12th Asian Film Awards – Awards 2018

By Asian Film Festival on March 17, 2018 • ( 1 Comment )

We present the list of winners of the 12th Asian Film Awards that took place on March 17th at The Venetian Macao in Macao.

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), together with the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, created the Asian Film Awards Academy (AFA Academy), a nonprofit organization, in 2013 to promote and develop Asian cinema and its talents. Organized by the AFA Academy, the Asian Film Awards (AFA) was celebrated its 12th anniversary this year. The Awards Ceremony took place on March 17th (2018) at The Venetian Macao in Macao.

Winners List

Best Film

Youth by Feng Xiaogang – China | 2017 – 134 min.

He Xiaoping is discriminated in the troupe because of a family scandal. Liu Feng has a crush on the lead solo Lin Dingding and gets expelled when he makes an unwelcomed advance on Lin. He Xiaoping is heartbroken because she is secretly in love with Liu Feng. Each member of the troupe learns a lesson in this coming-of-age story.

Trailer

Best Director

Ishii Yuya for The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue
Japan | 2017 – 108 min.

Newcomer Shizuka Ishibashi throws herself into the role of Mika, a nurse by day, a ‘girlie bar’ hostess by night, subject to feelings of anxiety and isolation, and unable to reach through a hard outer shell that stops her from expressing tenderness to anyone else. Sosuke Ikematsu, one of Japan’s most important young actors, stars as Shinji, who struggles as a day-hire construction worker with a sense of impending doom, but who still tries to find the source of an unnamable hope he feels inside. The setting is Tokyo in 2017, where empty words, a sense of doom, and feelings of isolation co-exist with hope, trust, and love. In the sense of real life conjured up in these two people is a new kind of film: the densest kind of love story.

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Best New Director

Dong Yue for The Looming Storm – China | 2017 – 120 min.

A man who is laid off from a steel factory desperately wants to chase a serial killer in a small city in Southern China.

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Best Actress

Sylvia Chang for Love Education – China, Taiwan | 2017 – 119 min.

Sylvia Chang returns with this nuanced drama about the fragile bonds and surprising similarities among three generations of Chinese women. Stubborn, middle-aged Huiying plans to move her father’s remains from his rural hometown to the city, but encounters resistance from her father’s first wife. Meanwhile, Huiying’s daughter Weiwei struggles to break free from her mother. Through observant writing, sharp wit, and graceful direction, Sylvia Chang delivers one of her finest works to date. (HKIFF Catalogue)

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Best Actor

Louis Koo for Paradox (Wilson Yip) – Hong Kong | 2017 – 100 min.

Hong Kong police negotiator Lee Chung-Chi has learned that his 16 year old daughter Wing-Chi has disappeared while in Thailand. He travels to Thailand and teams up with Chinese officer Tsui Kit and his partner, Tak, as they face off against American gangster Sacha, who is operating a black market organ smuggling ring. A series of clues lead Chung-Chi to not only learn the fate of his daughter, but overcome the odds to stop the ring once and for all.

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Best Supporting Actress

Kitty Zhang Yuqi for Legend of the Demon Cat (Chen Kaige)
China, Japan, Hong Kong | 2017 – 132 min.

Taking place in the Tang Dynasty, a demon cat appears and breaks the peace of Chang’an City, causing a series of strange events. Poet Bai Letian and Monk Kukai join hands to investigate the death of Concubine Yang by following the trial left by the cat, unveiling a buried fact.

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Best Supporting Actor

Yang Ik-joon for Wilderness (Yoshiyuki Kishi) – Japan | 2017 – 157 min.

Set in the year 2021 around Shinjuku, Tokyo, when youth unemployment, suicides and a broken social welfare system plague the public. Shinji (Masaki Suda) is released from a youth detention center. Kenji (Yang Ik-June) suffers from a speech impediment and extreme shyness. They both receive flyers for a new boxing gym. Although both of these men are unfamiliar with the sport, they join the gym for different reasons. Shinji and Kenji become friends while they pursue boxing surrounded by a hopeless environment.

Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/227702900

Best Newcomer

Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying for Bad Genius (Nattawut Poonpiriya)
Thailand | 2017 – 130 min.

Lynn, a genius high school student who makes money by cheating tests, receives a new task that leads her to set foot on Sydney, Australia. In order to complete the millions-Baht task, Lynn and her classmates have to finish the international STIC(SAT) exam and deliver the answers back to her friends in Thailand before the exam takes place once again in her home country.

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Next Generation Award

Lim Yoon-a (Yoona) for Confidential Assignment (Kim Sung-hoon)
South Korea | 2017 – 125 min.

When a crime organization from North Korea crosses borders and enters South Korean soil, a South Korean detective must cooperate with a North Korean detective to investigate their whereabouts.

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Best Screenplay

Mayanayk Tewari, Amit Masurkar for Newton (Amit V. Masurkar)
India | 2017 – 106 min.

As India prepares for a general election with nine million polling booths and over 800 million voters – the world’s largest democracy – the principled clerk Newton Kumar (Rajkummar Rao) is entrusted to conduct voting in a remote jungle village. He is challenged by extreme Maoist guerrillas determined to stop the election process, security forces who couldn’t care less about the outcome either way, and a local populace hardly infected with the spirit of democracy. Newton is thwarted at every turn. In this superb, absurdist comedy, director Amit V Masurkar succeeds in interrogating the difference between the rhetoric and reality of democracy.

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Best Editing

Shin Min-kyung for The King (Han Jae-Rim) – South Korea | 2017 – 157 min.

Park Tae-Soo (Zo In-Sung) becomes a prosecutor after going through a difficult childhood. He wants to wield absolute power and meets Han Kang-Sik (Jung Woo-Sung).

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Best Cinematography

Kim Ji-yong for The Fortress (Hwang Dong-hyuk) – South Korea | 2017 – 140 min.

In 1636, the Qing dynasty attacks Joseon. King Injo (Park Hae-Il) and his retainers, including Choi Myung-Kil (Lee Byung-Hun) & Kim Sang-Hun (Kim Yun-Seok), hide in the mountain fortress city of Namhansanseong. They are isolated from the outside. Meanwhile, Choi Myung-Kil insists that they enter into negotiations with the Qing dynasty, but Kim Sang-Hun proposes that they keep fighting.

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Best Original Music

Hisaishi Joe for Our Time Will Come (Ann Hui) – Hong Kong, China | 2017 – 133 min.

In Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, a school teacher and her would-be-fiancé link up with Chinese guerrilla fighters, forging their own path to freedom.

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Best Action Film

Paradox by Wilson Yip – Hong Kong | 2017 – 100 min.

Best Costume Design

Chen Tongxun for Legend of the Demon Cat (Chen Kaige)
China, Japan, Hong Kong | 2017 – 132 min.

Best Production Design

Tu Nan, Lu Wei for Legend of the Demon Cat (Chen Kaige)
China, Japan, Hong Kong | 2017 – 132 min.

Best Visual Effects

Ishii Norio for Legend of the Demon Cat (Chen Kaige)
China, Japan, Hong Kong | 2017 – 132 min.

Best Sound

Tu Du-chih, Wu Shu-yao for The Great Buddha+ (Huang Hsin-yao)
Taiwan | 2017 – 103 min.

Pickle is a night security guard at a Buddha statue factory owned by rich playboy Kevin. There, he is frequently visited by his best friend Belly Button, a recyclables collector, and together they endure the dull nightshift by watching television – until it gets broken one night. Hoping to find some drama, they stumble upon Kevin’s dashboard camera, where they find footages which contain their boss’ ugly secrets that will change their lives forever. (SGIFF Catalogue)

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2017 Highest Grossing Asian Film

Wolf Warrior 2 by Wu Jing – China | 2017 – 126 min.

China’s deadliest special forces operative settles into a quiet life on the sea. When sadistic mercenaries begin targeting nearby civilians, he must leave his newfound peace behind and return to his duties as a soldier and protector.

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