By Julie Hong
Taiwan gives out Golden Horse Awards, Korea's Family Ties earns recognition, and Shahrukh Khan takes over game show hosting duties from Amitabh Bachchan. All this and more in the latest edition of News From Abroad.
Perhaps Love and After This Our Exile Wins the Gold
Peter Chan's Perhaps Love was the big winner at the 43rd Annual Golden Horse Awards this past month. The awards ceremony, which is the Chinese equivalent to the Oscars, was held in Taipei, Taiwan. Peter Chan won Best Director, while the film's leading lady Zhou Xun won Best Actress. The film also won the award of Best Cinematography and Best Song. Although it seemed as though Peter Chan's musical would win it all, the dark horse of the night After This Our Exile became the golden one as it surprisingly won the category of Best Film. The film also scored the Best Actor category by Aaron Kwok with his second consecutive win. Aside from the celebration, there was also much controversy behind the Golden Horse Awards this year as two nominated films, I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, and The Go Master both pulled away from the running.
APA review of Perhaps Love (http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=38709)
APA review of I Don't Want to Sleep Alone and Go Master (http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=57800)
Bollywood in Hollywood
Bollywood is big this year at 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Three Bollywood films, Rang De Basanti, Omkara, and Lage Raho Munnabha are all competing for that coveted nomination for Best Foreign Film, which will be announced December 14. According to Sheeraz Hasan, founder of www.hollywood.tv (http: //www.hollywood.tv), Bollywood represents 3.8 billion fans worldwide, while Hollywood has 3.6 billion fans, and he feels confident that Bollywood will get its well-deserved recognition. The Golden Globes is considering 56 foreign language films this year for its foreign film category. This year's Golden Globes will take place on January 15th in Beverly Hills and will be airing on NBC.
APA interview with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (Rang De Basanti) (
http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=59094)
Artistic Freedom Perseveres at Serbian Film Festival
Summer Palace, a film based on the events of the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, was originally banned from the Belgrade Film Festival due to strong enforcement from the Chinese embassy in Serbia. The Chinese Embassy made a bold request saying that the film ban was in the interest of keeping good bilateral relations with Serbia. The film zooms in the lives of the students' free-spirited lives before the protest and how they dealt with the bloody aftermath of the Tiananmen protest. Despite the Chinese Embassy's strong opposition towards showing the film, the Serbian film festival officials decided to reinstate the film after critics accused the officials for imposing self-censorship. The film will be shown as planned, free of charge. The festival organizers said that screening of Summer Palace will parallel Serbia's democratic and freedom-loving values.
South Korea Wins Big at Asia Pacific Film Festival
At the 51st Asia Pacific Film Festival, South Korea made quite an impression, winning 6 awards in one night. They swept the categories for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound Effects, Best Short Film, and Best Editing. Actress Son Ye-Jin was awarded for her convincing role in the film April Snow, while actor Lee Jae-eung won the award for his portrayal of a troubled teenager in Bravo, My Life. The Iranian film The Unwanted Woman didn't do too bad either, scoring three top honors for Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Taipei, the host of the event, won two awards as well for the category of Best Supporting Actress and Best Animated Film. Run Run Shaw, founder of the Shaw Brothers movie company in 1958, was also honored with the lifetime achievement award. The awards ceremony was held at Taipei County's Gymnasium with the participation of Taiwan's government officials.
Kim Tae-yong Wins at Big, Fat Greek Film Festival
At the 47th Salonika International Film Festival this past Sunday, Kim Tae-yong won the Golden Alexander award for best feature film and best scenario for his picture Gajokeui Tansaeng (Family Ties). The young director-writer, 37, was rewarded with 37,000 euro ($47,450) for the film. The film is about the reunion of a dysfunctional family that has many messy relationship issues to clean up. This is Tae-yong's second film following his 1999 debut Yeogo Goedam II (Memento Mori). Iranian Mona Zandi Haghhighi won second place with the Silver Alexander Award and 22,000 euro ($28, 200) for her film Friday Afternoon (Asr-E Jomeh). Her film also ran with a family theme as it tells a tale of two sisters reunited after beingapart. Kim Tae Yong and Mona Zandi Haghhighi's films were among the 14 full-length features that were in the selection, all which were created by young directors on either their first or second films.
APA review of Family Ties (
http: //www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=57791)
Shah Rukh Khan, the New Host for Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Amitabh Bachchan will be passing the torch to Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Bachchan, 64, stopped hosting the show in January due to a stomach surgery, and the show was abruptly taken off air. Bachchan, who is one of the biggest actors in the Bollywood film industry, brought his infectious charm and his famous name to Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to Win 10 Million Rupees), making it one of the most popular shows in India since 2000. However, Star India Channel's chief executive Samir Nair has great hope that Shah Rukh Khan will carry on the legacy of the show with his boy-next-door looks and lively personality. The show is set to air again early next year.
Nobuyoshi Araki Exhibits his Hometown
Photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has never been one to be afraid of passing that line of inhibition when it comes to his work. His work has been described as monstrous as well as genius, and he has been identified as a pornographer as well as an artist. His most controversial work has been centered around his disturbing portraits of women featured in bondage ropes and splattered body paint. However, Araki's recent book and exhibition "Tokyo Jinsei," he photographs the everyday city scene of Tokyo with an unforeseen dynamism and a sense of nostalgia. On his topic of choice, Araki explains, “Photographing a city that is not my own is bothersome. To be honest, I don't have any interest in any city besides Tokyo. The most important thing for me is to take pictures of the people I love the most and the city I love the most, and that's Tokyo.”
Nobuyoshi Araki's "Tokyo Jinsei" runs till Dec. 24 at the Edo-Tokyo Museum; open 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (closed Mon.). For more information call (03) 3626-9974 or visit www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp (http: //www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp)
F4's Ken Chu Cooks for Fans
They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but it stands true for women as well. Well, at least for F4 fans. 2000 fans of Ken Chu, from Taiwan's popular boy band F4, gathered this past Sunday at the Pacifico Yokohama to see their favorite singer introduce his photo essay titled “Ken Chu Oishii Kankei” (“My Family and Cooking Life”). At this premiere, which doubled as a press conference and a fan meeting, Chu taught a cooking lesson on how to make Lotus Root flavored with ginger. The photo essay consisted of numerous Taiwan recipes, which are apparently used by the Chu family.
Bruce Lee Land, Hong Kong's New Disneyland?
What do Walt Disney and Bruce Lee have in common? Not much, but they both have theme parks created under their name, or at least there is one soon to be for the martial arts legend. Wong Yiu-Keung, the chairman of the Bruce Lee Club based in Hong Kong, announced that an honorary theme park will be built under the name of the great martial artist himself. This theme park will be located at Shunde in Southern China, Lee's ancestral home, and it will include a statue, memorial hall, martial arts academy, and conference center. Though the funding of the park is unclear, it is estimated to have a budget of $25.5 million. Wong attended the meeting in planning the park's foundation along with Lee's brother Robert Lee and actress Betty Ting Pei. The actress donated a pair of nunchucks that Lee once used to the park. As much anticipation is set for the opening of the park, Wong stated that the park is planned to open in three years.
Lee Hyo-Ri Back with a New Drama
After a nearly 2-year hiatus in the acting world, singing pop sensation Lee Hyo-Ri is returning to the scene after some heavy negotiation. Hyo-Ri's last acting gig was in the drama, 3 Leaf Clover, where she played the role of the main character Gina who is a welder in a steel mill with a criminal past. The drama was about her struggles as she deals with the obstacles of being an ex-felon and maintaining her rocky relationship with her rebellious boyfriend. The filming of this new drama will begin December 12, 2006, and Mnet Media has decided to shorten the length of the drama from the usual 70 minutes to 40 minutes. The soundtrack of the drama will consist of Hyo-Ri's songs, one dance track and one dramatic track. According to the representatives at Mnet, since Hyolee has recently changed companies, she is still working in her transition. Mnet Media also represents SG Wannabe, See Ya, and Ock Ju Hyun.
Published: Tuesday, December 5, 2006
