This weekend, if you're in the mood for slapstick comedy, spend NT$220 and check out Chu Yen-ping's (
Two Birds with One Stone is a China-Taiwan co-production, with Chu's Yen-ping Films and the Beijing-based Time Films (
Starring the notorious TV host Jacky Wu (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
The film is intentionally a parody and mocks some hit martial-arts movies of recent years, such as Zhang Yi-mou's (
Chu's films often insist on using poor taste to mock the classics and Two Birds with One Stone is no exception. But he seems to overdo this technique and forgets to tell a complete story. The only character that works is played by Wu in a convincing performance as a slacker who secretly adores the minister's daughter.
Behind the Palace, Beyond the Horizon (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
In 2003 the National Palace Museum underwent a series of cultural exchange projects in hopes of refreshing its public image. One of them was a "visiting artists" program that invited international artists to visit Taiwan and the museum. The program inspired this PTS documentary.
Film director Wang Hsiao-ti (
Dutch animation filmmaker Gerrit van Dijk is known for his unique style, which uses collage and deformation of images. During his visit to the museum, he is especially intrigued with a Ming-dynasty block print, Stories of the West Chamber (
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
Van Dijk praised the work as so refined that he found its execution centuries ago simply unbelievable. And his 40-second animation is made like an impressionist painting, inspired by the block print and also infused with his personal impressions of his Taiwan visit.
French pottery artist Jean Girel owns the title of Maitre d'Art, presented by the French National Committee of Art. Girel came to see the Soong-dynasty china that he had been longing to see. He was also impressed by the animal-shaped ornaments on the bronze wares of the Bronze Age that depict bears, horses and birds.
Apparently, Girel was moved by the spirit of ancient people worshiping the universe and nature. His pottery work, which was made in the studio of Taipei Teacher's College reflects such a spirit. It is graceful artwork, simulating the thick and solid quality of bronzeware and at the same time demonstrates an experimental variation of glazed colors.
PHOTO COURTESY OF YEN-PING FILMS
As director Wang Hsiao-ti puts it, the relation between the collection pieces and the new artwork is the flow and transformation of creativity, and proves that such an old place like the Palace Museum can still generate new ideas and new creations.
The most valuable part of the film deals with seven architecture and design students and their works. Some were inspired by the art of calligraphy and invented a mechanism that looks like a huge writing brush. Others designed an imaginary world of plastic tubes that was inspired by Qing-dynasty snuff bottles.
From the young creative spirits shown in the film, Wang vividly paints a picture of those ancient collections being infused with new life. They no longer stay static in history but have become part of people's lives.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory — and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested the best-available scientific predictions about how the climate functions. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next. But they are still debating what might have contributed to this
For the authorities that brought the Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) into existence, the route is as much about culture as it is about hiking. Han culture dominates the coastal and agricultural flatlands of Tainan and Chiayi counties, but as the Greenway climbs along its Tribal Trail (原鄉之路) section, hikers pass through communities inhabited by members of the Tsou Indigenous community. Leaving Chiayi County’s Dapu Village (大埔), walkers follow Provincial Highway 3 to Dapu Bridge where a sign bearing the Tsou greeting “a veo veo yu” marks the point at which the Greenway turns off to follow Qingshan Industrial Road (青山產業道路)
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