Director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s (侯孝賢) martial arts movie The Assassin (刺客聶隱娘) will represent Taiwan in the best foreign-language film category at next year’s Oscars.
The Motion Picture and Drama Association made the decision after a meeting to select the nation’s entry for the best foreign film category at the Academy Awards, the Ministry of Culture said on Wednesday.
The Assassin was selected because the film’s technical aspect was top notch, the association said.
Photo courtesy of the Golden Horse Film Festival
The film conveys a classical atmosphere and humanity through its cinematography, lighting, art direction and character modeling, the association said, adding that the movie dialogue was in classical Chinese, which exudes a unique charm.
“Director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s film techniques have remained the same, but the film shows Hou’s strong ambition to create a new film language and style,” the association said.
Set in ninth-century China, the film is about a general’s daughter — Nie Yin-niang (聶隱娘) — who was trained by a nun to be an assassin from the age of 10, finding out that she has been sent to kill the man she had been promised to when she was young.
Hou won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival in May for the film.
The film opened nationally on Aug. 28 and as of Monday it had grossed about NT$30 million (US$913,075), Central Pictures Corp said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS