Wu Kang-jen's latest award came after he won Best Leading Actor at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards in November 2023 for Malaysian movie 'Abang Adik'. Photo: AFP
Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-jen has added another feather to his cap after winning the Best Actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards on Jan 15.
The 41-year-old received the award for his role in the Hong Kong film Fly Me To The Moon, a story about the relationship between a father and his two daughters, spanning 20 years from the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.
The film’s director Sasha Chuk won best screenplay for her feature debut.
Wu beat celebrities such as Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai (The Goldfinger), Hong Kong actor Gordon Lam (Mad Fate) and Mirror singer Lokman Yeung (Mad Fate) for the award.
According to the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, the race was tight and the winner was selected after five rounds of voting.
Wu’s latest accolade came after he won Best Leading Actor at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards in November 2023 for Malaysian movie Abang Adik.
He was lauded for his performance as Abang – a menial worker who is deaf and mute, and has no legal papers – opposite Malaysian actor Jack Tan, who played Adik.
The race for Best Actress was equally tight, with Hong Kong actress Jennifer Yu named the winner after four rounds of voting.
She took home the prize for her role as an investigative journalist in In Broad Daylight, a movie on the abuses taking place in a nursing home.
This was the first time Yu, 30, received the award after being shortlisted a few times in the past.
She beat actresses Rachel Leung (In Broad Daylight), Yoyo Tse (Fly Me To The Moon), Renci Yeung (A Guilty Conscience) and Chung Suet Ying (The Lyricist Wannabe) for the award.
The Best Film award went to mystery crime thriller Mad Fate, directed by Soi Cheang, while the Best Director award went to Jonathan Li for Chinese crime movie Dust To Dust.
The prestigious annual awards ceremony, which started in 1994, is now in its 30th edition. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
