At the Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) on Saturday night, Taiwanese cinema seemed ready to celebrate an early victory as local productions dominated in almost all the categories that had Taiwanese nominees. Cape No. 7 (海角七號) was undoubtedly leading the way.
The film ended up taking home top honors in five categories, including best supporting actor and outstanding Taiwanese film of the year.
But things took an unexpected turn 10 minutes before the ceremony ended, with Hong Kong’s Peter Ho-Sun Chan (陳可辛) and his big-budget costume drama The Warlords (投名狀) walking away with awards for best feature film and best director.
BASICS
The Taipei Times caught a few jury members and festival chairwoman Peggy Chiao (焦雄屏) at the after-party and asked them their views on this year’s Golden Horse.
“I think before we can talk about the award result, we should first have the jury system under review,” said Wang Keng-yu (王耿瑜), a film producer, film and music festival curator.
The judging process is divided into two stages: the preliminary, with 20 judges, and the final, with seven. In the first stage, discussions and meetings were broken into groups because each member of the jury is responsible for the nominations in several award categories, rather than all the jurors working together.
“As a result, the nomination list is not a general agreement among all jury members but a consensus within the groups,” Wang sad. “We turned in our grades and read the nomination list on the newspaper.”
“The final scores are reached combining the grades we made and those made by the jury in the second stage. None of the jury members knew the results before they were announced,” Wang said. “It’s a consensus all right. But is it a fair and credible consensus? There is still room for improvement.”
Wu Mi-sen (吳米森), a film director, said that Taiwanese movies had done well.
“As a jury member, I felt no pressure to be patriotic this year. I cast each vote with confidence and assurance, knowing that I wasn’t rooting for the film just because it was made in Taiwan.”
“Personally, I think Kelly Lin (林熙蕾) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) have made great progress — from pretty-faced pop-idols to serious actors. Their works haven’t been recognized partially because people still see them as idols rather than actors,” he said.
Chang Chang-yen (張昌彥), a veteran film critic and scholar, said: “As a juror in the first stage, I am not satisfied with the results. Many Taiwanese movies were left out.”
“As far as the jury system goes, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Unlike the Oscars, which have 3,000 film professionals at its disposal, there are only 30 of us, so that each member is assigned to a certain number of award categories,” he said. “It causes problems when, say, a cinematographer needs to be the judge for editing or a specialized field he or she is not familiar with. It can easily lead to a situation where the one who knows the field leads the discussion and forms a consensus.”
BATTLE
Chiao said that the competition in the best feature film and best director categories was a battle between film industries.
“Behind the productions from Hong Kong and China are colossal amounts of money, rich resources and mega stars. Taiwanese movies are comparatively low-budget and human drama-driven. We may yet grow stronger in the industry contest. But this year’s Taiwanese films definitely surpassed others in content and artistry,” Chiao said.
In related news, some Internet users in Taiwan said they were irritated by Chan’s remark that Cape No. 7 was the “hope for Chinese movie industry.”
“I don’t have much to say about the results, but I have something to say to director Peter Chan,” Internet user “Asmmilk” posted. “Sorry, but Cape No. 7 is not a Chinese movie.”
However, an Internet user nicknamed “Perry680606” defended Chan, saying in a posting that Chan probably didn’t do it on purpose.
“He has long been making movies in China, so it would be reasonable that he just used the phrase ‘Chinese movie’ without even thinking about it,” he wrote..
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS