The 42th Golden Horse Awards ceremony (
Hou Hsiao-hsien's (侯孝賢) Three Times (最好的時光) and Tsai Ming-liang's
Hong Kong crime drama Election (黑社會) by Johnnie To (杜琪峰) takes the lead in a number of nomination categories with 11 potential awards, followed closely by Kung Fu Hustle (功夫) by Stephen Chou (周星馳) with 10 nominations, Three Times with nine and Seven Swords (七劍) with seven.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOLDEN HORSE FILM FESTIVAL
Local audiences will have the chance to see Election at theaters before the award ceremony hands out the medals. Hitting the big screen in Taiwan today, the film revolves round a bloodstained competition among two gangster leaders, Big D (played by Tony Leung (梁家輝)) and Lok (played by Simon Yam (任達華), to become chairman of Hong Kong's oldest Triad society.
After Lok wins the election, the merciless Big D vows to claim the title with force and declares a full-scale war on anyone who disagrees. During the factional battles, the syndicate's sacred emblem, the Dragon Head Baton, goes missing.
Leaders of five sections of the crime ring are ordered to retrieve the baton using all the resources at their disposal, but each of them secretly wishes to wield the ultimate power that possession of the baton endows.
Rather than romanticizing the life of gangsters, director To's realistic approach to the subject matter vividly portrays individuals trapped in a world of cruelty and violence, where humanity and values are twisted and eaten away by greed for power and money. Yam is said to give his best performance to date in the film, while Tony Leung is nominated for best leading actor for his role as Big D.
Leung will face a fierce battle in the best leading actor category against three other nominees, Chang Chen (張震) for his role in Three Times, Chinese actor Chen Khen (陳坤) for A West Lake Moment (抹茶之戀味) and Aaron Kwok (郭富城) for Divergence
As a movie star with 14 years experience, Kowk is nominated for the leading actor for the first time, and some critics think he may be a dark horse at this year's Golden Horse for his refreshing performance.
For the best leading actress category, Shu Qi
Originally up for nomination in the best supporting actress category, Krusiec was recognized by the jury members as worthy of recognition as a leading lady, and she subsequently replaced the former best leading actress candidate from the film, Joan Chen (陳沖).
Stephen Chou's performance as the leading actor in Kung Fu Hustle has been subsumed under his directorial role in the film, but the movie successfully sent Yuen Wah (元華) and Yuen Qiu (
To the surprise of many film pundits, quite a few notable people and films were left off the most prestigious nomination lists. Wang Kar Wai's (王家衛) Eros - The Hand (愛神之手) isn't nominated for any category other than best short film, while local short pieces Respire
Although suspense-action drama A World Without Thieves (天下無賊) is a candidate for best feature film, its director Feng Xiaogang (馮小剛) was left out of the major competition for the best director award.
Such an omission is seen by some as an injustice for the Chinese filmmaker, who is recognized and praised for his masterful proficiency of contemporary comedies.
The biggest regret at this year's Golden Horse Awards probably is from Stanley Kwan's (關錦鵬) Everlasting Regret (長恨歌), which was left off the nomination lists altogether.
Due for release in Taiwan today, the film is not to be missed despite the Golden Horse setback. Based on Wang Anyi's
As a young beautiful woman in the 1940s, Qiyao lives a glamorous life but the constant betrayal of the men she meets leaves her heartbroken and alone. Returning to a simple life, Qiyao remains a proud survivor who bears witness to the city's rise and fall until she finally realizes her life is destined to fade away amid the indifferences of Shanghai's citizens.
To use Kwan's own words to describe the film in one sentence: "Everlasting Regret is a tale of old Shanghai, an allegory of modern Hong Kong, and the universal situation of cities and their people."
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
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