[2012.11.29] LAU CHING WAN FACES TONY LEUNG KA FAI AND LEE BYUNG-HUN AT THE ASIA PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL

courtesy of on.cc

courtesy of singtao.com

Lau Ching Wan (LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE)

Tony Leung Ka Fai (COLD WAR)

Lee Byung-Hun (MASQUERADE)

Kwai Lun-Mei (GF*BF)

Lim Soo-Jung (ALL ABOUT MY WIFE)

courtesy of mingpao.com

The 55th Asia Pacific Film Festival will take place on December 15 in Macau. Yesterday nominations of the 14 categories were announced. The fresh out of the oven Golden Horse Best Actor Lau Ching Wan and Best Actress Kwai Lun-Mei were nominated as favorites. Ching Wan will again battle Joseph Chang Hau Cheun, other competitors will also include Tony Leung Ka Fai, Lee Byung-Hun; Kwai Lun_Mei will face Lim Soo-Jung, and Song Jia. Leung Ka Fai's COLD WAR (HONG JING) co-star Aaron Kwok Fu Sing did not receive a nomination.

Planning committee executive chairman Eric Tsang Chi Wai and jury member Carina Lau Ka Ling yesterday attended the Macau press conference to announce the nominees. LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (DUET MING GUM) and GF*BF each received 4 nominations.

COLD WAR and THE SILENT WAR (TING FUNG JEH) each received two nominations. Ching Wan just won the Golden Horse Award, this time aside from Joseph Chang COLD WAR's Leung Ka Fai, MASQUERADE's Lee Byung-Hun and others joined the fray; Kwai Lun-Mei's opponents included ALL ABOUT MY WIFE's Lim Soo-Jung and FALLING FLOWERS' Song Jia.

For Best Supporting Actor, Lo Hoi Pang with LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE faced KEY OF LIFE's Teruyuki Kagawa and Mainland's Fan Wei; Best Supporting Actress nominees included THE WEDDING DIARY's Wai Ying Hung, LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE's Denise Ho Wan Si and THE THIEVES' Gianna Jun Ji-Hyun.

Lau Ka Ling served on a jury for the first time, Chi Wai joked that Ka Ling thought about it for a long time and almost had to see a psychiatrist before agreeing. Ka Ling explained that she was afraid she would not be unable to live up to the post. Now she would try her best to be fair. Being on the jury was a great honor and the duty was very difficult, but being able to learn about different cultures and ideas from movies around the world, she definitely will be benefited a lot.

Chi Wai felt that this time was between Ching Wan and Leung Ka Fai. As for Kwok Fu Sing not being nominated for COLD WAR, he said that he would have to ask the jury. "Maybe the jury hasn't seen Sing Sing dance. If they saw Sing Sing's turn from a singer to an actor to an actor of substance, I believe the jury would increase the score because it was very rare."

Ka Ling disagreed with Chi Wai as the category had other actor of substance like Lee Byung-Hun. She said that Ching Wan just won the Golden Horse best Actor but would not have any edge. She would not play favorites either. When she watched COLD WAR, Ka Fai's performance made her hair stand on its ends. It was great and his acting took another step forward.

Speaking of her husband Tony Leung Chiu Wai's THE GRANDMASTERS (YUT DOI JUNG SI) being postponed to a January release, she said that Wai Jai's production has entered its final stages. Everyone understood that director Wong Kar Wai might still make changes at the last second in order to be perfect; for example at the Cannes Film Festival, often actors arrived before the film. It was Wong Kar Wai's style that Wai Jai was very used to so he did not complain at all.