27th HK Academy Awards

The HK Film Award stature

My version in my house : Courtesy of liangmoi from Vietnam

Being a movie bug (OK... quite ashamed to say this cox I haven't watch one for quite a long time), I will try to watch any film awards, i.e. Oscar, HK and Taiwan's film award show.

Last night was the 27th HK Film Awards and my comments and after-thought as followed:

1. 投名状 (The Warlord) won almost ALL the major award, i.e. Best Movie, Director, Actor. I watched it during the New Year's eve (here) and Jet Li's winning the Best Actor is well-deserved. However, I haven't watch ALL the other nominee's work, e.g. Aaron Kwok in C+ Detective, Simon Yam and Lau Ching Wan so it won't be conclusive. What Jet did in Warlord is definitely something that made me realize that he can act, if given the chance to. Personally I think the movie has some similar formula or 异曲同工 as Ang Lee's 卧虎藏龙 (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) which emphasized a lot on the story line or acting chops, not only the std martial affair. Another good point is that it abandon the concept of extravaganza/over-done set and art direction which plagued quite a few recent martial arts movie... think 黄金甲 (The Curse of the Golden Flower) and 夜宴 (The Banquet).

2. 门徒 (Protege) was a victim due to the overwhelming success of The Warlord. It's actually the classic HK movie, the plot, the casting and the acting etc and I think Derek Yee (director) did a very good job here. The cast, Daniel Wu, Andy Lau, Zhang Jing Zhu were Anita Yuen excellent in their own league and the scene where Zhang got high on drugs did linger in my mind for quite long after I watched the movie. Derek actually had a deja-vu of the fate of his movie when he collected the award on behalf of his film editor for the Best Editing Award.

3. The MCs: DoDo Cheng, Sandra Ng and Sammi Cheng. DoDo is of course the anchor but Sandra seems not to be intimidated by her, hence lots of banterring and sarcastic remarks on DoDo's age, which is quite brave given DoDo's status and reputation. The mention of HD recording and their challenge to zoom up to their face is funny, followed by them turning their back to the camera. Why? Cox Best Actress, 影后 can be interpreted as showing back translated literally.

4. The tribute segment to the famous screenwriter cum songs writer 陈蝶衣 was both a mess and a puzzle. Mess cox it's too 'rojak'y. Puzzling? 1st: Ho Wen Si singing the songs which were at least about 40 yrs of age. 2nd: What is she wearing??? I will post a picture later when I managed to find it anywhere online. Like my sister said, 陈蝶衣 will die a few more times if he sees this segment.

5. The Presenters? The best combination is Eric Tsang and Chapman To. Both are the classic funny man with cynical sarcastic remark and their banters absolutely entertaining. It's obvious that the budget is real tight, from the venue and also the presenters.

6. The Best Original Song? OK, let's face it. Kary 吴雨霏 sucks in her singing. Period.

7. Eye Candy? Of course, Shu Qi 舒琪 won BIG time.

8. Overall, it's a boring show saves for some nice moments mentioned above. One has to be really familiar with the HK cinema in order to endure it. And yes, I will still watch it next year.