Golden Horse Awards: Hong Kong's Chung Suet Ying crowned best actress

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) Hong Kong actress Chung Suet Ying (鍾雪瑩) was crowned best leading actress at the 61st Golden Horse Awards (GHA) ceremony on Saturday for her role in the drama "The Way We Talk" (看我今天怎麼說), a film about the love, friendship and struggles of deaf people.

In the movie, Chung portrays Sophie (素恩), who is deaf and longs to blend in with "normal" people by directly communicating with them with the help of a cochlear implant.

In her acceptance speech, Chung said she hoped her character would inspire all those feeling sad or struggling to adapt to a new phase of life to follow their passions, which could lead to unexpected discoveries.

Using sign language, Chung thanked the hearing-impaired people in Hong Kong for helping with sign language in the movie -- a crucial plot device -- because the film may not have been completed without their efforts.

Chung emerged victorious in the tightly contested category, beating out previous Golden Horse Best Leading Actress Award winners Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉) and Sandra Ng (吳君如), as well as Kimi Hsia (夏于喬) from Taiwan and Patra Au (區嘉雯) from Hong Kong.

Chung made her cinematic debut in the 2021 Hong Kong drama "Time" (殺出個黃昏) as a secondary school student who puts a hit on herself after being dumped by her boyfriend. Her role earned her best new performer and best supporting actress nominations at the 40th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2022.

Saturday's award marked Chung's first Golden Horse win. In 2023, Chung was nominated GHA Best Leading Actress for her role in "The Lyricist Wannabe" (填詞撚) as a high school student and aspiring lyricist who goes to great lengths to land herself a deal in the recording industry.

The awards are considered the Chinese-language Oscars and are one of the most prestigious film events in the Chinese-speaking world.