Asian Film Awards: "Wife of a Spy" and "Voice of Silence" are winners

by Nathaniel R

The Asian Film Awards, which used to be held early in the year are now a fall event, organized jointly with the Hong Kong, Busan, and Tokyo Film Festivals. The prizes were divvied up across multiple countries so there's a little something for everyone though the big winner was Japan's Wife of a Spy (a winner at Venice in 2020) which took Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Costume Design and recently had a brief US theatrical release from Kino Lorber. South Korea's Voice of Silence also made a fine showing taking Best New Director and Best Actor for popular 35 year-old star Yoo Ah-In (Burning and #Alive). Most of the films honored are 2020 films so dont expect much of a direct correlation between what countries submit to the Oscars this year as most of these were eligible for submission last season. The full list of nominees and winners is after the jump... 

Best Film

• One Second (China)
• The Book of Fish (South Korea)
• The Disciple (India)
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan)
• Wife of a Spy (Japan) ★

The only one of these that is eligible for Oscar submission this season is Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which just played the NYFF and is firmly a 2021 film.

Best Director

• Adilkhan YERZHANOV – Yellow Cat (Kazakhstan, France)
• HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke – Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan)
• KUROSAWA Kiyoshi – Wife of a Spy (Japan)
• LEE Joon-ik – The Book of Fish (South Korea)
• ZHANG Yimou – One Second (China) ★

Zhang Yimou is China's most internationally celebrated director but One Second, about the friendship between a cinephile in a remote farmland and a homeless female is not Oscar eligible this season as it was released at home in 2020 and Oscar's calendar last season for international submissions ran til the end of 2020 for the international category (three months longer than usual)

Best Actor

• LAM Ka Tung – Limbo (Hong Kong)
• MO Tzu-Yi – Dear Tenant (Taiwan)
• YAKUSHO Koji – Under The Open Sky (Japan)
• YOO Ah-in | Voice of Silence (South Korea) ★
• ZHANG Yi – One Second (China)

Congrats to Yoo Ah-in who has not a single line in his movie (though the reason for his silence is, we hear, not explained).

You may remember that the gay drama Dear Tenant was a player in the Golden Horse Awards last year. We're dying to see it but no US release still, not even on streaming. 

Best Actress

• AOI Yu – Wife of a Spy (Japan) ★
• Assel SADVAKASSOVA – Ulbolsyn (Kazakhstan, France)
• CHEN Shu-Fang – Little Big Women (Taiwan)
• JUN Jong-seo – The Call (South Korea)
• ZHANG Zifeng – Sister (China)

Chen Shu-Fang won the Golden Horse last season and you can see Little Big Women on Netflix now. But she lost to Aoi Yu here for Wife of a Spy.

Best Supporting Actor

THE SILENT FOREST

• KIM Hyun-bin – The Silent Forest (Taiwan) ★
• PARK Jeong-min – Deliver Us From Evil (South Korea)
• TSE Kwan Ho – Drifting (Hong Kong)
• UNO Shohei – The Voice of Sin (Japan)
• YU Ailei – Cliff Walkers (China)

Best Supporting Actress

TRUE MOTHERS

• HSIEH Ying-Xuan | Little Big Women (Taiwan)
• JANG Yoon-ju – Three Sisters (South Korea)
• Loletta LEE – Drifting (Hong Kong)
• MAKITA Aju – True Mothers (Japan) ★
• QIN Hailu – Cliff Walkers (China)

True Mothers was Japan's Oscar submission last season.

Best New Director

• Ahmad BAHRAMI – The Wasteland (Iran)
• HAN Shuai – Summer Blur (China)
• HARUMOTO Yujiro – A Balance (Japan)
• HONG Eui-jeong – Voice of Silence (South Korea) ★
• P.S. Vinothraj – Pebbles (India)
• YIN Ruoxin – Sister (China)

Best Newcomer

• CHEN Yan-Fei – The Silent Forest (Taiwan)
• GONG Seung-yeon – Aloners (South Korea)
• HATTORI Misaki – Midnight Swan (Japan)
• LIU Haocun – One Second (China) ★
• Rouhollah ZAMANI – Sun Children (Iran)

Best Cinematography

THE WASTELAND

• CHENG Siu Keung – Limbo (Hong Kong)
• HONG Kyeong-pyo – Deliver Us From Evil (South Korea)
• Masoud Amini Tirani – The Wasteland (Iran) ★
• TSUKINAGA Yuta – Any Crybabies Around? (Japan)
• Yerkinbek PTYRALIYEV – Yellow Cat (Kazakhstan, France)
• ZHAO Xiaoding – Cliff Walkers (China)

Continuing the current hot world cinema trend of returning to black and white cinema, The Wasteland takes it. It's the story of a factory supervisor caught between the boss and the workers and trying to protect the woman he loves.

Any Crybabies Around? about a man who embarrasses his family by being drunk and naked on national television during a sacred festival is streaming on Netflix. Yellowcat is on MUBI.

Best Screenplay

• CHEN Yu-Hsun – My Missing Valentine (Taiwan)
• Chaitanya TAMHANE – The Disciple (India) ★
• HONG Eui-jeong – Voice of Silence (South Korea)
• YOU Xiaoying – Sister (China)

The Disciple, a musician biopic, made the festival rounds in 2020. My Missing Valentine, a romantic comedy, was the top winner at last year's Golden Horse Awards.

Best Editing 

• Hassan HASSANDOUST – Sun Children (Iran)
• KIM Hyung-joo – Deliver Us From Evil (South Korea)
• LI Yongyi – Cliff Walkers (China) ★
• LAI Hsiu-Hsiung – My Missing Valentine (Taiwan)
• Tina BAZ, SHIBUYA Yoichi – True Mothers (Japan

Best Original Music

• CHO Young Wuk – Cliff Walkers (China)
• Day TAI – The Way We Keep Dancing (Hong Kong) ★
• Lao Zai – One Second (China)
• Mowg – Deliver Us From Evil (South Korea)

Best Costume Design 

• CHEN Minzheng – Cliff Walkers (China)
• CHO Sang-kyung, KWAK Jung-ae – Space Sweepers (South Korea)
• KOKETSU Haruki – Wife of a Spy (Japan) ★
• SHIM Hyun-seob – The Book of Fish (South Korea)
• Yermek UTEGENOV – Yellow Cat (Kazakhstan, France)

Best Production Design

LIMBO

• ATAKA Norifumi – Wife of a Spy (Japan)
• Gokuldas – Labyrinth (India)
• Kenneth MAK – Limbo (Hong Kong) ★
• LEE Jae-sung – The Book of Fish (South Korea)
• LI Miao – A Writer’s Odyssey (China)

Limbo is a crime drama about a serial killer of women. 

Best Visual Effects

• Eric XU, Allen WEI – A Writer’s Odyssey (China)
• JUNG Sung-jin, JUNG Chul-min – Space Sweepers (South Korea)
• ODA Issei – Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone (Japan)
• Tomi KUO – My Missing Valentine (Taiwan)
• Tim CROSBIE, Joy WU – The Eight Hundred (China) ★

The Eight Hundred is a war film, rentable on multiple services and free if you have a subscription to Viki.

Best Sound

• CHOI Tae-young – Space Sweepers (South Korea)
• FU Kang – The Eight Hundred (China)
• HIRONAKA Chiyori – Any Crybabies Around? (Japan)
• Nopawat LIKITWONG – Limbo (Hong Kong) ★
• Renganaath RAVEE – Labyrinth (India)

Space Sweepers is a sci-fi actioner currently streaming on Netflix. 

Excellence in Asian Cinema Award

• Lee Byung-hun (South Korea)

The 51 year old international star got the lifetime achievement style honors. His credits include US action flicks and homegrown classics: I Saw the Devil, Terminator Genysis, GI Joe: Retaliation, Joint Security Area, A Bittersweet Life, The Magnificent Seven, The Age of Shadows, Man Standing Next, and Squid Game. Next up is The Match with Yoo Ah-in and a disaster epic Concrete Utopia with Parasite's Park Seo Jun.

Highest Grossing Asian Film of 2020

• Demon Slayer: The Movie - Mugen Train 

Demon Slayer is streamable with a subscription on Funimation Now or available for purchase at multiple outlets.

Comments

[Travis C]

So happy for THE DISCIPLE which I watched (on Netflix) earlier this year (as part of my "watch as many available movies from Venice 2020 as I can" project), and immediately entered it on my "Best Of 2021" list. The screenplay is fantastic.

[Mirko]

I’m so glad for Wife Of A Spy and for Master Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Production values are top-notch and Aoi Yu is more than effective as the leading character, in a role who allows her to be enigmatic and to homage Japanese past screen heroines (especially Mizoguchi’s ladies). The film is director’s Black Book (less hitchcockian) or Lust, Caution (less erotic) and also his love letter to Cinema, something Asian Film Awards were very keen to recognise this year (see also Zhang Yimou’s victory as Best Director)