25th Hong Kong Film Awards

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inky
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Post by inky »

Re. HKFA favours young directors

That's because the profession in HK has a higher turnover rate than Hollywood in the past 25 years or so (since the blossoming of HK New Waves), i.e., you can hardly find directors who are still active in filmmaking after they turn 60. A few veteran directors like Chor Yuen and Wong Tin-Lam had turned into acting (cameo roles most of the time, anyway) when they were getting older, so had Jackie Chan and Michael Hui (who concentrated on acting and let others directed their films) after they turned 40 or so. In the same time period, I can only recall two directors from HK who were still actively directing films after they became senior citizens were the late Lee Han-Hsiang (though he focussed more on making mainland Chinese films) and King Hu.

Re. KARMA as an action comedy albeit heavy religious reference

I don't see that a problem. In a nutshell Buddhism has its "take-it-easy" elements, i.e., if you try too hard in pursuing the truth or Nirvana, which is stubbornness or insistence in a different form, you will never make it; as Nirvana and truth aren't for those who over-insist in achieving something - they are not some kind of "achievement" as a result of your "endeavour", but something that you can gain only if you "give up". This is essentially KARMA's message. Suggest you check out Clara Law's TEMPTATION OF A MONK (1994) - a period action drama with Greek tragedy look in the first 2/3 of the running time but then turn into an inspiring comedy in the final part when a seemingly free-spirited, playful and humourous but actually intelligent old monk that appears from nowhere and enlightens the male lead. Both KARMA and MONK and share a common message and based on my understanding in Buddhism, "playfulness" is a good way to convey it.

Anyway, the HKFA organizer announced the top-3 films of each category.

Best Pic: ELECTION (big margin)
2. PERHAPS LOVE
3. INITIAL D

Best Director: Johnnie To, ELECTION (big)
2. Peter Chan, PERHAPS LOVE
3. Tsui Hark, SEVEN SWORDS

Best Screenplay: ELECTION (big)
2. PERHAPS LOVE
3. ?

Best Actor: Tony Leung Ka-fai, ELECTION (narrow margin)
2. Simon Yam, ELECTION
3. Tony Leung Ka-fai, EVERLASTING REGRET

Best Actress: Zhou Xun, PERHAPS LOVE (narrow)
2. Sylvia Chang, RICE RHAPSODY
3. Karena Lam, HOME SWEET HOME

Best Supp. Actor: Anthony Wong (narrow)
2. Liu Kai Chi, S.P.L.
3. Wong Tin-Lam, ELECTION

Best Supp. Actress: Teresa Mo (big)
2. Zhang Jingchu, SEVEN SWORDS
3. Maggie Siu, ELECTION

Best New Performer: Jay Chou (big)
2. Fiona Sit, 2 YOUNG
3. Annie Liu, MOB SISTER

Best Asian Film: KEKEXILI
2. SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE
3. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
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Post by Heksagon »

Indeed, I got mixed up with the film titles... Often happens with Hong Kong films. I thought I hadn’t heard of Teresa Mo until I checked her filmography at IMDB; The actress I had in my mind was Rosamund Kwan, who played the part in the original film; Mo, I suppose, parodied her character.

To get further in trivia, HKFA usually awards rather young directors compared with, say, AMPAS. Am I right in saying that Johnnie To, 51, is the oldest person to win the HKFA for best director? Next oldest would be Ann Hui at 49 and Derek Yee at 47 or 48... I’m not sure about the ages however. And I’m even less sure about who is the youngest - Stanley Kwan, I believe, was 31 when he won for Rouge, but I haven’t found ages for Dante Lam or Alan Mak; Lam could well have been younger than 31 when he won for Beast Cops, but I haven’t found even unreliable data of his age at the time.

To further comment on To’s films - Time has an exceptionally complex plot, especially for a Hong Kong film, but it doesn’t necessarily benefit the film at all times; messy plot makes the film incoherent and draws attention away from characters. Karma completely changes gears in the last one-third, which in my opinion, makes the film way too incoherent. The Buddhism references are interesting, but they left me baffled - I don’t know anything about Buddhism and I still have no idea what To and Wai were trying to aim at by introducing heavy religious references to a film which begun like an action-comedy.
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Post by inky »

Teresa Mo - I believe you are referring to ONCE UPON A TIME A HERO IN CHINA (1992, directed by Lee Lik-Chi and starring Alan Tam as Wong Fei-Hong), which is a spoof of Tsui Hark's ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991, starring Jet Li & Rosamund Kwan). Teresa didn't appear in the latter film.

I thought the plots of RUNNING OUT OF TIME and RUNNING ON KARMA are pretty inspiring. TIME managed to tie up all the loose ends while KARMA's reference to Buddhism is brilliant. BTW, I suspect that TIME has influenced Spike Lee's INSIDE MAN.

Still, both TIME and KARMA (as well as MY LEFT EYE SEES GHOSTS) are not Johnnie To's auteurish works. He co-directed those films with ex-partner Wai Ka-fai (whose TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NUMBER ONE, his only auteur film to date, is one of rain Bard's all-time favorites). You should check out his genuine personal, ambitious works like THE MISSION (whose minimalistic, Kurosawa-influenced mise-en-scene of several action scenes are textbook materials), PTU (minimalist meets film noir which is yet another breakthrough of HK crime/action film) and ELECTION (much simpler directing and yet no less powerful). Incidentally, Johnnie bagged HKFA Best Director Awards for these three films.

Anyway, I've just compiled more trivia of HKFA,

Oldest Best Actor: Roy Chiau (SUMMER SNOW, 1995, 58yo)
Oldest Best Actress: Law Lan (BULLETS OVER SUMMER, 1999, 58yo)
Youngest Best Actor: Tony Leung Ka-fai (REIGN BEHIND THE CURTAIN, 1983, 26yo)
Youngest Best Actress: Becky Lam (LONELY FIFTEEN, 1982, 17yo)

Actor who received most awards: Tony Leung Chiu-wai (5-time Best Actor + 2-time Supp.)
[Runner-up: Chow Yun-fat: 4-time Best Actor,
and Anthoy Wong: 2-time Actor + 2-time Supp. Actor]
Actress who received most awards: Maggie Cheung (5-time Best Actress)
Actor with most nominations but has yet to win: 1. Jackie Chan - 10 times ; 2. Lau Ching-wan - 7 times
Actress with most nominations but has yet to win: Carina Lau - 5 times (while her boyfriend Tony Leung Chiu-wai has won 7 times!)
1st Best Actor whose winning film is Cat III: Anthony Wong (1992, BUNMAN: THE UNTOLD STORY)
1st non-Chinese HKFA winner: Christopher Doyle (1994, ASHES OF TIME)

Stunt Group who won most Best Action Choreography Awards: Jackie Chan's Stunt Group (10 times)
1st brother-brother pair who was nominated for HKFA in the same year: Derek Yee & Paul Chun (twice - for THE LUNATICS and ENDLESS LOVE; director-supp. actor nominees for both cases)
1st father-son pair who was nominated for HKFA in the same year: Jackie Chan (NEW POLICE STORY, Best Actor) & Jaycee Chan (TWINS EFFECT 2, Best New Performer)

Multiple Best Director winners: 3 times (Allen Fong & Johnnie To); 2 times (Ann Hui, Wong Kar-wai & Derek Yee)
Actor-directors who directed themselves to win Best Actor: 1. Michael Hui (SECURITY UNLIMITED); 2. Kent Cheng (WHY ME?); 3. Stephen Show (SHAOLIN SOCCER)
Only actress-director to date who directed herself to win Best Actress Award: Sylvia Chang (PASSION)
Only actor-director to date who bagged both Best Director/Actor(or Actress) Award for the same film: Stephen Chow (SHAOLIN SOCCER)
Only film to date whose cast members bagged 3 out of the 4 acting awards: SUMMER SNOW (Actor, Actress, Supp. Actor)
Director who directed most acting award wins: Wong Kar-wai & Derek Yee (9 each)
Director who directed most Best Actor wins: Wong Kar-wai (5 times - 4 of which were Tony Leung Chiu-Wai)
[Runner-up: Johnnie To - 4 times]
Director who directed most Best Actress wins: Peter Chan (3 timies)

* For Best Supp. Actress winner Theresa Mo, this is her 9th nomination.
* Zhou Xun is the third mainland Chinese actress who won Best Actress. The first two were Siqin Gaowa (1984, HOMECOMING) and Zhang Ziyi (2004, "2046").
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Post by Heksagon »

I am not, as of now, a particular Johnnie To fan, and I’m starting to think the HKFA could once in a while award some people they haven’t awarded before - this is To’s third award as director (+ a few for best picture, I believe), Tony Leung Ka-Fai’s third award for best actor and Anthony Wong’s fourth acting award, lead or supporting. Both actresses are first time winners - I really like the fact that Theresa Mo won, I liked her a lot in Once Upon a Time in China.

The only Johnnie To films I’ve seen are Running out of Time, Running on Karma and the second-rate My Left Eye Sees Ghosts. Time and Karma are exceptional and enjoyable films, but ultimately come out lacking - in both films the plot gets out-of-hand towards the ending. Is PTU really much better? I’ve seen the DVD sold at a reasonable price and I’ve been thinking about whether I should buy it.
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Post by inky »

Only HK-made films or co-productions (have to meet at least 2 out of 3 criteria on the director's nationality, proportion of HK cast & crew members, and % of funding) are qualified for HKFA. Therefore, Payne's ELECTION is certainly not qualified.

rain Bard, make sure that you catch the HK Cat III version of the film, not the mainland Chinese's soft version (passed NC16 in Singapore). Alert me after you've seen the film, and I will let you know the differences between the two versions. The alternative ending in the mainland Chinese/Singapore version will cause the discontinuity of the plot in the film's sequel (which opened HKIFF'06). Anyway, THE MISSION, PTU and ELECTION are my three favourite Johnnie To films to date ... and each of them has its own merits and charms, making me hard to decide which one is more superior than which.

HKFA nominees and winners are picked in exactly the same way as Oscars do (i.e., polls involving people in the industry who are members of an association; and nominees picked by respective professions). That's why the very arthouse THREE TIMES and the bizzarre LADY VENGEANCE are virtually out of contention (at most being spoilers). It was a duel between KEKEXILI and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and whereas the hardship of KEKEXILI's filmmakers have gone through may have moved the voters (plus it is a so-called "China's Western movie" and we know HK filmmakers favour action films with substance), HOWL is afterall an animation.

BTW, I forgot whether I've posted this on this forum before ...

12th Hong Kong Film Critics Society (HKFCS) Awards (announced on 15 Jan 2006)

Best Picture: ELECTION
[Runners-up: PERHAPS LOVE; SEVEN SWORDS; CRAZY IN THE CITY; S.P.L.; HOME SWEET HOME]

Best Director: Johnnie To, ELECTION
[Runners-up: Peter Chan, PERHAPS LOVE; Tsui Hark, SEVEN SWORDS]
(note: This is the 4th time Johnnie bags this award. His previous winning works were A HERO NEVER DIES, THE MISSION and PTU.)

Best Screenplay: Wong Jing, COLOUR OF THE LOYALTY[Runners-up: ELECTION; PERHAPS LOVE; CRAZY IN THE CITY; DIVERGENCE]
(Surprise! Could you imagine that Wong Jing wrote a script with Greek Tragedy feel?)

Best Actor: Tony Leung Ka-fai, EVERLASTING REGRET
[Runners-up: Simon Yam, ELECTION; Tony Leung Ka-fai, ELECTION; Anthony Wong, INITIAL D; Chapman To, MOONLIGHT IN TOKYO]
(note: it was Tony vs. Tony at jurors' meeting)

Best Actress: Zhou Xun, PERHAPS LOVE
[Runners-up: Karen Mok, WAIT 'TIL YOU GET OLDER; Karena Lam, HOME SWEET HOME; Zhang Jingchu, SEVEN SWORDS; Su Yan, EVERLASTING REGRET]

Top-8 films of the year:

- SEVEN SWORDS
- COLOUR OF THE LOYALTY
- CRAZY IN THE CITY
- INITIAL D
- S.P.L.
- HOME SWEET HOME
- PERHAPS LOVE
- EVERLASTING REGRET


11th Golden Bauhinia Awards (Hong Kong Film Critics Association or HKFCA)
(They did away with awarding for individual categories for the first time this year. Don't know why.)

(Members' choices)

Top-10 Chinese films:
1. Election
2. Wait 'til You're Older
3. Perhaps Love
4. Kekexili
5. SPL
6. Initial D
7. The Wayward Cloud
8. Seven Swords
9. AV
10. Crazy 'N the City

Top-10 Foreign-Language Films:
1. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
2. Howl's Moving Castle
3. Crying Out Love, in the Centre of the World
4. Gloomy Sunday
5. Train Man
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
7. Sideways
8. Sin City && Be With You
9. King Kong
10. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith


(Online poll)

Top-10 Chinese films:
1. Wait 'til You're Older
2. The West Lake Moment
3. Moonlight in Tokyo
4. House of Fury
5. A Chinese Tall Story
6. Heirloom
7. Perhaps Love
8. All About Love
9. Everlasting Regret
10. Divergence

Top-10 Foreign-Language Films: (interesting ... No.6-10 are all animations)
1. Saving Face
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
3. King Kong
4. Crying Out Love, in the Centre of the World
5. March of the Penguins
6. Doraemon: Nobita and the Wind Wizard
7. Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-rabbit
8. Howl's Moving Castle
9. Chicken Little
10. The Incredibles


HKFCS vs. HKFCA

HKFCS is more academic and membership applications are filtered. HKFCA is opened to any kind of film critics, film reviewers, film capsule writers, etc. and therefore their taste is closer to HKFA.
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Post by rain Bard »

I wonder if frets about title confusion with the Payne film are the major hang-up preventing the Johnnie To Election from being picked up by a US distributor despite having been sold to pretty much every other territory in the world? I'm on the verge of going to Chinatown to pick up the DVD of this fascinating-sounding, Cannes-playing film, but I'd rather wait for at least a festival release.

Of the winners I've only seen Kekexili and Perhaps Love. Thought the former was truly excellent, probably my favorite Tibet-themed film seen so far (being a thriller rather than a drama probably helps). Still, I'm impressed it was able to beat the likes of Howl's Moving Castle, which I loved, and Three Times and Lady Vengeance, which I have high expectations for. What did you think of it, inky?

Perhaps Love probably (not having seen the other nominees) deserved its cinematography award for Peter Pau's and Chris Doyle's gorgeously shot images. Too bad the film was otherwise an incoherent and derivative mess.
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Post by The Original BJ »

For a moment there I was surprised to see Alexander Payne so popular in Hong Kong.
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Post by inky »

Best Picture: ELECTION
Best Director: Johnny To, ELECTION
Best Actor: Tony Leung Ka-fai, ELECTION
Best Actress: Zhou Xun, PERHAPS LOVE
Best Supporting Actor: Anthony Wong, INITIAL D
Best Supporting Actress: Teresa Mo, 2 YOUNG
Best Screenplay: ELECTION
Best Cinematography: PERHAPS LOVE
Best Art Direction: PERHAPS LOVE
Best Costume Make Up Design: PERHAPS LOVE
Best Film Editing: DIVERGENCE
Best Visual Effects: INITIAL D
Best Sound Effects: INITIAL D
Best Original Score: PERHAPS LOVE
Best Original Song: "Perhaps Love", PERHAPS LOVE
Best Action Choreography: S.P.L.
Best New Director: Kenneth Bi, RICE RHAPSODY
Best New Performer: Jay Chou, INITIAL D
Best Asian Film: KEKEXILI


Award Tallies:
PERHAPS LOVE (6) - Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume & Makeup Design, Original Score, Original Song
ELECTION (4) - Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay
INITIAL D (4) - Supporting Actor, Visual Effects, Sound Effects, New Performer
DIVERGENCE (1) - Film Editing
S.P.L. (1) - Action Choreography
2 YOUNG (1) - Supporting Actress
RICE RHAPSODY (1) - New Director
KEKEXILI (1) - Asian Film


Read an interesting comparison between Oscars and HKFA,

(1)
Oscars'04 - THE AVIATOR bagged several technical awards but MILLION DOLLAR BABY had the last laugh
HKFA'05 - PERHAPS LOVE bagged 5 technical awards during the first half of the ceremony followed by Best Actress but ELECTION took 4 big awards at the final stage of the night

(2) Best Actress competition
Oscars'05 - Witherspoon vs. Huffman (a veteran TV actress)
HKFA'05 - Zhou Xun vs. Sammi Cheng (a veteran singer-turned-actress)
HKFA favours younger, beautiful actresses in this category in recent years.

(3)
Oscars'05 - MEMOIRS OF GEISHA (with strong performance arts theme) swept Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design
HKFA'05 - PERHAPS LOVE (a musical itself, and the premise is the making of a musical film) swept Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Image Design

(4)
Oscars'05 - "Made use of" Sound, Sound Editing, Visual Effects Awards to celebrate blockbuster, critically-acclaimed (plus good acting) KING KONG
HKFA'05 - "Made use of" Sound Effects & Visual Effects Awards to celebrate blockbuster, critically-acclaimed (plus good acting - Anthony Wong & Jay Chou took Supp. Actor & New Performer Awards respectively) INITIAL D
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