Asian Film Award Nominees: "Legend of the Demon Cat" and More...
Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 10:24AM
NATHANIEL R in Asian cinema, Hong Sang-soo, Kim Min-hee, Newton, South Korea, Youth

by Nathaniel R

Legend of the Demon Cat

It's difficult to keep track of the cream of the crop of Asian cinema because there are so many different bodies handing out prizes and so many of the major international awards bodies ignore that region altogether. One of the youngest of the Asian awards bodies is the bluntly titled "Asian Film Awards" which have only been operating since 2007. Their nomination leader this year is a film called Legend of the Demon Cat  from Chen Kaige ( who is most famous stateside for his 1993 arthouse smash and Oscar nominee Farewell My Concubine  from 1993) but his latest isn't actually up for the top category, instead heavily dominating the tech fields. The film has not yet been released in the States.  Since these awards are based out of Hong Kong their nominees skew heavily towards Chinese productions...

But it's nice to read through the list and realize how many of these films actually were released in the States (and did fairly well, too). There are two Oscar submissions represented though neither made the finals: India's Newton (which won Best Actor at the Asian Pacific Awards recently) and South Korea's A Taxi Driver.

Provided TFE doesn't close down we'll try to make a concerted effort to catch more movies distributed by China Lion and WellGo this year, so we can stay more informed on what's happening in Asian cinema. It's tremendously easy to miss what's happening entirely these days since Asian cinema no longer gets any media attention in the States... there was a decade or so stretching from the early 90s- to the early 00s when it got quite a lot.)

Best film

 

Youth is the only one of these pictures to be released in the states but it's done very well since it's debut just before Christmas with $1.8 million in US box office.

 

Best director

 

Ann Hui won this prize recently for The Golden Era (2014) and Feng Xiaogang was nominated just last year for I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016)

 

Best new director

 

 

Best actor

Thailand's Sukollawat Kanarot in "Farewell Flower"

 

Rajkummar Rao won Best Actor at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Will he repeat here?

 

Best actress

 

The highest profile star here, internationally speaking, is Kim Min-hee who was so memorable in The Handmaiden  in 2016.

 

Best supporting actor

Eddie Peng in "Our Time Will Come"

 

Mmmmm Eddie Peng. 

 

Best supporting actress

 

You might remember Kitty Zhang from last year's Chinese arthouse hit, The Mermaid. 

 

Best newcomer

 

 

Best action film

 

Only Paradox didn't hit US screens though the only one of these that was a substantial hit (relatively speaking, you'll understand) in US limited release was Along with the Gods from South Korea (which is still in theaters)

 

Best screenplay

 

Newton won Best Screenplay at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards last month (albeit with much different competitors)

 

Best editing

 

 

Best cinematography

 

 

Best original music

 

 

Best costume design

"Blade of the Immortal" is the latest from super prolific Japanese auteur Takashi Miike

 

 

Best production design

 

 

Best visual effects


 

Baahubali 2 from India was the highest grossing foreign language film in the US in 2017.

 

Best sound

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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