Hong Kong - The Hong Kong Film Awards will be a three-way fight among dapper pugilistic masters, buff mixed martial arts fighters and zombies.
In nominations announced on Wednesday, Wong Kar Wai's lush actioner The Grandmaster led with 14 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Wong, Best Actor for Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Best Actress for Zhang Ziyi and Best Supporting Actor for Zhang Jin, said Ming Pao Daily News.
Dante Lam's gritty boxing drama Unbeatable followed with 11 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Lam and Best Actor for Nick Cheung. Close behind, Juno Mak's unexpected horror hit Rigor Mortis had nine nominations, but none for Best Film. However, Mak, a singer turned writer and director, was named for Best New Director.
Besides The Grandmaster and Unbeatable, the Best Film nominees were Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons, Stephen Chow's epic return to his 1994 cult classic A Chinese Odyssey; The White Storm, Benny Chan's thriller about an anti-narcotics operation; and The Way We Dance, a little movie about street dance.
The Best Director nominees included Johnnie To for Drug War, a Hong Kong-China crime drama starring Louis Koo and Sun Honglei, and Derek Kwok for As The Light Goes Out, a firefighting drama starring Hu Jun and Nicholas Tse.
It has been a big year for action and, once again, Ip Man movies. Ip Man, the film starring Donnie Yen in the title role, had dominated the box office and the 2009 Hong Kong Film Awards.
This year, there are two actors playing Ip, Bruce Lee's teacher, in the Best Actor category: Leung in The Grandmaster and Anthony Wong in Ip Man - The Final Fight. They will fight for the prize with Cheung for Unbeatable, and Louis Koo and Lau Ching Wan for The White Storm.
Besides Zhang, the Best Actress nominees are Tang Wei for Finding Mr Right, Cherry Ngan for The Way We Dance, Sammi Cheng for The Blind Detective and Paw Hee Ching for Rigor Mortis.
The awards will be handed out on April 14, 2014.
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