Jacky Cheung, In the Mood for Love, every film which wasn’t Project Gutenberg released in 2019… the Hong Kong Film Award’s biggest snubs
Wong Kar-wai’s period classic In the Mood for Love lost out to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning wuxia epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Johnnie To was passed over for Ann Hui – twice – and no nominated film was less deserving than Felix Chong’s star-driven counterfeiting caper Project Gutenberg
The list of nominees for the the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) presentation ceremony – which took place virtually on Wednesday, May 6 – was one of the strongest in recent years. Stephen Chow’s The New King of Comedy, Ray Yeung’s gay romance Suk Suk, the Aaron Kwok-led I’m Livin’ It and Derek Tsang’s coming-of-age movie Better Days were some of the high profile movies in the mix for major awards.
Thankfully, in 2020 the Hong Kong Film Awards Association seem to have selected the most worthy films, but that has not been the case every year. There have also been some head-scratching omissions or baffling winners. Here are seven of the most shocking Hong Kong Film Award snubs over the years.
1985: Long Arm of the Law (best film)
Director Johnny Mak’s crime flick is now regarded as a Hong Kong classic, the film which kick-started the “heroic bloodshed” era and paved the way for John Woo’s genre-defining A Better Tomorrow. The film’s shoot-out in the now demolished Kowloon Walled City is a classic cinema moment. Yet while the film won two awards, it lost to Homecoming in the best film category. Although Homecoming was one of the first productions after the handover agreement was signed in 1984 to make points about most Hongkongers’ roots in mainland China, its cinematic importance is dwarfed by the legacy of Long Arm of the Law.
1988: A Better Tomorrow II (best action choreography)
Although the original set the template for Hong Kong action movies of the 80s, A Better Tomorrow II kicked things into a higher gear. The climatic action sequence in an old mansion, where Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Dean Shek go to take down the gangsters running a counterfeiting operation, remains one of the best in Hong Kong movie history, with a body count of nearly 100. The scene where Chow and his rival swap guns in a sign of respect is equally iconic. Sadly, it lost to Project A Part II for best action choreography. Not a poor film itself, Project A Part II is overshadowed both by A Better Tomorrow II and its own predecessor, which featured Jackie Chan’s legendary clock tower fall.
1995: Christopher Doyle (best cinematography)
Although he has won six Hong Kong Film Awards in his career, Doyle deserves to have won more. In 1995, following his excellent work on Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express and Ashes of Time, he was nominated twice – but ultimately denied the award for best cinematography by Peter Pau’s efforts on Treasure Hunt, a largely forgettable Chow Yun-fat film that is not even memorable for its visuals. Nominated twice that year, it’s a crime that Doyle did not win for his distinctive work for either lauded film.
2000: Johnnie To (best film)
Doyle is not the only person to have worked on two quality films in a year only to be denied recognition for both. Johnnie To directed The Mission and Running Out of Time in 1999. The later, starring Andy Lau and Sean Lau, was a slick action-thriller that was a decent hit at the box office while The Mission, although a commercial failure, has come to be considered something of a masterpiece. Still, at the Hong Kong Film Awards neither was to win best film. That honour went to one of Ann Hui’s less accomplished efforts, Ordinary Heroes. It was not all bad, however, as To received some recognition for The Mission, picking up the best director. trophy
2001: In the Mood for Love (best film)
Although it won five awards on the night, In the Mood for Love failed to win best film and Wong Kar-wai was denied best director. For a work now widely regarded as a classic and one of the best films of the 21st century, it’s a startling decision. Admittedly, the film was up against another modern classic, Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning wuxia epic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won eight awards. But appreciation for In the Mood for Love has only grown in the years since, while Crouching Tiger is now considered an exciting genre film but little more. Ironically, 2001 was another year that Christopher Doyle, despite more outstanding work for Wong Kar-wai, was beaten to the best cinematography award by Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger).
2002: Jacky Cheung (best actor)
Although better known for his singing career – he is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, after all – Jacky Cheung has starred in a number of high-profile films, such as As Tears Go By and Bullet in the Head. He was named best supporting actor for the former, but deserved to win best actor for July Rhapsody when he played a tortured teacher having to deal with problems at home and the attentions of an attractive student of his, a young Karena Lam. It is Cheung’s most subdued and mature performance and that he lost to Stephen Chow for Shaolin Soccer – a funny role, certainly, but not one of great dramatic depth – was criminal.
2019: Every film but Project Gutenberg (best film)
Felix Chong’s star-driven action film about a group of counterfeiters, Project Gutenberg, is divisive. It was a commercial success, raking in US$160 million globally, and won seven awards at the HKFA including best film and best director. Although a slick product with fine performances from Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwok, the film had more style than substance and Chong had to defend himself against accusations of plagiarism.
A number of films were much more deserving of major awards that year. Also nominated for best film, Men on the Dragon was a hugely entertaining work about the difficulties of middle-aged men in Hong Kong, and Still Human was a touching story about the relationship between a disabled man and his domestic helper. Most egregious of all was the fact that Jevons Au’s Distinction, an excellent low-key examination of problems within the Hong Kong education system, received no nominations at all. Whether that is due to Au’s previous controversial films – he was a contributing director to the award-winning Ten Years and Trivisa – is impossible to say, but it was a glaring omission regardless.
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