“WORK OF CONSCIENCE”
After several years absence, Chinese stars began trickling back to the awards in Taipei last year, with actress Hu Ling the first to grace the red carpet since the ban.
On Saturday, Geng Jun and some of his cast were among the few Chinese entertainers to join stars and filmmakers from around the region, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, on the red carpet.
While Geng missed out on best director and best picture, his film Bel Ami won the awards for best cinematography and best film editing.
Despite political tensions, Golden Horse remained a stage for independent Chinese films that have no distribution space on the mainland, Taiwanese film critic Wonder Weng told AFP.
“This spirit remains unchanged. I think the Golden Horse Awards have always insisted on being the benchmark” that is open to all subjects, said Weng, who is a board member of Taiwan Film Critics Society.
Weng said An Unfinished Film by Lou, who has previously taken on forbidden subjects such as gay sex and the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was “a work of conscience”.
Lou’s latest offering is about a film crew trying to resume shooting a movie during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, as the city was placed in an unprecedented lockdown.
“Lou put images that are banned or blocked into his work and reminds us that there is a director who is willing to preserve historical images for us to see … and let us know there is a different voice,” Weng said.
