LIFESTYLE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014 Music38 & Movies ‘Blind Massage’ big Golden Horse winner in Taiwan Chinese-French film about blind masseurs The film had been nominated in five catego- and Chinese actor and director Chen Jian- ries. Hui said her win was a surprise and she bin scooped the most accolades at Taiwan’s would have preferred her actress, Tang Wei, to Ast 51 Golden Horse movie awards, considered the win in the best lead actress category. Instead, Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars. “Blind the award went to a lesser known actress, Chen Massage” from Chinese director Lou Ye won six of Shiang-chyi, for “Exit.” “I feel like I have made it, to the seven categories it had been nominated in, be able to win this award for Taiwan. I love Taiwan including best feature film, best cinematography films and I dedicated this for Taiwan,” said Chen and best sound effects. The film, adapted from in her acceptance speech. Chinese director Diao a novel, centers on the lives of workers in a mas- Yinan’s “Black Coal, Thin Ice,” a detective thriller set sage parlor in China’s Nanjing city. in northern China that won the Berlin Internation- The other big winner on Saturday evening al Film Festival’s main Golden Bear prize this year, was Chen, 44, who won best lead actor and best won the award for best art direction. It had been new director for “A Fool” - a film about a Chinese nominated in eight categories. The Golden Horse farmer who meets a homeless man and takes film festival celebrates Chinese-language cinema, him home - as well as best supporting actor for and the awards are the most prestigious in the his role in Taiwanese military drama “Paradise in greater China region. A total of 38 films were Service.” Also at the awards ceremony in Taipei, nominated for 21 awards this year. There was a Ann Hui won her third Golden Horse best director total of 364 entries, 100 more than last year.—AP award for “The Golden Era,” which portrays the turbulent life of Chinese writer Xiao Hong.

Best Feature Film director Lou Ye, third from right, Best New Performer Zhang Lei, second from right and fellow production staff hold six awards for the film “Blind Massage” at the st51 Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday.—AP photos

Chinese director Lou Ye holds Chinese actress Zhang Lei his award and poses for poses for photographers and media for Best Feature Film holds her award for Best New “Blind Massage”. Performer.

Best Leading Actor Chinese actress Chen Jianbin, left, and Zhang Huiwen actress Chen Shiang- Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting and Best arrives at the Chyi hold their awards New Director Actor Chen Jianbin holds his 51st Golden for their film “A Fool” awards for his films “A Fool” and “Paradise in Horse Awards. Service”. and “Exit”. Disney enters awards race with India’s Vidhu Film Review Vinod Chopra works Traces of ‘Into the Woods’ off his anger at Film Bazaar Master Class Sandalwood’ elighting in cross-cultural con- trasts, “Traces of Sandalwood” Dfollows two separated sisters— one awash in the colorful melodrama of Bollywood, the other locked in the sterility of a biology lab in Barcelona. But this opposition proves to be far from absolute in Maria Ripoli’s hybrid English/Spanish-speaking indie: The melodrama is based on painful reality, while the lab is situated amid fantasti- cally contorted architectural landmarks. Vidhu Vinod Chopra With few pretensions to high art, this genuine crowd-pleaser (which snagged an audience award at Montreal), well oa, India—Vidhu Vinod Chopra, writer and producer hough “Into the Woods” debuted in 1986, it’s “a fairy tale for the post- crafted by an all-female crew, seems a of global hit “3 Idiots,” and arguably India’s most 9/11 generation,” said director Rob Marshall at a Q& A in New natural for Indian diaspora distribution, successful film maker, remains something of an an- York after a screening of the film Saturday. The panel session took G with definite crossover potential. T gry young man. “One of the reasons I became successful, place at the DGA Theater in New York and was satellite-fed to the Disney The film begins in high drama as was because I struggled so much with ‘Khamosh’,” he said, main theater in Burbank, a two-birds-with-one-stone approach as the film 6-year-old Mina (Vaibhavi Hankare) describing his 1985 film which has since become a classic, begins industry screenings for awards contention. The director and his saves her newborn sister, Sita, from into an Indian videostore. There, she but which he had to self-release after being rejected by team of artisans will certainly be under Oscar consideration, as will Meryl being drowned as an unwanted female, meets Prakash (Naby Dakhli), who distributors. Streep (top billed, but in a supporting role) and other performers. Variety thereupon taking full aquel Ferespon- introduces her to her sister’s films, and Chopra was speaking Sunday during the Film Bazaar in will run its review in December; after that, there will be more opportuni- sibility for her care. But when their whose openness and quiet persistence, Goa in a master class where he was interviewed by fellow ties to handicap the film’s awards chances in specific categories. mother dies a few years later, their fa- combined with Paula’s sudden cin- film maker Sudhir Mishra. Despite having promised not to, Disney often takes a cautious approach to the awards race, but the ther hands them over to a woman from ematic immersion in a vibrant culture, Chopra peppered his discourse with choice swearwords studio execs seem gung-ho about this one. The film also marks a subtle the city. Sita is left with nuns, despite gradually wear down her defensiveness. in English and Hindi, as he took sideswipes at film festivals shift for the studio. Its “Maleficent” earlier this year and the TV series “Once her sister’s frantic resistance, and young In exec producer/scripter Anna Soler- (“I’m not a festivals kind of man”), digital cinema (“a little Upon a Time” (on the Disney-owned ABC) offer an alternative view of fairy Mina is consigned to a brothel, from Pont’s adaptation of her novel (which bit of laziness has crept in”) and a string of named and un- tales. “Woods” takes that further and deeper, serving notice that “children’s which she narrowly escapes. She finds she co-wrote with Asha Miro), “Traces named distributors and producers. stories” are not just about the Disney Princess line of merchandise. As work as a maid for a rich family, gaining of Sandalwood” constantly plays off the Despite also calling himself “not a likeable person,” and Marshall said, the musical is about what happens following “happily ever an ally in Sanjay, the handsome son of differences between Paula’s buttoned- saying that he “uses hate as a weapon to defend myself,” after.” The filmmaker said he thought the message of the musical, that no the house. down repression and Mina’s effortless the majority of what he had to say was collegial, compli- one is alone, was more timely than ever. “Kids today live in a world much This melodramatic opener is sud- charisma; the unbound sensuality that mentary and common sense. He quoted Ingman Berg- more unstable and fragile than when I grew up.” denly revealed as a film-within-the- Das exuded in Deepa Mehta’s “Earth” man on the need to entertain and Akira Kurosawa on the Streep offered a variation of that, saying kids today have returned to a film, an autobiographical opus that and “Fire” are here channeled into an need for teamwork (“a co-operative workforce based on time when they’re aware of everything. “We lived for a halcyon moment Mina (Nandita Das), now a Bollywood all-inclusive warmth. individual talent”.) He described his unusual 25-year rela- in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” when kids were protected from harsh reality, but superstar, is making with her director But helmer Ripoli and her female tionship with Rajkumar Hirani, the director of 3 Idiots and now they see everything and know “the world is full of darkness and joy.” husband (the self-same Sanjay, now cohorts have granted equal impact to the upcoming Disney-backed blockbuster “PK”. “He is the They’re much more aware, but also resilient. Among others taking part played by Subodh Maskara). The film the siblings’ very different surround- director on set. He starts, I finish,” Chopra said. “I’ll work in in the Q& A was writer James Lapine, who adapted the script from marks the latest effort in Mina’s unend- ings. Mina is seen in dance classes that the lab, but I no longer go on the set of any movie I’m not the stage musical he co-created with Stephen Sondheim. The composer ing 30 -year search for her missing sister. showcase her talents without the usual directing. You don’t want two directors on one set.” wasn’t there, though Streep read a note from him saying he was “laid low dizzying Bollywood costume changes Aside from “PK,” which he produced, Chopra is also cur- by a virus.” Sondheim talked about the pride he and Lapine feel in the Adoptive parents and background shifts, stressing the un- rently finishing English-language drama “Broken Horses,” movie, saying “it is notoriously difficult” to adapt stage musicals to the Mina finally locates Sita in Barcelona pretentious grace and artistry involved which he wrote, directed and produced and which stars screen, but “the Disney film is a happy exception.” and travels with Sanjay to be reunited while still highlighting Mumbai’s rich Anton Yelchin, Vincent d’Onofrio and Thomas Jane. He with her. But little Sita has grown into colors and textures. Meanwhile, Paula’s described it as “the biggest challenge I’ve ever done,” and ‘Status, money and image’ a cold, remote scientist named Paula cool concentration and meticulous ex- “highly satisfying whatever the fate of the film,” At one He gave a lot of credit to Marshall, since he is a veteran of both theater (Aina Clotet), who is totally unaware perimentation at the biology lab unfold point he said he received a phone call from James Cam- and movies. James Corden got the biggest laughs of the evening, but that she was even adopted, much less in an atmosphere of scientific dedica- eron complimenting him on the film’s then anonymous Streep wasn’t far behind, throwing in a few asides about Sondheim’s that she is of Indian descent. Flatly un- tion. D.p. Raquel Fernandez’s blue-gray script. Chopra also described being deluged with remake word choices as she read his note. Corden jokingly talked about one of receptive, Paula angrily and summarily Barcelonan palette, at one with the offers for 3’ Idiots.’ “I’d like to make ‘3 Idiots’ in Chinese, in the late-in-the-film plot twists (no spoilers here) and clowned about how rejects Mina and her story. But a tense frequent seaside scenes, turns positively French and in English. It has touched a lot of people’s lives.” difficult it was to reach his water bottle from the directors chairs he was discussion with her adoptive parents magical when reflected in the contorted He wrapped the session by offering to help young film sitting in. But he got serious when paying tribute to Marshall and Streep, and Mina’s extensive documentation mirrored windows of renowned archi- makers at future editions of the Film Bazaar project market. who is “meticulous about the work” and takes it seriously, but doesn’t take lead her to reluctantly entertain some tect Antonio Gaudi’s whimsical configu- “I’m not a great believer in the festival circuit, but I’m very herself seriously.—Reuters curiosity about her roots and venture rations.—Reuters impressed with Film Bazaar.”—Reuters