Veteran Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s (徐克) murder mystery Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (通天神探狄仁傑) was the biggest winner at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday.
The Tang Dynasty drama featuring famous Chinese detective Di Renjie scooped six awards, including best director, best actress, best art direction, best sound design, best visual effects and best costume and make-up design.
“The whole team has worked really hard and put in a lot of effort to make this a spectacular production,” Tsui said after receiving the award. “This award is to be shared with everyone involved.”
Photo: AFP
The moviemaker’s latest hit was nominated for the top Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival last year.
Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), crowned best actress for her role as the powerful Chinese empress Wu Zetian (武則天) in Tsui’s drama, said: “After being nominated so many times and not winning, I didn’t think it would really happen to me.”
She beat fellow contenders Miriam Yeung (楊千嬅), Fiona Sit (薛凱琪), Tang Wei (湯唯), and Josie Ho (何超儀), daughter of Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho (何鴻燊).
Gallants (打擂臺), a rollicking homage to Hong Kong kung fu movies in the 1970s, was the dark horse of the night and the second biggest winner, scooping awards for best film, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best original film score.
Long-time actor-director-singer Teddy Robin (關維鵬) bagged the honors for best supporting actor for his role in the comedy.
“Over the past 30 years, I’ve had a lot of nominations, but not wins. This time round, it’s finally my turn,” he told reporters.
“This is an affirmation that I am a good actor too,” he added.
Best actor went to singer-cum-actor Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) for his role in the gritty action-packed cop drama The Stool Pigeon (線人), beating early favorite and veteran actor Chow Yun-fat (周潤發) as the great Chinese thinker Confucius.
Prolific filmmaker Pang Ho-cheung (彭浩翔) and Heiward Mak (麥曦茵) won the award for best screenplay for the light-hearted romantic film Love in a Puff (志明與春嬌), a movie about a cosmetics saleswoman who develops a romance with a fellow smoker.
Oscar-winning director of photography Peter Pau (鮑德熹) bagged the honors for best cinematography for his work in Confucius (孔子: 決戰春秋), a biopic that follows the life of the legendary Chinese philosopher, tracing his journey around small kingdoms in China preaching his beliefs.
“I was deeply influenced by Chow Yun-fat during this movie,” Pau said while receiving the award on stage. “He embodies the very values Confucius teaches and is a very dedicated actor.”
Rising star Hanjin Tan (陳奐仁) was named best new performer for his role in the biopic Bruce Lee, My Brother (李小龍), which tells the story of martial arts legend Bruce Lee (李小龍) in his youth, while Felix Chong (莊文強) took home best new director.
Best Asian film went to the Japanese thriller Confessions.
The award for best film editing went to Cheung Ka-fai (張嘉輝), who worked on Ip Man 2 (葉問2), a sequel to the 2008 film on the life of the legendary kung-fu master starring Donnie Yen (甄子丹).
Together with Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony is one of the Chinese film industry’s most prestigious events, as the southern Chinese city remains a rich source of film talent.
Its stars still enjoy huge popularity across Asia. There have been increasing collaborations between Hong Kong and Chinese filmmakers in recent years targeting the large market of moviegoers in China.
Climate change, political headwinds and diverging market dynamics around the world have pushed coffee prices to fresh records, jacking up the cost of your everyday brew or a barista’s signature macchiato. While the current hot streak may calm down in the coming months, experts and industry insiders expect volatility will remain the watchword, giving little visibility for producers — two-thirds of whom farm parcels of less than one hectare. METEORIC RISE The price of arabica beans listed in New York surged by 90 percent last year, smashing on Dec. 10 a record dating from 1977 — US$3.48 per pound. Robusta prices have
The resignation of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) co-founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as party chair on Jan. 1 has led to an interesting battle between two leading party figures, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如). For years the party has been a one-man show, but with Ko being held incommunicado while on trial for corruption, the new chair’s leadership could be make or break for the young party. Not only are the two very different in style, their backgrounds are very different. Tsai is a co-founder of the TPP and has been with Ko from the very beginning. Huang has
A few years ago, getting a visa to visit China was a “ball ache,” says Kate Murray. The Australian was going for a four-day trade show, but the visa required a formal invitation from the organizers and what felt like “a thousand forms.” “They wanted so many details about your life and personal life,” she tells the Guardian. “The paperwork was bonkers.” But were she to go back again now, Murray could just jump on the plane. Australians are among citizens of almost 40 countries for which China now waives visas for business, tourism or family visits for up to four weeks. It’s
A dozen excited 10-year-olds are bouncing in their chairs. The small classroom’s walls are lined with racks of wetsuits and water equipment, and decorated with posters of turtles. But the students’ eyes are trained on their teacher, Tseng Ching-ming, describing the currents and sea conditions at nearby Banana Bay, where they’ll soon be going. “Today you have one mission: to take off your equipment and float in the water,” he says. Some of the kids grin, nervously. They don’t know it, but the students from Kenting-Eluan elementary school on Taiwan’s southernmost point, are rare among their peers and predecessors. Despite most of
RSS