Golden Horse Wins

Today's Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-Taiwanese Oscars, spread the wealth. Superstar Andy Lau (A Simple Life, Infernal Affairs, House of the Flying Daggers) had the honor of presenting Best Picture. It went to Beijing Blues but Beijing hardly dominated. Every BP Contender took home at least one prize and some of them major. 

I watched a bit of the ceremony live on the web even though I speak no Cantonese, Mandarin or Taiwanese. Awards shows are -- you'll never believe this -- a source of endless fascination to me. Yes, even if I have no clue what's going on.

I was told at one point though that the producers were asking the hosts to ad lib more since the ceremony was running short -- imagine it! Otherwise awards ceremonies speak a universal language. Consider the Best Actress category: silly presenter banter, 5 nominees, a mix of teary and elegant and 'why did they pick that?' clips, tense multi-camera grid as the winner is announced, and a tearful young beauty winning the big prize.

Also, just like it would happen at the Oscars, her equally pretty young male co-star (Joseph Chang) lost the counterpart male category to a mature and well respected character actor who'd paid his dues. The gender rules of awardage appear to be universal, too!

THE WINNERS
Best Picture Beijing Blues (pictured left) is a drama about a detective catching thieves
Audience Choice Gf*Bf (a popular youth-oriented romantic drama)
Best Director Johnny To Life Without Principle (Hong Kong's Oscar submission)
Best Actress Gwei Lun-Mei Gf*Bf 
Best Actor Ching Wan Lau Life Without Principle
Best Supporting Actress Liang Jing Design of Death
Best Supporting Actor Ronald Cheng Vulgaria 
Best New Performer Qi Xi Mystery 

 A complete list of winners and nominees can be found at the official Golden Horse site.

Golden Horse Nominees Include Two Oscar Contenders

Subtitled fare always seems to consume me in September and early October as the Foreign Language Submission List for Oscar takes shape (it's not quite official yet but the submission deadline has passed). This is also the time of year when The Golden Horse, the preeminent Chinese/Taiwanese film awards, announce their nominations. Rather than a huge Academy vote, the Golden Horse is determined by a jury. Andy Lau who starred in Hong Kong’s Oscar submission A Simple Life last year and is best known internationally for two hits from the Aughts (The House of Flying Daggers and Infernal Affairs which was later remade into The Departed) is the president of this year’s jury. 

Caught in the Web, China's Oscar submission, was apparently not eligible.

BEST PICTURE NOMINEES

• Beijing Blues -a police procedural 
• Mystery - is the leader with 8 nominations. It's a thriller from Lou Ye, who is most known for erotic dramas like Summer Palace and Cannes hit Spring Fever.
• Life Without Principle - This Johnnie To film about a loan shark is Hong Kong's Oscar submission this year.
• Gf*Bf -a decade long love triangle between three intimate friends with some gay elements. I included the trailer below
• The Bullet Vanishes  -a period piece and whodunnit

Flying Swords of Dragon’s Gate, which recently played in the states, won some technical nominations but none of the headline categories. 

Best Actor
Nick Cheung – Nightfall
Ching Wan Lau – Life Without Principle
Joseph Chang  - Gf*Bf
Chapman To –Vulgaria
Nicholas Tse –The Viral Factor 

Taiwan's Oscar submission "Touch of the Light" was only nominated for Best Actress

Best Actress
Baihe Bai –Love is Not Blind
Lei Hao - Mystery
Denise Ho –Life Without Principle
Lun-Mei Gwei – Gf*Bf
Sandrine Pinna –Touch of the Light

You can see the rest of the nominees at the official Golden Horse Awards site.

Golden Horse Awards: Two Oscar Submissions Win Big

I'm so itching for a big American awards show to hit us. Soon, soon. But until then, let's look to Taipei where The Golden Horse Awards were just handed out.

As expected the hit Taiwanese film Warriors of The Rainbow: Seediq Bale took home Best Picture. There's the jubilant cast doing an aboroginal dance on the red carpet. Fun!

Andy Lau and Deanie YipThe big winners of the night are both Oscar submissions this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Taiwan's Seediq Bale which is a action drama about aboroginal tribes battling occupying Japanese forces won the top prize and four other statues including "Audience Choice". Hong Kong's caretaking drama A Simple Life must have been close to a surprise sweep since it managed three of the top four statues: Director, Actor and Actress.

Superstar Andy Lau won Best Actor for the second time. He'd previously won for an Infernal Affairs sequel (the original Infernal Affairs was remade into the Oscar winning The Departed where Matt Damon took on Lau's role). Lau then presented Best Actress a category wherein he'd worked with 3 of the 4 nominees. You can see Shu Qi, he calls her "the most huggable woman ever", grinning throughout the presentation. Best Actress went to Lau's costar and actual godmother Deanie Yip. She also won the Volpi Cup at Venice this year for this role as a grown man's lifelong help who he must then care for when she has a stroke.

Video, complete list of winners, and fashion after the jump.

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