Double victory: Singapore films Wonderland, A Year of No Significance win at China's Golden Rooster Awards

Two Singapore films have been honoured at the Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival in China on Friday (Nov 15) — Chai Yee Wei's Wonderland and Kelvin Tong's A Year of No Significance.

They won Most Anticipated Chinese-Language Films, a category for Sinophone films from outside mainland China, at the 37th Golden Rooster Awards, alongside Malaysian movie Gold.

Mark Lee, who plays the lead role in Wonderland, said: "So happy that this film was so well-received by the China audience at the screening and at the same time, we won the Most Anticipated Chinese-Language Film too! What a great achievement for the whole team."

He was joined in Xiamen, Fujian, by his co-star Peter Yu, who is also the leading man for A Year of No Significance.

"I am here representing two Singapore films and I cannot believe that both films were given the same award! Sharing the stage with both the directors is going to be one of the highlights of my career," Peter, 56, said.

Both films are among the 75 that are being screened at the festival, which runs from Nov 11 to 24.

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Set in Singapore in 1979, A Year of No Significance sees Peter play a middle-aged architect Lim Cheng Soon who gets sidelined in the office due to his inability to speak English. His wife leaves him, and he also has to contend with his ageing father, who has always preferred his younger brother over him.

In Wonderland, Mark, 55, plays single father Loke who sells his kampung house for a chance to send his daughter Eileen (Xenia Tan) to study in the US. His neighbour Tan (Peter) helps him read the letters Eileen sends from New York, as he is illiterate. When tragedy strikes, Tan and their other neighbours seek to hide the truth from Loke but their lies spin out of control.

In April, Mark won Best Actor and Peter Best Supporting Actor for his role in Wonderland at the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival. The film also won the Local Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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