Source: SCMP (5/6/20)
Hong Kong Film Awards 2020 winners: Better Days takes eight prizes, including best picture, director, screenplay and actress
Better Days, Derek Tsang’s second solo outing as director, triumphs in the delayed awards, after being denied the chance to compete at two film festivals. Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee rewarded for gritty performances in Tsang’s film; Tai Bo wins best actor for his role as an elderly gay man in heartbreaking Suk Suk.
By Edmund Lee
Jackson Yee, who won best new performer in the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, and Zhou Dongyu, who won best actress, in a still from Better Days. Derek Tsang’s poignant film about school bullying in China also won best picture, best director, best screenplay and three other awards.
China-set bullying drama Better Days dominated the 2020 Hong Kong Film Awards. Emerging director Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung’s film won in three of the top four categories and bagged a total of eight prizes.
The winners were announced in a live stream on social media channels on Wednesday, organisers having been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to scrap the usual star-studded awards ceremony for the first time in the competition’s 39-year history. The awards are usually announced in April.
It took Hong Kong Film Awards chairman Derek Yee Tung-sing, dressed in a tuxedo, a mere 11 minutes to name the winners in 19 categories.
Just the second feature film for which Tsang has sole directing credits, Better Days, which had been nominated in 12 categories, won best film, best director, best actress and best screenplay, and the awards for best cinematography, original song, costume and make-up design, and new performer (Jackson Yee). The first film Tsang directed, Soul Mate, received 11 nominations in the awards’ 2017 edition, but took home only one prize.
Starring Zhou Dongyu and Jackson Yee in leading roles, Better Days is a deeply poignant drama about an underprivileged student who becomes the target of vicious schoolyard bullying in China, and the orphaned street punk she befriends and slowly falls in love with.
Tsang’s film proved a box office sensation in China when it was finally released late last year. Earlier, its producers were forced by Chinese censors to withdraw Better Days from the Berlin Film Festival in February, and it was also withheld from the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan – the most prestigious Chinese-language film awards – because China boycotted them.
Tai Bo, winner of the best actor award, in a still from gay drama Suk Suk.
Derek Yee may have been alluding to the film’s rocky history when he remarked that filmmakers must overcome obstacles before they succeed, right before he opened the final envelope to announce Better Days as the best picture winner.
Other notable winners in this year’s awards include veteran actor Tai Bo, for his role in the heartbreaking gay romance Suk Suk, in which he plays an elderly man yet to come out of the closet and admit his homosexuality, and the Donnie Yen vehicle Ip Man 4: The Finale, supposedly the last instalment of the hugely profitable martial arts series, which scooped three technical prizes – for editing, sound design and action choreography.
The winners’ list in full
Best film: Better Days
Best director: Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung (Better Days)
Best screenplay: Better Days
Best actor: Tai Bo (Suk Suk)
Best actress: Zhou Dongyu (Better Days)
Best supporting actor: Cheung Tat-ming (I’m Livin’ It)
Best supporting actress: Patra Au Ga-man (Suk Suk)
Donnie Yen (left) and Wu Yue in a still from Ip Man 4: The Finale, which won in three technical categories.
Best new performer: Jackson Yee (Better Days)
Best cinematography: Better Days
Best film editing: Ip Man 4: The Finale
(From left) Megan Lai, Li Xiaofeng and Sammi Cheng star as sisters in Fagara, which won for best art direction. Cheng was nominated for best actress for her roles in this film and another, Fatal Visit.
Best art direction:
Best costume & make up design: Better Days
Best action choreography: Ip Man 4: The Finale
Stephy Tang in a still from My Prince Edward.
Best original film score: My Prince Edward
Best original film song: Better Days
Best sound design: Ip Man 4: The Finale
Best visual effects:
Best new director: Norris Wong Yee-lam (My Prince Edward)
Best Asian Chinese language film: