Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Carina Lau at the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild Awards. Photos: Carina Lau/Instagram
Hong Kong movie superstar Tony Leung Chiu Wai took home the top acting honour at the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild Awards on March 15, cementing his status as the frontrunner at the upcoming Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA).
Leung, 61, won Best Actor for his role as a flamboyant conman modelled after Carrian Group’s chairman George Tan in crime drama The Goldfinger (2023), which is set in the 1980s and also stars Andy Lau, Charlene Choi and Simon Yam.
The annual dinner and awards presentation held by the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild is regarded as a precursor for the HKFA, which will be held on April 14.
Leung received the statuette from Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To on March 15, who said on stage: “I have known Tony Leung for 40 years and knew he was good, but I didn’t know he was so good.”
To, 68, and Leung worked together on TVB series The Duke Of Mount Deer (1984), an adaptation of the novel of the same name by late martial arts author Louis Cha. In the series, which also starred Lau, Leung played the streetwise anti-hero Wei Xiaobao, while Lau played Emperor Kangxi.
Leung said during a media interview he was happy to win the award as it was a form of recognition and encouragement, and was especially happy to receive the award from To.
“I remember during the first day of filming of The Duke Of Mount Deer, Sir To felt that my makeup was not dirty enough as I was playing a street urchin,” Leung said. “He let me know that in addition to good acting, an actor needs to be aware of how his character looks.”
Leung has won the Best Actor award at HKFA a record five times, and this time, he is up against Dayo Wong (A Guilty Conscience), Bowie Lam (In Broad Daylight), Lo Chun Yip (Time Still Turns The Pages) and Da Peng (Dust To Dust).
Tony Leung receives the statuette from Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To.
But Leung, who lost out on the Best Actor award to Japan’s Koji Yakusho at the Asian Film Awards held in Hong Kong on March 10, said: “I always feel it’s not just about the award. It’s also about the work and passion, as the amount of effort you put in can’t be measured by an award.”
Hong Kong actress Jennifer Yu won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild Awards on March 15 for her role as an investigative journalist in the social-themed drama In Broad Daylight, where her character went undercover to expose the abuse taking place in a nursing home.
Yu, 30, had earlier won Best Actress for the role at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards in January, and was nominated for Best Leading Actress at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards in November 2023.
The Best Picture award by the Hong Kong Film Directors’ Guild was given to legal drama A Guilty Conscience, while Best Director went to Soi Cheang for mystery crime thriller Mad Fate. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
