Golden Horse Awards 2023

by Nathaniel R

Ang Lee congratulates the Best Actor winner at the Golden Horse Awards. Image via Golden Horse instagram.

While Stonewalling, a drama about a pregnant flight attendant had the least amount of nominations of the "Best Narrative Feature" contenders (just 3), it emerged with the big win this past weekend in Taipei. (You can stream the film on Criterion Channel in the US). Curiously the big winner in terms of number of prizes was Old Fox, which wasn't nominated for Best Feature though it took Best Director and three other prizes. Another curiousity: none of the acting winners were from Best Feature nominees. The winners and a few of their trailers are after the jump...

winners indicated with a ★

BEST FEATURE 

• Eye of the Storm  (Taiwan) -7 nominations / 1 win. A drama about a hospital thrown into lockdown due to a virus outbreak. STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Marry My Dead Body (Taiwan) - 8 nominations / 1 win. A crime comedy about a homophobic cop trying to solve a case and the spirit of a gay man who he accidentally marries and whose death is connected to the cop's case. STREAMING ON NETFLIX.
• Snow in Midsummer (Malaysia/Singapore/Taiwan) - 9 nominations / 1 win. A retelling of a famous Chinese story set during the Yuan dynasty about a widow who is wrongfully convicted for a crime.
• ★ Stonewalling (China) -3 nominations / 2 wins. A drama about an aspiring flight attendant who discovers she's pregnant. STREAMING ON CRITERION. 
• Time Still Turns the Pages (China) - 5 nominations / 1 win / 1 special prize. A high school teacher is is in crisis when he finds an anonymous suicide note in his classroom. 

Of the nominees only Taiwan's gay comedy Marry My Dead Body was submitted in Oscar's Best International Feature Film race.

BEST DIRECTOR

• Cheng Wei-hao (5 noms / 1 win) - Marry My Dead Body
• ★ Hsiao Ya-chuan - Old Fox  -AVAILABLE TO RENT ON AMAZON
• Wong Ching-po - The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon
• Chong Keat-aun - Snow in Midsummer 
• Huang Ji & Otsuka Ryuji - Stonewalling

Old Fox is a morality drama about a young boy and his father at a crossroads. UPDATE: It became Taiwan's Oscar submission for 2024 and is available to rent from Amazon. 

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

Audrey Lin with her prize. image via Golden Horse instagram.

• Hu Ling - Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate
• Lu Hsiao-fen - Day Off
• Jennifer Yu - In Broad Daylight
• Chung Suet-ying - The Lyricist Wannabe
• ★ Audrey Lin - Trouble Girl

Trouble Girl is about a girl who is bullied at school and then realizes that her mother (played by Ivy Chen) is in a relationship with her teacher.  

BEST LEADING ACTOR

• ★ Wu Kang-ren - Abang Adik -STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Wang Po-chieh - Eye of the Storm STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Hsu Kuang-han - Marry My Dead Body - STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Austin Lin (3rd nomination) - Marry My Dead Body - STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Ethan Juan (2nd nomination) - The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon

In this gif above, Wu Kang-ren is asking the interviewer something along the lines of 'Are we done? Can I go get a picture with Ang Lee?" Relatable king! UPDATE: Abang Adik became Malaysia's Oscar submission for 2024 and is available to stream on Netflix.

Abang Adik, the film he won for, is about undocumented orphan brothers in Malaysia. One of the brothers (Wu Kang-ren) is a deaf mute. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• ★ Beatrice Fang - Day Off
• Rachel Leung - In Broad Daylight 
• Eugenie Liu - Old Fox - AVAILABLE TO RENT ON PRIME
• Wan Fang - Snow in Midsummer
• Ivy Chen Yi-han (3rd nomination) - Trouble Girl

Day Off is about an older hairdresser who is asked to travel to give a bedridden old man a haircut. Not sure what Beatrice Fang's supporting role is. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Jack Tan - Abang Adik
• Fu Meng-po (2nd nomination)  - Day Off
• Bowie Lam - In Broad Daylight
• ★ Akio Chen - Old Fox
• Sean Wong Tzu-lok - Time Still Turns the Pages

BEST NEW PERFORMER 

• Tan Kimg-wang - Abang Adik
• Travis Hsu - A Boy and a Girl
• ★ Yoyo Tse - Fly Me to the Moon
• Daniel Hong - Miss Shampoo - STREAMING ON NETFLIX
• Yeh Hsiao-fei - Who'll Stop the Rain

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

• Jin Ong - Abang Adik
• Lee Hong-chi - Love is a Gun
• Sun Jie - The Mountain is Coming
• Alan Zhang -This Woman
• ★ Nick Cheuk - Time Still Turns the Pages

This drama about a teacher discovering a student's suicide note, is a feature directorial debut for Nick Cheuk who previously one tv episode and wrote two features. It also won the Audience Awards at the Golden Horse festival. 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate
• ★ The Mountain is Coming
• Stonewalling
• Time Still Turns the Pages
• Trouble Girl

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Fly Me to the Moon
• The Lyricist Wannabe
• ★ Marry My Dead Body
• Snow in Midsummer

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Abang Adik
• Eye of the Storm
• ★ Fish Memories
• Snow in Midsummer
• Who'll Stop the Rain

Fish Memories is also known as "A New Day". You can see the trailer above. The synopsis sounds like a gay romantic drama but that might be a mistranslation since the trailer looks more like a love triangle or idyll weekend style drama. 

BEST ART DIRECTION

• ★ Eye of the Storm
• In Broad Daylight
• Miss Shampoo
• Old Fox
• Trouble Girl

BEST MAKEUP AND COSTUME DESIGN 

• Abang Adik
• In Broad Daylight
• Miss Shampoo
• ★ Old Fox
• Snow in Midsummer

BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY

• The Bridge Curse: Ritual
• Marry My Dead Body
• Miss Shampoo
• ★ The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon
• Pigsy

BEST FILM EDITING

• Eye of the Storm
• Marry My Dead Body
• The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon
• ★ Stonewalling
• Time Still Turns the Pages

BEST SOUND EFFECTS

• A Boy and a Girl
• Eye of the Storm
• The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon
• ★ Snow in Midsummer
• Trouble Girl

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE

• Eye of the Storm
• ★ Old Fox
• The Pig, The Snake, and the Pigeon
• Snow in Midsummer
• Trouble Girl

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SONG

• Abang Adik - "A Walk To Remember"
• ★ Day Off - "The Usual"
• Marry My Dead Body - "Untitled"
• Old Fox - "Fledgling"
• Snow in Midsummer - "May Threnody"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• The Clinic
• Elegies
• Free Beats: the Musical Journey of Chen Ming Chang
• Where
• ★ Youth (Spring)

Cláudio reviewed Youth (Spring) at TIFF this past September. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT 

• Eviction and Beyond
• Girl of Wind
• Hearing from the Dolphin
• ★ The Memo
• Of Dreams in the Dream of Another Mirror 

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

• Al Niente
• ★ Before the Box Gets Emptied
• Boys on the Bridge
• Reclaim My Summer
• The Stag

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

• Braided
• Egret River
• Ever Changing Clouds, Like My Ever Changing Life
• Ghost of the Dark Path
• ★ Monsoon Blue

The following prizes are decided in different ways or by different sets of voters

AUDIENCE AWARD

• ★ Time Still Turns the Pages

FIPRESCI PRIZE

• ★ Fly Me to the Moon

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILMMAKER OF THE YEAR

• ★ Lin Shih-Ken - producer

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

• ★ Brigitte Lin - actress
• ★ Chen Kun-hou - cinematographer/director

Comments

[charlea]

Interesting!

[charlea]

I will now be checking out Stonewalling on the Criterion Channel. Thanks for shining a light on a film I had not heard of!

[ajnrules]

I could have sworn I read about Stonewalling on here, but I guess this is the first time the movie was being mentioned.

Anyways, Audrey Lin is only 12 years old, and naturally she is the youngest winner of a leading acting category, although there had been younger winners in supporting categories.

Beatrice Fang played one of the daughters of the main character. More interesting to me is the fact that she got her start in the second season of the singing competition One Million Star, which launched the career of my favorite singer (Rachel Liang Wen Yin). Fang is actually the third individual that participated in that second season of One Million Star to win an acting award at the Golden Horse Awards. Austin Lin (of Marry My Dead Body fame) won Best Supporting Actor in 2016 for Cafe No. 6. And Lee Chien-na won Best New Performer in 2010 for Juliets, Anyways, that was just something I found fascinating.

[Fabio Dantas Flappers]

Interesting...
The statue is a golden horse.
Cute!