Chinese director Diao Yinan’s (刁亦男) thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice leads the nominations for the annual Golden Horse Awards organizers said yesterday.
The film tells the story of a washed-up ex-cop investigating a series of grisly murders. It scored eight nominations, including best film, best director, best actor and best actress. The movie already won the Berlin Festival’s Golden Bear award in February.
Chinese director Lou Ye’s (婁燁) Blind Massage — about visually impaired people finding work as massage therapists — follows closely with seven nominations, including best film and best director. It has some blind actors.
Also nominated for best director are Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai’s (王小帥) Red Amnesia as well as Myanmar-born, Taiwan-based Midi Z’s (趙德胤) Ice Poison and Ann Hui’s (許鞍華) The Golden Era from Hong Kong. Hui last won the directing award in 2011.
Hui’s film is based on the real-life story of a famed Chinese woman writer in the early 20th century. It is up for best film along with Taiwan’s baseball movie Kano and A Fool — the directorial debut by veteran Chinese actor Chen Jianbin (陳建斌), who is vying for both best new director and best actor.
Chen will face-off against compatriot Liao Fan (廖凡) (Black Coal, Thin Ice) for the top acting honor, as well as Hong Kong’s Sean Lau (劉青雲) (The White Storm), Taiwanese Chang Chen (張震) (Brotherhood of Blades) and Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase for his role as a baseball coach in Kano.
Kano is the Taiwanese film which won the most nominations this year with six, including for best new director.
In the leading actress category, China’s Gong Li (鞏俐) (Coming Home) faces Tang Wei (湯唯) (The Golden Era) and Zhao Wei (趙薇) (Dearest) Taiwan’s Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) (Black Coal, Thin Ice) and Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪) (Exit).
The winners are to be announced at a Nov. 22 ceremony in Taipei.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
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