Taiwanese director Wang Toon (王童) and Hong Kong martial arts actor Jimmy Wang (王羽), whose combined careers span more than a century, are to receive Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 56th Golden Horse Awards in November, organizers said on July 26.
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee in a statement commended the pair’s dedication to the film industry.
Wang Toon has won six Golden Horse awards: best color film art design for Feng Yeh Ching (楓葉情) in 1976; best clothing design for All the King’s Men (天下第一) in 1983; best art direction and best clothing design for Run Away (策馬入林) in 1985; and best director for Strawman (稻草人) in 1987 and Hill of No Return (無言的山丘) in 1992, the statement said.
The first film that Wang Toon directed, If I Were for Real (假如我是真的), was named best feature film in 1981, the statement said.
Wang Toon’s career started when he began working for Central Motion Picture Co in 1966, where he started in an entry-level position at the company’s film studio, working his way to become head of the studio, the statement said.
He has directed numerous movies that have helped shape the industry as well as promote film studies, it said.
Jimmy Wang, who shot to stardom following the 1967 film One-Armed Swordsman (獨臂刀), started acting in 1963 and was nominated for best leading actor for his role in Shou Tsu Ching Shen (手足情深) in 1978, best supporting actor for Wu Xia (武俠) in 2011 and best leading actor for Soul (失魂) in 2013, it said.
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (李安) said in the statement that Jimmy Wang not only set the bar for action stars, but is also a pioneer of martial arts films.
“His starred and directed The Chinese Boxer (龍虎鬥) started the genre of martial arts films even before Bruce Lee (李小龍), inspiring many who followed and moviegoers around the world,” Lee said.
The nomination list for the 56th Golden Horse Awards is to be announced on Oct. 1, while the ceremony is to be held on Nov. 23 at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash