[2010.04.18] ERIC TSANG BACKS BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS TO WIN

courtesy of singtao.com

The annual Hong Kong film industry event, the 29th Annual Hong Kong Film Award takes place tonight at the Cultural Center. Considered the highest honor among the 19 awards, will the Best Picture winner be the dark horse or the favorite? The result will be unveiled tonight!

This year's Best Picture nominees include KJ (YUM LOK YUN SUN), BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (SUP YUET WAI SING), OVERHEARD (SIT TING FUNG WON), SHINJUKU INCIDENT (SUN SHOOK SI GEIN) and RED CLIFF II (CHET BIK KUET JIN TIN HA). Among them KJ is a documentary. As for box office performance, RED CLIFF II leads with 23.7 million, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS followed with 16.62 million and OVERHEARD came in third with 15.45 million. SHINJUKU INCIDENT with 13.91 million was in fourth. The documentary rounds up the nominees with almost 800,000. However costing only 90,000 to make, KJ created recent documentary film Hong Kong release box office miracle. The film was released twice in July and December 2009. For a documentary with few circuit and show numbers, it made almost 800,000 -- a rare performance indeed.

Presented in early March, the Hong Kong Film critic Society Award has always been seen as the Hong Kong Film Award indicator. At the time KJ about a music genius losing and finding himself was called having clear cut structures and layers, demonstrating Hong Kong middle class twisted values and music genius' personal loneliness and rebelliousness that left many sighing. In the end it successfully defeated big films like BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS and OVERHEARD to win Best Picture.

Tonight at the Hong Kong Film Award KJ faces seemingly the same competition. If the Hong Kong Film Award adjudicators are similar to the Hong Kong Film Critic Society, KJ which has already had Taiwan Golden Horse award success will become the Hong Kong Film Award's first Best Picture documentary as the dark horse.

With a record breaking 18 nominations, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS' story structure left no breathing room. Every actor used all he had in his performance. The production technique was accurate, simple and fast, handled the pace of the film appropriately. The star studded big production has always been considered the favorite. Best Actor Eric Tsang Chi Wai supported the film. "BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS this year had so many nominations, proving that this film had many admirers. The general public is no stranger to this film. The market reaction also felt this film was great, when it had people's recognition then it is Best Picture!" Hong Kong Film Award Best Director Andrew Lau Wai Keung said, "BODYGUARDS truly was very representative of Hong Kong. Its film production was very in depth. The story is about Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, about Hong Kong, it is a Hong Kong movie!"

In addition, Nick Cheung Ka Fai supported OVERHEARD. Ka Fai felt that OVERHEARD in a short period time made the story intense and intriguing, the subject itself was fresh, dramatic yet simple and easy to understand. It is a very authentic Hong Kong film.