'A Simple Life' Scores Big at HK Film Awards

APRIL 16, 2012 - The results of the Hong Kong Film Awards may be sending a message to the HK movie industry to return to the Simple films as opposed to the fantasy wire-fu efforts that seem to saturate its film fare.

As Ann Hui's A Simple Life won all the major prizes at the awards ceremony on Sunday night, it signals a return to the basics where a good script and good acting are all that really matter.

Tsui Hark's 3-D martial arts extravaganza Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate collected an equal number of prizes, but in more technical categories.

A Simple Life, the story of the relationship between a middle-aged film director and his aging domestic servant, won Best Film, earned Ann Hui the Best Director award, collected the Best Screenplay tag for Susan Chan and helped Deanie Ip and Andy Lau take home the two top acting prizes.

Flying Swords collected statuettes for Best Action Choreography, Art Directing, Editing, Visual Effects and Sound Effects.

A Simple Life started with an outing at the Venice film festival in September and has collected prizes ever since, notably for Hui and Ip, who had been absent from the screen for 10 years. The film also represented a nostalgic reunion for Ip and Lau who have been regularly paired in Hong Kong movies.

That nostalgia may have permeated the atmosphere at the awards, which contained many speeches pointing out the current difficulties of the once dominating Hong Kong industry.


Here's a list of the winners:

Best film: A Simple Life

Best director: Ann Hui, A Simple Life

Best actress: Deanie Ip, A Simple Life

Best actor: Andy Lau, A Simple Life

Best supporting actress: So Hang-shuen, Life Without Principle

Best supporting actor: Lo Hoi-pang, Life Without Principle

Best newcomer: Jam Hsiao, The Killer who Never Kills

Best new Director: Tsang Tsui-shan, Big Blue Lake

Best action Choreography: Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate

Best art Direction: Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate

Best cinematography: Jake Pollock, Wu Xia

Best costume design: Let the Bullets Fly

Best editing: Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate

Best original score: Wu Xia

Best original film song: Hi, Fidelity

Best visual effects: Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate

Best sound effects: Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate

Best screenplay: Susan Chan, A Simple Life

Best film from mainland China and Taiwan: You Are The Apple of My Eye

Lifetime achievement award: Ngai Hong (novelist and scriptwriter)

Professional achievement award: Fong Ho-yuen (photographer).