2nd Asian Film Awards - # 1

March 17th turned out to be a pretty cool day... rather unexpectedly cool. 

I had just come back from a tiring trip to Guilin w/ my mother the night before, but we were able to get some last minute tickets to the Asian Film Awards courtesy of jetli.com.  In fact because Narom couldn't make it,  I was lucky enough to get a coveted ' all access' pass to the show  in order to take pictures for Jet and for AnD.   Score!

In case you missed them, the official Jet Li photo album from the event is here:

http://www.alivenotdead.com/jetli/2nd+Asian+Film+Awards-profile-120465.html

But I'm going to borrow a few from there and also put in a few extras that didn't make the 'official' cut...  (which is which is obvious from the watermarks...)  The behind the scenes commentary of course is 100% unofficial! :-D

中国の桂林の旅行次日とても面白かったイベントを参加した。アジア・フィルム・アワードへ行った！香港のコンベンションセンターで在りました。僕はジェット・リーのサイト為に写真を撮った。ジェット様からアール・アクセス・パースをもらった。すごい！ ジェット・リーのフォトアルバムはここです。見て！このブログでExtra写真と話を入っています。。。

I was quite excited when we got there.  And I think my mom got a kick out of going too, although i think she was a little disappointed that our  tickets did not permit us to walk down the red carpet. :-P

I sent her upstairs to the cocktail reception so I could take photos unhampered.  Lots of artists coming in and posing for the pictures and doing TV interviews...  which means of course - lots of reporters:

Doh, can't see much from here.  But luckily I was able to get around all that... 

記者団一杯居た。でも僕はもと近いいけました。

When I first got in I snapped a few pics of some 'stars'... at the time I didn't realize it, but I actually see the girl in grey on the bus TV channel all the time... I just took a picture of her because she was super attractive,  only later did Giitell me that she was Kate Tsui, former Miss HK.　ケイト・ツイは何年前のミス香港でした。綺麗過ぎよ！

Of all the famous actors and actresses, I was most impressed with Hsu Chi...  she was escorted by Hou Hsiao-hsien... yes he's a famous director, but I was a bit annoyed that he kept getting in the way of my coveted Hsu Chi photos! :-P

doh!

doh!  Hou, you're not even looking the right way so I can't even use this picture for you! :-(

Finally I got a few good ones while she was on stage.  Radiant!

Unlike the press,  my pass actually allowed me to go right up to the stage... which was good, cause my tiny pocket sized point and shoot camera was by far the most amateur of anyone there... I really need to buy a more impressive looking camera! :-P

As this is an international event, there were also a lot of foreign 'stars'...

From the award winning Korean film 'Secret Sunshine', actor Song Kang-Ho, actress Jeon Do-yeon and director Lee Chang-dong.  I've seen Song in a bunch of movies like JSA, so I recognized him, and I knew that Jeon had won Best Actress at Cannes...   

A few more attractive people,  this time they're both looking the right direction!

Taiwanese actor Chang Chen and Korean actress Song Hae Gyo.

Although she wasn't nominated Miriam Yeung made an appearance in a pretty attractive outfit:

She came in by herself,  no directors getting in the way, thankfully!

As you can guess, there was a big commotion when the man came in himself:

Basically this was the whole reason I was there, so I made sure to get some good pics.  ( see the album for more)

After Jet came in, I relocated up to the upper floor where the awards show was actually taking place,  they had another red carpet area w/ another set of photographers taking pics:

Here's Harvey Weinstein (founder of Miramax films) with Bey Logan.

Double nominee Joan Chen stops for photos...

(the only person my mom actually recognized without me explaining who she was... since she's at least watched 'The Last Emperor'). 

I went 'back stage' momentarily to find Jet after he finished up a TV interview.  I didn't find him, but I did stop to ask one Japanese artist if she'd be willing to take a photo for jetli.com / alivenotdead.com:

Yes, its Nakatani Miki... who you may better know as 'Hermes' from the popular ' Densha Otoko' (aka 'Train Man').  She won the year before for her role in 'Tokyo Tower', and was here as a presenter this year. 

I was just expecting to take a nice photo and then run off to find Jet,  but ironically she and her management staff started asking me for a card and started discussing jetli.com and AnD...    Miss Nakatani was quite nice... but unfortunately my japanese is not good enough to really explain AnD in a reasonable amount of time. doh! :-P

It was my first time in the event hall here at the Convention Center...   

At the opening it was pretty full.  But as you can guess with these kinds of shows,  not everyone stays the whole time (every time they stopped for a commercial break a lot of people made a run for it).

Up in the front were the VIPs and nominees...

Not all of them were there yet:

The guy in the red tie is the Chief Secretary of HK,  for some reason right now he is acting Chief Executive and gave the opening speech on behalf of Donald Tsang...   but why is the seat next to him empty?  who's seat is that?

Let's take a closer look:

You probably can't read it that well, but yes, the name on the seat is 'Tony Leung'  (as in 'Lust, Caution' --  erotic spy thriller Tony Leung).

As much as I'd like to have just jumped into that seat and start chatting w/ the head of the HK government,  I was much more tempted to sit in these empty seats instead:

Yes, thats Lau Ching Wan sitting next to Hsu Chi (and the back of famed Japanese director Yamada Yoji). 

During the show I snapped a few pics too...

L:  Joan Chen accepts the award for Best Supporting Actress. R: 2R presented the award for best score (if I remember correctly).

Towards the end of the show, the reason Hsu Chi and Lau Chingwan were there was soon clear:

They were presenting the Best Actor award.

The winner was Tony Leung...  unfortunately I didn't get a really clear picture of him! :-(

(and unfortunately Jet didn't win for his great performance in 'The Warlords'...  doh,  maybe he'll get it for the HK Film Awards next month!) :-D

If you want to see the results of the awards show,  check this out:

*

Secret Sunshine Dominates 2nd Asian Film Awards

3/18 6:52PM

I have some more pics from the 'after party', but let me leave with this great picture of two beauties I ran into at the end of the show: