City Taipei Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Michelle Yeoh is stepping out for the premiere of her new Netflix series!

William Earl administrator Michelle Yeoh cracked history open when she won an Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” last March, but she’s not sitting back to bask in the glow. “I exercise every day,” she says. “I do my whole routine of being in shape and knowing my moves.

Aramide Tinubu Many people have complex family lives. Private affairs are tucked in the corners of attics, shoved in closets or kept under wraps by elders– shocking the younger generations when these hidden histories are finally revealed. For the Suns, whose family ties stretch from Los Angeles to Taiwan, secrets are only the tip of the iceberg.

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh‘s new series The Brothers Sun has its first trailer!

Demon Slayer won’t have to wait long for the release of its upcoming fourth season.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba season four will follow the Hashira Training Arc, the anime’s X (formerly Twitter) account confirmed last night (December 10), and is set to premiere in Japan in Spring next year with an hour-long episode. A concrete release date for the series has yet to be announced.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc TV series will be premiering in Spring 2024 with an Hour-Long Episode!#DemonSlayer pic.twitter.com/euEX9lv5ZI— Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (English) (@DemonSlayerUSA) December 10, 2023However, a number of Demon Slayer fans won’t have to wait until Spring to catch the first episode of the Hashira Training Arc as the upcoming Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Hashira Training world tour kicks off in February across select countries.The world tour will screen the final episode of season three (the Swordsmith Village arc) and the first episode of the Hashira Training arc in cinemas this February in 4K and IMAX.

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh‘s new series The Brothers Sun has its first trailer!

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The husband and wife team of Otsuka Ryuji and Huang Ji, who worked with a minimalist crew and mostly non-professional actors, gave a round of thanks to Asian leading auteurs for inspiring them, and then hugged each other on stage for winning the Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards best narrative feature prize with their pregnancy drama “Stonewalling.” The numerical winner on Saturday night was “Old Fox,” which earned the best director award for Hsiao Ya-chuan, as well as the best supporting actor, makeup and costume, and best film score prizes. The nominations, announced in October, saw “Snow in Midsummer” collect nine nominations and Taiwan‘s Oscar contender “Marry My Dead Body” head the field with eight.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival drifted to a conclusion in midweek, with project awards presented on Wednesday, followed by Thursday’s festival closing events. These involved a screening of portmanteau film “Tales of Taipei” followed by a sit-down dinner-cum-ceremony with a breezy pair of speeches and no prizes. The film fortnight then sprang to life again on Saturday evening when the 60th edition of the Golden Horse Film Awards represented a new climax.

Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) has wrapped with Lee Yi-shan’s debut feature Chewing Gum winning the Grand Prize, which comes with a cash award of $32,000 (TWD1M). 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief France and Taiwan on Thursday signed a wide-ranging agreement to enable their film and TV industries co-operate on a higher level. At a signing ceremony in Taipei at the Taiwan Creative Culture Fest (TCCF) convention, government representatives of both territories stressed shared values at the political level and in the audiovisual sphere.

Warner Bros Discovery is reteaming with Taiwanese production company DaMou Entertainment to produce HBO Asia original Fired Up! (working title), an adaptation of hit Kakao webtoon Itaewon Class. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Adele Lim, the screenwriter behind “Crazy Rich Asians” and Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” animation, says that the opportunities for Asian filmmakers are growing as Hollywood is becoming more receptive to international talent. “[In Hollywood] I felt that I was disadvantaged, coming from Malaysia. It is not the cultural nexus,” said Lim, whose infancy was in Malaysia, before her family moved to the U.S.

France’s Series Mania Festival is teaming with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) to launch a workshop, Serial  Bridges, in France and Taiwan next year that is aimed at East Asian screenwriters and producers. 

Taiwan Creative Content Fest kicked off in Taipei today with organizer, Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), emphasizing its soft power ambitions and growing international cooperation activities, in particular with France, South Korea and Japan. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A trio of ministers, accompanied by a fleet of senior industry names, were on hand Tuesday in Taipei to give their official blessing to the opening of the fourth running of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) – and to underline the Taiwan government’s investment in soft power. Cheng Wen-tsan, VP of the [government executive branch] Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s Minister of Culture, Shih Che, and a minister without portfolio were accompanied by Chunghwa Telecom’s chairman, Kuo Shui-Yi, head of TAICCA Homme Tsai and Dominique Boutonnat, president of France’s National Center of Cinematography and the Moving Image, on stage at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a former-tobacco factory site that has since been redeveloped. “Nowadays we are investing not only in semiconductors and heavy industry, but also in media and content,” said Cheng. He confirmed that some NT$10 billion ($310 million) of government funding has been approved for the “1 Plus 4T Content Plan” and will be released over four years. In a classic example of public-private partnerships, state cash is being supplemented by further financial commitments from Taiwan’s three major cable-telecoms-internet groups through deals signed last week with Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

Screenworks Asia, the production subsidiary of Taiwan’s Catchplay, is teaming with the Taiwanese arm of Chinese platform iQiyi to jointly stream two of its original series: Not a Murder Story and I Can See You Shine.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Screenworks Asia, the production subsidiary of Taiwan-based streaming platform Catchplay, has set two series to release early next year. “Not A Murder Story” follows a wannabe actor who finally gets a chance of success. And when he wakes up with a dead woman besides him, he is determined not to let it stand in his way.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unscripted queer reality dating series “Boys Like Boys” is to air on Warner Bros. Discovery’s TLC channel in Taiwan in early 2024, making it the first local LGBTQ+ dating reality show to air on linear TV in the territory. The show is an original production by GagaOOLala, Asia’s out and proud LGBTQ+ streaming service, which is pitching an expanded array of queer content at the Taiwan Creative Contents Fest (TCCF) that launches Tuesday in Taipei. “Boys Like Boys” had its premiere at the Kaohsiung International Film Festival and is now available worldwide on GagaOOLala and WeTV in the Philippines and Thailand, where the ‘Boys Love’ genre has become highly popular.

Sophia Sun Intern Taiwan director and screenwriter Hsu Chao-jen is pitching “Mr. Tiger” at the 2023 Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF), which launches in Taipei on Tuesday. The film “Mr.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief TAICCABOSSAs Taiwan seeks for creative, industrial and political reasons to make a bigger mark for itself on the international stage, its Taiwan Creative Content Fest is diversifying, expanding and making greater efforts at cross-border outreach. Homme Tsai, chair of industry support body TAICCA spoke outline the event’s strategy and novelties in a conversation with Variety. What are the objectives of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest? The TCCF is an international event for content licensing and project investment.

Warner Bros Discovery has signed a multi-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) to create and distribute Taiwanese original content locally and across international markets.

Salli,” a film which has its world premiere this week in the Busan International Film Festival’s A Window on Asian Cinema program. The Mandarin-, Taiwanese-, English- and French-language film follows a lonely middle-aged chicken farmer Hui-Chun, who doesn’t speak English and develops a romantic relationship through an app with a French man who calls himself Martin. In the online world, Hui-Chun is Salli.

Academy Awards. The film had its debut in the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes film festival in May and was directed by first-time feature filmmaker Amanda Nell Eu. The announcement was made on Thursday by Malaysia’s Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil following selection by the National Film Development Corporation (FINAS). The film was a eight-way coproduction involving companies from Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Qatar, and emerged from a succession of labs, project markets and international funds. Since winning the Grand Prix at the Critics’ Week, “Tiger Stripes” has been a popular choice on the festival circuit, with stops so far at Neufchatel, The Hamptons, Sitges, London, Fantasia, Taipei and next week’s Pingyao events.Dir. Amanda Nell Eu. International sales: Films Boutique. All submissions and materials for the 2023 race must be received by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences by 5 p.m. on Oct. 2. And films must meet all the qualifying conditions between Dec. 1, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2023. A shortlist of 15 will be announced on Dec. 21. Final nominees will be announced on Jan. 23, 2024. The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024. Argentina, the South American country with the best Academy Awards history, has chosen as its Academy Awards submission “The Delinquents,” Rodrigo Moreno’s incorrigibly playful heist movie, which world premiered at Cannes Un Certain Regard, delighting critics.

Marta Balaga San Sebastian premiere ‘A Journey in Spring’ takes on the nature of life, say debuting Taiwanese directors Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. “I have a very close relationship with my family. They ground me.

K-pop singer and former NU’EST member Baekho has dropped a sultry cover of Brown Eyed Girls’ ‘Abracadabra’.The singer has released a cover of the 2009 Brown Eyed Girls hit through his official YouTube channel. Baekho’s rendition of the song swaps its electronic sound for a guitar-led R&B instrumental, with the singer also slowing down parts of ‘Abracadabra’.“Bring, bring, I want to hold you in my arms / I will do anything and even more / Bling bling, you are my fantasy / I’ll put everything / In stake to have you,” he sings in the chorus.The new cover comes two weeks after the singer dropped his remake of singer Park Jin-young’s 1995 hit ‘Elevator’, for which he has also released a performance video.Prior to this, Baekho’s last music release was his debut mini-album ‘Absolute Zero’ in October 2022, which was led by the single ‘No Rules’.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji, the husband and wife, Japanese-Chinese directing duo behind “Stonewalling” and “Egg and Stone” have secured multi-national backing for their upcoming fourth film project “A Woman Builds.” The film will depict a Chinese woman forced to live apart from her Japanese husband and their daughter during the pandemic and learning to enjoy the newfound freedom of a pseudo single life. She finds a unique massage parlor to satisfy her sexual needs and decides to build a house back in her home village, despite her husband’s disapproval.

This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open with a double bill of Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, and Be With Me, from Taiwanese filmmaker Hwarng Wern-ying.

Taiwan’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (BAMID) has announced the submission of Cheng Wei-hao’s Marry My Dead Body for the Best International Feature category of next year’s Oscars. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival has announced dual opening night titles, both inspired by faith and local memories, as well as its closing gala presentation. The festival will open with “Snow in Midsummer,” directed by Chong Keat-aun, a former winner of the Golden Horse Film Awards’ best new director prize with “The Story of Southern Islet,” and “Be With Me,” by Hwarng Wern-ying, who previously won Golden Horse prizes for art direction, costume and makeup. The festival, which runs Nov.

The 1975’s Matty Healy was spotted strolling around sunny Los Angeles for the first time since his on-stage antics sparked outrage in Malaysia.The British singer made headlines after kissing his bandmate on stage during a performance, causing a stir in the country over their LGBTQ+ laws. Dressed casually in a white vest and blue baggy shorts, the 34 year old was seen examining the wheels of his flashy BMW soft-top car while out in West Hollywood.The Sound singer hunkered down next to the pavement, getting up close and personal with the silver rims of his car as he chatted with a man who appeared to be a valet.

The 1975 have cancelled shows in Indonesia and Taiwan after being banned from Malaysia following a performance there on Friday.While headlining the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur, frontman Matty Healy criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws and kissed bassist Ross MacDonald. As a result, not only was the band’s set cut short but the Malaysian government also cancelled the remainder of the festival.The event’s promoters said in a statement on Saturday: “We deeply regret to announce that the remaining schedule of Good Vibes Festival 2023, planned for today and tomorrow, has been cancelled following the controversial conduct and remarks made by UK artist Matty Healy from the band The 1975”.“This decision adheres to the immediate cancellation directive issued at 1:20pm, 22 Jul 2023, by the Ministry Of Communications And Digital”, it went on.

The 1975 have cancelled two tour dates in Asia after a Malaysian music festival was axed over pro-LGBT+ comments made by the band’s frontman Matty Healy.

According to Malaysian law, same-sex activity is illegal and carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment with whipping.Following the stunt, the frontman walked off the stage calling out, “alright, we gotta go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, I’ll see you later.”The Good Vibes Festival released a statement shortly after announcing that Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital had canceled the three-day event due to the “controversial conduct and remarks” made by Healy.“We sincerely apologize to all our ticket holders, vendors, sponsors, and partners,” they added.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The 80th Venice Film Festival has revealed its selection of projects for Venice Immersive, the XR-Extended Reality section of the festival, which runs Aug. 30 – Sept. 9. The program will include VR experience “Wallace & Gromit in the Grand Getaway” and a Fatboy Slim project. Venice Immersive is devoted to immersive media and includes all XR means of creative expression: 360° videos and XR works of any length, including installations and virtual worlds. The program, which will take place on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, will present 44 projects from 25 countries, and 24 works in the Worlds Gallery section. It will comprise:

In partnership with GMATaiwanese musicians A-Lin and HUSH have taken home the top honours at the Golden Melody Awards 2023, which was held at the Taipei Arena on July 1.A-Lin took home the trophy for Best Female Singer (Mandarin) for her tenth studio album ‘LINK’. It is the singer’s first win in the category, after being nominated four times before, in 2015, 2012, 2011 and 2009.Meanwhile, HUSH won Best Male Singer (Mandarin) with his album ‘Pleasing Myself’, besting other nominees such as Zhao Lei, The Crane and Wu Qing-feng.

Taipei Film Festival is aiming to shine an international spotlight on Taiwanese actors through a new initiative, Top Talents, that will showcase nine actors including major stars Kai Ko and Chen Bolin.