And the Oscar Goes to

Gotta admit, I wasn't really interested by the idea of a film about gay cowboys, no matter how cute they look. But with eight nominations, there's no way I could not watch Brokeback Mountain before Oscar night. All the hype has me believe that this film is Ang Lee's sincerest form of comeback since the green giant tragedy known as Hulk. From what I heard, there's plenty of superb acting to watch for in Brokeback. If the panel of judges doesn't deprive these new actors of recognition just because they're new, I say the film could very well land six of its eight nominations, including best directing, best motion picture, and best screenplay.
I also can't wait to see Munich, Transamerica, Match Point, and Crash (not sure if the latter three would actually makes their way to Hong Kong cinemas).

Perhaps, Love didn't make the foreign language film nomination. No surprise there. A musical by a successful Hong Kong director called for great expectations. He got the city's best singer/actor Jacky Cheung, one of our motherland's best actresses Zhou Xun, the world's hottest Asian man Takeshi Kaneshiro, and an intriguing storyline. He had all the elements to make it work, But it just didn't work. The final product wasn't bad in any way, it just wasn't good enough. Even I expected more from Peter Chan.

Ziyi Zhang (the "westernized" name Zhang Ziyi now goes by as a step into Hollywood) didn't make the best actress nomination. No surprise there either. She simply wasn't put to good use in her role, other than by looking pretty. (For what she's capable of as an actor, please refer to 2046.) The major elements that made up Memoirs of a Geisha are outstanding in their own rights. Best-selling novel, director of Chicago, kickass actresses Zhang and Gong Li, Japanese setting that offers endless possibilities for art direction and costumes (which I say would probably bring in a win for either art direction or cinematography). Yet put together, the equation was a failure. The film was beautiful, and beautiful was all it was. I really hope the Japanese would make their own version of Memoirs--with Japanese cast, Japanese dialog, and filmed in Japan.

March 5...