Shooting has started in Taipei for Hong Kong director John Woo’s (吳宇森) big-budget historical drama The Crossing (太平輪), with Taiwanese-Japanese actor, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and a Japanese actress spotted filming in the mountains around Taipei on Tuesday.
Kaneshiro, whose mother hails from Taiwan, and Japan’s Masami Nagasawa were dressed in mid-20th century clothing as they filmed outside a Japanese-style house built for the film in Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park.
Despite temperatures plunging to about 6?C, the 40-year-old actor was seen wearing just a light jacket, while his costar wore a short sleeveless dress.
Dubbed the “Chinese version of Titanic,” The Crossing is the story of three couples in China who boarded an ill-fated ship bound for Taiwan during the turmoil of 1949.
It is based on the Taiping, which capsized on Jan. 27, 1949, in the Baijie Strait 71 miles southeast of Shanghai after colliding with a cargo ship. A total of about 1,000 lives were lost, many of them well-heeled elites fleeing the onslaught of Communist troops.
The NT$1.45-billion (US$48.6-million) film features an all-star cast from around Asia, including China’s Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), Huang Xiaoming (黃曉明), Tong Dawei (佟大為) and South Korea’s Song Hye-kyo.
Woo is best known for action films including Broken Arrow and Face/Off.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty