20-4-09: IP MAN PACKS A PUNCH AT HONG KONG FILM AWARDS

Ann Hui knocks down a Red Cliff!

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This year the Hong Kong Film Awards returned to their familiar venue at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. Even though prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Hong Kong is such a relatively small place, its rare to get all the major talents in the industry under one roof. And I was there, too…

The event kicked off with a display of Chinese drumming by Ip Man star Donnie Yen, who braved the rain to ‘da ku’ and then perform a few lion dance moves. He had also been nominated for Best Actor, and, rumour had it, if he didn’t win, he was going to unleash his Wing Chun ‘chain punches’ on whoever did… It was the best year yet for Yen, with three of his films nominated in different categories: Ip Man, Painted Skin and Empress and Her Warriors.

As the evening wore on, the biggest surprise was that the period epic Red Cliff was evidently going to win only technical awards. This was such an epic, sweeping accomplishment by director John Woo, who was in attendance, that I felt it deserved better. Though, like everyone in the industry, I love and respect Ann Hui, there is no way that, as pure cinema, her drama The Way We Are is a match for Red Cliff, and the latter should have won Best Director for Woo. As it turned out, Red Cliff took home Best Art Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Design, Best Costume Design and Make-Up andBest Original Film Score.

Regarding this last, budding local composers take note, three nominees were Japanese and one was French! There’s definitely a gap in the local market there.

Ann Hui’s The Way We Are also won Best Actress for ATV veteran Bau Hei-jing, Best Screenplay for Lui Yau-Wah and Best Supporting Actress for Chan Lai-wun. In this last category, Chan beat my prospective daughter-in-law, Race Wong, who was nominated for her work in True Women For Sale. (Personally, I’d have put money on Zhou Xun for that great ‘Mulan’ style character she played in Red Cliff.)

The fantasy actioner Painted Skin won Best Song, and, again!, Best Cinematography, for my old friend Arthur Wong. Arthur has already won this award eight times, and I kidded with him later that they should just keeping changing the plaque on the prize rather than give him a new one every time! I would argue that Arthur’s luminous photography is what made Painted Skin memorable, so this latest win was well-deserved.

Best Editing went to Yau Chi-wai for director Benny Chan’s superior remake of Cellular, Connected. I keep asking Benny when we’re going to do Gen-Z Cops, but to no avail. This is the franchise that gave the world Nicholas Tse, Stephen Fung, Daniel Wu, Maggie Q, Paul Rudd and Edison Chen. ( Edison, as you may know, is now famous for shooting…. his gun in Dante Lam’s Sniper.)

Best New Artiste went to Xu Jiao, the little girl who played a little boy in Stephen Chiau’s CJ7. I think Tse Man should have won the same prize when she played a he (Wong Fei-hung) in Iron Monkey. Best New Director went to Derek Kwok for The Moss, and I refuse to believe that The Moss was the best film any of our new creative talents could come up with last year!

Best Asian Film went to The Assembly, Feng Xiao-gang’s masterful war epic. This brilliant work should have been even more celebrated than it has been.

The Professional Achievement Award went to Ding Yue, a veteran dubbing supervisor. I was hoping that he acceptance speech would be dubbed into bad kung fu movie English, but it was not to be… (Joking aside, his comments were very touching.)

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the great Josephine Siao, AKA Siu Fong-Fong. Though she’s best known to international audiences for her work as Jet Li’s mom in Fong Sai-yuk (coming soon from Dragon Dynasty!), Siao has had a long and brilliant career in Hong Kong cinema, and no-one is more deserving of this award.

Best Supporting Actor went to Liu Chi-kai for his work on Dante Lam’s Beast Stalker. I thought Dante did a great job with this film, it’s a shame there’s not a bigger market for these Asian thrillers in the west. Liu, known as ‘Chi Suk’, also did great work in Derek Yee’s Protégé. He’s famous for being a bona fide method actor on set (but thankfully didn’t actually cut his hand off in that film…)

It was a foregone conclusion that Sammo Hung (and partner Leung Siu-hung) would win Best Action Design for Ip Man. What was a welcome surprise was the reunion of the Seven Little Fortunes (Hung’s old Opera performance troupe) on stage. I heard that Jackie Chan was scheduled to attend, but bowed out due to the recent controversy over some politically charged comments he made in China. Sammo jokingly disowned Chan’s statements, but this was cut from the TVB broadcast of the ceremony.

The race for Best Actor was between Donnie Yen and Nick Cheung Kar-fai. I remember when I first came to Hong Kong, Donnie was starring as kung fu hero Hung Kei-kwoon in an ATV series, and Nick was playing Fong Sai-yuk opposite him. Given a run of fine performances from Cheung, culminating in Beast Stalker, he won the day, and Donnie was evidently pissed! (I tried to cheer him up later by telling him that he’d probably win for Ip Man 2 or 3!)

The big surprise of the evening was Ip Man’s win for Best Picture. I think most people felt that, having given Best Director to Ann Hui, Best Picture would go to John Woo. Maybe, like Peter Jackson with Lord of the Rings, John has to wait until next year, when the concluding chapter of the epic is eligible. I thought Ip Man was a great film, an example that Hong Kong cinema can still do what it does best, and it deserved its award.

After the post-show buffet (free food, life blood of the entertainment community!), I met Andre Morgan and Sammo Hung in the lobby of the Intercontinental. Sammo seemed very downbeat for someone who just won an award. Maybe he's used to it by now! At the Ip Man party, Donnie seemed even more so. And these were the guys who won! Heaven knows what the losers were doing…