2021 Singapore Chinese Film Festival invites Taiwanese directors share their experience in an online lecture on May 9

英文字幕-2024新台灣之光-阮秋河

Look of the Week: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are still method dressing

Some might feel fatigued by "method dressing" — the trend where actors’ red carpet outfits align with their movie roles — but it remains popular. Margot Robbie, for example, wore Barbie-inspired outfits during the "Barbie" press tour, and Zendaya donned tennis-themed looks for "Challengers." In September, Lady Gaga embraced Harley Quinn’s clownish aesthetic while promoting "Joker: Folie à Deux." Now, for the upcoming film "Wicked," stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are strictly wearing green and pink, representing their characters Elphaba and Glinda.This dedicated approach started over seven months ago at the Oscars, where Erivo and Grande made their initial appearances in their respective colors. Since then, they have remained committed, wearing green and pink outfits for premieres, CinemaCon, and even at the Olympics. Their outfits often feature luxurious touches: at the LA premiere, Erivo wore a custom green vinyl Louis Vuitton dress, while Grande shined in a crystal-adorned pink Thom Browne dress.Grande and Erivo at the 2024 WSJ Innovators Awards at the Museum of Modern Art on October 29, 2024 in New York. TheStewartofNY/WireImage/Getty ImagesWhile some admire their commitment, others see it as a marketing tactic that limits their individual style, with social media users noting that their unique sartorial identities are on hold for “Wicked.” However, Jonathan Bailey, who plays Prince Fiyero, took a subtler route at the LA premiere, pairing white pants with a silver chainmail shirt and ruby-red loafers, a nod to the source material without overshadowing his personality. This shift could suggest a future where "method dressing" becomes more nuanced and allows stars to bring hints of their roles into their own style.

Alien-like signal from 2023 has been decoded. The next step is to figure out what it means

In May 2023, a signal resembling an extraterrestrial message was transmitted from Mars by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and captured by three observatories on Earth. This was part of “A Sign in Space,” an art project by the SETI Institute that invited global citizen scientists to decode the message. After nearly a year of analysis, citizen scientists Ken Chaffin and his daughter Keli cracked the visual puzzle in June 2024, identifying the message as configurations symbolizing amino acids—building blocks of life.Despite uncovering the signal’s visual form, the message’s intent remains open to interpretation. The visualized clusters, which flash in motion for just a fraction of a second, hint at biological elements but carry no definitive explanation. The project’s lead, Daniela de Paulis, emphasized that in a real-life scenario, humanity would be on its own to determine the meaning of an extraterrestrial message.A community of citizen scientists refer to the original visualization of the extracted data as the "starmap." A Sign in SpaceFor the Chaffins, the message’s ambiguity invites endless theories. Ken speculated that it could depict the formation of life’s essential compounds in space, aligning with the concept of panspermia, where life’s elements spread throughout the universe. For Keli, the experience was a deeply personal journey, interpreting the project’s message like a Rorschach test. The team continues to seek ideas from the public while de Paulis compiles interpretations for an upcoming book.