Formosa Betrayed, the first US-made movie devoted to a storyline set during the White Terror era, is scheduled for theatrical release in Taiwan by Sky Digi Entertainment Co this August, the film’s producer said.
“Since before the movie was completed, thousands of fans have wondered when it would be released in Taiwan. Now, we are excited to announce that the film is scheduled to be in Taiwanese theaters beginning the weekend of August 6, 2010,” Taiwanese-American filmmaker William Tiao (刁毓能) said in an open letter issued on Friday.
“Sky Digi is also actively seeking another city aside from Taipei to premiere the film so that as many Taiwanese can see the film,” the letter said, adding that “the theatrical release, premiere and other public activities are subject to the review of the Governmental Information Office.”
The movie is a political thriller that tells the fictional story of the murder of a Taiwanese-American professor on US soil. James Van Der Beek, of Dawson’s Creek fame, stars as an FBI agent investigating the murder.
Written and produced by Tiao, the film was inspired by actual events surrounding the death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and critic of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government at the time, who died under suspicious circumstances during a visit to Taiwan in 1981, and that of Journalist Henry Liu (劉宜良), who was killed by gangsters allegedly working for the Taiwanese government in Daly City, California, in 1984.
Liu had written an unflattering biography of then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), the son of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
The film opened in the US on the weekend of Feb. 28 and has been screened in more than 30 selected cities including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, and Honolulu.
This independent film was largely financed by the Taiwanese-American community.
“The story of the Taiwanese people’s struggle for identity, justice and independence has never been told in a Hollywood film,” Tiao said earlier this year.
“Our hope was that the film would be a springboard for discussion about the issues surrounding Taiwan’s status and the Taiwanese people’s desire for democracy and recognition,” he said.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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