50th Golden Horse Awards from Taipei

Taipei knows how to throw a party and welcomed the world's entertainment press to record beautiful people looking beautiful while celebrating another year of the domestic film industry in Taiwan surviving the Hollywood juggernaut, perhaps not unlike the ROC facing the unstoppable force across the Taiwan Strait. Winners in the big categories came from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan itself.

A lot of our (or at least my) favorites were there as nominees, presenters, jury members or red carpet walkers including Maggie Cheung, accompanied by Andy Lau, handing out the Best Actress award. There was a bit of by-play as Maggie Chueng had some flirtatious fun with someone offstage while Andy Lau kept his title of the most elegant man in the world:

Brigitte Lin, in a dress as red as the East, set off perfectly with opera length gloves and Lau Ching Wan broke each other up while presenting the Best Actor award:

After looking very serious while posing for the figures on top of a wedding cake a bit earlier:

Zhang Ziyi, who was in no danger of becoming the Chinese Susan Lucci, picked up the Best Actress statuette on her fourth nomination for her portrayal of Gong Er in "The Grandmaster" and thanked director Wong Kar-wai "for allowing me to encounter Gong Er at the most difficult time of my life and for encouraging me to be brave and believe in myself."
She gave the award the expect from actresses kiss:

Then did a quick change for more statuette cuddling:

Before knocking back a glass of Champagne from a sponsor:

Yeo Yann Yann who is Malaysian according to the press in Kuala Lumpur and who hails from Singapore when mentioned in "The Straits Times", won Best Supporting Actress for her work in Ilo Ilo. The award smooch:

Simple and very sexy:

MTS (Model turned starlet) Guo Shu-Yao who hasn't won anything, showed up to be photographed and succeeded by leading with her strength:

Xinhua; Sina slide; Straits Times

Brigitte Lin goes to the theatre, draws a crowd

"The Absolute Beauty" is running in Hong Kong and Brigitte Lin checked out a performance and went backstage to greet the star, Liu Xiaoqing. The play is centered on Sai Jinhua, a famous courtesan in Nanjing during the Qing Dynasty.

Brigitte Lin and Liu Xiaoqing:

Liu Xiaoqing on stage:

Big smile for the paparazzi:

Simply gorgeous:

Liu Xiaoqing has quite a story: a leading actress in the 1980s, she retired from the stage and became a success in business but ran afoul of the tax laws and served a year in prison. She returned to the stage several years ago.

dongguantoday; Sina slide

Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia: Bathing Beauty

I am sure these images are all over the web and may have been seen by everyone but me. I find them quite striking--although that covers just about any picture of Brigitte Lin. They seem to be taken from some vintage magazines and even a calendar; many are not reproduced well nor, one assumes, can they be.

This looks like a bunch of her magazine covers, badly laid out and cut off by the photographer:

She was (and remains and always will be) a knockout--simply gorgeous:

Sina Slide

Brigitte Lin and Gong Li pictures from 1994 movie set

Some pictures that must have been shot by the unit still photographer on the set of The Maidens of Heavenly Mountains. There are typical stills that might be used for publicity, shots of technicians working with--actually around--the two actresses and candid (or at least candid looking) images of them relaxing between takes while remaining in costume and makeup.

A couple of official stills:



This could be blocking changes with techs on hand to make sure the costumes drape properly in the new set up:

Whatever is going on here, the folding chairs weren't part of the final shot:

Just a couple of superstars sitting around talking:



Sharla Cheung Man also starred in The Maidens of Heavenly Mountains (wearing a long white beard) but she unfortunately wasn't included in this sequence.

Xinhua; Chinese Films

NOTE: Blogger seems to have a new image interface (or I have stumbled upon an old one) that creates images of odd sizes and places them randomly in the post. The old way of uploading images included instructions for the size and location (right, left, center) which it now lacks.

Brigitte Lin reading

Based on the Google Chrome machine translation on fly I wasn't able to figure out what this event was or even what city it was in. There are, however, 40 pictures of Lin Ching-Hsia onstage reading, answering questions from the audience and enjoying a laugh with the moderator. Since it is impossible to have too many Lin Ching-Hsia pictures, here are a few of them:

Sina

Brigitte Lin in Hong Kong for Cartier

Brigitte Lin made an unusual and most welcome appearance at the Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong for luxury jeweler Cartier. She looked fit enough to swing a mean sword at the Dragon Inn or play the Heavenly Dragon Eight Notes on a magic lyre and as a bonus brought her daughter. She seemed perfectly at ease in the spotlight and taking a hint from Mom, wore a little black dress with essentially no accessories. Perhaps it was Take Your Daughter to Work day in Hong Kong.

Brigitte Lin, in answer to the usual questions, said that she had no intention of returning to the movie business. When asked what she would do if a great script was offered to her she said that it would depend on fate which sounds like a polite way of telling the reporter to take a hike.

Sina

Photos of Hong Kong actresses from the 1980s and 1990s

Dennis Lee discovered a collection of photos of Hong Kong movie stars from the recent past at Trouble in Hong Kong. Lovely stuff.

Brigitte Lin

Cherie Chung

Mid 1980s?--a still slightly chubby-cheeked Maggie Cheung

Michelle Yeoh at her wedding to Dickson Poon--1988

Rosamund Kwan

Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk and Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia in "Dragon Inn"

Why we love Hong Kong movies: Maggie Cheung and Brigitte Lin in grainy stills from the original "Dragon Inn". In this Year of the Dragon "New Dragon Inn", a restoration of the original film will be released on February 24, twenty years from the day of the initial opening.

Xinhua

Brigitte Lin at school

Brigitte Lin dropped in at a primary school in Taiwan recently and was a big hit with students, parents and staff.

A perfect look for a winter day in Taipei.

Sina

Brigitte Lin took her daughters shopping for cosmetics in Tsim Sha Tsui

In celebration Sohu did a couple of things: performed the most cursory Photoshop blur of Lin's daughters possible when running their pictures and ran some old and quite nice images of Brigitte Lin and Michael Ying Lee-yuen with their daughters in years past.

Sohu