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| HK actor Aaron Kwok and mainland actress Zhou Xun display
their trophies after winning the Best Leading Actor and Best Leading
Actress awards during the 43rd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei
November 25, 2006. [Reuters] |
Hong Kong pop idol Aaron Kwok proved he's a bona fide actor and mainland China's Zhou Xun cemented her
status as one of the industry's biggest stars as the duo won top acting
honors at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards the Chinese-language equivalent of
the
Oscars.
Zhou's movie, the musical "Perhaps
Love," also took home best director for Hong Kong's Peter
Chan, but Kwok's film, "After This Our
Exile," the meticulously told story of a troubled family's
breakdown, won best picture and best supporting actor for 9-year-old Ian
Gouw.
"Perhaps Love" also won for best
cinematography and best original film song.
The 41-year-old Kwok made his name as one of Chinese pop's "Four
Heavenly Kings" in the 1990s, along with Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon
Lai.
Kwok boosted his acting credentials with a surprise best actor win at
last year's Golden Horse Awards for playing a troubled police officer
obsessed with his missing wife in "Divergence."
He proved last year's win wasn't a
fluke by clinching top acting honors again this year with
a powerful performance of the downward spiral of a hot-tempered cook, who
pimps and forces his son to steal after losing his job, his home and his
wife.
Kwok described his growth as a performer.
"When you grow up, first you have to let go of your so-called baggage
as an idol. Once you're free of the baggage of an idol, you can play any
character in a relaxed state. You can have different creative spaces and
you don't have any boundaries," he told reporters after his win.
Meanwhile, Chinese actress Zhou completed a clean sweep of Chinese
cinema's top awards for her portrayal of a movie star caught between past
and present loves in "Perhaps Love."
Zhou's character also won best actress honors at the Hong Kong Film
Awards, Hong Kong's Golden Bauhinia awards and Hong Kong Film Critics
Society awards earlier this year.
After her win, she said acting "like life, is a constant learning
process."
"As I myself mature, my performance of characters will also mature,"
Zhou said.
The best picture win for "After This Our Exile" also marks a successful
comeback for director Patrick Tam, considered part of Hong Kong's "new
wave" of cinema in the 1980s.
The movie is Tam's first after a 17-year break, during which he trained
screenwriters in Malaysia and edited famed Hong Kong art-house director
Wong Kar-wai's "Days of Being Wild." The director didn't attend the awards
ceremony.
(Agencies) | 
