Golden Horse Countdown
Saturday, October 12, 2013 at 10:44AM Here's Maggie Cheung's commercial (filmed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien) for the Golden Horse awards to be held on November 23rd in Taipei. I have it on good authority that she's saying...
50 years Golden Horse, happy birthday
I wish I could speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
I also wish I could create sparkler-like effects by waving my arms around.
Chinese speaking readers should also check out these promos. See, to celebrate their big 5-0 the Golden Horse Awards are interviewing past winners about their classic performances/films. And for those who missed the announcement the Best Picture nominees this year at the Golden Horse Awards are the following features:
Tony Leung, Maggie's #1 screen partner, in The GrandmasterDRUG WAR (Johnny To)
THE GRANDMASTER (Wong Kar Wai) Hong Kong's Oscar Submission, Dan's review which is likely the frontrunner given the huge amount of nominations (11) and the Maggie Cheung-adjacent legends involved
ILO ILO (Anthony Chen) Singapore's Oscar Submission Chen was not nominated for director, replaced by Mong-Hong Chung who directed Taiwan's Oscar submission Soul, but he's up for "New Director" instead
A TOUCH OF SIN (Jia Zhang-Ke) Glenn & Jose's review
STRAY DOGS (Tsai Ming Liang) Venice winner
What's the last Asian film you saw and are you rooting for any of the Asian entries to win a Best Foreign Film nomination in the Oscar race this year (a lot more on that category coming up soon)
Reader Comments (14)
Why does Asian-cinema matter to you? And all cinema matters to you is an unacceptable answer since you have biases and preferences like anyone else.
The last Asian film I saw at a theater was Narayama-bushi kô. I didn't see that on it's original release 30 years ago. But there was a screening of it last month during my local film festival.
I think only one Asian film will be nominated Saudi-Arabia's Wadja.
The other four being Belgium's The Broken Circle Breakdown, Denmark's The Hunt, Italy's The Great Beauty and The Netherland's Borgman.
The last one is only a personal hope. The four others have to be real contenders.
Lol..3rtful, I don't get what you are trying to say here. Everybody have biases; that's a given. Nat has biases but he also loves good cinema and Asian countries supply a good deal of them though it's harder here in US to see them because of distribution issue.
Back on topic, the last one I saw was "the Grandmaster" which for me is not top tier Wong but if this is what will make him an Oscar nominee, I am all for it. It's a shame that "in the mood for love" was not nominated.
The missus and I saw "The Grandmaster" a month or two ago. Not that many Chinese films get out this way and there are usually too many other more 'language-accessible' options available that we want to see more.
I'm Asian and I always enjoy reading Nat's posts about Asian cinema.
Also, if you have already posted about this already but I have just read that Gong Li is reuniting with Zhang Yimou for a new drama film. It's already a month news but still yay!
Just saw Kore-Eda's "Like Father, Like Son" on Tuesday. I would probably rank it behind "Nobody Knows" and "Still Walking", but the film never gets sentimental when it is dealing with a tear-jerking scenario (I want to see how Spielberg would rework this film). The ending is quietly touching. However, I thought the middle towards the end sags a bit, and they let the father off the hook too easily, but children forgive easily I guess :)
It just won the People's Choice Award in Vancouver! He should be more well-known.....Surprised Japan chose "The Great Passage" instead (which is a mildly entertaining look at what's go on behind the compilation of a dictionary).
I hope GRANDMASTER score it....even if after IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE atrocious snub many years ago I'm not very confident about its chances....regarding Golden Horse: I hope Zhang Ziyi could win her first Horse thanks to her role in Wong Kar-wai's movie (strange she missed it for 2046).
My Beloved Maggie....how I miss her!
/3rtful -- i dont know if that was a serious question but i;ll answer truthfully. Certain regions interest me more than others and usually it's about either a) the general quality of the films or b) the movie stars (China has EXCELLENT movie stars) or c) the genres that they favor. For instance I ike costume dramas and I like lyrical action and Asian cinema often combines them That's a dumb answer but basically true. Within Asian cinema I prefer South Korean to Japanese cinema mosty because of the actresses. ;)
I can also be counted on to be interested in French cinema (for consistent quality, adult-oriented stories, fine auteurs and world great movie stars) and Scandinavian cinema (mostly because of my personal connection to Scandinavia) and obvious like any good cinephile i get excited about a region or country when they suddenly have a "movement" (i.e. Romania now or South Korea recently or Denmark in the early Aughts) .
Listen I'm too misunderstood to waste time being sarcastic in question form.
The last Asian film I saw was Mutant Girls Squad. It's...it's everything you could want in an intentionally campy gorefest plus great acting. That's what really threw me. The three leads (hero, antihero/mentor, villain) give very good performances with actual character arcs in what amounts to little more than a series of horror sight gags. I mean, one girl's mutation is a chainsaw coming out of her butt. There's no coming back from that. But the opening few scenes where the lead character is bullied by her peers and sees her world torn apart by the discovery that she's not actually human and can't control her powers? Great acting showpiece surrounded by clever gore sight gags. Also, the production values are really high considering it could easily look as low budget as it feels. Excellent makeup effects, stunts, and fight choreography.
Thank you for taking interest in Asian cinema.
I hope at least one Chinese speaking movies got nominated this year, may it be from China, Taiwan, HK or Singapore. It's been so long. Two years back Taiwan got in the shortlisted nine but failed to be nominated.
One more thing about this year is, it probably is the year where the most Malaysians are associated or almost associated with the Oscars. First the "was considered but not submitted film" by HK - The Unbeatable features Malaysian actress Crystal Lee, then the Singapore submission Ilo Ilo features Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann as the mother (both of them are nominated in Supporting Actress at the Golden Horse). Here's another "not-so-possible but who knows": Malaysian songstress Yuna sang Shine Your Way for The Croods (with Owl City), it's not the type of song Oscar goes after but hey, they do like songs from animated films so who knows.
Sorry that I obsessed about my country's Oscar connection LOL.
Very strong list.
Some wonderful films. Little bit too much tension here though over nothing :)