It's time again for the annual showdown tomorrow night at the 37th Golden Horse Awards (GHA,
For Taiwan though, this year's lineup of participating films is the cause of some embarrassment, since only about a third of the 44 films taking part this year are from Taiwan. Films from Hong Kong account for much of the remainder. This is a symptom of Taiwan's low annual production of films -- less than 20 productions per year.
But despite indications that the slump in Taiwan's movie industry is far from over, the coming together of such major figures as Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Tony Leung (
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In addition to its box office success, Ang Lee's exhilarating martial art film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (
"A specialty of this year's Golden Horse is the abundance of excellent films," said the award's jury chairperson Lo Hui-min (
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According to film critic Wen Tien-hsiang (
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However, quite a few dark horses have been crowned with gold in past Golden Horse ceremonies.
Mixed beginnings
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In the 1960s, the award was generally given to patriotic propaganda films. The word "golden horse" is a homophone for the abbreviation for Kinmen and Matzu, Taiwan's frontline islands opposite China. It was not until James Soong (
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The GHA is a combination of the Oscar and European film awards, said Wen. "On one hand, it has the abundant technical awards of the Oscars. On the other, it has adopted the jury system used at the Cannes or Berlin Film Festivals," he said.
As its ideological color faded over time, the GHA has gradually become an award to encourage and applaud achievement in Chinese-language films from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, said Lee Hsing (
To a certain extent, the GHA remains the most anticipated cinematic award in the global Chinese film market. "First, it is the oldest. The Hong Kong Film Awards (
So the GHA is the only award able to bring Lee, Wong and Chinese filmmakers to compete in the same arena.
Strong contenders
Chinese American filmmaker Ann Hu's Shadow Magic (西洋鏡), which is nominated in seven categories, could be the dark horse for best picture this year. Shadow Magic is an intriguing East-meets-West movie that depicts how foreigners helped make China's first silent movie in the days of imperial China.
There are two other Hong Kong contenders for best picture. Jonnie To's (
The only purely Taiwanese film is Chen Yi-wen's The Cabbie (
"The Mission is a well-made, very enjoyable film," said film critic Regina Ho (
Ho and Wen predict that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung will take the two top acting awards this year. Both play in Wong Kar-wai's exquisite "mood movie" In the Mood For Love.
Despite an outstanding performance, Cheung, as the winner of three previous best actress awards, will face stiff competition from either Zhang Zi-yi (
Also worth noting are two made-in-Taiwan films by young filmmakers. Hung Chih-yu's surprising debut Pure Accidents (
Unlike their predecessors, Ho Hsiao-hsien (
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