[2014.03.18] TONY LEUNG CHIU WAI AND LEE KANG-SHENG VIE FOR BEST ACTOR IN HOUSE OF DANCING WATER

STRAY DOGS' Lee Kang-Sheng

THE GRANDMASTER's Tony Leung Chiu Wai

THE GRANDMASTER's Zhang Ziyi

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON's Masaharu Fukuyama

ILO ILO

RIGOR MORTIS' Nina Paw (left), Lo Hoi Pang (right)

STRAY DOGS

Donnie Yen
courtesy of on.cc

This year's Asian Film Awards will take place next Thursday (27th) in Macau City of Dreams House of Dancing Water. 14 awards will be presented. The focus fell to Best Actor nominees, THE GRANDMASTER (YUT DOI JUNG SI)'s Tony Leung Chiu Wai and STRAY DOG's Lee Kang-Sheng. Earlier at the 50th Golden Horse Awards and the 56th Asia Pacific Film Festival, Lee Kang-Sheng has already twice defeated Leung Chiu Wai for Best Actor. He was the favorite among the five nominees. Who knows if Wai Jai will be able to win one back from Lee Kang-Sheng.

The Best Actress competition will be rather fierce. Known as a good actress in Hong Kong, Nina Paw Hee Ching with RIGOR MORTIS (GEUNG SI) was nominated, as was Korean Best Actress Han Hyo-Joo who with COLD EYES already won Best Actress twice in Korea at the Blue Dragon Film Award and the Busan Film Award. Japanese nominee Yoko Maki with RAVINE OF GOODBYE earlier won the Japan Academy Awards Best Actress. However the favorite in the end had to be THE GRANDMASTER's Zhang Ziyi, who has already won seven Best Actress awards with the film and would likely win her eighth.

THE GRANDMASTER had the most nominations with 11, Taiwan film STRAY DOGS followed with five.

Actually the films have already battled at many film award shows. THE GRANDMASTER successfully landed Oscar nominations and also won the Hong Kong Film Critic Society Best Film. STRAY DOGS director Tsai Ming-Liang at the 50th Golden Horse Award defeated Wong Kar Wai for Best Director. Other Best Director nominees included the Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Director LIKE FATHER LIKE SON's Hirokazu Koreeda.

In the past seven years, the Asian Film Award was Hong Kong International Film Festival organized. This time the newly formed Asian Film Award Society will organize the event. The standard has been changed as well, as for the first time the Busan International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival will jointly organize the event. With their long histories, the three film festivals will make the 8th Asian Film Awards even more credible than before.

In the past Asian Film Awards have taken place in Hong Kong. This year it will take place in Macau, in City of Dreams' House of Dancing Water. The event even invited famous producer and director Peter Chan Ho Sun to be the jury president to lead 11 jury members to select 14 award winners. The "Strongest in the Universe" Donnie Yen Chi Tan will be a celebrity jury member. Next Thursday he will be an award presenter.