The 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards Ceremony came to an end in a bustle.
Different from previous Academy Awards, this year's Academy Awards have received great attention from Hong Kong and mainland netizens, and the topic of discussing the attribution of major awards has also seized the hot search on the Internet.
Among them, the best Asian Chinese film went to "Eliminate the Three Evils Around the Week", the best picture went to "The Bad Tongue Lawyer", and the best actress went to Yu Xiangning of "Under the White Sun", all of which are highly anticipated.
However, among all the awards, the most controversial, and it is still difficult to calm the dissatisfaction of netizens, is the attribution of the Best Actor award.
The list of nominees includes Lin Baoyi in "Under the White Sun", Lu Zhenye in "Diary of a Youth", Tony Leung in "Goldfinger", Huang Zihua in "The Poisonous Tongue", and Dapeng in "The Eighth Suspect".
Among them, Lin Baoyi and Huang Zihua have the highest voices.
When everyone thought that the Academy Award actor must be produced among these two people, the jury awarded the award to Tony Leung, who had already been "five actors", which immediately caused dissatisfaction on the Internet.
Not only mainland fans, but also Hong Kong netizens who watched the live broadcast of the awards ceremony that night couldn't hold back and spoke out on social platforms.
Everyone's opinion is basically unanimous, thinking that even if it is not awarded to Huang Zihua, it can be awarded to Lin Baoyi.
Although Tony Leung has a high coffee position, his performance in "Goldfinger" is really difficult to deserve this award.
If it's just fans in the two places complaining, forget it, after all, they are not "professionals".
And the end shout of director Wang Jing, who is a filmmaker, pushed the controversy caused by Tony Leung's award to the forefront.
Wang Jing first affirmed "The Poisonous Tongue", which won the best film this year, actress Yu Xiangning, supporting actress Liang Yongting, and supporting actor Jiang David, and thought that they all "deserved their names".
Then Wang Jing commented on Tony Leung's performance in "Goldfinger", thinking that his performance was "a bit excessive" and not his best performance.
Compared with Tony Leung's restrained performances in the two movies "Lust and Caution" and "2046", the image of Cheng Yiyan he created in "Goldfinger" is far behind.
In the end, Wang Jing also shouted to Tony Leung: "If I were him, I would follow the example of Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung, who both dominated the Chinese music scene and won the award softly, and announced that they would no longer accept the award and leave the opportunity to the younger generation." ”
As the most popular director in the Hong Kong circle, Wang Jing also collaborated with Tony Leung in "Love and Drinking Water", and the two also talked and laughed when they got together.
Coming out at this time to say these words that are not afraid of offending people is not disrespecting Tony Leung, but being outspoken and not treating Tony Leung as an outsider.
Wang Jing's words express three meanings:
The first is to express opposition.
He felt that Tony Leung's role in "Goldfinger" was really unsatisfactory compared to the classic roles he had also won awards before, and although he won the actor, it was difficult to obey.
The second is to cry out for others.
Although Lin Baoyi and Huang Zihua have made the same efforts, and the roles they have created in their respective nominated movies are quite outstanding, they have not received the recognition they deserve, which is somewhat unsatisfactory.
The third is to give advice.
Tony Leung has been an actor for five times, and winning the film award again is just the "icing on the cake", which has little impact on his fame and status.
It is better to learn from Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung, who gave up receiving the award after becoming famous in the music industry back then, withdraw from the competition for this award, and leave the opportunity to those who need it.
Although many critics and fans have a lot of complaints about Tony Leung's award, only Wang Jing dares to express his opinion in the industry, and this remark can be described as merciless.
Some fans of Tony Leung couldn't sit still when they saw Wang Jing's words, and accused him of firing at the judges who presented the awards, and should not "find soft persimmons to pinch" and aim their guns at Tony Leung who won the award.
So whether what Wang Jing said makes sense, let's analyze these three aspects below.
01, directly comparing the acting skills of the five actors, does the jury have ulterior motives for Tony Leung?
In the nominations for the Academy Awards in recent years, mainland male movie stars often appear.
But despite being nominated, few of them have been able to win awards.
So far, only Jet Li in 2008 won the 27th Academy Awards Best Actor with "Vote for Fame".
But Jet Li has made a name for himself in Hong Kong in the 90s, and he is half a Hong Kong person, so it is not surprising that he can win the award.
Let's take a look at this year's nominated mainland movie star Dapeng.
In the movie "The Eighth Suspect", he played Chen Xinwen, the owner of a construction company suspected of armed robbery, who fled to a border city for 21 years because of the crime, and the image of the character has changed greatly before and after.
In order to play this villain role well, Dapeng first increased his body by 20 pounds, and then lost 30 pounds through dieting and fitness, which can be described as doing his best.
But the reputation of "The Eighth Suspect" is not good, it is only a movie with a score of 6.0 on Douban, and the box office in the mainland is less than 500 million yuan, but it is a pity that Dapeng's dedication and superb acting skills are a pity.
It is not easy to be nominated for the Academy Awards this time, and Dapeng came to Hong Kong just to show his face, and he does not have much burden on whether he can win the award.
Movie star Lu Zhenye is a newcomer born in the 80s, playing the role of middle school teacher Zheng Youjun in "Youth Diary".
When he found an unsigned suicide note at school, he couldn't help but recall the past events related to his deceased brother Zheng Youjie in his childhood.
Lu Zhenye has debuted for 14 years, has participated in more than 30 film and television works, has rich acting experience, and has a good grasp of Zheng Youjun's introverted personality.
But as a film with a two-line narrative of reality and memories as the main line, the role of Zheng Youjun has experienced three periods of childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and is played by three actors, which invisibly shares Lu Zhenye's role.
At the same time, as a newcomer in the film industry, being nominated is already an affirmation of his performance, and almost no one will think that he can win this award.
Compared with these two, Huang Zihua, who was nominated for "The Poisonous Tongue", is more confident.
"The Poisonous Tongue" was called the "rescue work" of the Hong Kong film industry last year.
The reason why Hong Kong audiences love "The Poisonous Tongue" is that it is actually a "cool text" movie.
Huang Zihua integrated his "Grandmaster" of laughter, anger, and witty remarks into the image of the character Lin Liangshui, making his character characteristics of a sense of justice and affinity extremely distinct.
And the character has experienced failures and setbacks, from loss and helplessness, self-doubt, to the mental journey of resurrection with firm beliefs, Huang Zihuachi also performed it very well.
In the climax, Lin Liangshui's three sections of firepower and full of aura in the courtroom ignited the audience's emotions to the highest point, I believe that fans who have watched the movie will feel that this year's actor should be given to Huang Zihua.
At the end of 2023, the sudden rise of "Under the White Sun" is also unexpected.
The movie is based on a 2016 case of abuse of residents in a disabled home, and the dean Zhang Jianhua played by Lin Baoyi is the biggest villain in the film.
Three-dimensional villains often have a set of plausible characters, who can convince themselves in their hearts and achieve self-consistent behavioral logic.
Zhang Jianhua has this kind of self-paralyzing logical identity.
He often abused and bullied the women and the frail elderly in the home, and he felt that as the dean of the school, he deserved to have the power to control them.
Playing such a "perverted" character well is a big challenge for Lin Baoyi.
And he was really fully engaged and delivered an answer that satisfied the audience.
In the first half of the year, Huang Zihua's voice was very high, and after the release of "Under the White Sun" at the end of the year, the popularity was distributed to Lin Baoyi, and there will not be much controversy about who wins the actor between the two.
However, Tony Leung came out, and the situation changed.
In fact, Tony Leung, Huang Zihua and Lin Baoyi are all post-60s, and they all made their debuts on TVB.
But Tony Leung's acting career is smoother than that of Huang Zihua and Lin Baoyi, for no other reason than his "appearance".
In that era of "looking at faces", TVB TV selected characters based on their appearance, and they all chose handsome guys of about 170cm.
Tony Leung, Andy Lau, Huang Rihua, Miao Qiaowei, and Tang Zhenye are collectively known as the "Wireless Five Tigers", and they are all handsome and confident when they debuted, and they are highly praised by TV stations, and they get the best resources and opportunities at a young age.
After leaving TVB, Tony Leung, who entered the film industry, soon met his "man for life" Wong Kar-wai, and four of his five Academy Awards were from films directed by Wong Kar-wai, including "Chongqing Forest", "Springtime", "In the Mood for Love" and "2046".
Tony Leung has also cooperated with several of the biggest directors in the Chinese film industry, such as Ang Lee, John Woo, Tsui Hark, Johnny To, etc., because of his identity as "Wong Kar-wai's royal actor", and has won many important awards at the Academy Awards and Golden Horse Awards. also won the Cannes Best Actor with "In the Mood for Love", which can be described as a success.
Compared with these legendary experiences and the classic characters that Tony Leung has created, the image of the rich businessman Cheng Yiyan he created in "Goldfinger" is very ordinary.
And the Douban score of "Goldfinger" is only 6.1 points, and the word-of-mouth and box office are just average, so I really can't take it.
So why did the Academy Awards award Tony Leung with the Best Actor Award?
Pi Ge thinks the reason is that he just won the "Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement" at the 80th Venice International Film Festival last year, which is equivalent to giving him a "top equipment".
With this layer of aura, it will play the role of "God blocks and kills God, and Buddha blocks and kills Buddha", and it is natural to win a few Academy Awards.
The reason why the Academy Awards gave Tony Leung "six actors" is that he can use Tony Leung's international popularity to increase the international influence of the Academy Awards, which can be described as "well-intentioned".
But everything has two sides, and giving the actor to Tony Leung is bound to snub Huang Zihua and Lin Baoyi, two conscientious and good actors, and also hurt the hearts of fans.
02, sticking to the film and television industry for decades, these two talents are the confidence of Hong Kong films
As mentioned above, Lin Baoyi and Huang Zihua are both similar in age to Tony Leung because of "congenital deficiencies", but they are not on the same starting line.
Lin Baoyi actually debuted as a musician, played musical instruments at the age of 13, worked as a firefighter, and worked as a policeman for 4 years, until 1991, when she joined the wireless movie station, and for a long time she played some supporting roles with few scenes.
It wasn't until the late 90s, after the powerful stars of the "Wireless Five Tigers" left one after another, that Lin Baoyi, Ouyang Zhenhua, Li Yaoxiang and other ordinary-looking veterans got the opportunity to develop.
Lin Baoyi also starred in "Golden Branch Desire", "Wonderful Hands and Benevolence", "Forensic Record", "Fire Dance Yellow Sand" and other word-of-mouth dramas, and won the wireless TV emperor in 2004.
At the end of 2011, after the contract with TVB expired, Lin Baoyi decided not to renew the contract, and signed a contract with the big Toyotomi Performing Arts Company the following year to enter the film industry.
But just like Chow Yun-fat, who entered the film industry in the 80s, although Lin Baoyi has a certain popularity, she can only start from scratch as a newcomer when she enters a new circle.
Over the years, he has participated in commercial blockbusters such as "Two Heroes", "Taiping Wheel", and "Anti-Corruption Storm 2", and he has played supporting roles with few scenes.
But in the face of each character with a different style, Lin Baoyi took out a lot of dedication and serious interpretation, grasped every opportunity to perform, and therefore won the recognition of investor Louis Koo and won the role of dean in "Under the White Sun".
Dean Zhang Jianhua has a pale face, a dark complexion, and a cunning look in his eyes, which is in great contrast with the image of a good man created by Lin Baoyi in the past, and it is also very different from his own personality.
Therefore, Lin Baoyi needs to be more involved in the role and turn herself into a villain she hates from the bottom of her heart, which is a breakthrough in performance in itself, so it can be unanimously recognized by fans.
Compared with Lin Baoyi, Huang Zihua's acting career is actually more difficult.
He was a top student who graduated from the University of Alberta, Canada, and wanted to be an actor after returning to Hong Kong in 1984, but just in time for the TVB artist training class to be suspended, he had to participate in the screenwriting training class and became an ordinary screenwriter in TVB.
During this time, he has written a lot of scripts and acted in dramas, but he has never been famous.
Until 1990, Huang Zihua, who was full of resentment, felt that the future was bleak and decided to quit the entertainment industry, but he wanted to vent his grievances before parting, so he raised his own funds to rent a theater and started a 90-minute comedy performance called "The History of Flesh and Blood in the Entertainment Industry".
What is surprising is that in that era when there were no short videos, Huang Zihua became famous overnight because of this performance, "The History of Flesh and Blood in the Entertainment Industry" continued to add performances, and Hong Kong-style stand-up comedy was very popular with Hong Kong people, and his acting career was also on the right track.
In 2000, "Male and Female Love" starring Huang Zihua set the highest 50-point ratings at that time and became the best TVB drama that year.
In 2018, Huang Zihua's acting career ushered in a major turning point, he held 26 consecutive performances of "Golden Basin" in the Red Pavilion, and then announced that he would "seal the wheat" and enter the film industry wholeheartedly.
At this time, after Stephen Chow left, the Hong Kong circle needed newcomers to take over the banner of comedy movies, and Huang Zihua, as the "grandmaster of comedy", just filled this vacancy.
In fact, "Stand-up Laughter" is different from Stephen Chow's "nonsensical", the characteristics of his personal performance are more prominent, and he is not completely suitable for interpretation in movies.
Therefore, Huang Zihua also gradually reined in the performance method of "poisonous tongue" and paid more attention to the polishing of acting skills, which received good results.
In 2022, "Rice Drama Attacking the Heart" won a box office of 77.32 million Hong Kong dollars, which proved Huang Zihua's strength and also marked the success of his transformation.
And last year's "Poisonous Tongue" was his best performance since his debut, and the golden sentences shouted by Lin Liangshui in the court, such as "I hope the world can be fairer", all expressed the hearts of Hong Kong people and aroused strong resonance among the audience.
From the 90s to the present, the Hong Kong film industry has experienced a transition from peak to trough, such as Tony Leung Chiu-wai , Andy Lau and other big-name movie stars have traveled between Hong Kong and the mainland, and their acting careers have not been greatly affected.
And actors like Lin Baoyi and Huang Zihua, who have always adhered to the Hong Kong circle, they are low-key and only focus on acting, these people are the reason why Hong Kong movies are standing.
03, who is the turmoil of the Academy Awards?
Wang Jing's suggestion is actually not "looking for soft persimmons to pinch".
He is targeting the Academy Awards and the entire Hong Kong culture, and taking Tony Leung's "fire" is just a more euphemistic expression.
As a Hong Kong netizen said, there has always been a problem with the Academy Awards, that is, "attaching more importance to seniority than real performance", which will only harm the entire entertainment industry.
Let Tony Leung win another actor, it means little to him, and it will not play a really positive role in the entire Hong Kong film industry.
What's even more interesting is that Tony Leung himself not only doesn't value it, he is not even ready to win this award.
Tony Leung, who was filming in Germany, did not come to the scene, only interacted with the scene through video, and asked his wife Carina Lau to receive it on his behalf.
If the judges of the Academy Awards can face up to this problem in the future, the entire Hong Kong circle can abandon the old-fashioned practice of ranking seniority, take personal ability as the evaluation criterion, and award the "award" to those who really work hard, which will definitely have a more positive role in promoting the development of the Hong Kong film industry.
Of course, if a filmmaker like Tony Leung, who has already achieved fame, can "abdicate and make way for the virtuous" as Wang Jing suggested, and at the same time give more acting opportunities to young people, so that the entire Hong Kong film industry can achieve a real "big change" between the old and the new, and the revival of the Hong Kong film industry is just around the corner.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Danxin
© 原创丨文章著作权:皮皮电影(Badianying)
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