Soul Mate stars make history with joint Golden Horse Best Actress win

They play best friends who fall for the same guy in an acclaimed movie adapted from an Internet novel.

Last night, at the Golden Horse film awards in Taipei, the Chinese world's answer to the Oscars, Chinese actresses Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun made history by sharing the Best Actress Award for their affecting performances in Soul Mate.

Fellow Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, who starred in I Am Not Madame Bovary, had been the favourite to be crowned Best Actress.

Ma Sichun (left) and Zhou Dongyu pose backstage after both won the Best Leading Actress award for their movie Soul Mate at the 53rd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, Nov 26, 2016.Photo: Reuters

Taiwanese dark comedy Godspeed, which had been tipped to win the top awards, won only a minor award for Best Art Direction.

The road movie-cum-crime caper by Taiwan's Chung Mong-hong and starring Hong Kong veteran comedy star Michael Hui, had led with eight nominations for awards like Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Actor.

Nor did The Road To Mandalay, which was shown here at the Singapore International Film Festival last week by Myanmar-born Taiwanese director Midi Z, perform up to pre-show expectations. It did not win any major awards.

At last night's show, singer CoCo Lee sang classic movie love songs like I have Nothing, while Singaporean songbird Stefanie Sun sang a medley of Taiwanese songs.

Peter Ho-sun Chan, Sandra Ng, Toby Lee, Leah Dou, Zhou Dongyu, Derek Tsang and Ma Sichun pose on the red carpet at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei on Nov 26, 2016.Photo: Reuters

French actress Juliette Binoche, Taiwanese star Shu Qi and South Korean heart-throb Song Seung Heon added to the glitz of the event at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

Mandopop star Faye Wong's daughter Leah Dou, whose song for Soul Mate was nominated but did not win for Best Movie Theme Song, performed along with other nominees in the same category.

(The Straits Times)