Life Style

Modern dating, already fraught with emotional ups and downs, can feel even more difficult when a person is under pressure to find “the one”.In the religiously conservative Islamic Republic of Iran, finding Mr or Miss Right can be especially tough. Those seeking love often have to break the rules and take risks.Sahar, 35, remembers a time when women were afraid of everything, from the country’s morality police – who impose Islamic dress codes and public conduct – to their own families.“At some point, something changed,” she says. Parents stood up to the police and asked them: “What right do you have to arrest our child? OK, she was travelling with a boy – so what?”An Iranian couple walking together in a park in central Tehran, Iran. In the religiously conservative Islamic republic, finding ...

The style of high-energy comedy he has perfected over the last 30-plus years has made Jack Black one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.Gen Xers and millennials love him for his roles in High Fidelity and School of Rock and as the frontman for comic rock band Tenacious D, while their children love him for his voice roles in the Kung Fu Panda and Super Mario Bros. movies.Now, as he launches his latest video game crossover, A Minecraft Movie, Black says he is eyeing the finish line of his career.“I can see retirement,” says Black, on the phone from his Los Angeles home last month. “Dude, honestly, I’ve been feeling like this is my last movie. But I’ve been feeling like that for years!“Because it’s been such an insane ride, it’s been such an incredible journey, and I feel like my cup runneth over. ...

Today, Donnie Yen Ji-dan is unquestionably one of the most famous Hong Kong film actors in the world.Yen’s superlative martial arts skills should have turned him into a star when he made his film debut in 1984, but it somehow took him almost 25 years to reap the acclaim he deserved, coming with the Ip Man films in the 2000s.“In the 1990s, Yen seemed fated to play bad guys in big films and good guys in small films,” critic Grady Hendrix said in 2012. “Producers just wouldn’t take the risk on him as a leading man.”Just this week, we were greeted with news that he is set to direct and star in a stand-alone spin-off feature based on his character Caine from the Hollywood action franchise John Wick.Below we re-evaluate some of the films Yen made at the start of his career.1. Drunken Tai Chi (19...

After many years at Hong Kong Stadium, the annual Hong Kong Sevens tournament moved to Kai Tak Stadium in East Kowloon this year.Some of those who attended the Sevens were quoted as saying the venue’s disorganised catering, with vendors running out of food and drinks, left them hungry, thirsty and angry.This may be a concern for music fans, with British pop band Coldplay, Hong Kong actor-singer Nicholas Tse Ting-fung, Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin and Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou Jie-lun all playing at Kai Tak Stadium over the next few weeks, while the Hong Kong Football Festival will take place there in July.Fortunately, there is an abundance of food and drink options in the surrounding area. Here are nine Kai Tak area restaurants to satisfy concertgoers before or after the...

Few who watched the recent four-part crime drama Adolescence on Netflix would have remained unmoved – whether by the powerful acting, the one-shot episodes, the tragedy of a teen murder, or the disturbing attitudes embodied in language.Many delved further – the terms “manosphere” and “incel” saw a spike in online searches following the show’s release.“Manosphere” combines “man-” with “-sphere” to refer to a particular area of interest and the people associated with it, the word modelled after the coinage “blogosphere”.It comprises a conglomerate of groups and communities that create, consume and distribute content online aimed at men and boys that is regarded collectively as promoting ultraconservative models of masculinity and espousing anti-feminist views, typically involving misogyny an...

Do you eat breakfast? If so, what do you have?The first meal of the day has long been seen as the most important, with research showing links between having breakfast and better health through lower incidence of diabetes and heart disease and a lower body mass index.The rise in popularity of intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating has prompted many people to skip breakfast, however, and sparked a debate about this meal’s importance.We asked four experts in nutrition, three of them in Hong Kong, whether breakfast is important, what they ate and the reasons for their choices. Their consensus: never skip breakfast, eat it not too long after waking – and include protein.Sandra Carvajal offers this simple recipe for a healthy breakfast: blend fresh or frozen fruit with nut milk, a coupl...

The stars align for a major fantasy series, and lawyers tackle violence against women, in the latest small-screen casting announcements out of South Korea.1. Human X GumihoStars Jun Ji-hyun and Ji Chang-wook have received offers to lead the coming fantasy drama Human X Gumiho.Beyond the hint from the title that this will be a fantasy drama involving gumiho – mythological “nine-tailed foxes” who take on human form, usually as a beautiful woman, to seduce a man – no concrete plot details have been revealed so far.Ji Chang-wook in a still from Welcome to Samdal-ri.Known for timeless works such as My Sassy Girl and My Love from the Star, Jun was most recently seen in Jirisan and will next be seen opposite Gang Dong-won in the big-budget Disney+ series Tempest.Ji has been very busy of late, app...

Although war is still raging, 30-year-old Nadia Kukla is managing a punk-rock band’s tour around Ukraine. Her biggest challenge is the daily air raid sirens that sound across the country to warn of Russian bombing.“If the air raid alert lasts longer than an hour, we have to cancel and reschedule,” Kukla said.The band, Susidy Sterpliat (The Neighbours Will Endure), is on a 12-stop tour. One of the gigs was in the western city of Vinnytsia, in a pub just opposite the site of a terrible Russian strike on July 14, 2022.Missiles targeted an army concert hall, killing 27 people, including three children, and wounding 202 others. The building still lies in ruins.The punk rock band Susidy Sterpliat‘s manager Nadia Kukla checks tickets before a concert in a pub in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Photo: AFPIn a...

Netflix released the official poster and trailer this week for its coming series Weak Hero Class 2, the sequel to the 2022 hit Weak Hero Class 1.The new season follows Yeon Si-eun, a model student who transfers to Eunjang High School burdened by trauma after failing to protect a friend from violence. Determined never to lose another friend, he finds himself standing against even greater violence.Portrayed by Park Ji-hoon, Yeon faces off against a mysterious new rival, Geum Seong-jae, played by Lee Jun-young. In the trailer, Yeon says remorsefully, “Su-ho, I got into another fight. I’m sorry,” hinting at the unresolved scars from his past.Having lost his smile and become a self-imposed outsider, Yeon struggles to stay unnoticed, but disturbing rumours soon target him.New characters Park Hu-...

Ever been moved to tears while cooking dinner? If not, you are probably not cooking with onions. For most of us, our eyes react this way because of a sophisticated self-protection system in these allium plants.Jutta Papenbrock, a professor at the Institute for Botany at Leibniz University Hannover, in Germany, explains why cutting onions makes us cry, and ways to prevent it.Sulphurous, volatile substances are produced when we cut onions, thanks to a reaction between the organic compound isoalliin and the enzyme alliinase, which are contained in onion cells, Papenbrock says. This substance helps protect onions by keeping predators like voles and rats at bay.The two substances come together when an onion cell is destroyed, releasing a volatile mixture that irritates the eyes, which then prod...