Again, Hong Kong tames the Golden Horse

The 40th Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) brought the brightest stars in Chinese-language cinema to Tainan last night for an evening dominated by Hong Kong films, as expected, but which also provided a few surprise winners.

Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs (無間道) was the biggest winner last night, sweeping six award categories -- best picture, best director, best leading actor, best supporting actor, best sound effects and the audience-choice award.

Tony Leung (梁朝偉) walked away with the best leading actor award for his role in Infernal Affairs, beating out his co-star in the same film, Andy Lau (劉德華), who was widely favored to win the award. This is Leung's second award for best lead actor. He won the award in 1994 for his role in Chungking Express (重慶森林).

Another star from Hong Kong, Sandra Ng (吳君如), took home the best lead actress award for her role in Golden Chicken (金雞), after having been nominated twice previously, in 1996 and 1998.

An ecstatic Ng, while accepting the award said, "If you think my role in this movie was good, you should see me in the sequel."

Anthony Wong (黃秋生) received the best supporting actor award for the second year in a row. He won this year for his part in Infernal Affairs and last year for his part in Princess D (想飛). After receiving the award he said, "I hope next year I'll improve and receive the best actor award."

The honors for best director were handed to Andrew Lau (劉偉強) and Alan Mak (麥兆輝) for Infernal Affairs (無間道).

"I was expecting to take at most four awards, so I'm really pleased with this result," Andrew Lau said at the end of the ceremony. But Alan Mak expressed disappointment that Andy Lau did not win the best lead actor and said he would write another film specifically for him.

Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), though overlooked for the best director award, nonetheless received the best Taiwan film award for Goodbye, Dragon Inn (不散).

Goodbye, Dragon Inn and its partner film The Missing (不見) were the strongest winners among Taiwan's competing films.

Chen Sheng-chang (陳勝昌) was the surprise winner of the best editing award for his work in Tsai's film.

"I'm very thankful for the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), where I learned editing. Without the CMPC I wouldn't be here."

Liao Pen-jung (廖本榕) was a major dark horse winner at this year's awards by taking home the award for best cinematographer for The Missing. Liao thanked Tsai for encouraging him to stay in cinema when he had begun to consider leaving the industry. Liao Also won the best Taiwan film professional award.

Liao first worked with Tsai on Rebels of the Neon God in 1992 and worked with Tsai on each of the director's films since then. The Missing, which was directed by Tsai's protege Lee Kang-sheng (李康生), features a 10-minute long shot, and Liao suggested it was maybe this scene that earned him the award.

Wang Baoqiang (王寶強) won the best new performer award for his role in Blind Shaft (盲井), his first movie. He shared the awardd with 10-year-old Megan Tzeng (鄭智允) from Singapore. She was chosen from among 1,600 auditioners for the role in Homerun(跑吧!孩子).

This year, despite Infernal Affairs dominance, the awards were quite evenly divided between Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and many awards were given to non-commercial films, in particular Taiwan's Goodbye, Dragon Inn and The Missing.