Golden Horse Awards: Ethan's Little Buddy, Nicholas Absent Shirt

The Golden Horse Awards were held last night. They're often thought of as the Chinese Oscars because the tradition goes back the furthest and honors a wide pool of Chinese language films from multiple countries (China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, etcetera). Though neither Monga, Taiwan's submission for Oscar's Foreign Language Film competition, nor Aftershock (China's submission), were nominated for Best Picture they both had multiple nominations .

Monga, a popular youth crime drama we've mentioned before, won Best Actor for 28 year old Ethan Ruan (left), who amusingly brought a cardboard cutout of his  co-star who was not nominated. And yes he brought the cutout with him onstage when he won. He said...

Woo! Sorry, I brought my buddy along. [mimicing his co-star] 'Hi everyone. I'm Mark Chao'

...to big laughs from the crowd.

Here's the Best Actor presentation. The clips begin at 2:25 after Li BingBing and Tony Leung Ka Fai (yes, the other Tony Leung) are done with their banter. Oh, awards-show banter... you are truly the universal language.



In case you're wondering about that gayish clip in the reel, that's the Cannes prize winner Spring Fever which is from China but was banned there so it's major release was in Taiwan. It won three awards. You can see the film instantly on Netflix.

But back to Monga... look how surprised Ethan is by his win! Sweet.

Leading Actor Nominees from left to right: Ni Dahong (Judge), Hao Qin
(Spring Fever), Xueqi Wang (Bodyguards and Assassins) and Ethan Ruan.

In his acceptance speech he says that he joined the business with the hopes that he'd win this prize in 20 years time. He didn't have to wait that long. His movie career has barely begun.

Complete list of 2010 Golden Horse Winners

<--- PICTURE When Love Comes 

[Please note: When Love Comes, which had 13 nominations (!) was released after the Oscar submission deadline for Best Foreign Film. It's possible we'll see When Love Comes as Taiwan's Oscar submission in 2011.]

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILM The Fourth Portrait

DIRECTOR Chung Mong-Hong, The Fourth Portrait 

OUTSTANDING TAIWANESE FILMMAKER Lee Lieh, Monga

[Please note: I'm not sure why Taiwan gets extra special treatment but they really cleaned up in the awards since When Love Comes, The Fourth Portrait and Monga are all from Taiwan.]

NEW DIRECTOR Ho Wi Ding, Pinoy Sunday 

ACTOR Ethan Ruan, Monga 

ACTRESS Lu Li-Ping, City Monkey 

SUPPORTING ACTOR Pen-Fon Wu, Seven Days in Heaven

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Lei Hao, The Fourth Portrait 

SCREENPLAY Liu Jie & Gao Shan, Judge 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Essay Liu, Seven Days in Heaven

ART DIRECTION Peng Weimin, When Love Comes

CINEMATOGRAPHY Chang Chan, When Love Comes

EDITING Robin Weng, Jian Zeng, Florence Bresson, Spring Fever

MAKE-UP & COSTUME DESIGN Dora Ng, Bodyguards and Assassins

[Note: How strange is it that these categories are combined?]

VISUAL EFFECTS Yong-Gi Lee, Xiang Yu Nan, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

[Note: As an outsider I'm kind of surprised that the Chinese Oscar submission Aftershock did not win this battle since it's such a mammoth hit overseas.]

FILM SCORE Peyman Yazdanian, Spring Fever

ORIGINAL SONG Summer Lei "Taipei Exhcanges," from Taipei Exchanges

SOUND EFFECTS Duu Chih Tu, Monga

ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY Sammo Hung, Ip Man 2

NEW PERFORMER Chien Na-Lee, Juliets

DOCUMENTARY Hip-Hop Storm

SHORT FILM Magabahai 

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Hsu Li-Kong

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION Sun Yueh

Red Carpet Lineup
Some memorable outfits. You have to go there if you're talking awards shows. It's the law.

To your left is 30 year old star actor Nicholas Tse (nominated for supporting actor for Gods and Assassins) who came to the awards show without a shirt underneath his suit. To your right are the evening's hosts, who know from fashion statements, and didn't let the audience forget he wasn't wearing one.

Left: Lu Li-Ping (City Monkey) who won Best Actress. Apparently the local fashion police were not pleased with her outfit, comparing it unfavorably to seafood (?). I guess I can see the undulating clam motif?; Right: Jingchu Zhang who was nominated for the disaster drama Aftershock.

From left to right:  acclaimed actress Kara Hui (a winner last year at multiple ceremonies for At the End of Daybreak); Sandee Chan (those half gloves always remind me of Lady Gaga now) is a musician and performer who was nominated for composing the score for Monga. TFE reader Tony (who helped me immensely with this posts - thanks!) tells me her score is brilliant; and Chiling Lin who some people called "Best Dressed" for the evening (she's wearingValentino). If she looks familiar to you that's because she was recently the plot-turning obsessively tea-making wife of Tony Leung Chiu Wai in last year's lengthy action epic Red Cliff.

That's all for now. Even if you don't know the films do you like the awards show reportage from far away lands? If you speak Chinese and are more familiar, do you think the deserving players won?
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