The scenario tells of a robbery cum rape in the bush near Kyoto, where the robber, the raped woman, her husband and an eyewitness each tell a different story about what actually happened. Kurosawa's theme is: Nobody tells the truth and everybody tells a story in his or her favor. Who doesn't? It's a movie classic.

Well, Rashomon (羅生門), which means Life Net Gate, was a gate to Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto. The Chinese in Taiwan now use it, pronounced “loshengmen” in Mandarin, to mean everything is really in the bush. You never know who is telling the truth.

That seems to be what is happening at one of Taipei's top tourist attractions. Maokong Gondola is a cable car service built and operated by the Taipei municipal government. Maokong (貓空) or Cat Empty used to be known as Niaukang in Amoy or Hoklo.

In fact, the “kang” in Amoy means “hole” or even “lair” or “nest.” It was known for hundreds of years as Cat's Lair among the people of Muzha, whose tourist attraction used to be the Temple of One Thousand Steps or Zhinangong (指南宮), meaning Compass Palace. It is dedicated to --iankong (仙公) or Lord Immortal, who is Lu Dongbin (呂洞賓).

Maokong is really a Rashomon.

The service was disrupted by landslides that were touched off by Typhoon Jangmi on September 28 last year. Repairs were started at once, but have since been suspended.

On Monday, the municipal government announced that it was going to sue a city councilman for trespassing and intrusion onto public property.

A spokesman showed video footage of Hung Chien-yi, the councilor, breaking into the Maokong terminal, together with two other men and a woman, accompanied by two Formosa TV reporters.

Hung, of course, denied the charges, though he admitted he entered the restricted premises atop Maokong Hill. He said he didn't remember whether he kicked open the doors as was charged. If he admits to this, charges of forcible entry or intrusion would stick.

He was accused of stage-managing the expose, which was aired on Monday.

The city councilor counterattacked. The footage was taken not on Sunday but one day before, he claimed, to discredit the municipal authorities.

Then came a counter-counterattack. The city government produced some footage recorded by a monitor camera on Saturday showing an assistant to Hung casing the Maokong terminal.

A worker at the terminal, closed to the public while under repairs, saw Chang Pai-hui, the aide, and questioned her. She had a camera at the ready when she was stopped.

Chang will be sued as well, a city government spokesman threatened. Like her boss, she will be accused of trespassing and intrusion. “I'll be waiting for you,” Chang retorted.

Nobody knows who is telling the truth about the Maokong incident. The truth may never come out, even if the Taipei District Court hears the Taipei version of Rashomon.

But there is one aspect that is true.

The Democratic Progressive Party is going all out to get President Ma Ying-jeou implicated for supposedly poor decisions made when he was Taipei mayor.

Hung is after Ma, just like his city council colleague Chuang Jui-hsiung who has made it his job to prove Ma did something wrong in deciding to build and operate Maokong Gondola.

They both belong to the minority party in Taipei City Hall. Maokong Gondola is probably the only legacy Ma has left after the eight years while he was mayor of Taipei.

It's quite likely that the Maokong project wasn't implemented properly. Maybe insufficient research was done to find out whether the soil at Muzha wasn't solid enough for the cable car system. Or there might be some defects in the design.

As a matter of fact, Ma was stranded together with Mayor Hau Lung-bin of Taipei in a car hanging in the air for nearly half an hour on the day the service was opened.

Ma was considered invincible right after his inauguration as president on May 20 last year. The only thing the opposition party can really do to boost their situation is to discredit him as Taipei's worst mayor. Its city councilors are just toeing the party line.

On the other hand, the National Communications Commission is looking into the alleged trespassing and intrusion by the two Formosa TV reporters. The city government said they were there to cover Hung's expose of what the opposition calls the Maokong scandal at his request.

The NCC is trying to ascertain whether it's a stage-managed TV expose, like the “foot-side rice” scandal of 2005. A New Party city councilman stage-managed a TV expose of eateries near the city funeral parlor that retrieved the rice offered at the foot of the deceased to serve their customers.

Local custom requires cooked rice to be offered to the deceased to be kept at the parlor before their funeral and burial. The councilor had to resign, and the ETTV cable TV network had one of its channels that aired the expose suspended by the NCC.