Period martial arts drama BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS cleaned up at last night's Hong Kong Film Awards, taking home 8 of the rather oversized statuettes, including Best Film, Best Director for Teddy Chen, Best Score, Best Cinematography and Best Action Choreography. While I agree that Teddy Chen's period action yarn probably was the best all-round production of the past 12 months, it always disappoints me to see one film dominate an awards ceremony quite this comprehensively.
There was still room for another "big winner", in the form of Alex Law's nostalgic ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW, which has been a firm favourite with audiences and critics alike since opening here just last month (it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival). It picked up awards for Best Screenplay for Law, Best New Performer for Aarif Lee, as well as Best Actor for Simon Yam.
Other notable wins included friend-of-the-site Michelle Ye picking up the Best Supporting Actress award, for her role in Twitch favourite ACCIDENT and the Best Actress award going to the veteran performer Kara Hui for her fantastic turn in AT THE END OF DAYBREAK.
Here's a full list of the winners:
BEST FILM: - BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST DIRECTOR: - Teddy Chen, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST NEW DIRECTOR: - Cheung King Wai, KJ
BEST ACTOR: - Simon Yam, ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW
BEST ACTRESS: - Kara Hui, AT THE END OF DAYBREAK
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: - Nicholas Tse, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: - Michelle Ye, ACCIDENT
BEST NEW PERFORMER: - Aarif Lee, ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW
BEST SCREENPLAY: - Alex Law, ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW
BEST ASIAN FILM: - DEPARTURES (Japan)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: - Arthur Wong, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST EDITING: - Kong Chi-Leung, Chan Chi-Wai, OVERHEARD
BEST SCORE: - Chan Kwong-Wing, Peter Kam, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST SONG: - "Echoes of the Rainbow", ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW
BEST SOUND DESIGN: - Steve Burgess, Wu Jiang, RED CLIFF II
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: - Ng Yuen-Fai, Chas Chau, Tam Kai-Kwan, THE STORM WARRIORS
BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY: - Stephen Tung, Lee Tat-Chiu, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST ART DIRECTION: - Ken Mak, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: - Dora Ng, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Lau Ka-Leung
A period martial arts drama. It could have been cops and robbers or gangsters. Is Hong Kong relevant any more?
I don`t think it deserved none of the awards.
Should've been:
Best Picture - Accident (Soi Cheang)
Best Director - Soi Cheang (Accident)
Best Supporting Actor - Either Tony Leung Ka-Fai or Donnie Yen (B&A)
Best Editing - David Richardson (Accident)
Best Cinematography - Either Edmond Pung (Accident) or Cheng Siu-Keung/To Hung-Mo (Vengeance)
Best Action Design - Ku Huen-Chiu (14 Blades)
Best Original Film Score - Either Lo Tayu (Vengeance) or Xavier Jamaux (Accident)
A poor year for Hong Kong cinema. Bodyguards and Assassins is fun, but massively flawed.
Woohoo! Thanks for the recap James.