'The Grandmaster' Wins Best Film at Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards

By Karen Chu

HONG KONG – Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster took the best film award at the 20th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards, while Johnnie To bagged the best director award for his Drug War.

This is Wong's second best film win, following the trophy he received for Ashes of Time in 1994 at the inaugural Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards. It is Johnnie To's sixth best director win.

The best actor award went to Nick Cheung for Unbeatable, while Zhang Ziyi was named best actress for her work in The Grandmaster. This is Cheung's second best actor win, following The Beast Stalker five years ago, and Zhang's second best actress win after 2046 nine years ago. Cheung's work in The White Storm was also shortlisted, and he beat both actors playing Ip Man, Anthony Wong and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in Ip Man: The Final Fight and The Grandmaster, respectively.

Among the 49 Hong Kong films released in 2013, the Society picked six as "recommended films," including director Johnnie To's Drug War and Blind Detective, Dante Lam's Unbeatable, Herman Yau's Ip Man: The Final Fight, Adam Wong's The Way We Dance, and Juno Mak's Rigor Mortis.

The voting for the awards took place on Jan. 12.

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