Award ceremonies always pull up surprises. The 25th Hong Kong Film Awards were no exception, as frontrunner, Seven Swords, which had amassed no less than eleven nominations yet failed to leave with a single gong.
Instead, it was Johnnie To’s Election which took away the prizes, with four awards for best director, best script, best actor (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) and best film.
Best actor went to one actress whom I thought really deserved it. Zhou Xun took the top gong for her fantastic performance in Perhaps Love, a movie that won six awards on the night, mostly for its technical performance. Meanwhile, Taiwanese rap star, Jay Chou, took his first major acting award for best newcomer in Initial D, which also won an award for veteran actor Anthony Wong Chau-San for best supporting actor.
It may be the 25th awards, but the state of the Hong Kong movie industry is in question, particularly for the lack of new faces in the awards ceremony and this was picked up by the media in Hong Kong.
One man who should know is Anthony Wong, who told CRIENGLISH.com:
"There’re many reasons for this long-time stagnation, including not enough professional training, insufficient ambition in the film industry, and not enough film-makers and investors with vision. The prominence of our neighboring countries’ and regions’ film industries is another reason."
But there are some cracking movies in the list, and I’m off to watch some of them over the coming weeks.
Key winners
- Best Film – Election
- Best Director – Johnny TO – Election
- Best Screenplay – YAU Nai-Hoi and YIP Tin-Shing – Election
- Best Actor – LEUNG Kar-Fai – Election
- Best Actress – ZHOU Xun – Perhaps Love
- Best Supporting Actor – Anthony WONG – Initial D
- Best Supporting Actress – Teresa MO – 2 Young
- Best New Performer – Jay CHOU – Initial D
- Best Cinematography – Peter PAU – Perhaps Love
- Best Editing – YAU Chi-Wai – Divergence
- Best Art Direction – YEE Chung-Man and Pater WONG – Perhaps Love
- Best Costume and Make Up Design – YEE Chung-Man and Dora NG – Perhaps Love
- Best Action Choreography – Donnie YEN – S.P.L. / Sha Po Lang
- Best Original Film Score – Peter KAM and Leon KO – Perhaps Love
- Best Original Film Song – "Perhaps Love" – Perhaps Love – performed by Jacky Cheung
- Best Sound Design – Kinson TSANG – Initial D
- Best Visual Effects – Victor WONG, Eddy WONG and CHEUNG Chung-Wah – Initial D
- Best New Director – Kenneth BI – Rice Rhapsody
- Best Asian Film – Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (China)
Links:
Official Hong Kong Film Awards site
CRIENGLISH.com Report
Photos from People’s Daily
CNN/AP report
China Daily report