China’s ‘Blind Massage’ Sweeps Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan

Chinese director Lou Ye‘s Blind Massage swept Taiwan’s Golden Horse movie awards, picking up six gongs including best picture at the event often described as the Chinese-language Oscars.

Based on the popular novel by Bi Feiyu, Blind Massage (Tui Na in Chinese) is set in Nanjing, a mid-ranking city in China not too far from Shanghai, and it refers to a popular kind of massage given by blind therapists in China.

The film won the feature film, cinematography, film editing, adapted screenplay and sound effects categories, while Zhang Lei won best new performer.

Lou’s censorship history is well known– Summer Palace in 2006 earned him a five-year ban for its references to the bloody crackdown on the democracy movement in Beijing in 1989.

The movie beat the hotly tipped noir thriller Black Coal, Thin Ice, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival this year. Blind Massage‘s Jian Zeng won a cinematography award at the Berlinale.

The movie won six of the seven categories it was nominated in at the event, which takes place in self-ruled Taiwan but celebrates Chinese language cinema from all around the region.

Hong Kong director Ann Hui won her third best director award for The Golden Era, which tells the story of the Chinese writer Xiao Hong, and which also won best supporting actress for Hao Lei.

It’s Hui’s third best director win at the Golden Horse.

Black Coal, Thin Ice‘s Liu Qiangwon best art direction.

The other big winner in Taipei at the 51^st edition of the Golden Horse awards was director Chen Jianbin, who won best lead actor and best new director for A Fool. He also added best supporting actor for his role in the Taiwanese historical drama about conscription, Paradise in Service. Regina Wan won the best supporting actress prize for the same movie.

Chen Shiang-Chyi won best actress for Exit, and she spoke of her pride in taking an award for Taiwanese cinema.

“I feel like I have made it, to be able to win this award for Taiwan. I love Taiwan films and I dedicated this for Taiwan,” she said in a speech.

Unlike the Oscars or France’s Cesars, the Golden Horse winners are decided by jury. This year’s 17-member jury was chaired by the actress and director Joan Chen, who starred in The Last Emperor and Twin Peaks.

Among the stars who walked the red carpet at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall were Gong Li, who narrowly missed out on the best actress award, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi, Lily Collins and Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase.

Full list of winners:

Best Picture?
Blind Massage (China/France)?
Best Director?
Ann Hui, The Golden Era
Best Debut Director?
Chen Jianbin, A Fool

Best Leading Actress?
Chen Shiang-chyi, Exit

Best Leading Actor?

Chen Jianbin, A Fool

Best Supporting Actress?
Hao Lei, The Golden Era

Best Supporting Actor
Chen Jianbin, Paradise in Service

Best New Performer

Zhang Lei, Blind Massage

Best Original Screenplay

Yee Chih-yen, Meeting Dr. Sun

Best Adapted Screenplay