The 35th Hong Kong Film Awards was held successfully last night to honour the best of Hong Kong films released last year in 2015. Here below is the full list of winners for the awards presentation:
Best Film: “Ten Years”
Best Director: Tsui Hark for “The Taking of Tiger Mountain”
Best Screenplay: Philip Yung for “Port of Call”
Best Actor: Aaron Kwok for “Port of Call”
Best Actress: Jessie Li for “Port of Call”
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Ning for “Port of Call”
Best Supporting Actress: Elaine Jin for “Port of Call”
Best New Performer: Michael Ning for “Port of Call”
Best Cinematography: Christopher Doyle for “Port of Call”
Best Film Editing: Cheung Ka-fai for “Ip Man 3”
Best Art Direction: William Chang, Alfred Yau for “Office”
Best Costume Make Up Design: Kenneth Yee for “Monster Hunt”
Best Action Choreography: Nicky Li for “SPL 2: A Time for Consequences”
Best Sound Design: Kinson Tsang, George Lee, Yiu Chun-hin for “The Taking of Tiger Mountain”
Best Visual Effects: Jason Snell, Ellen Poon, Tang Binding for “Monster Hunt”
Best Original Film Score: Lo Ta-yu, Keith Chan for “Office”
Best Original Film Song: “We Almost Fly” for “She Remembers, He Forgets”
Best New Director: Raman Hui for “Monster Hunt”
Best Film of Mainland China and/or Taiwan: “The Assassin”
Most Professional Award: Chow Wing-kwong
Lifetime Achievement Award: Li Li-hua
Best Dressed: Jacky Cheung, Karena Lam
‘Ten Years’ is a movie that is set in a “darker” future where Hong Kong is under greater Chinese control. The picture while receiving critical acclaim in Hong Kong has sparked anger and controversy from mainland China. The movie was eventually banned in China. Even the broadcast of this awards ceremony is also not shown in mainland China. This is a politically sensitive film and I’m actually glad that the judges put the politics aside (not afraid of creating further anger from China) and vote the best out by choosing this movie as the best film. I haven’t watch this movie yet, but I think I will after it has win the best film last night. It is also the only film not nominated at all in other categories but only in best film category and won the top honor surprisingly.
‘Port of Call’ is the biggest winner of the ceremony with a total of 7 awards. It received the most nominations and it is expected that it will win also most of them. The film excelled particularly in the performances by the cast despite most of them are new actors and actresses. This film also gave Aaron Kwok his first best actor win in Hong Kong Film Awards after having been nominated five times in total. Congratulations. I have been predicting him to win this time since he is overdue. Well, Jacky Cheung is also overdue but I’ll rather hand out this year’s award to Aaron. I’m sure Jacky’s time will come very soon too since he is another good actor, and is just waiting for the right role and timing. The battle of the best actor is the most interesting one since it involved two Film Kings (Tony Leung, Nick Cheung) against three Heavenly (Music) Kings (Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung).
As for best actress category, there is not much excitement around. My preferred choice would be Miriam Yeung since I saw the movie she was nominated in which is ‘Little Big Master’ and she is exceptionally good in it. However, she won it before. My next choice would be Karena Lam but her buzz is low this time around. Same goes to the other nominated actresses. In the end, a new performer, Jessie Li won for ‘Port of Call’. Now, I also would like to watch and see what ‘Port of Call’ is all about since it won so many awards.
I love ‘Ip Man 3’ film. It is a wonderful film and is my personal best for Hong Kong films last year. However, it didn’t get enough interest in this awards to my surprise. Fortunately, it still managed to won 1 award in the end (at least not empty-handed). On the other hand, it’s interesting and refreshing to see Sean Lau to become the host of the ceremony this year. He is usually sitting in front of stage competing for best actor for many years, and now he is on the stage being the host. Interesting choice…well, at least better than seeing the same old faces of the hosts every year. The most interesting segment of the awards ceremony is when they introduced the veteran artists who actually started out in film industry when they were very young, doing on child roles back over many decades ago. I’m moved by the dedication of these artists.
(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)
