The Hong Kong-Chinese martial arts film The Grandmaster (一代宗師) led the pack with 11 nominations for the 50th Golden Horse Awards yesterday, including lead acting nods for Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Zhang Ziyi (章子怡). The film, about the life of Ip Man (葉問), a late grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun, also garnered nominations for best feature film, best director, best cinematography, best visual effects, best art direction, best makeup and costume design, best action choreography, best film editing and best sound effects, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee announced yesterday.
The five nominees in the best feature film category also include Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo (爸媽不在家), Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s (賈樟柯) A Touch of Sin (天注定), Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) Stray Dogs (郊遊), and Hong Kong director Johnnie To’s (杜琪峰) Drug War (毒戰). Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai (王家衛), who picked up a nomination for The Grandmaster, was joined in the best director category by Jia, Tsai, To and Taiwanese director Chung Mong-hong (鍾孟宏) for his film Soul (失魂).
Tying for the second-most nominations are the films A Touch of Sin, Unbeatable (激戰) and Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (西遊:降魔篇) with six nods. In third place is Stray Dogs, which garnered five nominations.
The Golden Horse Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 23 in Taipei. Two-time Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安) is expected to head the jury.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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