Actor and director Lee Hong-chi (李鴻其) on Saturday won the Lion of the Future Luigi De Laurentiis award for best debut work with Love is a Gun (愛是一把槍) at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
The movie was the first Taiwanese film to win the award and Lee, 33, was the first Taiwanese winner at the festival after director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) won the Grand Jury Prize for Stray Dogs (郊遊) at the 70th Venice Film Festival 10 years ago.
“Many Chinese-language film masters and seniors have stood on this stage in the past. They have deeply influenced the worldview of my films. They are all role models for me to learn from,” he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
He thanked the judges for the honor and the encouragement, as well as his team and family for supporting him along the way.
“Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to make this movie. I will continue to work hard and keep filming,” he said.
Love is a Gun tells a story about the difficulties encountered by young people in a society struggling in the post-COVID-19-pandemic era.
A young man played by Lee wants to start a new life after being released from prison, but is pulled back into his past by friends and family.
Lee won best actor at the 17th Taipei Film Awards and best new performer at the 52nd Golden Horse Film Awards, with his role of Rat in the 2015 movie Thanatos, Drunk (醉生夢死).
After acting for six years, he earned immediate recognition in his directorial debut.
Film critic Eric Lavallee praised Love is a Gun.
“Channeling ethereal qualities akin to Lee Chang-dong’s Burning and some portraits crafted by Jia Zhang-ke (賈樟柯), this film encapsulates the sensation of perpetually treading water, never breaking free from its embrace,” Lavallee said.
The film is to be released in Taiwan by Hooray Films in December.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
A group affiliated with indicted Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) is to be dissolved for monitoring Chinese immigrants in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. Xu, the secretary-general of the Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Service Alliance, was indicted on March 24 on charges of violating the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法). The alliance “illegally monitored" Chinese immigrants living in Taiwan on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Ministry of the Interior is expected to dissolve the organization in the coming days under provisions of the Civil Associations Act (人民團體法), the source said. Xu, who married a Taiwanese in 1993 and became a Republic
RSS