Director Yin You-qiao (left) and Chiang Wei Liang hold their awards for Best New Director at the 61st Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Nov 23, 2024. Photo: AP
It was a joyous occasion for an international couple as Singaporean filmmaker Chiang Wei Liang took home Best New Director for the film Mongrel at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Nov 23.
He won the award alongside his wife and co-director, Taiwanese Yin You-qiao.
Onstage, Chiang, 37, invited the film’s cast and crew to stand, and asked the crowd to give them a round of applause.
He said: “I think we’ve created something that was very difficult to make. This film has opened up the meaning of what a Taiwanese movie is. I don’t think it is possible to summarise my past 15-year journey in some 90 seconds, but the hard work of many is what got us here today.”
While he has previously directed short films, Mongrel is his first feature film. The movie revolves around a migrant worker, played by Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad, who becomes a caregiver to the elderly and disabled in rural Taiwan.
Chiang – who is based in Taiwan – thanked his family for supporting his decision to leave home to pursue his movie-making dreams.
He also thanked Yin and said: “It is with her acceptance and love that I can not only have a path ahead of me, but also someone behind me.”
Aside from Best New Director, Mongrel received nominations in six other categories at the Golden Horse Awards – one of the most prestigious awards for Chinese-language movies and the Sinophone version of the Oscars.
Meanwhile, unencumbered by the strict censorship of China, the big winners of the night included several Chinese films, including one about the Covid-19 pandemic and another about a gay romance.
Despite a boycott of the awards by Chinese authorities for the sixth year running, 2024 saw over 270 entries from China – the highest number in recent years.
Chinese director Lou Ye's An Unfinished Film won for Best Narrative Feature and Best Director. The awards were accepted by his wife Ma Yingli as he is in Japan for work. The film will premiere in South-east Asia with two sold-out screenings at SGIFF.
Billed as a Singapore-Germany production, it follows a film crew trying to shoot a movie in Wuhan, China, just as the city experienced an unprecedented lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We all went through that difficult period together,” Lou said in a message that Ma read out, thanking those who worked on the film, when he won Best Director.
Ma, who produced and wrote the movie, added when the film won Best Narrative Feature: “As creators and film-makers, this movie represents our memories and commemoration of an era, which may not have come to an end yet.”
Lou has had numerous run-ins with Chinese censors, including with his sexually graphic 2006 film Summer Palace. An Unfinished Film has not been released in China and will most likely not screen there as Covid-19 lockdowns remain a highly sensitive topic for Beijing.
Meanwhile, the black-and-white gay drama Bel Ami by Chinese director Geng Jun, though produced in France, won for Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
While same-sex relations are not illegal in China, same-sex marriage is not recognised, and the government has been cracking down on activists and depictions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the media.
Geng, accepting the award on behalf of his friend and Best Leading Actor winner Zhang Zhiyong, said Zhang had not let an injury from a childhood accident, which left him partially disabled, deter him.
“He was not confident at the beginning and always wanted the camera to avoid his injured eyes and hands,” Geng said. “I told him not to avoid it, never avoid it.”
He added that he told Zhang that “this is a quality and characteristic that only you possess, and you are a most unique actor”.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, in 2019 blocked its movie industry from officially participating in the Golden Horse Awards, which take place annually in Taiwan.
Beijing’s move followed an uproar in 2018 in China and among Chinese stars at the awards ceremony, after Taiwanese director Fu Yue made comments in support of Taiwan’s formal independence, a red line for Beijing.
But Chinese films, generally either banned in their home country or with no hope of a public release there, continue to enter the awards. – Agencies
