Better Days shines at Hong Kong Film Awards

The 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, hosted by film-maker Derek Yee (above), was beamed via livestream yesterday.
The 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, hosted by film-maker Derek Yee (above), was beamed via livestream yesterday. PHOTO: HONG KONG FILM AWARDS/ YOUTUBE

Coming-of-age film Better Days was the star of the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards yesterday, bagging eight awards after leading with 12 nominations.

It won the Best Film award over family drama Fagara, gay romance drama Suk Suk, poverty melodrama I'm Livin' It and The New King Of Comedy, Stephen Chow's remake of his own 1999 film King Of Comedy.

Better Days' Derek Tsang was also named Best Director, while the film's lead actress Zhou Dongyu picked up the Best Actress award.

Tai Bo was named Best Actor for his role in Suk Suk, while Patra Au bagged the Best Supporting Actress award for the same movie. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Cheung Tat Ming for I'm Livin' It.

This year's awards were hosted by film-maker and Hong Kong Film Awards Association chairman Derek Yee via livestream for the first time in the awards' history, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yee took just 11 minutes to announce the winners on the association's social media platforms.

It was a sweet victory for Tsang's film, which has experienced worse days. It was yanked out of the Berlin film festival in February last year reportedly because of Beijing's unease over the subject matter of bullying, days before it was to be shown.

It also failed to come out as scheduled in June last year in Chinese cinemas, before it was finally rolled out on Oct 25. Many speculated that cuts had been made.

Starring China's Zhou and Jackson Yee, the film tells the story of a teenage girl who teams up with a school dropout to protect her from bullies. It also highlights the pressures of the "gaokao", the examination to get into Chinese universities.

Zhou beat Hong Kong actress-singer Sammi Cheng, who was nominated for two movies, Fagara and Fatal Visit, in the Best Actress category. The 28-year-old actress had won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress jointly with her co-star Sandra Ma in Soul Mate (2016) in the same year.

Incidentally, Soul Mate was also directed by Tsang, 40, who is the son of veteran Hong Kong actor-director Eric Tsang.

China's An Elephant Sitting Still (2018), a bleak social commentary on life in China, was named Best Foreign Film. Its director and writer Hu Bo committed suicide not long after completing the film, which also won Best Film at Taiwan's Golden Horse awards in 2018.


Winners

Best Film: Better Days

Best Director: Derek Tsang (Better Days)

Best Screenplay: Lam Wing Sum, Li Yuan, Xu Yimeng (Better Days)

Best Actor: Tai Bo (Suk Suk)

Best Actress: Zhou Dongyu (Better Days)

Best Supporting Actor: Cheung Tat Ming (I'm Livin' It)

Best Supporting Actress: Patra Au (Suk Suk)

Best New Performer: Jackson Yee (Better Days)

Best Cinematography: Yu Jing Pin (Better Days)

Best Original Film Score: Eman Lam (My Prince Edward)

Best Original Film Song: Fly (Better Days) - composed by Ellen Joyce Loo, lyrics by Loo and Wu Qing Feng, sung by Yoyo Sham

Best New Director: Norris Wong (My Prince Edward)

Best Foreign Film: An Elephant Sitting Still

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 07, 2020, with the headline Better Days shines at Hong Kong Film Awards. Subscribe