Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou (周杰倫) says his appearance in the action comedy The Green Hornet fulfilled a childhood dream to imitate Bruce Lee’s (李小龍) kung fu genius and bring his musical talent to the silver screen.
The film is a reprise of the 1966-1967 television series in which Lee starred as the sidekick to masked Los Angeles crime fighter Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher who spends his nights fighting crime in a quest for vigilante justice.
It opened this month to mixed reviews, but an exceptionally strong box office. Chou’s performance was praised by some, derided by others, with many commenting on his poor command of English.
Chou and leading man Seth Rogen were in Taipei yesteday to promote the film.
“I tried hard to get this role,” Chou said. “I worship heroes. I admit I’m pretty childlike in my inner side and I like Batman and Iron Man. When I got a chance to play a hero, I told myself I couldn’t give it up.”
This is the first Hollywood film for the 32-year-old Chou, whose fame as a rap and R&B artist is mostly confined to Asia. In recent years, he has appeared in a number of Chinese-language films, one of which he also directed.
Chou said his Hornet role as Reid’s assistant Kato was not meant to mirror Lee’s one-dimensional kung fu approach, but to be “more normal and closer to reality” and provide a showcase for his musical talent.
“I hope to show Western audiences that Asians don’t just do kung fu, but also sing, write songs and play the piano,” he said. “So I put the musical element into my Kato.”
Chou said Sony Pictures has decided to make a sequel to The Green Hornet and that he is set to reappear in the same role.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
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