Opportunity knocks

If Ang Lee were making The Wedding Banquet now, he would have no problem getting the actress for the female lead. The role, a young woman from Shanghai, was written with Joan Chen, a Shanghai native and a prominent actress of the mainland, in mind. But since mainland talent was not allowed in a Taiwan-financed production back in the early 1990s, Lee had to go for a Taiwan actress instead.

That kind of meddling by politics in art may never happen again. A mainland-Taiwan co-produced film will likely be allowed to have a mainland cast of up to one-third by the end of July, compared with the quota of just two mainland actors allowed in such a production now, a Taiwan official says.

Taiwan's "Mainland Affairs Council" has approved the proposal, says Frank J.K.Chen, director of the department of motion pictures affairs, Taiwan's "Information Office".