Monga (艋舺), the Taiwanese gangster movie that depicts the evolution of Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), will receive at least NT$40 million (US$1.3 million) in subsidies from the government in recognition of the movie’s remarkable performance at the box office.
Monga grossed more than NT$200 million at the box office during its first two weeks of release in Taiwan, entitling its producers to hefty incentives, said Chen Chih-kuan (陳志寬), director of the Government Information Office’s (GIO’s) Department of Motion Pictures, at a GIO reception in Berlin.
Chen said that under the government’s program of special incentives for the film industry, any locally produced movie with box office receipts exceeding NT$50 million entitles its makers to receive 20 percent of its revenues as a subsidy for the company’s next production.
Taiwan is also encouraging international movie producers to shoot their films in Taiwan, he said, noting that subsidies for such projects can reach as high as 30 percent of the production costs.
The GIO office in Berlin held a “Taiwan Night” on Tuesday evening to introduce members of Taiwan’s delegation at the Feb. 11 to Feb. 21 Berlin International Film Festival to cultural and entertainment circles.
The actors playing the leading roles in Monga, Mark Chao (趙又廷) and Ethan Ruan (阮經天), were among the guests at the party, which was attended by film industry people from all over the world.
In other film news, Formosa Betrayed, a story about political intrigue and murder during the White Terror era, will open in selected cities in the US on Feb. 26.
The movie tells the fictional story of the murder of a Taiwanese-American professor on US soil, and is based on the deaths of two real-life people.
Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a Carnegie Mellon University professor and critic of the Taiwan government, died under suspicious circumstances during a visit to Taiwan in 1981.
Journalist Henry Liu (劉宜良), whose pen name was Jiang Nan (江南), was killed by gangsters allegedly working for Taiwanese government security forces in Daly City, California, in 1984, after he wrote an unflattering biography of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), the son of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
James Van Der Beek, of Dawson’s Creek fame, stars as an FBI agent investigating the murder.
Financiers of the film, largely from the Taiwanese-American community, hope the movie can give US audiences a different perspective on Taiwan.
“The only thing a lot of people know about Taiwan is, ‘Made in Taiwan.’ They don’t know the story behind it — the suffering and willpower of the people to form a democracy,” one of the financiers said in an interview with the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
The film’s makers are also negotiating a Taiwan release for the film sometime later this year.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
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