Hong Kong's annual film awards on Sunday honoured a sentimental favorite with its top prize — a quirky, low-budget action comedy about a kung fu master who briefly wakes up from a 30-year-old coma to train two aging students and two newcomers.
The $643,200 production Gallants beat out better-funded and more star-studded movies for the top prize at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards, including the John Woo-produced kung fu thriller Reign of Assassins, which starred former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh; Ip Man 2, the biopic headlined by action star Donnie Yen, and veteran Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's lavish fantasy epic Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. It was sweet vindication for Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau and his producer, actor Lam Ka-tung, the driving forces behind the long-shot project. Gallants was also beloved by local critics, clinching best picture and best actor at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society's annual awards earlier this year.
Tsui, one of Hong Kong's most versatile filmmakers whose credits range from comedy to action and animation, however, didn't go home empty-handed. He won best director for Detective Dee, and the actress he cast as an ancient Chinese empress — Carina Lau, took best actress honours.
Nicholas Tse, who played a reluctant informant in the police thriller The Stool Pigeon, was named best actor, prevailing in a field that included veterans Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Ka-fai and past winner Nick Cheung, Tse's co-star in The Stool Pigeon.
Gallants producer Lam, co-directors Derek Kwok and Clement Cheng leapt up and hugged cast members when the best picture award was announced. Kwok jumped and pumped his fist in the air.
"I really don't care about how many honors Gallants wins. The most important thing is the spirit and meaning behind the movie — it's the spirit of Hong Kong people, the spirit of Hong Kong movies," Lam said.
Kwok repeated the line that was the kung fu master's mantra in the movie: "If you don't fight you won't lose, but if you fight you must try to win."
"That's the spirit of the Hong Kong movie industry," Kwok said.
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