Movie Box Review

courtesy of on.cc

courtesy of singtao.com

courtesy of takungpao.com

The 18th Hong Kong Film Critic Society Award took place yesterday at the Film Archive.  Deanie Ip Tak Han and Lau Ching Wan won the Best Actor and Actress, Jiang Wen also received the Best Director Award and Best Picture went to the Ann Hui On Wa directed A SIMPLE LIFE (TOH JEH); Best Screenplay went to LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (DUET MING GUM)'s Au Kin Yi, Wong King Fai and Milky Way Creative Team.  Also seven recommended films were presented, including OVERHEARD 2 (SIT TING FUNG WON 2), DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART (DAN SUN NAM NUI), LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE, LET THE BULLETS FLY, WHITE VENGEANCE (HUNG MOON YIN), FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE (LUNG MOON FEI GAP) and BIG BLUE LAKE (DAI LAN WU).

Ching Wan, Sister Deanie, Jiang Wen, Hui On Wa were present to accept the awards.  Ching Wan won with LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE.  He thanked the Film Critic Society.  He was particularly happy that he was able to win for the first time with a Johnnie To Kei Fung directed film.  He also had to thank Lo Hoi Peng for his suggestions about the character; Jiang Wen joked that the film obviously was good due to the actors performance, but it still won the Director award.  However he was still very happy because usually when he was the actor the director won, when he directed the actors won.  This time was an exception (directed and starred).  Jiang Wen continued, "This time I came to Hong Kong for three days, I have been on the stage three times and won three awards.  Hong Kong truly is paying respect to me.  I hope to be able to stay a little longer, in a year I may be able to win over 300 awards!"

After the ceremony, Ching Wan expressed that he was very happy because he won an award for the first time with a To Kei Fung film.  In the past he blamed himself for not performing good enough.  Ching Wan continued, "I was really sorry, I thank Ah To for always giving me good characters.  This time I can answer to him, finally I have grown into an adult!"  As for the later Hong Kong Film Award, Ching Wan said that the
two awards were different.  In his experience, after winning the Film Critic Society Award three times he has lost at the other one three times.  yet now he was very happy to have one.

Sister Deanie for the fourth time with A SIMPLE LIFE (TOH JEH) won Best Actress.  Was she confident about winning six?  Deanie pretended her head itch and said, "The chances are even."  Sister Deanie said that she would still give this award to Andy Lau Tak Wa, as she joked that he had plenty of space for awards.  Has she picked out what to wear yet?  Sister Deanie said that she was more casual, if she had to dress up she truly had difficulty.  Thus every time Wa Jai's company arranged what she wore.  Would she like to win Best Actress with Wa Jai as the Best Actor?  Sister Deanie said, "Of course!"  As for meeting Jiang Wen for the first time, Sister Deanie praised him as a good actor and a good director.  If in the future they will have a chance to work together she will welcome it very much, but she will not take the initiative and ask because she felt actors were more passive.

courtesy of mingpao.com

Two days ago 9 films opened in Hong Kong including LEGENDARY AMAZONS (YEUNG MOON JUI JEUNG ji GWUN LING YU SAN).  The film was the second of Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi's comeback after TREASURE HUNT (MO GA JI BO).  Unfortunately its box office performance was mediocre as it only made 40,000 at its opening and landed it in seventh place on the single day chart.  The single day box office champion was the foreign film IMMORTALS with 774,000.  In second place was MARGIN CALL with 183,000.  In third was the Wei Te-Sheng NT$700 million investment SEEDIQ BALE with 144,000.

YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE gained momentum in Hong Kong with a cumulative box office of over 50 million.  With the YOU motivated film market, although 9 films were released two days ago but their box office performance was only average.  The single day champion THE IMMORTALS made 774,000, which was considered decent.  Perhaps its action and 3D elements attracted an audience.  In second and third place, MARGIN CALL and SEEDIQ BALE also exceeded 10 million at the box office.  Other films only made several tens of thousands.  The worst was the Leila Tong Ning starred BIG BLUE LAKE (DAI LAN WU) with only 4,516.  When the Pak Chi starred TREASURE HUNT was released in Hong Kong two months ago, its opening day box office was 124,000, 40,000 better than her new film LEGENDARY AMAZONS.

Once calling Pak Chi "negative number actress", Stephen Shiu Yeuk Yuen two days ago continued his "coverage" of the LEGENDARY AMAZONS in Hong Kong.  After the first half of the opening day when the film came in eleventh and made 14,555, yesterday he reported the new second day numbers.  Around 2PM, Shiu Yeuk Yuen said, "Our distribution of TRESPASS didn't promote well enough and with the rain it only made 80,000.  The performance was not ideal but happened to double that of LEGENDARY AMAZONS, which only had 41,000."

Shiu Yeuk Yuen said about yesterday's box office trend, "Actually today all movie box office rose, only LEGENDARY AMAZONS fell.  As of 2PM it only made 9500.  YOU again is on top."