing out now involving the TPP. This ongoing saga is so interesting, this is the fifth straight column on the subject. To catch up on this train wreck of a story up to Aug. 20, search for “Donovan’s Deep Dives Ko Wen-je” in a search engine. ANN KAO SENTENCED TO PRISON YET AGAIN,
When the Dutch began interacting with the indigenous people of Taiwan, they found that their hunters classified deer hide quality for trade using the Portuguese terms for “head,” “belly,” and “foot.” The Portuguese must have stopped here more than once to trade, but those visits have all been lost to history. They already had a colony on Macao, and did not need Taiwan to gain access to southern China or to the trade corridor that connected Japan with Manila. They were, however, the last to look at Taiwan that way. The geostrategic relationship between Taiwan and the Philippines was established
Sept. 9 to Sept. 15 The upgrading of sugarcane processing equipment at Ciaozaitou Sugar Factory (橋仔頭) in 1904 had an unintended but long-lasting impact on Taiwan’s transportation and rural development. The newly imported press machine more than doubled production, leading to an expansion of the factory’s fields beyond what its original handcarts and oxcarts could handle. In 1905, factory manager Tejiro Yamamoto headed to Hawaii to observe how sugarcane transportation was handled there. They had trouble finding something suitable for Taiwan until they discovered a 762mm-gauge “miniature” railroad at a small refinery in the island of Maui. On
When Sara (names in this story are changed to protect the sources’ identities) takes her daughter April out anywhere in Taiwan, she’s frequently asked the same question: “Is your husband Taiwanese?” Sara is white, and April has unmistakably Asian features. “My wife is Taiwanese,” she replies. If asked, she may then clarify that April is her biological child, Taiwanese by blood, and has two moms. This often creates more confusion, but it is a difficult reality for Sara, her wife Dana and April. While Dana has adopted April, the child does not have Taiwanese (Republic of China) nationality despite both of her
RSS