Asian Film Awards - 2007 Winners
by Andre Soares
"It’s almost strange that it’s the first ceremony," remarked French director Luc Besson at the 1st Asian Film Awards presentation held this evening at Hong Kong’s Convention and Exhibition Centre, as part of the 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival which kicked off last night.
"Good films come from everywhere," added Besson. "Artists are like mushrooms, a little sun, a little water and they grow, they don’t need passports, visas to create."
The South Korean sci-fi-horror, political suspense thriller, and comedy-drama (yup, it’s all that) Gwoemul / The Host came out as the big winner of the evening, with a total of four awards: best film, best actor (Song Kang-ho, left, as the film’s ditzy blond), best cinematographer (Kim Hyung-goo), and best visual effects (The Orphanage).
Directed by Bong Joon-ho, who somehow failed to get a nomination, The Host tells the story of a Seoul family whose life is turned upside down when a human-eating mutant creature flees with their little girl to one of the city’s many sewers.
Dripping with anti-American sentiment — the insatiable creature is the result of an American scientist’s disregard for the local environment, while the ensuing hysteria is the result of the American government and military’s ineptitude — and with utter contempt for South Korean authorities — who are portrayed as imbecile vassals to the Americans, The Host is a subversive action thriller — peppered with humor and drama — that is reminiscent of the Hollywood and Japanese sci-fi-cum-horror movies (Them!, Gojira / Godzilla) of the 1950s.
The Host is "not only about anti-Americanism but about problems in Korea," said executive producer Choi Yong-bae. "For example, asking for help from the police who don’t return any help." The Host, by the way, has become the biggest box-office hit in Korean history.
The Asian Film Award film award for best director went to Jia Zhangke (above, top) for the Chinese production Sanxia Haoren / Still Life (above), about the social impact of the Three Gorges Dam on a small Sichuan town. Still Life was the surprise Golden Lion winner at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
Japanese performer Miki Nakatani was chosen best actress for her portrayal of a woman with a turbulent history — from school teacher to Yakuza moll to demented bag lady — in Tetsuya Nakashima’s Kiraware Matsuko no isshô / Memories of Matsuko, described by Variety’s Russell Edwards as a "musical parody of Japanese melodramas about fallen women."
The best screenplay award went to writer-director Mani Haghighi for the Iranian comedy-drama Kargaran mashghoole karand / Men at Work, inspired by an original story by Abbas Kiarostami. Men at Work revolves around four men determined to make a protruding rock roll down a mountainside. The rock, however, won’t budge.
Other winners were composer Rahayu Supanggah for Garin Nugroho’s Austrian-Indonesian musical Opera Jawa; editor Lee Chatametikool for Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Thai-Austrian-French drama Sang sattawat / Syndromes and a Century; and production designer Tim Yip for Feng Xiaogang’s Hong Kong-Chinese epic Ye yan / The Banquet.
An honorary award for "outstanding contribution to Asian cinema" was given to Hong Kong screen veteran Josephine Siao (aka Josephine Siao Fong-fong), while U.S. film academic David Bordwell, who has written on Hong Kong cinema and has helped save prints of Chinese films, received the award for "excellence in scholarship in Asian cinema". (Bordwell’s Hong Kong diary can be found here.)
"I really don’t think I deserve this honor," said Siao, who turned 60 last March 13, upon receiving her award from Luc Besson. "There are so many wonderful filmmakers, actors and actresses who deserve this much more than I do, but this is such a marvelous gift for my 60th birthday that I must zap it home as quickly as I can before the organizers change their mind." The actress then performed a little magic trick — of the sort she used to do in her films in her days as a child star — to send her statuette home.
Siao, who is reportedly deaf, has avoided public appearances. Her last film was Kei Shu’s enjoyable comedy-drama Hu Du Men / Stage Door, released in 1996.
Though the Asian Film Award ceremony is clearly modeled after the Oscars — among the presenters were stars Michelle Yeoh, Johnnie To, and Maggie Q — the winners are not chosen by members of an Asian Film Academy. Instead, a jury comprised of 17 film industry professionals, festival organizers, and critics picked this year’s winners.
"If you look at the world today, it’s mainly dominated by the Oscars in the U.S. and other film festivals in Europe," said Hong Kong Film Festival chairman Wilfred Wong. "We are definitely following in the footsteps of what the Oscars [are] doing."
The Hong Kong festival, which runs until April 11, will screen approximately 300 films, including 16 world premieres. The festival’s opening gala presentations were Yau Nai-hoi’s Gun chung / Eye in the Sky, starring Tony Leung Ka-fai and Simon Yam, and Berlinale contender Saibogujiman kwenchana / I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK, directed by Park Chan-wook, and starring Lim Su-jeong and pop singer Rain.
2007 Asian Film Award winners and nominees
Josephine Siao quote: Monsters & Critics
PUNAM (2006) by Lucian Muntean: Film Review
I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (2007) by Chris Rock: Film Review
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Hitmen Indonesia would like to congratulate Indonesian composer Rahayu Supanggah for his award for Garin Nugroho’s Austrian-Indonesian musical Opera Jawa, and his work toward the recognition of the Indonesian music. Unfortunately, the Indonesian medias didn’t cover the event as much as it should have been, considering the importance of such an award for the Indonesian music community.
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