Chinese actress Zhou Xun speaks after receiving the best actress award at the third Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong Monday March 23. [Xinhua]

Zhou Xun, one of China's hottest young actresses who played a taxi driver searching for her boyfriend in "The Equation of Love and Death," a film by Cao Baoping, was named best actress Monday evening at the Asian Film Awards (AFAs) gala held in Hong Kong.

Zhou said she prepared for her role by asking her boyfriend not visit her on set so she could feel lonely, adding that she had a hard time withdrawing from the character.

"I felt a great sense of loss after finishing the movie," she told reporters backstage.

Chinese actress Zhou Xun celebrates with her trophy after winning the best actress award for her role in "The Equation of Love and Death" at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong March 23, 2009. [Xinhua]

Altogether Japanese cinema has dominated the AFAs, with "Tokyo Sonata" winning best picture and Hirokazu Koreeda named best director for another family drama, "Still Walking."

Riding on the success of its recent best foreign film win at the Oscars, a third Japanese movie, "Departures," clinched best actor at Monday night's ceremony for Masahiro Motoki, who played an unemployed cellist who learns how to prepare bodies for burial.