I N T E R N A T I O N A L
16 Pages Number 101 11th year
I N T E R N A T I O N A L
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
‘I was slapped 30 times’: Cannes film exposes actress abuse
Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP
Halle Berry (L) and Keanu Reeves pose at the after party for a special screening of LionsGate’s “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum” at Avalon on May 15, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
‘John Wick’ opens strongly as ‘Avengers’ nears historic mark LOS ANGELES - “Avengers: Endgame” finally yielded the top spot at the North American box office this weekend to the latest “John Wick” action film, but the Marvel Studios/Disney blockbuster edged closer to historic status as the alltime No. 1 grossing film. “Avengers” took in a domestic total of $30 million in its fourth weekend out, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Monday, bringing its worldwide total to $2.62 billion, just shy of the $2.79 billion “Avatar” earned in 2009. But in North America, it fell well behind Lionsgate’s new “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum,” which posted a strong $57 million for its opening three-day weekend. The third “John Wick” movie again stars Keanu Reeves as a retired hitman, this time being chased by an army of killers after a $14 million contract is put on his head. The film also stars Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Anjelica Huston. In third, down one spot from last
weekend, was Warner Bros.’ familyfriendly “Pokemon: Detective Pikachu,” at $25.1 million. Based on a Nintendo video game and subsequent anime series, it has the animated title character (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) teaming up with a young boy (Justice Smith, in a live-action role) to seek the boy’s missing father. “A Dog’s Journey” from Universal placed fourth, at $8.1 million. Based on a novel of the same name, it stars Dennis Quaid and Josh Gad in the story of a dog that is repeatedly reincarnated, each time to protect someone close to it -- a plot device that works for some animal lovers but which critics have called “emotionally manipulative” and “insufferable.” The movie is a follow-up to 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose.” In fifth was “The Hustle” from United Artists, at $6.1 million. The female-driven revamp of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” stars Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway as two con-women trying to scam an internet millionaire. (afp)
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
CANNES - Actress Wu Ke-xi has never been raped by an all-powerful movie mogul -- as happens in her striking new movie at the Cannes film festival. But the Taiwanese star knows what it is to be humiliated by a director drunk on his own power. She will never forget being repeatedly slapped in the face during the shoot of an advert for a mahjong video game early in her career. Wu was publicly punished for having the temerity to ask the director a question. “I just wanted to know whether a shot would be a close-up or in long shot so I could prepare myself,” the actress told AFP in Cannes, where “Nina Wu” -- which she both wrote and stars in -- is in the official section. “The director asked the whole crew to collect all the banknotes they were using in the advert and to bring to him. He made a fan out of them. Then he asked another actor to slap me in the face with them about 30 times. “It went on and on, him shooting it all in close-up. Everyone was shocked. This wasn’t in the script.” It was a punishment for speaking out of turn, Wu said. Hers was only a bit-part, and “someone who is so low class didn’t have the right to ask a question.” “For the rest of the shoot everyone was stunned.”
ticed that the crew began shunning her. “They had to choose which side they were going to be on, I guess. And nobody wants to get fired.” Soon she was feeling their hostility at her very presence. “So they started bullying me too. After that experience
- ‘I was shunned’ Then an odd thing happened. Wu, 36, no-
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I went home and for two weeks I had flashbacks of being slapped in the face. “I had nightmares and the director’s voice was in my head all the time. I would experience this humiliation over and over again. I would open the fridge to get something but I wasn’t there. I was on the set getting slapped. I wanted to cry all the time.” Wu had been traumatised. “She had a kind of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder),” said the film’s Myanmar-born director, Midi Z, with whom Wu has worked on the acclaimed “Ice Poison” and “The Road to Mandalay”. “What happened to me was not very serious,” the actress added. But it got her thinking -- “What would women or men who suffer really bad things go through?” (afp)
Adek BERRY / AFP
Policemen keep watch on protesters during a demonstration outside the Elections Oversight Body (Bawaslu) in Jakarta May 21, 2019. Heavily armed Indonesian troops were on high alert on May 21 amid fears of civil unrest in the capital Jakarta, as the surprise early announcement of official election results handed Joko Widodo another term as leader of the world’s third-biggest democracy.
Police on highest alert following KPU’s election results’ announcement
The Indonesian Police raised the national security alert to the highest level in line with the General Election Commission (KPU) declaring the election results in the wee hours of Tuesday. “That is right that information was received from the National Police Chief’s Operational Assistant, Inspector General Martuani Sormin, that today, Alert 1 has been issued,” Brigadier General Dedi Prasetyo, spokesman of the Indonesian Police, remarked here, on Tuesday. A telegram letter no: STR/281/N/ OPS.1.1.1 2019, dated May 20, 2019, regarding the results of the Police coordinating meeting on security measure following the final vote counts’ announcement,
was under circulation. Protection has been stepped up, with the police on the highest alert level, effective from May 21 to May 25, 2019, in accordance with the letter signed by Martuani Sormin on behalf of General Tito Karnavian, the Indonesian Police chief. The regional police had also been urged to maintain vigil and adopt precautionary measures if the need arises. The KPU, on Tuesday, at 1:28 a.m. local time, made an announce-
ment of the results of the presidential elections organized across the country’s 34 provinces and 130 overseas offices, on April 17, 2019. Incumbent Joko Widodo secured 85,607,362 votes, or 55.50 percent, while rival pair Prabowo SubiantoSandiaga Uno pocketed 68,650,239 votes, or 44.50 percent. Several parties, discontent with the vote count results, leveled allegations of fraud on the election executors. Subianto’s supporters had planned to hold a mass protest or “people power” movement on May 22. The Indonesian Police had earlier appealed to the people to not hold a mass protest on May 22
after the KPU’s announcement of the outcomes of the 2019 general elections. “On May 22, we urge people to not hold any mass gathering,” Inspector General Iqbal, spokesman of the Indonesian Police (Polri), remarked at a press conference here on Friday, adding that terrorists could use the mass gathering to further their devious plans. Meanwhile, Din Syamsuddin, a prominent figure of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organization, believes that the “people power” movement does not go contrary to the Constitution and hence must not be thwarted. “However, the crucial aspect is
that it must be held peacefully, with no violence or anarchy,” Syamsuddin remarked here on Sunday. Security officers must also handle protestors in a peaceful and protective way, Syamsuddin, chairman of the Advisory Council of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), emphasized. Continued to page 6
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