[2025.04.23] MICHELLE WAI IS CONFIDENT ABOUT WINNING BEST ACTRESS

Michelle Wai has won six Best Actress awards with THE LAST DANCE and is full of confidence for the Hong Kong Film Awards

Hedwig Tam says that her MONTAGES OF A MODERN MOTHERHOOD role carries the film from beginning to end, which would the advantage at the award race

Patra Au is both happy and surprised to be able to compete for the Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actress. She has already done her best, so the nomination is already like an award to her.

Natalie Hsu expresses that she still has room for improvement, and did not mind being described as an also-ran

Chung Suet Ying won the Golden Horse Award Best Actress last year
courtesy of singtao.com

The 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards Ceremony would be held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on Sunday (the 27th). The Best Actress race has been intense. Winning six Best Actress awards with THE LAST DANCE (POR. DEI YUK), Michelle Wai Sze Nga has been considered the favorite; she has confidence to win the prize, quoting that as her on screen father Michael Hui Koon Man: the most important is to enjoy the scenery along the way. MONTAGES OF A MODERN MOTHERHOOD (FU DUK BUT)'s Hedwig Tam Sin Yin expressed that her role carried the film from beginning to end, showing the character's suffering from taking care of a baby while working after giving birth. Whether she would win the award, it would depend on the voters' taste. ALL SHALL BE WELL (CHUNG GUM YI HAU)'s Patra Au Ga Man has been regarded as a dark horse. She believed that the award was difficult to control, and considered her natural performance as the advantage. The new generation actress Natalie Hsu (Hui Yan Yi) was happy to be nominated for LAST SONG FOR YOU (GAU BIT CHUNG FUNG) and did not mind being an also-ran. THE WAY WE TALK (HONG NGOR GUM TIN JUM MOR SUET)'s Chung Suet Ying last year won the Golden Horse Best Actress award, would she be able to continue further?

With a box office of more than HK$ 160 million in Hong Kong and Macau, THE LAST DANEC received 18 nominations at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards. Lead actress Wai Sze Nga would compete for the Best Actress title as the favorite. Earlier she has been crowned six times with this film, including the Huading Award, the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Golden Flowering Award at the New Era International Film Festival, the Macao International Film Festival, the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild of the Year Award and Chicago's Asian Pop Up Cinema film festival.

Wai Sze Nga admitted that she was confident about winning the Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actress for the first time, but she was not too excited. She agreed with what her on screen father Hui Koon Man said in the film: live in the moment and enjoy every moment; she was also grateful for all the people and events she ran into so far since THE LAST DANCE's release, all of which have been a type of experience. She has received a lot of positive energy. She said, "I don't think I'm the favorite, I don't feel pressure neither. If I win I owe it to the whole team, because the success of a film depends on the whole and not just on individual strength. The role of Kwok Man Yuet is so difficult to grasp, especially her complex inner world; it is very different from my personality and family background. I like to express love, so it is difficult to understand Kwok Man Yuet's feelings in this regard. I have been looking for a long time, 'father' Hui Koon Man and 'brother' (Tommy) Chu Pak Hong have helped me a lot. We are still a family in private." She believed that all the nominees would have equal opportunities, only there have been different discussions in the outside world. They are all good friends. She felt that colleagues should encourage each other, be happy for everyone for encountering a good role, and for their efforts to be seen.

Wai Sze Nga said that THE LAST DANCE has brought her a lot, including awards, work, plus the audience appreciation experience and attending different film festivals. Life has become fulfilling, but time flew quickly. She really wanted to slow down a bit so she could savor every feeling, whether good or bad, happy and lost. She said, "I have been in the industry for 17 years and have never thought about giving up, but I have questioned what I lack; what I haven't done as well as the others to keep directors from casting me. For awhile I was very lost, because I liked acting too much I was able to persist. I hope to have more performance opportunities in the future. Of course I hope to participate in the comedy that Hui Koon Man and (Dayo) Wong Tze Wah have planned to star in. It would be the best to win them over to make READY O/R KNOT 3 (BUT YUT SING FUN 3). I also want to get a taste of the theater stage."

MONTAGES OF A MODERN MOTHERHOOD's Tam Sin Yin felt lucky to be nominated for the Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actress after only 9 years in the industry. THe former model said, "I never thought that I would be an actor. I think it's amazing, I have the opportunity to perform in MONTAGES OF A MODERN MOTHERHOOD and am even nominated. Time and opportunity enabled me to encounter this role of 'Suk Ching', and I was able to master it. The role went from beginning to end, with more performance time; which I could say would be my advantage. The most satisfying were the argument scene Siuyea (Lo hun Yip) and the phone call in the bathroom scene. Although there were only a few lines of dialogue, they were enough to show the character's postpartum state and finding no outlet to release her emotions." She won the Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Critics Awards for MONTAGES, but said that she was not confident of keep the momentum going because many female films have been nominated this year. The roles were three-dimensional and had a lot of room to play. Whether she would win or not, it would depend on the voters' tastes. The entire competition is strong.

Winning the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actress with SUK SUK in 2020, Au Ga Man would compete for the Best Actor Hong Kong Film Award with ALL SHALL BE WELL. She said that she was both happy and surprised, but the award was difficult to control. She has already done her best, the nomination was already an award for me. As for being regarded as a dark horse, she said that did not matter. "Among the opponents, I have only seen Wai Sze Nga's THE LAST DANCE. The other nominees have to act well to be nominated, fortunately my performance is natural enough, unlike acting for the sake of acting. The role of "Wong Chi Ying" when compared to SUK SUK was more difficult to grasp, because there were more scenes and larger emotional ups swings. I often performed to the point of frowning, but the director told me not to frown as much as possible. I knew that the director liked Yasujiro Ozu's way of acting, so I followed this acting method." Switching from the stage to film, Au Ga Man said that she never thought that she would have such good results. She was older, but still had many opportunities to perform. She even had the opportunity to participate in different film festivals to meet different audiences, which has benefited her a lot. She felt that the experience in the past few years has been very fantastic.

Hui Yan Yi debuted 5 years ago was. Nominated for her first role in the Hong Kong film LAST SONG FOR YOU (GAU BIT CHUNG FUNG), she said that it was a great encouragement; but she still had room for improvement, especially in terms of articulation. "I have made two films that both spoke Mandarin in the mainland before. When I returned to work in Hong Kong and speak dialogue in Cantonese, I had to adapt anew. In addition during the filming I was too focused on my own performance that I neglected to communicate with my co-stars. Sometimes the performance was lacking, but I was not brave enough to ask the director for another take. I would like to thank elders Fala Chen and (Karena) Lam Ka Yan for their encouragement." She did not mind being considered an also-ran, feeling that whoever wins would deserve to as all the nominees have performed quite well. She would sincerely be happy for them. "If I didn't know Chung Suet Ying, I really would think that she has worn hearing aids since she was two or three years old. Tam Sin Yin has great control of her emotions and state, and her performance is very daring. Wai Sze Nga uses different ways and levels to express an emotion. Sister Ga Man's performance has an accurate rhythm, which is worth learning from." (Hong Kong Film Awards Preview)