Thanks for the mention and so glad to see you writing — and at such length too! — once more. Re the Best Actor vote: Mine would go to Jet as well. It’s his best part in years and he made good use of it — And yes, he really *can* act (except maybe in romantic scenes that don’t involve Asia the Invincible… ;S)

I think a large part of the success of Lau Ching-Wan in The Mad Detective is that his expression fits that character so well; he uses his expression or lack thereof better than almost anyone in Hong Kong, whether in comedy or drama. He reminds me of the great character actors in Hollywood of the 1940s or 1950s.

> Eliza: I also have not see The Detective yet so I can’t comment. I agree that Takeshi was too pretty to be in The Warlords. He was very good in his role as usual, but he’s too handsome to be convincing as a savage warrior. Yea, Andy seems like a great guy but wrong guy for that role. He overacted way too much and I can only remember him acting mad, too much cardboard cut out of a character, not enough self-conflict. Just wrong guy for the role. In this year, I prefer Andy in Protege even though they nominated him alongside Protege junkie Louis Koo (wtf?!) for Supporting.

Simon’s gut too much. Plus hasn’t he played this role all the time. Nothing special.

Lau Ching Wan is guilty of finally getting his dues last year so he can wait a bit again. Not like Mad Detective and his performance was mind-blowing good enough to make him a repeat winner. Sort of like Coach of the Year in the NBA, if you are good you are expected to be good, unless you do something special that year.

Knew Jet was a good actor (he was good in Hero) but glad to see him go away from action films unlike Jackie. He’s very good and convincing in The Warlords.

My list would look: Aaron (didn’t watch, no opinion) 4) Andy Lau; 3) Simon Yam; 2) Lau Ching Wan; 1) Jet Li

I hope they give it to Jet. I can’t say for Aaron, but out of the four, Jet is most deserving. Plus think of publicity for him and recognition he can do more than action.

I thought it looked like an arranged publicity stunt. (It would have been cool but I didn’t feel the sincerity, but then again I never can when it is Andy)

On the other hand I love Andy when he is in his “on” mode. (Such as in Running Out of Time, Needing You, Running On Karma, A Fighter’s Blues, Love on a Diet…) he has great box office and lots of star power, he really works hard, multi tasks, helps out the industry and new talents (even though he is betting on the wrong ones) and I liked how he handled the crazy fan situation. So I think getting a “get well” card from one of the Heavenly Kings is a very big deal (and thank you for sharing this with us Sanney )

Anthony Wong can play any -and I mean any- part Lau played just as (and maybe even more) effectively, same goes for Tony Leung CW, I can even add Simon Yam - for that part in Mad Detective- oh I must not forget Eason Chan just because he is younger.

This doesn’t mean Lau was bad, I thought he was great but all of the above could have given a just as good (even better) performances than Lau. But I will stick to my opinion that Mad Detective is not a film in where performances shine (or supposed to shine)

Be careful - I can’t ever remember if it’s ever been in Cantonese because mine is so crap, but as in English - don’t bite the hand that feeds it!

No, but, yeah, but, no, but seriously.

I’m sure Andy Lau Tak-Wah, really appreciates you criticism as the professional he is!

Anyway, aside from that, I haven’t seen any of the films (apart from LUST, CAUTION, which I thought was superb), so I won’t skew the results myself. For once, I am truly impartial to the vote, if only through ignorance!

Jet Li was a total surprise in that film. He *can* act. The scene where he dispatches one of the captured bandits as part of the blood oath early in the film was really understated and powerful. Jet Li’s delivery of the “remember my face to get revenge in the next life” line (I’m paraphrasing) was just perfect without being hammy like Andy’s performance.

Andy is still a god; anyone who jumps off a concert stage to fight his own security guards is pretty bad ass in my book. Your get well card is an awesome gift. Did you get any from Pinky Cheung maybe?

I think Eliza is right; Aaron won last year simply for playing a bad character not for acting; I thought his acting in The Detective was actually better than After This Our Exile but I could be wrong.

Lau Ching Wan deserves to win and I can’t think of any other living HK actor who could have played that part as effectively; Eric Tsang maybe but even he would have hammed it up (no fat joke intended! LOL!)

Looking at the list I think the best performance was Jet’s, he always has been naturally talented and seem to improve. I like the direction of his career too, instead of acting like he is still 30 years old (like Jackie or Donnie) he is in age appropriate roles and improves. So even though I kind of agree with Sanney that it wasn’t a spectacular performance, I think it was the best among them.

- worst Andy’s (it is especially painful that in one scene, he was simply perfect - the scene where they were first standing in front of the government officials- so we were able to see what could be done with the part. I also blame that stupid beard which looked ridiculous.
The person who was hindered by his looks in Warlords was Takeshi Kaneshiro. In every scene he looked like a supermodel and this was the worst performance of his that I have seen.

I like Simon but agree that he should be nominated for Exodus (sublime performance, that one)

Lau Ching Wan is one of my favorite actors and I was sad that the award he took had to be for a part he could have acted in his sleep (and carry some resemblence to his own career). He deserves so much better than this.
Mad Detective though, I think is not an actor’s film. It is enough that everyone does their jobs well (and they all did, even Andy On).

Ooooo long post -