Mainland films project shining success on silver screens

Li Bingbing holding her best leading actress award at the 46th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival.

local family drama No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Buneng Meiyou Ni) was the top placer at the 46th Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival, mainland filmmakers and actors also won high recognition, snapping up nine of 24 awards at the Chinese version of the Oscars.

Taiwan director Leon Dai directed, produced, edited and wrote the screenplay of No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti, which translates as, "I Can't Live Without You".

The film about a working-class father's fight for custody of his daughter won the best picture, best director, best original screenplay and outstanding Taiwan film of the year at the award ceremony held on Saturday night.

"I especially want to thank this piece of land, Taiwan," Dai told reporters.

"It's this land that nurtured this movie. And we have been working hard to use the nourishment we have received to develop this land."

Dai's mainland counterparts share his joy.

Mainland actor Huang Bo and Hong Kong actor Nick Cheung shared the best leading actor - a first in the festival's history.

Huang plays a man who protects a cow from Japanese invaders in 1940s' China in Cow (Dou Niu). Actress Li Bingbing won the best leading actress for her performance in hit spy thriller The Message (Feng Sheng).

The best supporting actor went to Wang Xueqi, who plays a senior performer in the biopic of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang in Forever Enthralled (Mei Lanfang). Yu Shaoqun won the best new actor as the junior Mei in the film. Mainland filmmakers also grabbed the best screenplay adaptation, cinematography, visual effects, original film score and original film song.

Mainland filmmakers and actors have proven powerful competitors for several years in Golden Horse, known for its wide vision in the whole Chinese-language film world rather than in the local industry.

Some, such as Li Yang, Wang Baoqiang and Liu Ye, won precious acknowledgement from the festival when they were newcomers.

But both the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers festivals - two of the three top mainland film awards - only accept flicks screened on the mainland.

The government-supported Huabiao Film Awards had not honored any Hong Kong or Taiwan actors until September, when it created three new categories - "excellent Chinese director outside of the mainland" and "excellent Chinese actor and actress outside the mainland", honoring Hong Kong and Taiwan filmmakers, such as John Woo.

State Film Bureau vice-president Zhang Hongsen told reporters that the new awards were just a first step and promised to involve all Chinese filmmakers, including those from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas.

"Mainland film awards are backed by government, while film festivals in Hong Kong and Taiwan are often supported also by non-governmental capital," senior producer and cultural critic Tan Fei says.

"The local protection is relatively more obvious here, but Huabiao's designation of the new awards is a delightful point of progress."

Taiwan is home to some internationally acclaimed directors, such as Ang Lee, Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien. But the local industry had been shrinking from the 1990s until recent years, when a new generation of young filmmakers, such as Dai and Cape No 7 (Haijiao Qihao)'s director Wei Te-sheng, emerged.

The mainland film industry's box office growth has boomed at 20 percent annually over the past five years. This has led many Taiwan filmmakers to enhance communication and cooperation with their mainland counterparts.

"With the deeper and broader cooperation among the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Chinese-language film industry will become a new power," Tan says. "And awards, as part of this communication, will no longer be insulated within the realm of the local."