November is here, and that means it’s time for the Golden Horse Awards again! With no festival friendly front-runner this year, that means everything is up for grabs. As we have done over the years, we will be following the whole thing from our headquarters in Hong Kong and bringing the latest results to you live, filtered for political correctness (come on, we still have to make a living here).

As per tradition, the live-blog will be super low-tech and likely the last time this blog will see an update this year. All you have to do is come to this blog (www.lovehkfilm.com/blog/thegoldenrock), click on the live blog post, and reload it to see the latest updates. If it’s too hard for you to figure it out, then talk to your doctor to see if the internet is right for you.

If you need a refresher, here is the list of nominees. We have Chung Mong-hong’s GODSPEED leading the way with 8 nominations. Despite a fantastic performance by Michael Hui, it doesn’t have the critical acclaim of TRIVISA or Midi Z’s ROAD TO MANDALAY or Feng Xiaogang’s I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY. I predict that there won’t be a sweep, just as the jury chose to spread the awards evenly between ASSASSIN and THANATOS DRUNK last year. Ann Hui and the rest of her jury have really tough choices to make this year.

As always, the show starts at 19:00 Hong Kong Time (That’s GMT+8, go to World Time Server if you need some help with the time difference). The blog will start around 18:50 Hong Kong Time and run for about 4 and a half hours.

I’ll try to be on Twitter when I’m not frantically trying to find English names for things or doing research, so follow me @TheGoldenRock. Use the hashtag #GH2016 to comment on the winners, losers and people who just happen to show up without being nominated for anything.

Hope to see you all on Saturday night!

 

Last month, Netflix announced that it was finally expanding worldwide, ending months of speculation about when the company’s expansion to Asia will happen.

Unfortunately, the excitement lasted for only about five minutes.

I briefly ranted on East Screen West Screen about people (including journalists for local media) who immediately complained about what’s not on Hong Kong Netflix (including this article with one of the dumbest headlines I’ve ever seen from said paper) because only a few old shows exist within their narrow eyesight. I asked for audiences to give existing Netflix shows like Master of None, Making a Murderer, Bloodline and Narcos a chance and to not give up on them just because they don’t see Sherlock.

But never mind that for a second.

In addition to the #NetflixAnywhere announcement at CES, Netflix also said that they are working with local storytellers to develop local content. The company has already created two original shows in Japan in association with partner Fuji Television: a new season of reality show Terrace House and series Underwear (or Atelier, as it’s known elsewhere). Asian countries included in the announcement were Korea and Cambodia.

So what about Hong Kong?

The Hong Kong entertainment industry may have been self-sufficient in its golden days, but it became the influential industry that it was because it reached out to audiences beyond Hong Kong. Even when it was successful in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Hong Kong creators and companies made their content according to their rules and pandered to audiences their own ways. Unfortunately, the money from those two regions eventually dried up, local box office revenue dropped significantly, and the number of productions dropped from under 200 to just roughly 50 a year.

And then came the China Money.

Hong Kong-China co-productions were able to bypass import quotas, which means Hong Kong filmmakers can bring their crew into China and work with the budgets that they have always dreamed of. They were making glossy films with big budgets for potentially hundreds of millions of people and make back the money that they thought they’d lost. We can go on and on about doing it for the art and the fans, but Hong Kong cinema has always been first and foremost an industry driven by profits. In an industry, its labor force can’t work with tight wallets for their entire lives.

What’s the price of the China Money? Pandering to a new group of audiences that not all filmmakers know how to pander to. Working in a system that has rules that can be bent for them or against them at any time. Of course, directors in a commercial filmmaking industry will never have 100% creative freedom. Peter Chan even insinuated in interviews that studio interference in Hollywood is just as bad as Chinese censorship.

But that doesn’t mean that every Hong Kong filmmaker should succumb to the China market, and it doesn’t mean that co-productions automatically spell success. Raymond Wong’s attempts at reviving his comedy brands for China didn’t spell big box office in China, and Mabel Cheung’s A TALE OF THREE CITIES became one of the biggest bombs in recent memory. For every China-made film that does well in Hong Kong, there are three more that flop because Hong Kong audiences ignore a film when they get a whiff of the China Money. LOST IN HONG KONG, MOJIN THE LOST LEGEND, DRAGON BLADE, WOLF TOTEM were all buried at the Hong Kong box office.

Last month, Chief Executive CY Leung announced that building more cinemas would help save the Hong Kong film industry. Perhaps CY meant saving the part of the film industry that serves the real estate market, because this measure only makes sense if Hong Kong instills a protectionist quota that forces these new cinemas to show local films. Until that happens, it’s all Hollywood, all the time.

And now we come back to Netflix.

Netflix is footing a US$50 million bill for a Bong Joon-ho film. It paid US$12 million to distribute Beasts of No Nation. It offered US$20 million to buy Birth of a Nation (It didn’t get it, but it was at least willing to pay that much). Spending only half that money on a film would be considered a major production in Hong Kong. Less than half the money produced Infernal Affairs!

(To be fair, half that money would not produce Infernal Affairs today because the China Money has inflated all the stars’ salaries.)

Netflix may have expanded globally, but it can’t shake the reputation that it’s a distribution platform for American shows. If Netflix truly wants to be a global network, then it has to carry more diverse content that it offers now.

I’ve defended the reason for Netflix’s less-than-perfect selection is because that the company has yet to convince enough content owners to provide global rights. That was the network’s entire reasoning for producing its own content in the first place. And this is where Hong Kong’s established entertainment industry can help.

Not every Hong Kong filmmaker or storyteller wants the China Money. They want the money, sure, but they may not want to pay the price for it. Netflix offers an alternative for those creators, and it doesn’t even have to pay a lot for it. It can get a decent local production for a fraction of what they’re pay for films in the US thanks to a proper local infrastructure for film productions, and creators get a chance to transmit Hong Kong stories to the world without the anxiety of censors breathing down their neck.

In other words, Netflix can save the Hong Kong film industry. Or the Taiwan film industry. Or the Singapore film industry. For the interest of this blog, let’s just say Hong Kong for now.

What does Netflix have to do? Provide the budget in return for global rights, give creators freedom (surely it can’t be 100%, but as much as it can afford) to tell the stories they want to tell, and promote the films at a reasonable scale when the time comes. Netflix wants subscribers, and promoting diverse content - especially original content made by well-known creators in the region - will help Netflix’s reputation as a content provider, not as some website with American TV.

What do Hong Kong creators have to do? Drop the notion that a film is only valuable when it’s been shown in the cinema. Get it shown in Hong Kong cinemas or at film festivals around the world before letting it go to VOD, but don’t let them be the reason to NOT consider the Netflix model. Remember that #NetflixEverywhere means an untapped global audience that wouldn’t otherwise see your film (if Netflix holds up its end of the bargain with a decent promotional effort). Drop all old notions of how cinema should be distributed and embrace the video-on-demand revolution.

As for television? Content owners - and that includes HKTV - need to drop their fantasy of having everyone go to their platform purely for their content. No, I don’t want to download Clickplay just to watch one company’s films and download an HKTV app to watch HKTV’s programming. Ad money is important, but getting distribution is equally important to sustain a television station. Of course, before that even happens, TV stations  has to first raise its game to the level of its counterparts in the west. Hell, I’ll even take counterparts in Asia.

So can we finally stop worrying our VPNs and start worrying about what Netflix can really do for us?

 

A book that I’m not getting because I’m not at the Golden Horse Awards

It’s that time again, when this blogger blows the dust off this blog space and checks in with yet another awards live blog. This time, we celebrate the best in Chinese-language cinema (mainly Hou Hsiao-Hsien) with this year’s Golden Horse Awards.

As we have done for the past several years, we will be doing a live blog during the course of the show. It will be a super low-tech one, with no auto reload. Instead, you just go into the blog page and reload it yourself. The button’s not hard to find.

This year, I will be joined again by two special guests, who will be adding in the commentary. It was a lot of fun with those two in 2013, and we’re hoping they’ll have fun this year, too.

In case you need a refresher, here’s the nomination list.

The show starts promptly at 19:00 Hong Kong Time (That’s GMT+8, go to World Time Server if you need some help with the time difference). The show ALWAYS go overtime, so expect to follow this thing for a bit more than four hours.

 As always, we will try to engage the readers on Twitter. Follow @TheGoldenRock and post your Golden Horse reactions with #GHA2015 through the night, and we’ll retweet, repost, like, or whatever you Twitter kids do these days when you see something amusing on the internet.

Hope to see you all on Saturday night!

This is the real thing! There’s only one way to see the latest post, and that’s reloading the page. Clearly, I win at the internet.

Scroll from the bottom up for easier reading, especially if you’re trying to follow four and a half hours worth of updates. Good luck.

22:55: One bottle of beer and two bottles of red wine later, we’re finished with another Hong Kong Film Awards live blog! Thank you all for following, and good night! Time to write my news story now!

22:53: And the winner of Best Film is: GOLDEN ERA. Five awards in total.

22:52: Leave it to Sandra Ng to make the universal suffrage joke.

22:48: Final Award of the night! It’s time for Best Film. Sandra Ng presenting solo.

“Give it to Peter! Give it to Peter!” DF chants.

22:46: She’s going to read all the names that she didn’t get to read at the Golden Horse Awards (she didn’t win AND she was shooting a film in the States).

22:43: The winner of Best Actress is: VICKI ZHAO for DEAREST.

My guests are convinced that Charlene Choi’s tears in SARA are CG’d.

22:42: “I wonder if she says ‘I let you ____ me’ when she argues with her boyfriend” - Nick Cheung

22:40: Sammi Cheng and Nick Chueng on stage now to present Best Actress.

22:35: We may actually make it to the end of this thing before 11 pm!

22:34: “Every time I take off somewhere on my spaceship…you always have a way to bring me back to Earth.” - Lau Ching Wan to his wife.

22:33: “We opened the New York Asian Film Festival last year with OVERHEARD 3. We clearly made the right choice!!!” - DF.

22:31: “I’m so happy that I have some female audiences now, but are you sure you didn’t mistake me for Louis Koo?” - Lau Ching Wan to the LITTLE BIG MASTER girls.

22:30: And the winner for Best Actor is: LAU CHING WAN for OVERHEARD 3. Third award for the film.

My guests were both supporting Huang Bo.

22:28: Each of the child chooses their ideal winner on stage.

22:27: Time for the Best Actor award. Miriam Yeung and the five LITTLE BIG MASTER kids presenting.

22:24: “Honestly, this award won’t make me that much happier, but this is an encouragement. The film may not be perfect, it may be flawed, this film represents a risk worth pursuing.”- Ann Hui

My guests are genuinely shocked. They think Peter Chan should’ve won.

“Community award!” - CS.

22:22: And the Best Director award goes to: ANN HUI for GOLDEN ERA. Fourth award for the film tonight.

22:21: I can’t really translate what Anthony Wong said, but brilliant as always. Best Director award now.

22:18: Last year, Anthony Wong gave a pretty inflammatory monologue. Looks like he’s going to be doing the same this year.

22:16: And we’re at Best Director now.

Anthony Wong (Chau-sang) on stage to present. Let’s see what he comes up with this year.

22:08: And the Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan goes to: COMING HOME. Representative from Edko Films accepted the award.

22:05: Sylvia Chang on stage now to present the Best Film from Mainland China and Taiwan award.

22:03: Richie Ren still on stage for Best Original Song. This may be Ivana Wong’s third win.

And the winner of Best Original Film Song is: ABERDEEN. Ivana Wong goes home two-for-three.

22:02: I’m a huge fan of Ellen Loo, so I’m happy to see her win.

22:00: “They gave it for Space Oddity la” - DF, about the Best Original Score award.

21:58: And the winner of the Best Original Film Score is: THE MIDNIGHT AFTER, the first award for the film tonight.

21:56: Richie Ren on stage to present Best Original Film Score. Speaking in Cantonese.

21:54: Hosts doing a slightly lame gag with old HK film theme songs.

21:53: James Wong tribute performers: Yoyo Sham, Aga, J. Arie and Phil Lam.

21:52: “Looks like Hong Kong music will die before Hong Kong cinema.” - CS, after the James Wong tribute.

21:49: And we just opened our second bottle of red wine.

21:43: Wong died in November 2004, so I assume this is for the 10th anniversary of his death.

21:41: James Wong’s daughter comes out to start the proceedings. Several musicians and singers will be covering his biggest hits.

21:40 Hour 3 starting with the tribute to James Wong.

21:39: Keeping count. The producers have cut off two live performances and two presenters’ speeches tonight.

21:35: My guests having a laugh that a certain producer still getting called a certain director’s wife. Ouch.

21:32: Lee Kwan Long was the props man on all Tsui Hark films. He’s an innovator in terms of robotics and props in HK cinema, including the underwater horse in YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE and the wires in ZU WARRIORS.

21:31: The directing panel messes up again, cutting off Tsui Hark’s speech. This is the second time this has happened.

21:29: Professional Achievement Award now, to be given to veteran props man Lee Kwan Long, a.k.a. “Props Dragon” or “Wire Dragon” or “Set Dragon” or “Special Effects Dragon”

Tsui Hark presenting the award.

21:23: Ivana Wong has the chance of winning all three categories that she’s nominated for. Best Original Song left.

21:21: And the winner of Best Supporting Actress is: IVANA WONG for GOLDEN CHICKENSSSS. This is her second award of the night.

21:20: CS: “Shouldn’t Dize Niu be in jail?!”

21:19: Time for Best Supporting Actress now. Doze Niu and Ethan Ruan on stage to present.

21:18: “Winning a Best Editing award for John Woo shouldn’t be called Best Editing. It should be best castration since his films are all cut in two now” - David Wu.

21:17: Is it a little embarrassing knowing that David Wu is not editing part two of THE CROSSING?

21:16: And the winner of Best Editing is: THE CROSSING PART 1. This is Wu’s second Best Editing win and 11th nomination.

21:14: Cheugn and Chan remain on stage for Best Editing.

21:13: CS: “Actually, everything with this film’s fine except for the writing and the directing!”

21:12: And the winner of Best Cinematography is: THE GOLDEN ERA, the third award of the night.

21:09: Alfred Cheung and Anthony Chan now on stage to present Best Cinematography.

21:06: Years ago, TVB cut to commercial in the middle of the in memoriam segment. Their handling of the awards led to them losing the rights one year until they promised to not do it again.

21:05: Aaaaaaaaaand TVB cuts off Anthony Wong, too.

21:04: Segway Fruit Chan is back!

21:02: Anthony Wong Yiu-ming on stage to perform ABERDEEN’s theme song. Is TVB going to cut him off, too? Oh, he’s not wearing a yellow ribbon. I think he’s safe.

21:00: And the winner of Best Costume & Make Up Design is: THE GOLDEN ERA, the second award of the night. First award win for Man Lim Chung in this category. Ann Hui crying in the audience.

20:58: Idy Wong and Arthur Wong remain on stage to present Best Costume & Make Up Design.

20:56: And the winner of Best Art Direction is: THE GOLDEN ERA. First win for the Ann Hui film tonight.

20:54: Idy Chan and cinematographer Arthur Wong on stage to present Best Art Direction. Of course, my guests are talking about Idy Chan and Chow Yun Fat.

20:53: Just heard that the main feed that produces the HKFA show was by TVB. So they cut off My Little Airport on TV.

20:50: The winner of Best Supporting Actor is: KENNETH TSANG for OVERHEARD 3.

First Supporting Actor win for Kenneth Tsang and second award for OVERHEARD 3.

Tsang is in tears during his speech. “This is for everyone working in Hong Kong cinema.”

20:49: Lam Suet now her co-presenter of this thing. He seems real caught off-guard.

OK, we’re getting on with this thing.

20:48: Carrie Ng inviting all five nominees to the stage. The nominees are all so confused.

20:47: Carrie Ng talking about her history with sex scenes. Now the two hosts leave her alone to present the award by herself.

20:45: Carrie Ng presenting Best Supporting Actor with Gordom Lam and Jordan Chan.

20:44: CS: “Man, there are a lot of dead bosses this year.”

20:41 - TVB forces copyright trademark on an image of a still even during the in memoriam segment.

20:40 - Children’s chorus singing Jacky Cheung’s “Blessings” as the in memoriam segment rolls on.

20:38 - Back from ad break. Miriam Yeung on stage now to introduce the in memoriam segment.

20:33: My Little Airport’s performance just got cut to a commercial break in the middle! My guests are sure it’s because the producers are afraid of My Little Airport saying something inflammatory.

20:31: Just biased. A film with my name on it has now won the HK Film Awards. I co-translated OVERHEARD 3’s subtitles.

My Little Airport now perform GOLDEN CHICKENSSS’ theme song.

20:30: Felix Chong: “This award is for Hong Kong and Hong Kongers.” I’m not exactly sure why.

20:28: The winner of Best Screenplay is: OVERHEARD 3. This is only the second time the OVERHEARD series has won a HK Film Award. OVERHEARD 1 won Best Editing.

20:26 - The producers just cut off the presenters’ banter and went straight to the nominees clip. Ouch

20:25 - Eddie Peng and Tang Wei on stage to present Best Screenplay. This will mostly be in Mandarin, much to CS’ relief.

20:23  - Lots of cheers in the house for David Lee’s win. DF is right: everyone likes him.

20:21 - Tony and Shu Qi remain on stage for Best New Director.

DF: “David Lee (Insantiy) is the most hard-working assistant director in Hong Kong”

The winner of Best New Director is: DAVID LEE for INSANITY

20:20 - Ivana has given the longest speech of the night - and she has two more categories to go. Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song.

20:19 - Technically, Ivana Wong is also a two-time loser of the HKFA already.

20:17 - The winner of Best New Actor is: IVANA WONG for GOLDEN CHICKENSSS

20:15 - Since Ivana Wong took 3 nominations, there are only two other nominees in the Best New Actor category: Candy Cheung for DOT 2 DOT and Jessica Choi for ABERDEEN.

Gordon Lam says CreateHK will give HK$100,000 for the Best New Director winner.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Shu Qi now on stage to present Best New Actor.

20:14 - The hosts now talking to Ivana Wong. “What happens if you don’t win anything tonight?!”

20:11 -  And now the best dressed award. Tony Leung Chiu-wai for the men and Sandra Ng for the women.

20:09 - Back from the ad break, but two Now TV hosts still talking.

Best New Actor coming up next. Ivana Wong has 3 NOMINATIONS in this category.

20:04 - First ad break means we’re opening up a red wine.

20:02 - Ivana Wong now performing her nominated theme song from BREAK UP 100.

20:01 - DF: “Oh, Jordan Chan is in sober mode. That’s why he can’t perform tonight.”

20:00 - Yuen Bun is the only one of the four winners to go on stage to receive the award.

19:59 - And the winner of Best Action Choreography is: KUNG FU JUNGLE

19:57 - CS and DF immediately get into Amber Kuo dating rumors. I won’t repeat them here.

19:55 -Amber Kuo and Chin Kar Lok now on stage to present Best Action Choreography.

Yay for CS as another Mandarin speaker shows up.

19:54 - CS is very sad that the only Mandarin speaker of the night is not present to give the speech.

19:53 - Yam and Hui remain on stage to give out Best Sound Effects.

And the winner is: THE CROSSING PART 1

19:52 - Another winner said that his father was the first generation of special effects maker - he was a paper doll maker.

19:50 - One of the winners headed up now-defunct special effects company Menfond.

19:49: And the winner of the Visual Effects award is: RISE OF THE LEGEND 

19:47 - CS: “Imagine all the Mainlanders in the audience. They’re not getting any of this banter!”

19:46 - First award of the night is Best Visual Effects. Director Ann Hui and Simon Yam presenting.

19:44 - Awkward host banter about how the Best Picture nominees are “disasters”. We’re not giving away awards for a while.

19:43 - CS: “High definition is such a cruel invention for the stars…”

19:42 - “Cinema Fantasia” is the theme of this year’s show. And I finally managed to convince DF that the show does not come with subtitles.

19:41 - A Fruit Chan-lookalike passing the stage TWICE with a camera on a segway.

This is Miriam Yeung’s first time hosting the show. Gordon Lam has hosted the show before.

19:40 - Host Gordon Lam introduces the show with a drone shot. Jordan Chan and Miriam Yeung also on stage now.

19:39: The show finally starting now with a montage of old HK special effects-packed films.

19:37: Like all big cultural event shows in Hong Kong, the HK Film Awards is starting late.

19:35 - We’re minutes away from the beginning of the show! DF and CS are WAH-ing at all the red carpet footage.

19:30 - We have an emergency. We’ve already finished most of our food with 4 hours to go!

19:22: CS, who doesn’t speak Cantonese, says “We’re here to judge people, not watch what they’re saying, so it’s OK to not have subtitles.”

19:18 - Now TV poll says audiences want Lau Ching Wan to win for OVERHEARD 3 or for INSANITY. But no one saw INSANITY.

19:17 - We’re still watching the red carpet coverage on Now TV. No more fashion talk!

Dana is already pissed. “Who’s this?! What is happening?!”

19:15 - Tonight, we’re joined by two guest commentators: Dana Fukuzawa (DF) and Coco Shen (CS). They’ll be providing all the snark.

17:53 - Technical test. Watching red carpet coverage now. Lots of fashion talk.

 

It’s the same old song: Because of my busy schedule, I’m only able to come in and waste LoveHKFilm server space twice a year with my awards live blog. This time, it’s the Hong Kong Film Awards, and it’s bound to be another wild show. This year’s hosts are Miriam Yeung, Jordan Chan and Gordon Lam, with performances by My Little Airport, Anthony Wong (Yiu Ming, not Anthony) and Ivana Wong.

As we have done for the last however many years, we’ll be live-blogging everything happening over the course of the nights, from bad host banter to some actual award results.

Check out this year’s nominees list here.  

Once again, the live blog will be done as one single entry, and all you have to do is reload the page to see the latest updates. Yes, I know I can load those auto-refresh whatever code thingamajig, but it’s a one-man operation, and I’m going to ask you guys to make more of an effort while I’m typing furiously at the computer for 4 hours.

Here are the deets:

Date: April 19, 2015

Time: 7:30 pm Hong Kong Time (GMT+8) (go to World Time Server to find the time difference between your region and Hong Kong)

Length: Prepare to waste about 4 to 4 and a half hours on this baby.

I will start a new post that you should be able to enter from the main page, or find the link on my social media networks. If you don’t know what they are by now, you will never, ever, ever know me.

See you all on Sunday night!

 

 

Due to my professional and personal obligations (more former than latter, if you’ve seen my work), I haven’t had much time to update this blog. But there are two occasions each year that bring me back with no exception: The Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards. The difference: One speaks (mostly) Cantonese, the other one speaks Mandarin.

 

(just kidding - there are more Mandarin speakers at the Hong Kong Film Awards now)

 

November means that it’s time for the Golden Horse Awards! Celebrating the best and brightest in Greater China cinema, this year’s Golden Horse Awards is once again dominated by Mainland China films. Nevertheless, there is strong support in Taiwan for local darling KANO and Gwei “Gooey” Lun Mei, even though her nominated film is a Mainland China film.

 

As I have done in the past several years, I will once again live-blog the entire Golden Horse Award ceremony from beginning to end. Like last year, there will be less snark, but I guarantee that there will be just as much pointless narration of events happening at the ceremony.  And I once again guarantee that I will not understand 30% of what is said at the awards because of the Mandarin.

 

Once again, the Live Blog will be done in a single entry that is continuously updated throughout the night. You will have to manually reload the page to see the updates because I don’t have technology like those people who live blog Apple release events.

 

The awards starts promptly at 19:00 (that’s 7 PM for you lazy 12-hour clock people) Hong Kong/Taiwan time on Saturday, November 22nd. That’s GMT +8 (or just use World Time Server to figure that out).  Expect the awards to run over four hours, which is only one hour longer than THE GOLDEN ERA and about the same length as a Lav Diaz film. I promise it’ll be a breeze.

 

Depending on my typing speed, I will also be on Twitter throughout the night. Just tweet @TheGoldenRock using hashtag #GHA2014 and your comments may end up on this blog or retweeted by me. Yeah, I’m all up in this social media thingy.

 

The nomination list here, courtesy of our friendly neighbourhood Webmaster Kozo.

 

See you on Saturday night/morning/afternoon!

 

 

 

 

 

“I can do this with one leg up and still walk in a straight line!”

 

Even though this blog hasn’t been very active, I commit myself to update it at least twice a year: During the Hong Kong Film Awards and during the Golden Horse Awards. If you see an update here now, that can only mean that it’s time for another Golden Rock Award Live Blog!

The 50th Golden Horse Awards is happening this Saturday, and I assure you that unlike my Hong Kong Film Awards blog this year, I will be watching the show live on a reasonably comfortable couch here in Hong Kong in front of a reasonably sized television. As I have always done, I will provide the latest updates, from presenters to award winners. I will also not understand at least 30% of what people say in Mandarin.

However, one thing will be different with this year’s live blog: There will be less snark. Sorry, a joke about people on stage and the people who produce these award shows will end up hurting my career (and people’s feelings), so the award live blogs from here on will be more facts and less jokes.

Unless someone else made the joke. Quote marks make everything OK.

The blog will be in the same format as the past. I will continuously update a singular blog entry throughout the night (because none of you should have to be bombarded on Twitter by updates via tweet). Just keep updating the same entry to stay updated throughout the night.

The live blog entry will be promptly up on this very blog at 7pm (19:00) Hong Kong Time. That’s 0900 GMT, and if you don’t know what that is on your local time, then World Time Server is your friend. You should also be ashamed of yourself for not being able to tell time in a globalized world, but who am I to judge?

Check out the nominees on the Golden Horse Award page. Due to time constraints and other issues, I will not be doing an award prediction page this year.

To get into the conversation during the ceremony, holla at me @TheGoldenRock on Twitter. I’ll retweet the best comments throughout the night, but that totally isn’t an endorsement. At least that’s what I’ve been told to tell people.

See you all on Saturday night!

I promised I would do this, so here’s the not-live edition of the Golden Rock 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards, er, blog! 

The time code this year would be the running time of the show based on the video copy of the TVB broadcast I have (really, don’t ask where I got it) instead of the time of the broadcast. Sorry if it confuses a few people. The total running time of the show is just over 3 hours (no commercial breaks, obviously).

Here we go!

00:01:01: A highlight of the red carpet footage kick off the show. I wonder how furious TVB is for having to show all these non-TVB artists.

00:02:10: Show kicks off now with introduction of Best Picture nominees. MOTORWAY gets a car on the stage

00:02:45: Is that….a video background???? Also, that is clearly on a rig they stole from an old Universal Studios ride.

00:03:30: Chin Ka Lok gets of the car and says a few lines representing the film, then makes fun of cops not caring about film shoots.

00:04:15: Camera accidentally gets a few late comers on camera.

00:04:35: Best New Artist nominee (heh heh) Tsui Ka Kit says a few lines about COLD WAR and looks super stiff doing it. Can someone take back his nomination?

00:05:35: Some lame jump stunt representing THE BULLET VANISHES, then Liu Kai Chi shows how much better he is at delivering scripted lines than Tsui Ka Kit.

00:06:30: Lots of pyrotechnics for VIRAL FACTOR, then represented by Elaine Kam - who doesn’t fire a single shot in the film. “This is a film about a family - about two parents and two sons”. Then she goes on to describe the entire plot and that the film is about the importance of family. I TOLD YOU IT WASN’T JUST AN ACTION MOVIE.

00:07:55: Time for VULGARIA. I don’t even want to guess what they come up with here.

00:08:10: And Susan Shaw brings out a fake mule. “Tyrannosaur is a host tonight, so he’s not going to swear tonight” 

00:08:50: Camera captures a few more empty seats with GIFT BAGS. They should take those away from those people.

09:10:00: Tonight’s hosts: Gordon Lam, Eric Tsang, Ronald Tsang, and a bald Jerry Lamb.

00:09:50: The hosts tell us that Hong Kong made five additional films in 2012 thanks to the lowered cost of digital filmmaking.

00:10:45: Each guest gets several strips of film from the five nominated films. Wait, was any of them even SHOT on film?

00:12:00: Pang Ho Cheung and Ronald Cheng up first to present Best New Director and Best New Artist.

00:13:00: Chapman To reminds Pang that June Lam was not eligible for the Best New Artist. Pang: “No, I was feeling sorry for the mule in VULGARIA”.

00:13:40: Chapman To reveals that the VULGARIA mule was actually already in ASHES OF TIME and DETECTIVE DEE, and hence, not eligible for the Best New Artist award.

Pang: “That’s a deer”
To: “Any great actor can transform from a mule to a deer”

00:15:00: Best New Actor up first. I passed on all the nominees because I didn’t feel any of them was particularly deserving. Did they pretty much just show all of Tsui Ka Kit’s lines in that nomination clip?

And the winner of Best New Artist is….Tsui Ka Kit for COLD WAR. I think even Pang gave a “WTF” face there.

00:16:35: And with that, the HKFA committee just avoided an ICAC audit.

Tsui Ka Kit: “My acting wasn’t good enough, not as good as our past Chief Executive.” BURN.

I think Tsui is either a great public speaker or rehearsed this speech for a long time.

00:18:00: Tsui was the Deputy Director of Operations at the ICAC before a controversial dismissal in the 1990s

00:18:40: Best New Director now. Pang reveal now that co-directors are not eligible for the Best New Director award

00:19:10: To: “There are great directing teams out there. Pang Brothers, Coen Brothers, Wong Jing”

Pang: “Wong Jing is a solo director”

To: “That’s what he tells you”

00:19:45: Time for Best New Director. I predicted Roy Chow, but wanted Brian Tse for MCDULL.

And the winner of BEST NEW DIRECTOR is: Roy Chow for NIGHTFALL. Toldja.

00:20:50: Roy Chow thanks Edko’s Bill Kong. The first of a long line of wins for Edko tonight.

00:21;25: Roy Chow thanks Christine To and ends with an “I love you”. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I think that’s the first public acknowledgement of their relationship.

00:23:30: Giddens and a little 6-year old girl out now to present Best Screenplay.

Poor little girl looks so nervous. Giddens keeps reminding her of that. too. Apparently, the little girl will be the star of his next film KUNG FU

00:24:40: I predicted COLD WAR to win, though I wanted VULGARIA.

Will this be a case of split votes for Pang?

00:26:30: And the winner is COLD WAR for Longman Leung and Sunny Luk. This is their first screenplay.

This sets in motion COLD WAR’s big night.

00:27:00: Sunny Luk is a longtime Assistant Director, but industry gossip says that he was never very good at it.

00:28:09: I’m really liking this no commercial break thing.

00:28:30: One award is voted for live at the show: The best-dressed award. Tonight’s winners are Lau Ching Wan-Amy Kwok and Sammi Cheng. Gordon Lam apparently missed that photo.

00:29:30: Ronald Cheng forgets his lines and Gordon Lam saves the day.

00:30:50: Alex Man (Best Supporting Actor nominee) and Janice Man on stage now to present Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Wait, Alex Man sells clothes now?

00:31:50: That video background is insanely distracting.

00:32:30: Alex Man demonstrating multiple styles of acting, from stage to film. Save us now.

Look up Alex Man’s little extended display last year at the Udine Far East Film Festival on Youtube and see why I dread this.

00:33:45: Alex Man forgot he’s on stage to present an award!

00:34:00: Best Art Direction. I predicted THE BULLET VANISHES, but wanted TAI CHI 0.

I just noticed that these are all period films.

And the winner is….THE LAST TYCOON. Oh, I’d forgotten about those sets.

00:35:55: Lau Ching Wan accept the award on behalf of Yee Chung Man. The other winner is here, though.

00:36:30: Alex Man and Lau Ching Wan chatting in the background is kind of distracting, too.

00:37:10: The two stay on stage to present…..oh, they both don’t know what they’re presenting. Professional.

00:37:30: This is Best Costume Design. I predicted THE SILENT WAR due to its Asian Film Awards win, but wanted THE GREAT MAGICIAN to win.

Again, all period films.

And the winner is………THE GREAT MAGICIAN. Alex Man tells Lau Ching Wan to come back to the stage. Yee Chung Man wins second award in a row.

00:39:25: Lau Ching Wan: “Don’t worry, you won’t see me on stage again tonight”

00:40:05: I still see a few gift bags.

00:40:20: Leo Ku on stage now to sing Best Original Song nominee from Lan Kwai Fong 2. A ballad…representing a film about clubbing. Such is Cantopop.

00:42:00: I’m sure this is bringing back many fond memories of the fine motion picture that is LAN KWAI FONG 2. Oh, wait none of these old geezers saw the film.

00:44:30: There’s an old guy in the extended leg room row who just flat out REFUSED to applaud.

00:45:10: Gigi Leung and someone that Ronald Cheng forgot now on stage to present Best Supporting Actress.

Oh, wait, that’s Andrew Lau. Ouch.

00:45:45: Leung: “I hear that Assistant Directors pick the supporting actress now. What do you think about that?”

Lau: “I don’t know how to answer that.”

Leung: “I was just reading from the script.”

Lau: “So I hear you recently got married.”

Leung: “I did, yes”

Lau: “So did Ekin Cheng.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA

00:47:20: OK, I predicted Elaine Jin for the Best Supporting Actress award, but wanted Mavis Fan or Jiang Yiyan

The winner is…….Dada Chan for VULGARIA. This is for the Golden Forum brothers.

Dada seriously owes Pang Ho Cheung. The win was definitely for the character, not the performance.

00:48:35: Dada first thanks Pang Ho Cheung. She looks seriously caught off-guard.

00:50:30: No commercial break means we keep on trucking. Jerry Lamb and Eric Tsang share the stage now for some banter.

Lamb asks Tsang about film. Is this the beginning of the tribute to film? I mean literally film, not movies film.

00:51:40: Pioneer award now being presented to Kodak Eastman. Arthur Wong - finally not nominated for Best Cinematography this year - presents the award.

00:52:50: Wong: “Film is like human nature, some warm and some cold”

00:53:30: Wong: “Film gave us cinematographers a sense of authority and a sense of unease while the film gets developed.”

00:54:40: They better not pick any digitally shot movies in this montage tribute to FILM.

00:55:20: The Asia-Pacific Chairman of Kodak Eastman Lois Lebegue (is it supposed to be Louis?) accepts the award and gives a speech in English.

00:56:40: Lebegue: “Film remains the gold standard.” I will never learn to shoot on it, but indeed it is.

00:57:55: Lo Hoi Pang on stage now to present Best Visual Effects and Best Sound

Lo is known for his rhyming skills (the full story takes too long to translate), and delivers two for the audiences.

Lo’s story has to do with testing microphones, and uses that to emphasize the importance of sound in films. Heh heh.

Lo just says something about mothers on stage. Chapman To looks shocked.

1:00:45: Best Visual Effects up first. I predicted CHINESE ZODIAC to win, but want TAI CHI 0.

They just showed the fake-ass billiard scene and a crane shot from MOTORWAY because they had no idea what visual effects are.

And the winner is…..COLD WAR. Seriously? For that crappy explosion?

1:02:50: Lo forgets to give a speech and goes straight to Best Sound Design. I wanted THE BULLET VANISHES, but predict COLD WAR or VIRAL FACTOR to win.

Jesus, THE VIRAL FACTOR is such a loud movie.

And the winner is……COLD WAR. Kinson Tsang’s 29th nomination?!

1:04:50: Jerry Lamb: “The star of DIVA has apparently won many awards, but never won one.” Well, that’s not a big secret. Come on, Joey Yung.

Oh, she’s not here tonight.

That leaves Mag Lam to sing the DIVA theme song on her own (it’s supposed to be a duet)

1:07:00: I remember when UA Cinemas played this song on loop to promote DIVA. It’s not bad, actually.

1:10:20: Wong Kar Wai on stage by himself, first wishes Eric Tsang a happy birthday.

He’ll be back next year.

He’s here to give a speech about….shooting on film?

WKW: “Anyone on the set can mess up, but film developers can’t mess up”

1:12:00: WKW: “Film developers will never win awards or applause. We pay tribute to those film developers tonight”

1:13:00: Two Production Achievement Awards go to two professional film developers tonight.

1:14:30: These two hold especially important jobs. If a reel of master print is ruined, that entire reel has to be reshot.

1:18:00: All four hosts on stage now. It’s time for the Best Supporting Actor award - two of the four hosts are nominated this year.

Eric Tsang: “All four of us have been nominated before, but I’m the only one that has won before”.

1:20:20: Nick Cheung and Miriam Yeung on stage now to present Best Supporting Actor.

Tsang: “Miriam, I thought your dress is reversed”

The four hosts remain on stage. The banter now clearly off-script.

1:21:50: What is that digital waterfall doing in the back?!

1:22:05: Nick Cheung: “I’ve never won Supporting Actor before. I went straight to Best Actor”

Oh, everyone just remembered that Ronald Cheng and Miriam Yeung were a couple.

Miriam to Ronald: “Hey, haven’t seen you for a while!”

1:23:30: There was a lot of jump cuts in that nomination clip for VULGARIA.

OK, I guessed Ronald Cheng would win, and wants Ronald or Chapman To to win.

And the winner is……….Ronald Cheng for VULGARIA!!

Ronald and Miriam politely shake hands.

Nick Cheung asks if Ronald and Miriam have anything else to say before giving Ronald the stage.

1:26:00: Ronald Cheng: “Tonight’s script came too late, so I forgot about my own speech.”

Ronald starts to cry. “I know I didn’t give people a good impression when I first entered the industry because my father is a record company executive”

1:28:00: Ronald now talks about giving up music to put his heart into acting. Now, it finally pays off.

1:28:50: Eric Tsang: “I’m so touched [to Gordon Lam] It’s right that you didn’t win”

1:29:40: Jacky Cheung on stage now to perform the theme song from THE LAST TYCOON. Hey, buy the DVD and you can see my translation of the song lyrics!

1:32:50: Jacky Cheung is a really good singer.

1:33:40: Stephen Fung on stage now to present Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

Stephen Fung almost switches to Mandarin by accident.

1:34:45: First up is Best Cinematography. I guessed VIRAL FACTOR or COLD WAR. but think LAST TYCOON should win.

And the award goes to: Poon Yiu Ming for THE SILENT WAR.

Not a bad choice, just wasn’t one that I had expected.

1:37:00: Straight into Best Editing now. I expected COLD WAR to win, and want MOTORWAY or COLD WAR to win.

And the winner is……COLD WAR

Editing played a huge part in keeping COLD WAR’s intense pacing, which is why audiences loved it so much. So, there ya go.

1:39:30: Co-winner Wong Hoi’s first job was INITIAL D, which I absolutely HATED, especially for its editing. Oh, well.

1:40:50: Eric Tsang introduces this year’s In Memoriam segment.

“You Raise Me Up”? Seriously?

Screen on stage messes up and cuts off part of the screen. We see the names on TV, but it’s clearly too small for people in the venue to see.

1:44:30: Oliver Wong, Szeto Kam Yuen, Joe Cheng, Kong Ngai, Jacqueline Law, Austin Wai are just a few of the names recognized.

1:46:20: Jackie Chan on stage to present Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan. He’s mixing Mandarin and Cantonese on purpose for our Mainland Chinese guests. This is annoying.

1:48:40: OK, I predicted BACK TO 1942 to win Best Film from Mainland and Taiwan, and would be happy to see it win.

The winner is…………..BACK TO 1942. No surprise here. Zhang Guoli, Xu Fan and Huayi’s Wang Zhonglei accept the award.

1:52:00: I don’t think half the audience even knows that Xu Fan is speaking as Feng Xiaogang’s wife.

1:54:40: Mavis Fan and Choi Si Won (yeah,he’s Korean) on stage to present Best Original Score.

Wait, Choi Si Won speaks Mandarin? Why is he spending his banter saying hi to people in the audience.

1:56:40: I predicted that COLD WAR would win Best Original Score, but want DIVA to win.

And the winner is…………COLD WAR, for its unnecessary in-your-face film score. I forgot to keep score. How many has COLD WAR won now?

1:58:30: Now, the Best Original Song award. I expected the LAST TYCOON song to win, but want the ROMANCING IN THIN AIR song to win. This is a pretty competitive year in this category, IMHO.

And the winner is………..THE LAST TYCOON. Clearly, we all miss Jacky Cheung.

2:02:40: Jacky Cheung hasn’t accepted an award for a long time because he no longer accepts music award and hasn’t been nominated for a film award for a while. Eric Tsang: “It’s good to be nervous at your age. Come back once in a while!”

2:03:50: And now, Raymond Chow on stage to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ng See Yuen.

Personal story about Ng See Yuen: He shows up at all the big functions at my film school, and that’s pretty much all we see of him in Hong Kong these days. He now operates a chain of cinemas in Mainland China.

2:05:00: Ng established several Hong Kong Filmmakers groups, including the Directors’ Association.

2:06:15: And Raymond Chow takes a 5-second break in his speech to reset his hard drive.

2:07:15: Raymond Chow finishes his speech and thanks the audience. Whew.

2:08:25: Ng gave Yuen Woo Ping, Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan their first chance at filmmaking. He’s also an important representative of the film industry and led protests against the triads in the film industry and film piracy. He also apparently came up with the idea for the Walk of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui.

2:15:00: Ng See Yuen’s speech is giving me a lot of facebook surfing time.

2:15:39: Ng See Yuen to young people: “stop complaining about your parents and your government”. Well, we know where he stands politically.

2:16:45: And now, Anthony Wong Yiu Ming pays tribute to, er, Leslie Cheung movie theme songs, I guess.

Anthony Wong admits that he often forgets lyrics, and he just did it.

2:23:44: A series of movie theme songs to remind us what a great star we lost - and the great films that no one makes anymore.

2:24:40: Gordon Lam: “Hong Kong action cinema has been great in the last few years because Eric Tsang hasn’t participated in it.”

02:25:30: Are they so devoid of presenters now that Eric Tsang has to be one of the presenters? He and Chrissie Chow now present Best Action.

02:27:00: Time for Best Action Design. I guessed that CHINESE ZODIAC would win, but wanted MOTORWAY to win.

Eric Tsang: “Is Chin Kar Lok that good, or is he just really cheap?”

And the winner is…..CHINESE ZODIAC. Regardless of the film’s quality, the action design’s actually not bad.

Jackie Chan lets the new kid give the acceptance speech. That’s a good call after that.

Jackie then translates for the Mandarin speaker. “He thanks me, he says” 

Thanks to Eric Tsang for getting a couple of jabs in.

Eric Tsang: “He just won for doing what he’s always done”

02:32:11: Gordon Lam reminds Eric Tsang that he’s never won Best Director before.

02:32:40: Aaron Kwok now here to present Best Director. Try not to overact this one.

02:34:25: OK, I realized that I didn’t make a prediction for Best Director. Since I already know who wins, I won’t make any prediction.

And the winner is………Longman Leung and Sunny Luk for COLD WAR, setting up for their Best Picture win.

I wonder the fact that many of the voters have worked with them before has anything to do with their win.

02:37:35: Sunny Luk thanks Wong Jing and another director as the people who taught him how to be a PA/Assistant Director.

02:38:20: And time for Best Actress. Going into the home stretch now.

Jacky Cheung’s back on stage to present. The Best Actor winner from last year should be here to present this. Where’s Andy Lau?

02:39:15: Jacky Cheung: “Actually, you know I’ve been acting since 1989, I just haven’t had much luck.

Cheung: “I was actually quite uncomfortable with presenting an acting award. Then I realized, hey, all the nominees are singers! Then I felt a lot more comfortable”

02:40:50: OK, I guessed Sammi Cheng or Miriam Yeung would win, but prefers Sammi.

And that was HUGE spoiler for THE SILENT WAR

Cheung: “Usually, the nominated singer who doesn’t show up doesn’t win”. He’s talking about Zhou Xun.

And the winner is……Miriam Yeung, for her first Best Actress win ever. Sammi looks like a load just came off her shoulders.

02:42:39: Miriam is crying on stage now. She seems to have no speech.

02:43:40: Yeung thanks Joe Ma and James Yuen. Gordon Lam breaks her speech and asks Ronald Cheng to say something. Ouch. 

Yeung also thanks Pang Ho Cheung for picking her, even though she heard that she wasn’t the first choice for the role.

Hmm, she’s forgetting to thank Shawn Yue.

02:46:45: Anthony Wong and Deanie Ip now on stage to present Best Actor. What a strange pairing.

And Wong is going to run his mouth off. I know it.

02:47:30: Anthony Wong says that Deanie Ip isn’t feeling well and isn’t going ahead with the banter. Wong asks if that means he has to do two people’s lines by himself.

Wong: “The awards people thought I’ll run my mouth off again, so they asked Deanie to watch me, but since she can’t speak, this is great for me.”

And Wong proceeds to read out two people’s lines.

Wong: “Why are you winning so many awards, Nick Cheung? You just let your daughter play with them!”

Wong: “Lau Ching Wan is a good choice, he looks a bit exotic. But the awards people rarely vote for foreigners.”

Everyone wants to hear what he has to say about Chapman To due to their reported feud. Wong takes out a long stack of paper for it, and To stands up pretending to leave.

Wong shuffles the paper and simply says “let’s just encourage each other”

02:52:00: Finally time for the award. I guessed Tony Leung will win, but wanted Chapman To or Nick Cheung.

And the winner is…….Tony Leung for COLD WAR. He’s been nominated 15 times at the HKFA, and this is his 4th win as Best Actor. A solid performance, and not a terrible choice.

Leung: “My daughters said I’ll have to thank them, and I ask them why. They said it’s because they saw the film four times. Then I asked them why don’t they ask the boss to thank them. Then they said it’s because they paid for their friends’ tickets. With my money.”

Classy speech by Tony Leung, in which he thanked the film’s major members and saluted them.

02:57:50: Eric Tsang: “Hong Kong cinema isn’t dead because we’re united. Look at how we talk to each other like family!”

02:58:30: And now, Andy Lau and Carina Lau on stage to present Best Picture. Oh, so there he is.

Andy Lau asks Carina Lau what she thinks about the nominees.

And Andy Lau goes to calls VULGARIA by the wrong name. But congratulates Dada Chan on stage. Classy.

Carina goes to call all the Best Film nominees just OK.

Andy Lau: “But I’m in COLD WAR”
Carina: “So what? It doesn’t have Tony Leung!”

And there’s that expected punch line.

03:02:00: OK, I predicted COLD WAR will win, but wanted VULGARIA or MOTORWAY to win the award. Sigh.

And the winner is……….COLD WAR. OK, then.

And this is now the year of COLD WAR and Edko.

Bill Kong is the first to speak as the producer/boss. Followed by the co-producers.

Eric Tsang: “Since it won the most prizes, therefore its Best Picture win is deserving”

And that wraps up this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards blog. Hope that we’ll return live this year. It’s just not as fun without you guys.

See you in the fall for the Golden Horse Awards!

 

Some of these people will be going home happy tonight

Despite my own spotty blog writing schedule, the Hong Kong Film Awards live blog has always been something that I’ve consistently done over the last few years. Unfortunately, due to scheduling problems (the problem being me being stupid in forward planning), I will not be able to do a live blog this year. I will likely do a play-by-play after the broadcast as a translation for people, but they will not be up during the broadcast of the show.

However, I will follow tradition by offering my own predictions for the awards this year. For an alternate (and very well thought-out) set of predictions, I first suggest you all go take a look at Sanney Leung’s predictions and the list of nominees before coming back to read mine.

Done? OK, let’s do this:

Best New Director

Will win: Roy Chow (NIGHTFALL)
Should win: Brian Tse (MCDULL THE PORK OF MUSIC)

I’m not sure which is funnier: That only one nominee in this category is actually nominated for a directorial debut, or that the director who’s only made one film is the least deserving nominee in the category. With 16 million HK dollars at the box office and a lot of positive reviews, NIGHTFALL will likely give Roy Chow that Best New Director award that he thought he’d deserved for MURDERER. However, when the possibility of MCDULL winning a Hong Kong Film Award comes up, I will always choose MCDULL for my preferred choice. 

Best Film of Mainland and Taiwan

Will Win: BACK TO 1942 (China)
Should Win: BACK TO !942 (China)

The other four nominees are all good in their own way, but none of them are playing at Feng Xiaogang’s level, who delivered a famine film that actually managed to balance spectacle, tragedy, and black comedy. It was never meant to be a blockbuster tearjerker like AFTERSHOCK, and kudos to Feng Xiaogang for not trying to repeat past achievements.

Best Visual Effects

Will Win: CHINESE ZODIAC
Should Win: TAI CHI 0

All the visual effects nominees are actually pretty weak this year, but I predict that the committee will give it to the most expensive film. However, I prefer to give it to the film in which the special effects made the most sense. The video game effects of TAI CHI 0 really served the film’s style, whether you like it or not. Many people didn’t like it, so it probably won’t win.

Best Sound Design

Will Win: THE VIRAL FACTOR or COLD WAR
Should Win: THE BULLET VANISHES 

Remember how loud THE VIRAL FACTOR and COLD WAR were? The voters probably remember that, too. THE VIRAL FACTOR will get the big-budget movie win, or COLD WAR will get the prestige film win, but I personally thought THE BULLET VANISHES had a nice, understated sound mix that delivered when it needed to. Check out the finale to (or hear) what I’m talking about.

Best Original Song 

Will win: THE LAST TYCOON
Should win: ROMANCING IN THIN AIR

One of the most competitive years in recent memory in this category, there are at least three very solid songs running for the award. While the song from THE LAST TYCOON is a great song (Jacky Cheung’s presence will probably elevate its chances for a win as well), Sammi Cheng’s ROMANCING IN THIN AIR theme song works well with the film and serves the film than the LAST TYCOON song does.

Best Original Film Score

Will win: Peter Kam (COLD WAR)
Should win: Eman Lam, Veronica Lee (DIVA)

The only reason I prefer DIVA is because the other nominees are pretty typical film scores without anything special to distinguish it. Peter Kam’s score for COLD WAR actually even hurt the film. However, if a COLD WAR sweep is coming, then Kam will probably go home with another HK Film Award tonight.

Best Action Design

Will win: CHINESE ZODIAC
Should win: MOTORWAY

Jackie Chan is always a frontrunner in this category, but the complex chase choreography of MOTORWAY (especially in the hillside chase sequence in the middle) deserves recognition in my book. I would not be upset at a VIRAL FACTOR win, either, since it’s easily the most accomplished thing in the film. That helicopter sequence was really not easy to pull off (as dumb as the execution is).

Best Costume Design and Make-Up

Will win: THE SILENT WAR
Should win: THE GREAT MAGICIAN

Man Lim Chung likely have his supporters, judging from his win at the Asian Film Awards, but THE GREAT MAGICIAN was the most accomplished film in this department for its colorful variation of fashion styles.

Best Art Direction

Will win: THE BULLET VANISHES
Should win: TAI CHI 0

In my opinion, THE BULLET VANISHES and SILENT WAR already cancel out each other for so obviously recycling the same set, but THE BULLET VANISHES’ factory and town sets are likely to be memorable enough to catch voters’ attention. At the same time, Tim Yip’s prestige and his effort in building the enormous sets in TAI CHI 0 (including the metal monster) may earn him another HK Film Award after all.

Best Editing

Will win: COLD WAR
Should win: MOTORWAY or COLD WAR

Getting a film like MOTORWAY down to a lean 89 minutes with just the right pacing is an award-worthy achievement, but editing did play a huge part in giving COLD WAR the breathless storytelling that audiences loved. Again, if a sweep is in store tonight for COLD WAR, this will be one of the awards it picks up.

Best Cinematography

Will win: THE VIRAL FACTOR or COLD WAR
Should win: THE LAST TYCOON

THE VIRAL FACTOR may pick up the big budget film technical award for the action sequences, and COLD WAR may win this as part of the sweep, but voters may remember the grandeur of Andrew Lau and Kenny Kwan’s work on THE LAST TYCOON. It’s such a good-looking film that no one will believe that it was directed by Wong Jing (though let’s face it, it was probably partly directed by Andrew Lau anyway. 

Best New Artist

Will win: Pass
Should win: Pass

The field is so weak this year that no one deserve this award this year. Luckily, I’m not in the committee, and I’m sure the HKFA won’t be pulling a HK Film Critics Society this year. Congratulations to whoever wins, but that person probably doesn’t deserve it. 

Best Screenplay

Will win: Longman Leung and Sunny Luk (COLD WAR)
Should win: Pang Ho Cheung, Luk Yee Sum, Lam Chiu Wing (VULGARIA)

Filled with technical talk and award bait moments for its stars, COLD WAR will probably win with little resistance from the general public. Despite its flaws, the best thing about VULGARIA really is its profanity-filled script. Pang deserves his second screenplay award at the HKFA (ironic since his first win was for LOVE IN A PUFF), but the wind really is blowing towards COLD WAR winning it all.

Best Supporting Actress

Will win: Elaine Kam (THE VIRAL FACTOR)
Should win: Mavis Fan (THE SILENT WAR) or Jiang Yiyan (THE BULLET VANISHES)

Elaine gets to cash in her veteran cred here and pick up the award for her award bait monologue in THE VIRAL FACTOR (came too early in the film for impact, if you ask me), but if voters know what they’re doing, they should recognize Mavis Fan (for having a character more interesting than the lead actress) or Jiang Yiyan (for giving a better performance than the lead actress) for their work.

Best Supporting Actor

Will win: Ronald Cheng (VULGARIA)
Should win: Ronald Cheng (VULGARIA) or Chapman To (DIVA)

Both of these actors stole the show in their respective films, so I would be very happy if either Chapman or Ronald wins tonight. If Chapman loses for DIVA (which may happen since Ronald has Golden Horse momentum behind him), he may still win Best Actor, so that’s OK. However, I am leaning toward Chapman for being the only great thing in DIVA. Ronald was just the icing on the VULGARIA cake. 

Best Actress

Will win: Sammi Cheng (ROMANCING IN THIN AIR) or Miriam Yeung (LOVE IN THE BUFF)
Should win: Sammi Cheng (ROMANCING IN THIN AIR)
Dark Horse: Elanne Kong (LOVE LIFTING)
To ensure a riot in the Cultural Center: Zhou Xun 

It’s finally Sammi’s year, and she could do a lot worse than winning for Johnnie To/Wai Ka Fai’s romance drama. The film had a LOT of problems, but Sammi wasn’t one of them. Elanne winning will be a pleasant surprise, and a huge “eff you” to the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. Actually, any actress winning would be a huge “eff you” to the critics group, since they didn’t like any of them for their awards.

Best Actor

Will win: Tony Leung Ka Fai (COLD WAR)
Should win: Chapman To (VULGARIA) or Nick Cheung (Nightfall)

I didn’t like NIGHTFALL, but I thought Nick Cheung’s performance was very strong. On the other hand, I didn’t think Chapman To was particularly good in VULGARIA, but I like the film and would rather see him win over a COLD WAR win for Tony Leung. Again, if a COLD WAR Best Picture win is coming, then expect Tony Leung to pick up Best Actor for his solid turn tonight.

Best Picture

Will win: COLD WAR
Should win: VULGARIA or MOTORWAY

Sanney felt that VULGARIA should take the top award as a statement to the co-production system, and I’m inclined to agree. It’s not the best film of the bunch, but neither was GALLANTS when it picked up its Best Picture award. However, I personally prefer MOTORWAY for being well-crafted and hitting the mark so well. On the other hand, there is a lot of industry support for COLD WAR, and it certainly seems like it’s set to take the top prize of the night.

If you get to watch the ceremony live tonight, then have fun. Otherwise, we’ll be back in the next few days with the play-by-play Hong Kong Film Awards not-so-live blog!

 

 

Yet another empty promise to blog gone unfulfilled, just like the most unreliable boyfriend you’ve had in your life.

BUT, there are some things that can bring this blogger back, and one of the them is awards season! I try to do a live blog for the two major Chinese cinema awards (Sorry, Mainland China, you don’t have one of them), so this return means it’s time for the Golden Horse Awards!

What this blogger does when he isn’t blogging

As always, the awards will be broadcast live on Star Chinese Movies channel here in Hong Kong, and yours truly will be following all the action with snarky snark snark…with a few second delay because my Mandarin isn’t as good as my Cantonese.

Here are the deets:

Time: Saturday, November 24th, 2012. 19:00 (7pm) Hong Kong Time (Use World Time Server or a world clock of your choice to figure out your local time)

Place: Right here! 

How it works: A new blog entry will be created on the day of the show. Just keep reloading that entry during the course of the show to see the latest updates.

How to interact:  In the past, I’ve opened up comments and set up live chats. This year, I’m taking it all on Twitter. Just tweet @TheGoldenRock with #2012GHA, and I will retweet and respond accordingly.  

Made plans this weekend? Just come back and reread the whole thing later on. It won’t be so fun, but it’ll be here as long as the blog is here.

Simple enough? Good! Some time later this week, I will post my predictions, and we’ll be back here to waste a Saturday night watching the Chinese-speaking film community congratulate themselves!

 
She’ll probably be there, just not wearing this.

Concept ad for this year’s Golden Horse Festival, by JUMP! ASHIN director Lin Yu-Hsien and starring Eddie Peng: