[2010.04.16] WANG XUEQI, LAU CHING WAN: BEST ACTOR GRUDGE MATCH

courtesy of singtao.com

Yesterday we completed the Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress competition analysis. Today it is the Best Actor's turn. 4 nominees Wang Xueqi, Lau Ching Wan, Aaron Kwok Fu Sing and Simon Yam Tat Wa actually have won Best Actor on different occasions. This time the competition is strong!

This year's Hong Kong Film Award Best Actor nominations included BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (SUP YUET WAI SING)'s Wang Xueqi, MURDERER's Kwok Fu Sing, OVERHEARD (SIT TING FUNG WON)'s Lau Ching Wan, and NIGHT AND FOG (TIN SHUI WAI DIK YEH YU MO) and ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (SHUI YUET SUN TAU)'s Simon Yam Tat Wa.

The veteran Wang Xueqi in BODYGUARDS played the wealthy businessman Lee Yu Tong who originally avoided the revolution but due to his missing friend he completely supported it. Seeing more and more people sacrificing themselves for the revolution he panicked. In the entire process Wang Xueqi was very appropriate without any superficiality. His excellent and complex inner emotional scenes conquered the audience. no wonder with BODYGUARDS he won the 4th Annual Asian Film Award and the 16th Annual Hong Kong Film Critic Society Award Best Actor. Due to his past successes, many saw Wang Xueqi as the Hong Kong Film Award Best Actor favorite.

As for Yam Tat Wa (Brother Wa)'s double nominations, NIGHT was based on a real family tragedy. In the film Brother Wa played a sometimes gentle sometimes vicious husband. He gave up his handsome looks and deliberately gained weight to play a middle age man. Interpreting this type of polarized characters, Brother Wa was well in control. As for his other film ECHOES, its background was the 60s Hong kong lower class. Due to the rising nostalgia preservation fever in the community, the film received widespread response. Brother Wa with his well honed acting thoroughly performed the strict father role. Although Brother Wa was nominated with two films, he did not have any advantage because his votes might be split. He might lose to BODYGUARDS' Wang Xueqi due to fewer votes but still is recognized as a favorite!

In addition, the 05 and 06 Taiwan Golden Horse Best Actor Sing Sing's mad man style performance in the thriller MURDERER was memorable; the 07 Hong Kong Film Award and Golden Bauhinia Award Best Actress Ching Wan in OVERHEARD played a gentle and decisive yet cowardly surveillance officer. On the surface he seemed ordinary but playing a small character memorably was quite a challenge. Thus Sing Sing and Ching Wan should not be ignored.