Debra Li

    debra_lidan@163.com

    HONG KONG director Hark Tsui was given the best director award at the 24th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival in Northeast China’s Jilin Province on Saturday night. He won the award for “The Taking of Tiger Mountain,” which also helped Zhang Hanyu earn a best actor award and Yu Boyang a best editing award.

    “The most important thing is looking ahead. Being rewarded is an encouragement, but more needs to be done. ... We need to work harder, make better movies,” Tsui said at the award ceremony after thanking the jury and audience.

    Based on the novel “Tracks in the Snowy Forest” by Qu Bo, “Tiger Mountain” centers around a conflict between the People’s Liberation Army of China and a bandit gang in the thick woods of Northeast China.

    Although Zhao Wei and Tang Wei had been hailed as hot candidates for the top female acting award, the title went to 75-year-old Badema for war tragedy “Norjmaa.” Norjmaa, a Mongolian shepherd, cares for two injured soldiers and cannot stop them from trying to kill each other.

    The best film award went to “Wolf Totem,” based on the 2004 Chinese semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Lu Jiamin. Directed by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, the Chinese-French co-production features a Chinese student who is sent to Inner Mongolia to teach shepherds and instead learns about the wolf population, which is under threat by a government apparatchik.

    The best supporting actress award went to Deng Jiajia, who played a spoiled girl from a rich family in legal thriller “Silent Witness.” Zhang Yi won the best supporting actor award for his role in “Dearest” as a father whose child was kidnapped and who finally decides to stop looking and have another child.

    Best original script went to “The Golden Era,” which tells the life and love story of late Chinese author Xiao Hong and starred Tang Wei in the lead. Best adapted script went to “12 Citizens,” a remake of the American classic “Twelve Angry Men.” The latter was a drama written by Reginald Rose about the jury for a homicide trial and was broadcast as a television play in 1954.

    Box office hit “Monkey King: Hero Is Back” predictably won the best animation award.

    Golden Horse award-winning director Chen Jianbin was named best new director for his film “A Fool.” He also starred in the film as a farmer who tries to help a mentally challenged homeless beggar but gets entangled in a series of troubles. The film’s release has been postponed to Nov. 21 because one of its main actors was involved in a drug scandal.