THE film “The Assassin” by the veteran Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has grabbed five awards, including the best director and best feature film, at the Golden Horse awards.

    The Golden Horse awards are considered the equivalents of the Oscars for Chinese-language movies.

    The awards ceremony Saturday evening crowned the Chinese film director, Feng Xiaogang, as the best actor for his performance as an old gangster who rallied his old-time friends to rescue his kidnapped son in the film “Mr. Six.”

    The best actress title went to a lesser-known Karena Lam from “Zinnia Flower.” Lam, playing a woman struggling to cope after her fiance is killed in a car accident, edged out Shu Qi, a veteran actress and two-time Golden Horse winner who starred in “The Assassin.”

    “The Assassin” is a martial art film featuring a trained female killer who is faced with an impossible choice between love and duty. It also won the best cinematography, best makeup and costume design and best sound effects.

    The best new director went to Bi Gan, a 26-year-old independent filmmaker, for his movie “Kaili Blues,” a dreamlike story of a doctor in a rural town in Guizhou Province, Southwest China and his journey along the Kaili River where he finds his present, past and future all woven together. Chinese director Jia Zhangke won the best original screenplay for his film “Mountains May Depart.”

    (SD-Agencies)