Golden Horse Awards 2020: Gay dramas abound but a romantic comedy takes it.

by Nathaniel R

Oops. We missed sharing Taipei's Golden Horse Awards this year as they happened right before Thanksgiving and we were otherwise occupied! Past lineups have had films from Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and more competing for the top prize. For the past two years, however, due to political tension and a boycott from China we're seeing less of that and it's becoming more centered on Taiwanese movies. This year three gay dramas did well (one of them is on Netflix) but it was a romantic comedy that won...

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE 

• Classmates Minus (Taiwan) -follows four adults who were once high school friends. Streaming on Netflix beginning February 20th
• Days (Taiwan) -about a sexual affair between two older men from the reknowned Tsai Ming-liang which we reviewed at AFI.
• Dear Tenant (Taiwan) - another gay drama about a man who is accused of murdering the mother of his deceased boyfriend after she leaves him the house in her will. It won multiple prizes if you read on. Sounds intriguing.
• Hand Rolled Cigarette (Hong Kong) - a friendship develops between a retired British Chinese soldier and a young South Asian man he takes in after they both end up in trouble with a local crime boss.
• My Missing Valentine (Taiwan) - a romantic comedy about a lonely postal worker ★

Taiwan's current Oscar submission A Sun (streaming on Netflix) was the big winner last year about this time. Golden Horse eligibility typically runs early fall to late summer so it doesn't line up exactly with Oscars or submission calendars. That's particularly true this year with the schedule very messy. For their submission in 2021, they'll have to pick something that opens after January 1st, 2021 so it won't be any of these titles. 

BEST DIRECTOR

• The Abortionist (Hong Kong) - Fruit Chan
• Classmates Minus - Huang Hsin-Yao
• Days - Tsai Ming-liang
• Dear Tenant - Cheng Yu-chieh
• My Missing Valentine - Chen Yu-hsun ★

Tsai Ming-liang is the most famous, internationally speaking, among these directors though his film Days was not a frontrunner for these prizes as it only received 1 nomination beyond the Film/Director categories. Fruit Chan, whose film Made in Hong Kong was submitted by Hong Kong to the Oscars in 1998, is the only Best Director nominee this year whose film (The Abortionist) didn't place in Best Film. Classmates Minus director Huang Hsin-Yao was previously submitted to the Oscars by Taiwan in 2018 for The Great Buddha+

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Chen Un
• Father
• Lost Course ★
• Me and My Condemned Sun (Taiwan)
• Taking Back the Legislature (Hong Kong)

The winner is a three hour documentary about a grassroots democratic movement in southern China to remove a corrupt local government but the new government is beset by the same kinds of corruption. 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• City of Lost Things (Taiwan)   ★
• Dr Sun (Taiwan/China)

Last year they had no nominations in this category, so they recovered from the China boycott this year. The winner is a toon about a teenage boy who meets an old anthropomorphic plastic bag who doesn't see himself as junk - take that, Forky! This is not to be confused with the Oscar-winning animated short The Lost Thing (2010) or the recent Taiwanese picture Cities of Last Things (2018) both of which come up on google if you search for this movie (so i wasn't able to find an image). We're always begging filmmakers to pick titles that are unique! 

BEST LEADING ACTOR

Best Actor winner Mo Tzu-yi who wins for a gay drama

• Dear Tenant - Mo Tzu-yi ★
• Hand Rolled Cigarette - Lam Ka-tung
• I Weirdo - Austin Lin
• My Missing Valentine - Liu Kuan-ting
• Number 1 - Mark Lee

Most of these men are first time Golden Horse nominees except, oddly enough, the two youngest of them, Austin Lin (also known as Lin Po-hung) who won Best Supporting Actor four years ago with At Cafe 6, and Liu Kuan-Ting who won Best Supporting Actor just last year for Taiwan's current Oscar submission A Sun. They're both 32.  Apparently Mo Tzu-yi's top competition was another actor in a gay role, Singapore's Mark Lee in the drag comedy Number 1. 

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

81 year old Chen Shu-fang won BOTH the female acting prizes this year.

• The Abortionist - Bai Ling
• I Weirdo - Nikki Hsieh
• A Leg - Gwei Lun-mei
• Little Big Women - Chen Shu-fang ★  currently streaming on Netflix
• My Missing Valentine - Patty Lee

81 year old longtime film and tv star Chen Shu-fang won both Best Actress and Best Supporting actress this year. She's been working regularly in cinema since 1971.

As for the other nominees. This is Gwei Lun-mei's fourth nomination as a leading actress (one previous win) and Nikki Hsieh's second nomination (one previous win in Supporting). Relative newcomer Patty Lee is a first time nominee and headlines the Best Film winner. (She got a double nomination this year as she co-wrote the Original Song from the film). And, of course, you know Bai Ling  who has worked on an international scale since the 1990s. Bai Ling hasn't been a regular presence at the Golden Horse Awards but she did win Supporting Actress back in 2004 for her sole previous nomination. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR 

• Classmates Minus - Nadow Lin ★
• Classmates Minus - Cheng Jen-shuo
• A Leg - Michael Chang
• The Silent Forest - Kim Hyunbin
• Your Name Engraved Herein - Leon Dai    currently streaming on Netflix

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Dear Tenant - Chen Shu-fang ★
• Get the Hell Out - Francesca Kao
• Little Big Women - Hsieh Ying-xuan   currently streaming on Netflix
• Mickey on the Road - Chang Ya-ling
• The Rope Curse 2 - Vera Chen

As you can see with acting nominations, Asian film awards are far less averse to acting nominations for genre films than their counterparts in English language markets as you semi-regularly see nominations from horror, comedy, and action films.

BEST NEW DIRECTOR 

• Hand Rolled Cigarette -Chan Kin-long
• I Weirdo - Liao Ming-yi
• Little Big Women - Joseph Hsu Chen-chieh  currently streaming on Netflix
• The Silent Forest - Ko Chen-nien
• The Story of Southern Islet - Chong Keat-aun ★

Chong Keat-aun's feature also won the Fipresci from critics. We believe it's also referred to as "South Witch"?

BEST NEW PERFORMER

Troy Liu and Buffy Chen star in the acclaimed sexual abuse drama "The Silent Forest"

• Beyond the Dream - Lau Chun-him
• Dear Orange - Wu Yi-jung
• The Silent Forest  - Chen Yan-fei ★
• The Way We Keep Dancing - Heyo
• Your Name Engraved Herein - Edward Chen currently streaming on Netflix

Chen Yan-fei, also known as Buffy Chen, co-starred in another Golden Horse winning film this year (Little Big Women). In The Silent Forest she plays a victimized teenager at a school for kids with special needs.  

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Dear Tenant
• A Leg
• My Missing Valentine ★
• The Silent Forest
• The Story of Southern Islet

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Beyond the Dream ★
• Classmates Minus
• Little Big Women  currently streaming on Netflix
• The Way We Keep Dancing

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tseng Jing-hua and Edward Chen play the young lovers in "Your Name Engraved Herein"

• Classmates Minus
• I Weirdo
• My Missing Valentine
• Precious is the Night
• Your Name Engraved Herein ★  currently streaming on Netflix

Your Name Engraved Herein is a gay drama told in both the present (2018) and the past (1988) about schoolmates who fall in love and meet again thirty years later. Taiwan was the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage. 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Hello! Tapir
• I Weirdo
• My Missing Valentine ★
• The Rope Curse 2  currently streaming on Netflix

Not sure how a romantic comedy won this prize? Perhaps it has fantasy sequences? The Rope Curse 2 is a horror sequel, about a young psychic whose aunt is possessed be a demon.

BEST ART DIRECTION 

• Classmates Minus ★
• Hand Rolled Cigarette
• I Weirdo
• My Missing Valentine
• The Silent Forest

BEST MAKEUP & COSTUME DESIGN

• Hand Rolled Cigarette
• A Leg
• Number 1 ★
• Precious is the Night
• The Rope Curse 2   currently streaming on Netflix

Drag queen comedy Number 1 beat out a horror sequel (The Rope Curse 2), a noir (Precious is the Night), a very odd sounding Dramedy about a woman shoes husband dies after his leg is amputated (A Leg), and a Best Film nominee / period piece (Hand Rolled Cigarette) for this prize.  

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

Teddy Ray Huang and Li Shao-Peng won "Best Action Choreography"

• A Choo currently streaming on Netflix
• Get the Hell Out ★
• Hand Rolled Cigarette
• The Way We Keep Dancing

Get the Hell Out is a horror comedy about a virus that turns politicians into zombies. A Choo is a superhero film of sorts. 

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE 

• Classmates Minus
• Dear Tenant ★
• Little Big Women  currently streaming on Netflix
• The Silent Forest
• Your Name Engraved Herein  currently streaming on Netflix

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SONG

• Babi - "Happy Family"
• Little Big Women "Guo Mie"  currently streaming on Netflix
• My Missing Valentine - "Lost and Found"
• The Way We Keep Dancing - "Welcome to the City" 
• Your Name Engraved Herein -“Your Name Engraved Herein" ★  currently streaming on Netflix

BEST FILM EDITING

• Classmates Minus
• Hand Rolled Cigarette
• My Missing Valentine ★
• The Silent Forest
• The Way We Keep Dancing

BEST SOUND EFFECTS 

• Beyond the Dream
• Days
• My Missing Valentine
• The Silent Forest ★
• The Way We Keep Dancing

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

• In This Land We're Briefly Ghosts
• Night is Young  ★
• See You, Sir
• Sisters' Busy Hands
• Temple of Devilbuster 

Night is Young is a 25 minute short about a taxi driver during one night of intense social unrest in Hong Kong. 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

• Grand Adventure Railroad
• Little Hilly
• Night Bus  ★
• The Six
• The Weather is Lovely

Joe Hsieh who directed Night Bus about a fatal accident on the road also served as the animation director on Yonfan's bizarre and bewitching No. 7 Cherry Lane which I saw at TIFF last year and which we just found out is  being submitted for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars this year. 

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD

• Classmates Minus

FIPRESCI PRIZE 

• The Story of Southern Islet

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILMMAKER OF THE YEAR

• Peng Ren-meng

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

• Hou Hsiao-hsien

The 57th annual Golden Horse Awards were held in Taipei on November 21st. The Golden Horse Awards Intagram account has lots of lovely photos of the event.

Comments

[Pawel]

Winning in both leading and supporting category at 81-years old? What a queen.

Excited for all the gay dramas too.

[Horace]

A great list of nominees and winners. 

The ceremony is on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE2IZ2KOlJU

There are some nice performances and speeches. Good to see filmmakers in a televised ceremony. Some of the nominees and presenters had to undergo 14-day quarantine to attend the ceremony.  

[Sam]

The only Asian film festival that is not afraid to let films about Hong Kong protest getting nominated and even winning. And of course those films (Taking Back the Legislature & Night is Young) will forever be banned by China.

[Kevin]

Nothing much to add except that it's wild to imagine a US award show having 80% gay content in Best Picture, so that's cool.

[NATHANIEL R]

Kevin -- right? It's only 40% as one of the three dramas mentioned only has nominations in other categories but still once you add in all the nominations there are (AT LEAST) four queer films with nominations which is pretty cool.

[John]

I think I've said this before, but thank you for being the only English-language outlet on the Internet to consistently cover my country's film awards year after year! Anybody needing an award show fix this year should really watch the YouTube video of the entire ceremony that another commenter linked above--even without understanding the language, I think it comes across that it was a really good show this year, with heartfelt speeches and five excellent Original Song performances.

Nathaniel, I understand why you're anticipating watching the LGBT films nominated this year the most, but I really recommend Little Big Women as well whenever it lands on streaming. It really is actressexual heaven, like August: Osage County but with real authentic emotion instead of showboating histrionics.

[Dave in Hollywood]

Ooh, this is so exciting. My partner is Vietnamese and we probably watch Asian movies the most. Well, mostly gay Asian soap operas for lack of a better term. I would love to introduce him to more quality gay movies so this should give me a good starting point. And a romantic comedy winner sounds just great too. I hope to catch all the big ones...somewhere. I hope they show up with English subtitles in the future.

[ajnrules]

Interesting list of winners. With the International Film Oscar submissions being released recently I took a look back to see just how many Golden Horse winners get submitted, and I was somewhat surprised that it doesn't happen all that often.

2019: A Sun (Taiwan)
2015: The Assassin (Taiwan)
2013: Ilo Ilo (Singapore)
2011: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
2009: Cannot Live Without You (Taiwan)
2003: Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong)
2002: The Best of Times (Taiwan)
2000: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Taiwan)
1999: Ordinary Heroes (Hong Kong)
1995: Summer Snow (Hong Kong)
1993: The Wedding Banquet (Taiwan)
1991: A Brighter Summer Day (Taiwan)
1988: Painted Faces (Hong Kong)
1985: Kuei-Mei, a Woman (Taiwan)
1984: Old Mao's Second Spring (Taiwan)
1983: Growing Up (Taiwan)
1982: The Battle for the Republic of China (Taiwan)
1981: If I Were Real (Taiwan)
1972: Execution in Autumn (Taiwan)
1963: The Love Eterne (Hong Kong)