China's young directors compete at the Golden Horse awards

World
Europe

The 55th Golden Horse Awards were held Saturday night in Taipei, with dozens of outstanding actors, actresses, directors, film editors and other practitioners in the field winning big. Among them were some young but promising directors.

Wen Muye - 'Dying to Survive'

Born in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province in 1985, Wen was only 33 when his film "Dying to Survive" became a box office hit earlier this year.

What is more surprising is the fact that it is his debut feature film.

"Dying to Survive", a socially conscious drama that tells the story of Cheng Yong, an Indian god oil vendor, who is played by Xu Zheng. His life dramatically changes when he becomes a smuggler of a rare medicine named "Glinic", which can be used to treat cancer patients at a significantly lower cost than the Chinese equivalent. The film shed a light on quality medical care that poor people can receive in China.

Actor Xu Zheng attends an event for the 55th Golden Horse Awards ceremony in Taipei, November 14, 2018. /VCG Photo

Wen tried to make a realistic story about China's working class who often struggle to make ends meet and are marginalized by society.

Wen, however, wasn't always this committed. With a sub-standard academic record in high school, he had poor marks in college entrance examination, thus he had only a few majors to choose from. He chose "Editing and Direction for Broadcast and Television", a decision that has proved to be a fortuitous one, both for him and for Chinese cinema.

In college, Wen started to shoot short films and sent all his works to competitions. "I never gave up on opportunities to expose my work to other people," He said, according to Sina. For a nobody like him, it seemed to be the only path to success.

A poster of the film "Dying to Survive". /VCG Photo

His hard work paid off and producers evaluated him highly. The co-producer Ning Hao said he has a "romantic heroic sentiment" and Xu Zheng described him "the new director China needs".

Wen also co-wrote the screenplay with, Han Jianü and Zhong Wei, and together they won the award for Best Original Screenplay.

Hu Bo - 'An Elephant Sitting Still'

Director Hu Bo was even younger than Wen when he made the film "An Elephant Sitting Still" at the age of 29 years old.

Compared with the hope expressed by Wen Muye, Hu's work can be described as being melancholy. The story of "An Elephant Sitting Still" depicts four people, marginalized by their respective communities, who decide to flee from the situation and travel to Manzhouli to find a strange elephant, only to discover their journey is much more difficult than they thought.

The film was Hu's first feature-length film, but also his last one as he tragically took his own life in October last year.

Cast members of "An Elephant Sitting Still" pose backstage during the 55th Golden Horse Awards ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan November 17, 2018. /VCG Photo

The indifferent and desolate world constructed in the film may also be a reflection of his own inner world during the last days.

According to Zhihu Daily, in his book, he wrote, "I can't accept the crafty hypocrisy of so-called complex realism and vividness, can't accept the rules taking relativity as its core, and can't accept the utilitarian part in existence."

Hu is also the film's screenwriter.

Other nominees for the Best New Director award include Dong Yue for "The Looming Storm", Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen for "Dear EX", and René Liu for "Us and Them".

Hsieh Ying-xuan poses at an event during the 55th Golden Horse Awards ceremony in Taipei, November 17, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Golden Horse Awards have long been credited as one of the most respected awards for Chinese language films. They value the art and craft of a movie rather than box office intake or cachet of the talent involved.

Elsewhere in the competition, Zhang Yimou won the Best Director for "Shadow", Xu Zheng and Hsieh Ying-xuan won Best Leading Actor and the Best Leading Actress for "Dying to Survive" and "Dear EX".

(Top Photo: Chinese director Wen Muye poses with his trophy after winning the Best New Director award for his film "Dying to Survive" at the 55th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, November 17, 2018. /VCG Photo)