On April 16, the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation Ceremony was held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. In the end, Zheng Xiuwen won the Best Actress Award for her role as Aunt Tianmei in the new film "Flowing Water and Falling Flowers".
After experiencing 9 Academy Awards Best Actress "nominations", Zheng Xiuwen finally seized the opportunity and dreamed of coming true!
The organizers obviously recognized that this was an excellent news point, so they arranged for Andy Lau to come on stage to present him with an award, and Hua Zi was also very cooperative, taking the initiative to say "I love you" to Cheng Xiuwen on stage, and the atmosphere was immediately full.
In more than 20 years, the two have collaborated on 10 films, including 8 times as a couple, what is a "golden partner". Zheng Xiuwen's first film "Lonely Man and Widow" nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards is co-starring Andy Lau.
After taking the stage, Zheng Xiuwen was very excited, and she delivered a four-minute acceptance speech:
For me, this award is out of reach, and only one step away... How did my acting improve and transform? Some people think that I am a comedian and turn into a drama, but there are actually many difficulties. For so many years, I have not thought about how to win awards, but how to improve and transform in acting. Transitioning from a comedian to a formal drama, there are many difficulties along the way, and there are many that are not recognized. Thank you for coming across this script, thank you to the director of "Flowing Water", thank you for believing that I can play this role.
She also thanked her deceased father, "My father loves art, he once said that every performance I perform seems to fulfill his lifelong dream, I hope that today's award can put together a more beautiful puzzle in your artistic puzzle." I want to say to people who have dreams in the world that the road to pursuing dreams is difficult, but I hope you will continue to remember this picture, dreams are reserved for those who never give up. ”
Finally, she raised the trophy and shouted: "I'm really happy, I finally don't have to run on this track this time, I can finally cross the line with my head held high... I want to hum a few songs with you softly, because I am a singer - do you know, do you know, I wait until the flowers are also thanked. ”
Cheng Xiuwen's Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actress has a long road to winning, and the previous nominated films are as follows:
"Lonely Men and Widows" (2000, with Andy Lau)
Zhong Wuyan (2001)
"Slim Men and Women" (2001, with Andy Lau)
"Live-in Honey Friends" (2001, directed by Ma Weihao)
"Long Hate Song" (2005, directed by Guan Jinpeng)
High Altitude Love II (2012)
"Blind Detective" (2013, with Andy Lau)
"The Taste of Peppercorns" (2019, directed by Mak Xiyin)
"Murder in San Jose" (2020, directed by Pan Yuanliang)
It can be seen from the above that Zheng Xiuwen has cooperated with To Qifeng in five movies, it can be said that she is the love of director To Qifeng, and she is also the first director to dig out her acting talent.
But realistically speaking, these movies are all commercial films, although Zheng Xiuwen's acting skills are passable, but to really win the Academy Award for Best Actress, not to talk about acting skills and shaping ability, the role itself lacks depth.
"Long Hate Song" once made Zheng Xiuwen full of expectations, it is said that in order to pursue a breakthrough in performance, Zheng Xiuwen lost weight many times for the heroine Wang Qiyao in a short period of time, and was under pressure, which eventually led to an emotional breakdown and a depression outbreak, and stopped work for three years before gradually recovering.
But Zheng Xiuwen still lost, and the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actress finally fell on Zhou Xun of "If Love".
Zheng Xiuwen was nominated for Best Actress at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards at the same time with "The Taste of Peppercorns" and "Murder in San Jose", but unfortunately met Zhou Dongyu in "Young You", with Zhou Dongyu's performance in this movie, Zheng Xiuwen had no chance to win at all.
In this way, among Zheng Xiuwen's previous 9 nominations, the most likely to win the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress is "Long Hate Song", but frankly speaking, in terms of acting skills, she is far from Zhou Xun.
Her new film "Flowing Water and Falling Flowers" is directed by Jia Shengfeng, which takes foster families as the theme and records the psychological journey of a bereaved couple after becoming foster parents, like "flowing water" foster children let the two regain their feelings of parents, and finally got spiritual healing.
Aunt Tianmei, played by Zheng Xiuwen, is reminiscent of Mao Shunjun's "Golden Flower" that won Best Actress at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards, both films take the realistic route, focusing on the fate of small people, and the complexity of the characters themselves also gives Zheng Xiuwen's acting skills room to give full play. It is said that in order to play the role of foster mother, she starred in zero pay and without makeup, and also sang the theme song.
In addition, she also won the best original film song at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards: "I Live Like This for a Day" ("Flowing Water and Flowers" theme song).
After struggling for 22 years, Cheng Xiuwen finally won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actress as she wished, no wonder she was so excited at the awards ceremony.
As a diva, Zheng Xiuwen cannot avoid the troubles of ordinary people, including love, especially her husband Xu Zhi'an's cheating incident four years ago, which caused her a great blow
But time will eventually dilute everything, although she is thinner in the camera, but after all, it is a relationship for many years, and it can be broken if it can be said. In the end, she chose to forgive.
This time, Zheng Xiuwen dreamed of winning the Best Actress of the Hong Kong Film Awards, and it was supposed to be Xu Zhi'an sitting next to him to congratulate him, but such a picture did not appear, and Zheng Xiuwen did not mention Xu Zhian on stage.
A reporter asked her if she wanted to thank her husband, and she bluntly said that the two had been texting and would go home to thank him, "He should have prepared the potato chips I want to eat." ”
Love is passion and embrace, but also forgiveness and tolerance, it seems that Zheng Xiuwen has recovered in love!
Zheng Xiuwen is not the most beautiful, the acting talent is not very strong, over the years, she has also encountered various physical and love tribulations, but she has not given up, has been working hard, as she herself said, "dreams are left to those who never give up".
Her award is even more inspiring for ordinary people!
Author and editor of this issue: Wang Jinyue
Executive producer: Zhou Nanyan