M o n D aY : F e b r u a r Y 8 , 2 0 1 6
WORLD
cesar barrioquinto EDITOR
editorial@thestandard.com.ph
B7
Race to save earthquake victims TAINAN, Taiwan— Rescuers raced Sunday to free more than 120 people buried under the rubble of an apartment complex felled by an earthquake in southern Taiwan that left 24 confirmed dead, as an investigation began into the collapse. The death toll rose as emergency workers dug for survivors of the 6.4-magnitude quake that toppled the 16-storey complex of almost 100 homes in the city of Tainan on Saturday. Officials said an investigation had been launched as questions were raised over the safety of the residential blocks in the complex. Tainan mayor William Lai said survivors and relatives had reported legal “violations” but gave no further detail. “I’ve contacted judicial units and prosecutors have formally launched an investigation,” said Lai. “We’ve also commissioned three independent bodies to preserve evidence during the rescue so we can assist the residents if they want to file lawsuits in the future. We will hold the builder responsible if they have broken the law.” Local media reported the construction company that built the complex had gone out of business and also raised questions over the quality of the materials used. Yueh Chin-sen, whose mother-in-law’s family of eight is still trapped, said the residents had complained of defects in the building. “They complained that the building wasn’t well constructed as there were cracks in the walls and tiles fell off after several quakes in recent years,” he told AFP. “I hope the government will prosecute the builder on criminal charges as people lost their lives” Rescuers said 126 residents were still missing, with 103 of them trapped “very deep” in the rubble, according to Lai. “There’s no way to get to them direct, it’s very difficult,” Lai said, adding that emergency workers were having to shore up the ruins to ensure they were secure before digging. AFP
Present. From left, actress Nina Dobrev, sales executive coordinator at L’Ermitage Beverly Hills Shaylyn Riley, and Ash Dragon attend the DirecTV Super Saturday Night co-hosted by Mark Cuban’s AXS TV at Pier 70 on February 6, 2016, in San Francisco, California. AFP
‘The Revenant’ continues Hollywood tradition LOS ANGELES—Shot in brutal weather to a punishing schedule, Oscar favorite “The Revenant” belongs to a fine Hollywood tradition in which the truly creative must suffer for their art. Leonardo DiCaprio went through hell to inhabit the character of 19th century frontiersman Hugh Glass, eating a raw buffalo liver, bathing in icy rivers and climbing mountains laden with furs. In an era where much of the heavy-lifting is done in postproduction by CGI artists, the tough conditions endured by cast and crew of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s survival and revenge epic resulted in several resignations, months of delays and a soaring budget. The Mexican director’s claims that all this hardship would be worth it in the end appears to have been borne out, with the film proving a box office hit and picking up
12 Oscar nominations. Inarritu is the latest, but by no means the first filmmaker to put his actors through the mill in the service of perfection. Francis Ford Coppola created his own mini-hell in the Philippines for the infamous “Apocalypse Now” (1979), which updates the setting of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness to the Vietnam War. Chief among numerous problems and setbacks were Martin Sheen’s near fatal heart attack, a typhoon that flattened expensive sets and Coppola’s chronic indecision, which led Marlon Brando to improvise much of his dialogue. “Jaws” (1975), which ushered in the era of summer blockbusters and propelled Steven Spielberg into the Hollywood stratosphere, also has its place in the pantheon of nightmarish shoots. “The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce, wasn’t working
and didn’t really inspire fear,” said Jonathan Kuntz, a professor at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. At one point, the hull of the ship carrying the crew broke up at sea, causing a mini-mutiny. Meanwhile, Bruce’s problems led Spielberg to decide only to show the briefest glimpses of the shark, which in the end proved far more terrifying. The filming of “Titanic” (1997), one of the two highest grossing movies in history along with “Avatar”—both by James Cameron—was in itself a titanic struggle. Hours of filming in a huge tank led to colds, infections and delays. Rumor has it that a crew member, infuriated by Cameron’s despotic style, spiked a soup in the canteen with a hallucinogenic drug. German director Werner Herzog is also “famous for his in-
tense and exhausting cinematography,” Kuntz said. On “Fitzcarraldo,” a film about an Irishman who becomes obsessed with building an opera house in the jungles of Peru, he forced his cast to pull a real steamboat weighing hundreds of tons up a muddy hillside. Leading man Klaus Kinski was enraged and his screams of protest led the Peruvian Indian extras to offer to kill the temperamental star, the director would later claim. Michael Cimino’s excesses on the production of epic western “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), starring Christopher Walken and Isabelle Huppert, finished off studio United Artists. The budget and shoot time spiraled out of control as he built and rebuilt set after set, picking extras by hand and insisting on waiting for the right cloud formation before allowing the cameras to roll. AFP
Hundreds mourn murdered Quebecers
Awards night. Moderator Dave Karger, actor Jacob Tremblay, actor Paul Dano, actor Geza Rohrig, actress Elizabeth Banks, actor O’ Shea Jackson Jr., and actress Kelen Coleman speak at the Virtuosos Award at the Arlington Theater at the 31st Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 6, 2016, in Santa Barbara, California. AFP
QUEBEC CITY—Hundreds of family, friends and dignitaries including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended funerals Saturday for the six Quebecers killed during attacks in Burkina Faso’s capital. A funeral service was held in the morning for Suzanne Bernier, a retired school director, at a church in Quebec City. At a packed afternoon service, four members of the Carrier family and Louis Chabot were laid to rest in the provincial capital. The six Canadians were killed in Ouagadougou on January 15 while
enjoying a last meal after their flight home was delayed. A total of 30 people—around half of them foreigners—were killed and 70 others hurt in the attack on a cafe and the four-star Splendid claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Yves Carrier, his wife Gladys and two of their children had been in the West African nation with two friends helping build a school when they were killed. Carrier and his family had been coming to Burkina Faso for years on humanitarian missions to help the country of 18 million people, 40 percent of them living below the
poverty line. The country for some was seen as an NGO “paradise” because it was safe and largely stable in contrast to other nations on the southern edge of the Sahara facing violence and instability. Just two days before the attack in Ouagadougou, a Canadian citizen from the Montreal suburbs was killed in Jakarta when suicide attackers linked to the so-called Islamic State group struck the Indonesian capital. Combined, the attacks made for the worst death toll for Canadians in attacks since September 11, 2001. AFP