Note: Asia in Cinema will hold its annual Golden Horse Awards Live Blog on Saturday, November 25th starting at 7pm Taiwan time (GMT+8).
See the full list of nominees here
I’m not exactly a film festival nomad, but Taipei’s Golden Horse Film Festival is one of my favorite film festivals in the world for quite simple reasons: Good films, easy ticketing, good venues, and excellent audiences. It’s been a joy to be back for the first time in four years and to see filmgoers back in full force this year.
However, ask a few people who work in the Taiwanese film industry, and you will hear the consensus that it has been another very weak year for Taiwanese films. It has been a weak year for theatrical releases all across Asia, but things are notably worse in Taiwan. Commercially, only Marry My Dead Body was a bona-fide commercial success. Even the usually reliable Giddens Ko couldn’t get people to see Miss Shampoo, despite being in the romantic comedy genre that he found incredible success in.
The weakness in quality is also reflected in this year’s Golden Horse nominations. The committee made the right decision to not give Hwarng Wern-ying’s disappointing Be With Me a single nomination, despite having a cast and crew that scream “Golden Horse”. Having seen both films, I can also say Busan selection A Boy and a Girl andChen Hung-I’s Fish Memories also got mostly left out of the race for good reason. Even most Taiwanese films with multiple nominations (such as Trouble Girl and Old Fox) were left out of major creative nominations.
Quite a few Hong Kong films also were submitted for consideration (though as it has been the case for the past several years, the Mainland-Hong Kong co-productions sat out of the race in fear of angering Mainland authorities), but only one of its leading nominees – Time Turns Still the Pages – got nominated for Best Film. In Broad Daylight, Fly Me to the Moon and The Lyricist Wannabe were recognized in other categories.
Instead, the highlight of this year’s Golden Horse race is the emergence of Southeast Asian Chinese-language cinema, particularly two Taiwan-involved Malaysian productions. As Golden Horse head honcho Wen Tien-hsiang pointed out at the nomination announcement, the awards received a record 60-plus submissions from Singapore and Malaysia.
In fact, the nomination leader with nine nominations is Chong Keat An’s Snow in Midsummer, which had its premiere in Venice Days this year. Co-produced by Malaysia’s SunStrong as well as Taiwan’s Swallow Wings and government agency TAICCA, among others, the film is a sensitive portrayal of the infamous 513 incident in 1969 and its reverberating effect decades later. Despite the negative word-of-mouth among Taiwan Letterboxd users, I think the film’s artistry and emotional core will get through to Ang Lee’s jury. But the film may fall short without a Malaysian member in the jury who can give proper context to the film’s local references.
The other major Malaysian nominee is Jin Ong’s Abang Adik, which got snubbed for Best Film despite its many accolades on the festival circuit. Set in the Kuala Lumpur area of Pudu, the film follows two brothers living without legal residency as they fight for survival. Its biggest chance at a major award lies in Taiwanese star Wu Kang-ren, who easily compensates for the script’s flaws with a career-best performance as the deaf Abang.
Also worth noting is the inclusion of The Pig, The Snake and The Pigeon’sWong Ching-po and The Lyricist Wannabe’s Norris Wong, who are among the many Hong Kong film professionals who have emigrated to Taiwan in recent years (though I hear that Wong Ching-po actually emigrated even before the wave began in 2020). Though Lyricist is mostly made in Hong Kong for a Cantonese audience, Norris Wong has at least two other Taiwanese projects out there at the moment, and it will be interesting to see what other emigrated Hong Kong filmmakers do in Taiwan on the heels of these two films.
Those who follow the Golden Horse know why there’s been a notable absence of films from Mainland China since 2019 (Director Fu Yue, by the way, still hasn’t released a film since 2018). Though a very, very small number indie productions have snuck through the past few years, this year marks the largest presence of Mainland Chinese films since the beginning of “the dark period”, though they are all independent productions. In addition to non-mainstream films Youth (Spring) and Stonewalling (the former is technically a European production and the latter is labeled as a Japanese production), there are also This Woman, Carp Leaping Over Dragon’s Gate and The Mountain is Coming among this year’s nominations. Though there are rumors brewing over Mountain director Sun Jie’s sudden absence at the festival’s official activities despite being present in Taiwan, the return of Mainland Chinese films this year does make one wonder whether the waters are slowly being tested to see if a return is possible. As i have stated for the past few years, art house Chinese films truly need accolades like Golden Horse to get attention.
Despite another mixed bag of films, there’s no denying that after 60 years of ups and downs, the Golden Horse remains a gold standard for the Chinese-speaking film industry that no other film award in the region has matched (sorry, Hong Kong Film Awards). This is why I keep doing this, and I’m very excited to follow it along with you for another year.
See you guys on Saturday night.
Asia in Cinema 