23:17 – And that’s it for me here in Taipei. It’s time for a drink.

Thanks for reading along tonight, and see you all in April for the Hong Kong Film Awards!

23:15 – And that’s the end of a very tumultuous year for the Golden Horse Awards.

Four more films at the festival’s last day tomorrow and I’m going back to Hong Kong. As always, the festival has been fantastic, and even the show went very smoothly this year.

23:14 – Yeh Jufeng adds that she wishes even as the awards go through darkness, she wishes the sun will eventually shine on everyone. She also adds a plead to cinemas to give more screens to the film here in Taiwan.

23:12 – This is the first Best Film win for Chung Mong-hong. Deservedly so – this is Chung’s best film yet by far.

23:10 – And the award for Best Film goes to: A SUN, for a total of five awards!

Final count: Five each for DETENTION and A SUN, two apiece for A LAND IMAGINED and THE SCOUNDRELS, and one apiece for WET SEASON, NINA WU, GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS, WE ARE CHAMPIONS and THE TEACHER.

23:07 – Ang Lee takes the stage again to present Best Film, just as he did last year. Lee is the Chairman of the Golden Horse Committee.

Lee thanks the jury and asks the members to stand up, as per tradition. Then he invites Wang Toon, the jury president, to the stage.

Last year, Gong Li refused to take the stage after “that” moment.

I think Lee’s two-year term is up, so the question is whether he’ll say next year.

23:04 – I know that this year’s blog isn’t getting as much read or interest out there because people haven’t heard of the films, but many of these nominees are really worth seeking out.

23:02 – Final commercial break now as Best Film is coming up next. We’re gonna wrap up early tonight!

23:00 – Yeo gives a heartfelt thanks to everyone she’s ever worked with.

22:56 – And the Best Actress Award goes to: Yeo Yann Yann for WET SEASON, the film’s first award of the night.

Yeo previously won Best Supporting Actress for Anthony Chen’s ILO ILO.

Actually, even without the China ban, Yeo had a good chance of winning.

22:54 – Hsieh Ying-Shiuan, last year’s Best Actress winner for DEAR EX, now on the stage to present Best Actress.

22:53 – Keeping count: Five for DETENTION, four for A SUN, two apiece for A LAND IMAGINED and THE SCOUNDRELS, and one apiece for NINA WU, GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS, WE ARE CHAMPIONS and THE TEACHER.

22:48 – After the commercial break is the toughest category of the night: Best Actress.

22:44: And the Best Actor award goes to: Chen Yi-wen for A SUN, its fourth award of the night.

22:42 – Sylvia Chang finally makes her first appearance of the night to huge cheers. Chang ain’t afraid of no boycott.

Chang says that she can’t see the script she was given, so she just says that it’s her honor to present the Best Actor award.

Five nominees, three films. I worked on two of them. I’m not predicting this.

22:38 – Wang Toon’s Lifetime Achievement Award video and the In Memoriam video are up on Youtube now.

22:36 – Up next is Best Actor after the commercial break.

22:35 – Chung: “I kept mumbling ‘please don’t say my name, don’t say my name’ because then they’ll say my name. I recommend you all try this method.”

22:34 – And the Best Director award goes to: Chung Mong-hong for A SUN!!!! Third award for the film and Chung’s second win after THE FOURTH PORTRAIT.

22:33 – Interesting that two of the Best Director nominees are not nominated for Best Film. Let’s see what happens.

22:31 – Lee says her lines and awkwardly stops before Kore-eda starts his lines. Nagase is shown nodding along on camera from his seat.

22:30 – Hirokazu Kore-eda and Angelica Lee on the stage now to present Best Director.

Lee: “No matter whether you win or not, Tom Lin, you’re the greatest.” Lin was Lee’s director on GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS.

22:25 – All the technical awards are out of the way and we’re into the “one award per commercial break” territory. Best Director coming up next.

22:22 – Wei Te-sheng also introduces the In Memoriam sequence.

22:21 – Winner Teo Wei-yong says the award will pay for his rent for the next few years.

Keeping count: Five for DETENTION, two apiece for A SUN, A LAND IMAGINED and THE SCOUNDRELS. One apiece for NINA WU, GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS, WE ARE CHAMPIONS and THE TEACHER.

22:20 – And the award for Best Original Score goes to: A LAND IMAGINED for its second award of the night.

22:19 – Up next is Best Original Score. Will DETENTION take number 6 here?

22:18 – A clip of the winning song in case you wanted to take a listen.

22:15 – It’s practically a lock that DETENTION will win the most awards tonight, but its only two major awards for it are Best Actress (won’t win) and Best Film (probably won’t win).

Winning composer Lu Luming. dedicates the song to the protesters in Hong Kong to HUGE cheers.

The song’s name is THE DAY AFTER RAIN, by the way.

22:14 – And the award for Best Original Song goes to: DETENTION for its fifth award of the night!

22:12 – Director Wei Te-sheng on the stage now to present the music awards.

Wei says that this is the 14th year for the Best Original Song category.

22:08 – Time for the music awards. Starting with a montage of past Best Original Song winners.

22:05 – Commercial break. Up next are the music awards.

22:02 – Wang has been working in the film industry for 55 years.

Wang thanks his family. He appreciates that a military family like his was open-minded enough to let him go into the arts.

Wang also thanks director Li Hsing for being his mentor. He recalls his time at CMP, which was home to many of the veterans still working in the industry today.

22:01 – Hour four begins as Wang Toon accepts his Lifetime Achievement Award. Huge standing ovation for the man.

21:58 – Two of Wang’s films have won Best Film at Golden Horse: IF I WERE FOR REAL (1981) and THE HILL OF NO RETURN (1992). The former was actually banned in Hong Kong because it depicted life in China after the Cultural Revolution.

Wang was also the head of the Central Motion Pictures studio at one time.

21:54 – Wang Toon and Hou Hsiao-hsien are sitting by Ang Lee. Lee seems a lot more comfortable.

21:53 – Wang Toon was announced as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient early on. He took the Jury President job later on after Johnnie To dropped out.

21:52 – The two stars of HILL OF NO RETURN – Yang Gwei-mei and Peng Chia-chia – on the stage to present the Lifetime Achievement award to director Wang Toon.

I’m watching his HILL OF NO RETURN tomorrow.

21:50 – Keeping count: Four for DETENTION, two apiece for A SUN and THE SCOUNDRELS. One apiece for NINA WU, GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS, WE ARE CHAMPIONS, THE TEACHER and A LAND IMAGINED.

It’s very likely now DETENTION will win the most awards tonight.

21:49 – And the award for Best Art Direction goes to: DETENTION for this fourth award of the night.

21:47 – Next award is Best Art Direction. I think GARDEN has a good chance for this award as well.

21:41 – And the award for Best Makeup and Costume Design goes to: GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS for its first award of the night. Two of the four winners are on stage.

(Sorry I just missed a small portion of the show)

21:35 – Sandee Chan now performing her theme song from NINA WU.

21:34 – The Jimmy Wang Yu Lifetime Achievement video is already online.

21:31 – Art Direction, Wardrobe and the other Lifetime Achievement Award coming up after the break.

21:30 – And the award for Best Documentary goes to: Tsai Ming-liang’s YOUR FACE.

Tsai did not come to accept his award, which is no surprise. His producer accepts on his behalf and reads a speech from him.

21:28 – Now it’s really time for Best Documentary. Lee talks about how he built his experience making documentaries and says they’re really important.

21:26 – Lee accidentally says that they’re presenting Best Documentary. Take 2

And the Best New Director award goes to: John Hsu for DETENTION, as expected. That’s three for DETENTION.

21:24 – I worked on the subtitles for nominee MY PRINCE EDWARD, so I’m not calling this race.

21:21 – Time for Best New Director. Previous winner Wong Chun is one of the jury members tonight.

Best Supporting Actress nominee Wen Chen-ling is introducing the award and the three presenters: Liao Ching-song, Tu Du-Chih and Lee Ping-bin. Tu reminds the nominees that they’ll only get one chance at this award.

21:20 – Current award count: Two apiece for A SUN, THE SCOUNDRELS and DETENTION. One apiece for NINA WU, WE ARE CHAMPIONS, THE TEACHER and A LAND IMAGINED.

21:17 – Commercial break. Up next are Best New Director and Best Documentary. I guess the other Lifetime Achievement award comes later.

21:15 – Read on Wikipedia about what happened after Wang suffered a stroke: “He admitted to even driving to his physical therapy session with the use of only the one arm, but explained that his daughter put a stop to that when she found out and had hired him a driver.” No citation to that claim, though.

Wang’s younger daughter says that Wang battled a difficult illness eight months ago and thanks his caretakers.

21:13 – Two of Wang’s daughters accept the award on Wang’s behalf. Daughter Linda Wang says that her father is too ill to come and receive the award himself.

21:07 – Ang Lee now takes the stage to huge cheers. He’s presenting Best Film later, but he’s first here to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Jimmy Wang Yu.

Lee says that he loved Wang’s wuxia films when he was a child.

21:06 – The award for Best Action Choreography goes to: THE SCOUNDRELS for its second award of the night. This was well-deserved.

Winner Hung Shih-hao was also nominated for WE ARE CHAMPIONS.

21:05 – Winner Lin Hsiu-hsiung gives a special shout-out to the Golden Horse Committee for all their hard work.

Wu now presenting Best Action Choreography.

21:03 – Keeping count? Two apiece for A SUN and DETENTION. One apiece for NINA WU, WE ARE CHAMPIONS, THE SCOUNDRELS and A LAND IMAGINED.

21:02 – And the award for Best Film Editing goes to: A SUN for its second award of the night.

21:00 – Wu Kang-ren on the stage now to present. His speech mentions the diverse genre of films in the nomination list tonight.

Wu first present Best Film Editing.

20:58 – Coming up on hour three – Best Editing and Best Visual Effects coming up, plus the Lifetime Achievement Awards for Wang Toon and Jimmy Wang Yu.

20:56 – Chang jokes that many of her scenes in the film were cut. She’s still one of the best things in the film.

20:52 – This is a very tough category, like Best Actress, so I’m not calling it.

By the way, I saw Winnie Chang at the Q&A for THE TEACHER and she is an awesome person.

The award for Best Supporting Actress goes to: Winnie Chang for THE TEACHER.

The very pregnant Chang was last nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best New Performer for 7 DAYS IN HEAVEN.

20:51 – Nagase and Boya stay on stage to present Best Supporting Actress.

Boya’s attempts to speak Japanese are pretty funny. Nagase’s Mandarin is better.

20:48 – The award for Best Adapted Screenplay goes to: DETENTION. So does that mean it’s almost definitely not winning Best Film?

That’s the second award for DETENTION, after winning Best Visual Effects earlier. The horror film is based on the popular computer game.

20:47 – There are only three nominees, but I’d say chances for GARDEN OF EVENING MIST is pretty good.

20:45 – Masatoshi Nagase and Umin Boya on the stage now to present. Umin Boya directed Nagase in KANO.

Boya asks Nagase about his experience as a jury member. Nagase says that he saw 39 films, but he’s honored to be here.

The two are first presenting Best Adapted Screenplay.

20:40 – A short montage of nominees now playing. The nominees talk about the people they want to apologize to.

Most of them say their families for neglecting them while making films.

20:35 – Summer Lei now performing her nominated theme song from DETENTION now. Sandee Chan will also perform her nominated song from NINA WU later, but Stephy Tang and A-Lin will not be performing their nominated songs tonight.

20:32 – Speaking of Golden Horse goodies, I got myself a Golden Horse thermos this year. It’s a real beauty.

20:27 – Halfway through hour two. Next up are Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress.

20:24 – In case anyone’s keeping count, it’s one apiece for NINA WU, A SUN, WE ARE CHAMPIONS, DETENTION, THE SCOUNDRELS and A LAND IMAGINED so far.

One of the winners said co-winner Li Danfeng couldn’t make it tonight (he’s from Mainland China) and didn’t go any further.

20:23 – And the award for Best Sound Effects goes to: NINA WU. That dumpling boiling sound was pretty memorable, I suppose.

20:22 – Time for Best Sound Effects. Tang is nominated for DETENTION this year.

20:21 – By the way, nominees for Best Director, Best New Director, the four acting awards and Best New Performer usually get the cooker. Not sure about this year.

20:19 – Tang thanks his two children for giving him motivation for making money.

20:16 – There are still two Lifetime Achievement Awards coming up later.

Tang is on stage in a green jacket that he says he’s been wearing since he started his career. It’s too worn out now, he insists on wearing it to accept the prize.

20:15 – Tang says in the video that winning a Golden Horse doesn’t help his income, but he does want a Golden Horse cooker (this is a real thing that winners get).

Tang has won two Golden Horse awards for Best Sound – for THE MOST DISTANT COURSE and SEEDIQ BALE. He also won the Best Documentary Award for HOW HIGH IS THE MOUNTAIN.

I wonder if he’ll get that cooker.

20:11 – Li says that Tang is also a counselor to all the young people on sets.

Li and Yeh wrap up their intros and move on to the introduction video.

20:08 – Li Lieh and Yeh Jufeng on the stage now to present the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker Award.

Of course, Tang is a disciple of Tu Du-Chih, who still does the sound of many, many Chinese films every year.

Both Li and Yeh have worked with Tang before, both as producers.

20:04 – This year’s Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year goes to Tang Shiang-Chu, a sound recordist and a documentary filmmaker. He directed the SEEDIQ BALE spin-off documentary PUSU QHUNI.

20:01 – Liu drops an ad for a new show by his mentor in his acceptance speech. That’s pretty great.

He thanks his mother as his voice trembles. His mom is crying in the audience.

Time for commercial break. next up is the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the year award.

19:59 – That clip from WET SEASON is kind of a spoiler, yo.

And the Best Supporting Actor award goes to: Liu Kuan-ting for A SUN!

This is Liu’s first nomination and win. And that’s 1 for 11 for A SUN, after losing out on Cinematography and Original Screenplay.

19:56 – Ding and Yeo stay on the stage to present Best Supporting Actor. Yeo’s two co-stars from WET SEASON are nominated in this category tonight.

19:54 – And the Best Original Screenplay goes to: A LAND IMAGINED. I seriously did NOT expect that one.

A LAND IMAGINED won the Golden Leopard at last year’s Locarno Film Festival and actually played at the Golden Horse Festival last year. It’s probably eligible because it wasn’t released in Singapore until February this year.

19:52 – Yeo is so nervous that she can’t tilt forward to the microphone.

Yeo mentions inclusion. Ding mentions diversity. Take two drinks.

They’re first presenting Best Original Screenplay.

19:51 – Ding Ning and nominee Yeo Yann Yann on the stage now to present.

19:50 – a quick clip of the awards banquet last night. A SUN won the Audience Award and HEAVY CRAVING won the FIPRESCI prize.

19:44 – Lin Sheng-xiang now on stage performing his nominated theme song for A SUN.

Lin won Best Original Song AND Best Original Film Score back in 2017 for THE GREAT BUDDHA+, produced by, you guessed it, Chung Mong-hong.

Surprisingly, Lin is NOT nominated for his score on A SUN tonight. I would’ve pegged it as the favorite.

19:43 – I’ve watched this Golden Horse Film Festival trailer about 28 times now (it plays before every screening), and I still love it.

19:42 – The opening nominees’ montage has already been uploaded on Youtube.

19:38 – There’s no Best Animation category this year as there weren’t enough submissions. As I mentioned in the preview entry, this happens more often than you’d think, and it’s almost certain that Mainland China was going to dominate this category.

Commercial break 2 – Script and Supporting Actor coming up.

19:37 – Wang makes a quick reference to Hong Kong, saying that he’s saddened by the current situation.

19:35 – And the Best Animated Short Film goes to: GOLD FISH by Fish Wang.

19:34 – Ko is also presenting Best Animated Short Film.

19:33 – And Best Live Action Short Film goes to: 3 GENERATIONS 3 DAYS by Chu Hoi-ying. It’s a Hong Kong film that won the top prize at this year’s Fresh Wave Short Film Festival. Chu is also part of this year’s Golden Horse Academy.

Chu also went to the same film school as me.

19:30 – Ko stays on stage to present Best Live Action Short Film. I didn’t see any of them, but there are two Hong Kong nominees here.

19:28 – WE ARE CHAMPIONS is nominated for 6 awards tonight, but the biggest award it’s nominated for is Best Supporting Actor. This is a solid sports film worth seeing.

19:27 – And the winner of Best New Performer is: Fandy Fan for WE ARE CHAMPIONS.

He plays the older brother in the basketball film. It sounds like he has a lot of fans.

19:24 – And we’re back. Alice Ko on stage by herself to present Best New Performer.

Ko introduces each nominee herself and asks them to greet the audience.

I personally like Tsai Jia-yin for HEAVY CRAVING, but this is a tough competition.

19:22 – a Fubon Bank commercial! Their ads are a staple at the Taipei and Golden Horse Film Festivals (as in I watch them 20-30 times before screenings every year). The bank sponsored an ad for the new directors forum at the festival this year instead, so it’s good to see a Fubon ad on TV.

19:20 – Side note: I’m tickled that the opening nominees’ montage included Li Lieh’s “All those movies must’ve wrecked your brain” line from SYNAPSES.

First commercial break. Time to eat my bento.

19:18 – DETENTION has the most nominations tonight with 12. That’s 1 for 12 so far.

19:17 – And the Best Visual Effects award goes to: DETENTION, as expected.

19:16 – Na Dou and Chen staying to present Best Visual Effects. My bet is on DETENTION.

Actually, SYNAPSES’s visual effects are impressive once you find out where the visual effects are in the film.

19:15 – THE SCOUNDRELS is also nominated for Best New Director tonight. Check out the action sequences in this one.

19:14 – And the award for Best Cinematography goes to: CHEN Ko-chin and CHEN Chih-hsuan for THE SCOUNDRELS. That’s actually a surprise!

19:13 – Na Dou and Bamboo Chen talk about Chung Mong-hong’s A SUN. They’re not in the film, but they’ve worked multiple times with Chung. Na Dou even accepted an award on Chung’s behalf once.

They’re first presenting Best Cinematography.

19:12 – Na Dou and Bamboo Chen on the stage now to present.

188 films were submitted this year, but they didn’t say how many of them are features.

19:10 – Taiwanese directors and other film figures have provided their voices for tonight’s nomination reels. The list includes Ang Lee, Sylvia Chang, Wang Toon, Lee Ping-bin, etc etc.

19:08 – And the Golden Horse is following the Oscars this year by having no host. Will we be able to wrap up before 11:30 tonight?

And now the opening montage of nominees.

19:07 – Expect lots of talk about freedom of expression and inclusion at the Golden Horse tonight while Mainland China holds its own film party with the Golden Rooster Award in Xiamen, right across the strait from Taiwan.

19:04 – The committee is definitely defying the China ban this year with a TAIWANESE CINEMA tribute as its opening. The songs are all in Taiwanese dialect.

19:02 – And the show is officially starting!

We kick off with a musical performance paying tribute to classic Taiwanese films. There’s no tag, so I have no idea who some of these people are.

19:00 – Wang Toon and Nagase get the interview slot, but neither have much to say.

18:59 – The jury is now on the red carpet, so we know the show’s definitely about to start. Look below for the link to the list of jury members.

18:56 – Hirokazu Kore-eda on the red carpet by himself. He gave a masterclass at the festival and will present Best Director tonight.

18:54 – Ding Ning, who won Best Supporting Actress last year for CITIES OF LAST THINGS, is here dressed as Maleficent as some kind of symbol for inclusion or something. That’s what she said.

18:50 – Ten minutes to go as the GARDEN OF EVENING MIST team walks down the red carpet. One notable absence: Sylvia Chang, who said that she withdrew herself from the Best Supporting Actress because she’s been nominated too many times and wanted to give young people a chance. The film has 9 nominations, the third most out of all the nominees.

Angelica Lee gets her own time on the red carpet. She’s nominated for Best Actress and she’s presenting two awards tonight.

18:46 – The awards jury was finally announced today. Led by director Wang Toon (taking over from Johnnie To), the jury includes two Hongkongers: film critic Fung Ka-ming and MAD WORLD director Wong Chun. Also includes Japanese star Masatoshi Nagase.

18:41 – Welcome to our 2019 Golden Horse Live Blog! We’ve got our convenience store bento box, maccha latte and Dorito’s chips here watching the red carpet.

Like last year, we’re in Taiwan watching the show live on TTV. If you’d like to see the show and you’re outside of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia and Brunei, you can watch the Golden Horse Awards live on Youtube.

You know how it goes – Just keep updating the page to see the latest update on top.