Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Director Zhang Dalei's (張大磊) "The Summer Is Gone" (八月) bagged the Golden Horse Award for best feature film on Saturday, giving the Chinese film a total of two awards at the ceremony in Taipei.
"The Summer Is Gone," which entered the competition with six nominations, came away with best feature film and best new performer for 10-year-old actor Kong Weiyi (孔維一).
The black-and-white drama, set in the 1990s in a small town in western China, is about a boy's last summer vacation before he enters junior high school.
He and his friends spend their days carefree but with little to do while the adults around them are rocked by the loss of job security as China drastically reforms its state-owned enterprises.
Judges said the film takes a look at the world of the adults through the perspective of a little boy. It is not only about the growth of a boy, but "a reflection on how to deal with people, on institutional changes and on memories of the era," judges said.
(The Summer Is Gone trailer from TGHFF YouTube channel)
"The Summer Is Gone" was Zhang's first feature-length film as a director, and in his acceptance speech, he said really did not expect to win the award.
"I dare not take this award. It's too heavy, too heavy," said the director from Inner Mongolia, adding that he had seen his attendance at the Golden Horse Awards as a "pilgrimage."
"In my heart, the Golden Horse Awards is like an altar," the 34-year-old director said, citing filmmakers from Taiwan's "New Wave" cinema movement as having inspired his interest in film.
(Scene from "The Summer Is Gone." Photo courtesy of Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee)
The film also won the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival's FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize, which was presented on Friday.
The other nominees for this year's Golden Horse best feature film were Taiwanese director Chung Mong-hong's (鍾孟宏) black comedy crime film "Godspeed" (一路順風), Myanmar-Taiwanese director Midi Z's (趙德胤) drama "The Road to Mandalay" (再見瓦城), Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's (馮小剛) melodrama "I Am Not Madame Bovary" (我不是潘金蓮), and crime thriller "Trivisa" (樹大招風) by Hong Kong directors Frank Hui (許學文), Jevons Au (歐文傑) and Vicky Wong (黃偉傑).
(By Christie Chen)
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