John Woo (Photo : Reuters)
They may be giants in the film companies' cash registers, but the biggest blockbusters do not seem to fan well among the art crowd. In what is known to be the Chinese version of the Golden Raspberry Awards, the big movies that came out last year were among the worst and "most disappointing films of the year."
The Sixth Golden Broom Awards, organized by the chief editor of Youth Film Handbook magazine Cheng Qingsong, nominates several blockbuster films to be the worst films of the year.
The films marked negatively this year are "The Monkey King" by Cheang Pou-Soi, "Breakup Guru" by Deng Chao, "The Man from Macau" by Wong Jing, "Tiny Times 3" by Guo Jingming, "Fleet of Time" by Zhang Yibai, "The White Haired Witch of the Lunar Kingdom" by Jacob Cheung and "The Crossing: Part 1" by John Woo.
The nominated movies were among the highest-grossing films last year, each earning more than 500 million yuan ($80.49 million) in the box office.
Major actors who graced the films and who belong to the "big league" were nominated as "most disappointing actors." These are actors Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Eddie Peng, Angelababy Yang Yin, Ivy Chen, Lin Chi-ling, Deng Chao, Huang Xiaoming, Mark Zhao, Barbie Hsu and Yang Mi.
Directors of the said films were not spared the humiliation of being nominated as "most disappointing directors." These are John Woo, Deng Chao, Wong Jing, Gujo Jingming and Jacob Cheung. These filmmakers were heavily criticized for their "misfires" last year with their "disappointing films."
The award-giving body will also nominate films and writers for the "most disappointing middle and small budget movies" and "most disappointing screen writers," respectively.
The Golden Broom Awards is the Chinese version of United States' Golden Raspberry Awards, which are given to the worst movies that came out for the particular year. The award-giving body states that China has been making many movies, but the quality seems to be below standards of what they consider to be "good" films.
The voting will be done online from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, 2015. The awards have been going on for the fifth year now, but so far, no nominees have ever showed up to accept their award. Nevertheless, Cheng hopes that someone brave enough to face the humiliation will eventually show up in the awards.
