[2010.04.15] SANDRA NG EXCHANGES FIRE WITH WAI YING HUNG FOR BEST ACTRESS

After looking at this year's nominees for Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best New Actor, 3 days remain before the results will be revealed on the award ceremony night (April 18). As the intense atmosphere gradually approaches, this year's Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress competition is just as fierce. Who will end up with the prize? Before the official announcement, let's conduct a pre race prediction.

With 3 more days the 29th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards will be unveiled. This year the Best Actress competition has already become a hot topic. The 5 nominated actresses all are Best Actresses from different award shows, including NIGHT AND FOG (TIN SHUI WAI DIK YEH YU MO)'s Zhang Jingchu, AT THE END OF DAYBREAK (SUM MOR)'s Wai Ying Hung, MULAN's Vicki Zhao Wei, LOOK FOR A STAR (YAU LUNG HEI FUNG)'s Shu Qi and ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (SHUI YUET SUN TAU)'s Sandra Ng Kwan Yu. All 5 Best Actresses' acting has already been publicly recognized on a certain level of quality, thus their substance is evenly matched and makes this year's Best Actress competition even more exciting. As for their characters in the film, "3 mothers exchanges fire with two women" in a heavily competitive race.

In terms of momentum, AT THE END OF DAYBREAK's Wai Ying Hung definitely has it. With her neurotic mother role, she has won the Taiwan Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actress then the Hong Kong Film Critic Society's Best Actress, as well as the 4th Annual Asian Film Award Best Supporting Actress. In addition Sister Siu Hung was the first Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress. 28 years later she again with a "overly loving" mother role was nominated. If she wins, she will definitely write a brilliant chapter in her silver screen career!

Fellow Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress Ng Kwan Yu's film ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW not only captured Hong Kong emotions, but also successfully "rescued" Wing Lee Street and became renowned. Playing the kind mother, Kwan Yu is tightly following Sister Siu Hung and absolutely should not be ignored. ECHOES even succeeded overseas as it won the Crystal Bear prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival! In the film Kwan Yu behaved in a spoiled manner with her husband and her love for her children were a reflection of her motherhood in real life. Kwan Yu this time changed her genre to play a mother, with the local nostalgia that people have long missed no wonder Kwan Yu was considered one of the favorites.

As for NIGHT's Zhang Jingchu, the first film in the TIN SHUI WAI series THE WAY WE ARE (TIN SHUI WAI DIK YUT YU YEH) at last year's Hong Kong Film Award won Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay. Thus this "tragic extension" caught even more attention. Although Zhang Jingchu, Wai Ying Hung and Ng Kwan Yu all played mothers, the characters had drastically different endings. Among them Zhang Jingchu's tragic ending made people sigh that life was unfair, as the film outlined the abnormal phenomenon in Hong Kong society. In turn Zhang Jingchu's wager has been indirectly raised.

Zhao Wei's MULAN is already a household story about a daughter who serves her father's term in the army. Disguised as a men in battle, she could not have one less ounce of femininity. A Mainland Best Actress, this is her first Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress nomination. Meanwhile Hong Kong Film Award frequent flyer Shu Qi has had numerous nominations.

This time with LOOK she is nominated with a romantic story, which is less favored. Soon we will know whether she will be able to get a taste of the Hong Kong Film Award Best Actress.