The 25th edition of the Taipei Film Festival opened on Thursday evening with the premiere of writer-cum-director Giddens Ko’s (九把刀) new romantic comedy, Miss Shampoo (請問，還有哪裡需要加強).
Speaking with reporters, Ko said he was thrilled that his latest movie, an adaptation of his 2010 novel Precisely Out of Control (精準的失控), premiered at the Taipei Zhongshan Hall, where he made his directorial debut in 2011 with You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們ㄧ起追的女孩).
Miss Shampoo tells a romantic story between an aspiring apprentice hairdresser, played by Vivian Sung (宋芸樺), and a passionate gang leader, played by Hung Yu-hung (洪瑜鴻), who is better known as a member of Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹).
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Film Festival via CNA
Another movie that premiered last night at the festival was One Second Ahead, One Second Behind, a Japanese adaptation of the 2020 Golden Horse Best Feature Film winner My Missing Valentine (消失的情人節).
The film’s director, Nobuhiro Yamashita, and lead actor, Masaki Okada, were to attend the premier last night and interact with movie fans after the showing.
As part of the festival’s “Filmmaker in Focus” program, five movies by German writer-director Angela Schanelec are to be shown, including I Was at Home, But..., which bagged the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019.
Four movies by Belgian director Bas Devos will be screened under the same program, including Ghost Tropic and Hellhole.
The two-week festival will be followed by the Taipei Film Awards ceremony on the evening of July 8, when the grand prize, featuring a trophy and NT$1 million (US$32,342) in prize money, is to be presented to a Taiwanese film nominated for best feature film, best documentary, best short film or best animation.
Eye of the Storm (疫起), director Lin Chun-yang’s (林君陽) movie inspired by the 2003 SARS outbreak in Taiwan, leads this year’s awards with 13 nominations, including best feature film, best director and best screenplay.
Other movies that are up for best feature film are last year’s Golden Horse Awards Best Feature winner Coo-Coo 043 (一家子兒咕咕叫), as well as Gaga (哈勇家), The Abandoned (查無此心) and Bad Education (黑的教育).
Lin, known for his TV series Wave Makers (人選之人—造浪者) and The World Between Us (我們與惡的距離), is also competing for best director alongside documentary filmmaker Tsai Tsung-Lung (蔡崇隆) and Laha Mebow (陳潔瑤), who won at last year’s Golden Horse Awards for Gaga, among others.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Reports of Taiwanese going missing, being detained or interrogated, or having their personal liberties restricted in China increased about fourfold annually last year, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Last year, 221 Taiwanese who traveled to China were reported missing, were detained and interrogated, or otherwise had their personal freedom restricted, up from 55 the previous year, the council said. Reopening group tours to China would be risky, as it would leave travelers with no way to seek help through official channels after Beijing shut down dialogue between the associations tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said. Taipei’s Taiwan Strait Tourism
RSS