It’s over! So who won between these three heavily nominated movies?
Edit: Updated with the videos of the short film “Film Dreams of the Taiwanese” and two performances. Not Lollipops though. :P
45th Golden Horse Film Award Nominees
Best Feature Film
“The Warlords”
“Cape No.7″
“Orz Boyz”
“Assembly”
“Ocean Flame”
Best Director
Peter Chan Ho-sun, “The Warlords”
Wei Te-sheng, “Cape No.7″
Pang Ho-cheung, “Trivial Matters”
Sylvia Chang Ai-jia, “Run Papa Run”
Best Leading Actress
Prudence Liew, “True Women for Sale”
Monica Mok, “Ocean Flame”
Karena Lam, “Claustrophobia”
Chang Yung-yung, “Miao Miao”
Best Leading Actor
Zhang Han-yu, “Assembly”
Liao Fan, “Ocean Flame”
Jet Li Lian-jie, “The Warlords”
Louis Koo, “Run Papa Run”
Best Supporting Actor
Ma Ju-long, “Cape No. 7″
Eason Chan, “Trivial Matters”
Hu Jun, “Red Cliff”
Dai Li-ren, “Parking”
Best Supporting Actress
Mei Fang, “Orz Boyz”
Lai Ming, “Money No Enough 2″
Wu Liqi, “Qi lu Tian Tang”
Nora Miao, “Run Papa Run”
Best New Performer
Jiang Su-min, “Tiao Ge Zi”
Chie Tanaka, “Cape No.7″
Lin Tsung-hui, “Cape No.7″
Pang Chin-yu, “Orz Boyz”
Best Original Screenplay
“Winds of September”
“Orz Boys”
“The Warlords”
“Claustrophobia”
Best Adapted Screenplay
“Assembly”
“Trivial Matters”
Best Cinematography
“Ocean Flame”
“Cape No.7″
“The Warlords”
“Sparrow”
Best Visual Effects
“The Warlords”
“Assembly”
“Red Cliff”
“CJ7″
Best Art Direction
“Ocean Flame”
“The Warlords”
“Parking”
“Red Cliff”
Best Make-up and Costume Design
“Trivial Matters”
“Candy Rain”
“The Warlords”
“Red Cliff”
Best Action Choreography
“Assembly”
“Connected”
“The Warlords”
“An Empress and the Warriors”
Best Original Film Score
“Cape No.7″
“The Warlords”
“Sparrow”
“12 Lotus”
Best Original Film Song
“South of the Border” (from Cape No. 7)
Music: Zhen Zhihao (Chen Chihao?)
Lyrics: Matthew Yen
Performer: Van
“Hero Chou ” (from Kung Fu Dunk)
Music: Jay Chou
Lyrics: Vincent Fang Wen-Shan
Performer: Jay Chou, Du Guo-Zhang
“Pang Pang” (from Drifting Flowers)
Music: Christine Hsu
Lyrics: Christine Hsu
Performer: Serena Fang
“Get Together” (from Miao Miao)
Music: Cincin Lee, Cheng Kuei
Lyrics: Cincin Lee, Cheng Kuei
Performer: Julian Cheung Chi-Lam
Best Film Editing
“Connected”
“Winds of September”
“The Warlords”
“Claustrophobia”
Best Sound Effects
“Missing”
“Cape No.7″
“Assembly”
“The Warlords”
Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year
“Cape No.7″
“Winds of September”
“Parking”
Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year
Wei Te-Sheng
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Li Long-yu
Lifetime Achievement Award
Chang Feng
Some of the other winners of the night…I just thought these were nice looking posters.
Videos:
The Movie Dreams of the Taiwanese Short Film:
Part1
Part2
Part3
Behind the Scenes and Miscellaneous – Jia You!
CocoLee’s Performance
The Cape No 7 cast recreates the last scene in their film.
Red Carpet Pictures:
The presence of this guy there had me confused if I was looking at the right awards ceremony:
I give my performance in Butterfly Lovers two thumbs up.
More pictures of this guy who with his presence has made these awards probably 20% better looking.
Where my skinny hos at?
Catch more of Vaness Wu’s Wild Wild West pimp look here.
I am better than all those stick-figured….ladies.
More of Best actress nominee Karena Lam here.
Um…I just have high metabolism.
Feng Xiaogang: Um…what’s with the sunglasses? You went blind in my movie, not in real life. Zhang Hanyu: Didn’t you hear? I made eighth on the 50 most beautiful people in China list. I gotta keep the ladies at bay. Feng Xiaogang: I think you’re doing a good job.
Vaness, if you want o know how to do the scruffy look properly, you should just watch me. Come to think of it, you should probably watch me if you want to learn how to act…why are you here again?
Whatever…I topped all of you on the list of foreign actors Japanese ladies love. Nerdy is in.
I don’t really have too much time to do much more captions with this post…but Sina’s official site for the awards has more coverage.
I’ll try to get some videos up if I can, especially of the performances, and the short film I posted on earlier.
I know people might be disappointed that Cape No 7 didn’t win the big ones but the Golden Horse awards probably would have lost credibility if it had won since it really was kind of flawed in areas. I think Taiwan can do better, and hopefully one day a really mind-blowing Taiwanese film can live up to the hype and knock down Titanic from being the highest grossing film in Taiwan, and win the Golden Horse, etc. The music was fantastic though, so go check out its OST and see why it won those music awards. In general this was a great year for Taiwanese films and hopefully the trend can continue in the future.
Poor Zhang Mingqing.
I googled your quotes though, and they seem to lead from Epoch times, the Falun Gong mouthpiece, which is probably less credible than China Daily when it comes to China since they make it their mission to make up stuff about China. I wouldn’t trust this news or those quotes. Most sources don’t have anything that actually says that the Japanese factor is the reason why.
China has more Japanese-Chinese collabs than most places I know… About Love was a wonderful smorgasboard of Taiwanese- Japanese- Chinese relations. I wish they would do something like that again.
I think that was the envoy Zhang Mingqing but alot of people did protest his apearance in Taiwan. But the weirdest thing and the thing that pissed me off most about Chen is this.
“During his visit to Taiwan in November 2008, Chen Yunlin, the Chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) publicly praised this film after a private screening. However on November 28, 2008 during a regular ARATS meeting in Beijing, Chen reversed his view and stated that this film was “marred by the shadow of Japanization”. He recommended the film be banned in the People’s Republic of China.”
Yeah…Taiwan needs more films like Eat Drink Man Woman. You can’t go wrong with a good food movie.
I don’t really know why Tang Wei got blacklisted for five years…it was so stupid, and one of the things that made me feel like SARFT had no hope.
Is Chen Yunlin the one who when he went to Taiwan was knocked to the ground, has his glasses got knocked off and had to hide in his car while people were jumping on top of it? Or was that his colleague? I’m not sure he’s exactly the most unbiased after that.
“I understand that definitely because I want to see that diversification with all Chinese films…but I felt Jay Chou’s Secret was quite a good commercial film, but I suppose no one paid much attention to that as a turning point in Taiwanese film because they attributed the success to Jay’s fame. I do think Cape No 7 is good, and is a turning point and hopefully it will bring along even better films in the future that are not as boring as Yi yi. Sorry, but that was the epitome of something Western audiences think is fantastic because it’s Asian and artsy. It is a shame Ang Lee doesn’t do more films for Taiwan, because his were good and not too artsy. I guess he goes where the money goes.”
Actually, I liked Yi Yi though I thought it was overrated. I have seen better though. I think you are probably right about people attributing Secret’s success to Jay. As for Ang Lee, he has been working in the West for a long time. I guess lately he has been working in Asia more with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Lust Caution. I wish he would do another movie pertaining about food like Eat Drink Man Woman. That is like the ultimate foodie movie! Makes me so hungry,haha
“But I don’t really think China delayed Cape No7 due to the pro-Japanese aspect.So many Chinese films feature Japanese people nowadays that I can’t see why a romance between a Taiwanese/Japanese would be controversial considering it’s been done before”
Well, heres what I got from articles I read. Im not sure why they banned it but i think the pro-japanese aspects due have a good bit to do with it. Didnt they ban poor Tang Wei because of her character falling in love with a Pro-Japanese “traitor” in Lust Caution?
“Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) told a conference in Beijing on Friday that the movie was tainted by its portrayal of Taiwanese who had been subject to “colonial brainwashing” and that traces of Japan’s kominka (assimilation) policy were evident”
“The paper said senior Chinese officials believed releasing the film could fuel nationalistic feelings, which would be counter to the peaceful atmosphere that Taiwan and China have been promoting.”
I understand that definitely because I want to see that diversification with all Chinese films…but I felt Jay Chou’s Secret was quite a good commercial film, but I suppose no one paid much attention to that as a turning point in Taiwanese film because they attributed the success to Jay’s fame. I do think Cape No 7 is good, and is a turning point and hopefully it will bring along even better films in the future that are not as boring as Yi yi. Sorry, but that was the epitome of something Western audiences think is fantastic because it’s Asian and artsy. It is a shame Ang Lee doesn’t do more films for Taiwan, because his were good and not too artsy. I guess he goes where the money goes.
But I don’t really think China delayed Cape No7 due to the pro-Japanese aspect.So many Chinese films feature Japanese people nowadays that I can’t see why a romance between a Taiwanese/Japanese would be controversial considering it’s been done before.
China’s film board is really weird though, so I don’t know. They are very bad at PR. Any films they ban are readily watchable elsewhere and I agree they are hurting China’s industry by limiting creative flow. China is slowly getting out the stupor that it had during the Mao-era where culture in general seemed to be bad, and I feel although in general China’s government does a good job with letting its various industries thrive and improve, it really has limited the film industry in stupid ways.
I don’t know when it will change, because the change seems slow but it’s definitely better than it was ten years ago. I think once it does fully open up (I think in maybe 25 years) however, it’s going to be a huge force in world cinema simply due to the number of creative talent, and both Taiwan and HK and whatever other Chinese-speaking regions will be able to enjoy that market due to common language, just like Chinese speakers in regions like Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia can enjoy Taiwan’s promotion of their singers, and China’s market for music.
Well, Cape no 7 is truly a cultural phenomenon in Taiwan. If you know Taiwans film industry, you know that Taiwanese movies hardly ever break even because alot of Taiwanese have come to think of Taiwanese movies as low budget arthouse flicks that are boring and slow. They prefer to watch Hollywood because its generally very watchable brain numb commercial stuff. Most of the movies coming out of Taiwan are arthouse flicks that go on to win very prestigious awards world wide. Edward Yangs Yi Yi won in Cannes I believe but it wasnt even screened in Taiwan. Taiwans industry is heavily based on arthouse flicks – there is hardly a commercial sector at all. Maybe with Cape no. 7 the industry will see an increase in commercial films as well as money from investors. I just think that the movie was never meant to appeal to Westerners. Alot of Taiwanese have said the characters feel like regular people in Taiwan that they know and can connect to and the film is so local in its language and cultural references that im not surprised that western critics dont understand it. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if Chinese people didnt understand alot of it. But, considering its release has been postponed/banned in China, we wont really know what they think. Personally, I think its stupid that they banned it citing the “pro-japanese propaganda” aspect of it. When will the film board in China quit being so political and anal about censoring and importing films. I dont know what they think they are achieving but they are doing nothing but wasting their time AND hurting the development of China’s film industry. These so called “banned” movies are easily downloadable on the internet on bought on the streets in pirated form anyway so the so called “ban” is useless.
I specifically said English-reviewers because I feel that those are the people whom she’d probably share a common vantage point with…I can think of other Chinese-language reviews that really enjoyed the charm of the movie.
Are you Taiwanese? I’d be interested to actually see an English language review from someone who did get it, all the little references that probably made the movie the hit that it is, so if you write a review I’ll definitely put it on this site. Not that this site gets a lot of traffic or anything, but it’d still be out there.
Oh and I keep forgetting…in response to an earlier comment of yours I think a good place for indie rock recs would be My Super Cloud, the LJ community I have listed under English Language Sites.
the movie was made for Taiwanese. Its full of Taiwanese cultural references. The director never intended it for English speaking audiences anyway hence English reviewers dont understand it. Th
Please don’t stop with the captions. They’re hilarious.
Can’t believe I haven’t watched Warlords yet…
The short was funny…I loved Ariel’s look when Barbie Hsu walked in. They should have made something like Spider Lilies together instead of Rainie and Isabella.
I watched Cape No 7, but I had a heck of a time getting through it. I stopped watching the first half and then about a month later I watched the second half, which is better, but in general I felt like there was something missing and I wonder if it’s just because I didn’t get it or what. But judging from the couple of English languages reviews I’ve read, it wasn’t just me.
lol, your captions are cute. I watched the Eddie and Hei Ren short and it’s totally cute. I don’t think I know enough about the taiwan film industry to fully understand what’s going on but the two of them plus all the celeb cameos was super fun. Have you seen Cape no. 7? It’s like so hyped, and I’m easily coerced by trends.
@VII and Haidi Thank you for the comments saying this was funny. I never know whether people like or even understand my humor so this was somewhat reassuring, although you two could just be the odd ones out. I would say I would stop with captions if people didn’t like them, but it’d like me saying I’m going on hiatus.
@Jenny – I wouldn’t really know because I haven’t watched Red Cliff yet. Each time I feel like checking it out, the thought of Tony Leung as Zhou Yu makes me shirk back and not even Takeshi or Chang Chen can draw me in. Maybe if the second part gets enough good buzz then I will watch it.
@Billy – Thanks for the correction; I was bolding and greenifying (thanks Elphaba for that addition to my lexicon) in real time as this went on and I assumed I probably made a mistake but didn’t have time to go check, and hoped someone would point out where. Fixed now. I also know I left out best short film and documentary since they were not in my original nominees list for some reason but I’m kind of lazy to go find it just to update this when the results are everywhere.
This was hilarious and somewhat poignant.
the only award Red Cliff could have won was best visuals. IMO, Warlords is a superior film. Well, atleast until I see what Woo has up his sleeve for Part 2.
BTY, You got the Best Cinematography award wrong. Cold Flame didnt win. Johnnie To’s Sparrow won that award.
how did Red Cliff not win anything?
Love the comments under each picture. You crack me up.
I think he’s doing promotions for his latest film from Japan K-20 (which actually looks really fun) so he’d probably be too busy anyway, but yes, he’d have made this award ceremony 1000x more pretty.
Sigh. I forgot about that. :( They should just leave him on so he can attend the awards and look pretty.
This was a list copy and pasted from my post with the earliest announcements of who was nominated and he was nominated then. He was later disqualified because they realized he was not a Taiwanese citizen and that category is specifically there to recognize the Taiwanese who have made cinematic achievements.
I didn’t want to just take off his name and pretend he never was nominated, because he could have been, but he also really wasn’t nominated. So I decided just to cross his name out.
You crossed out Takeshi Kaneshiro? :(