The 17th Tokyo International Film Festival Awards were announced
on October 31 with The Grand Prix going to the Uruguayan film
Whisky. Lu Chuan's movie Ke Ke Xi Li: Mountain
Patrol won the Special Jury Prize.
The annual Tokyo International Film Festival is Asia's biggest
and attracts the interest of filmmakers worldwide. More than 300
movies from 59 countries signed up for the festival's top
award?-- the Tokyo Grand Prix, but only 15 were short listed,
including three Chinese-language movies: China's mainland director
Lu Chuan's documentary Ke Ke Xi Li, Hong Kong-Singaporean
joint production Rice Rhapsody and Taiwan movie The
Passage.
Ke Ke Xi Li, which had a budget of US$1.2 million, has
already earned US$800,000 for its overseas copyright and pocketed
over US$483,000 box office income from the Chinese's mainland. It
won the Golden Rooster Award, the Chinese equivalent of America's
Academy Awards, early this year. After the movie's screening more
than 10,000 people signed to support its nomination for Best
Foreign Language Film at the 2005 Oscars.
Lu Chuan was inspired to create Ke Ke Xi Li after
seeing a documentary called Balance
by Peng Hui. It tells the story of a volunteer team's struggles to
protect Tibetan antelope against ruthless poachers.
Despite the poignancy of the story, the movie steers clear of
sentimentality. Lu Chuan said he wanted to give his audience more
room to contemplate rather than churning out yet another tearjerker
that they would quickly forget.
Apart from the three movies in the competition category, a total
of 20 Chinese-language movies are being shown in this year's
festival, the largest ever.
Some critics speculated that Ke Ke Xi Li's missing the
top prize was due to an unspoken understanding not to give it to
any country two years consecutively, since Huo Jianqi's
Nuan won last year's Grand Prix.
Award list
Grand Prix: Whisky
Special Jury Prize: Ke Ke Xi Li: Mountain Patrol
Award for Best Director: Im Chan-sang (The President's
Barber)
Award for Best Performance by an Actor in Leading Role: Olhzas
Nusuppaev (Schizo)
Award for Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role: Mirella
Pascual (Whisky)
Award for Best Artistic Contribution: Chicken is
Barefoot
Winds of Asia:
Best Asian Film Award: Possible Changes
Recommendation for Competition: Springtime
Japanese Eyes:
Best Picture Award: Jyukai
Special Award: Kanji Tsuda (for performance in Jyukai)
Competition:
The Audience Award: The President's Barber
Akira Kurosawa Award: Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada
(China.org.cn November 1, 2004)
