Jet Li, the martial-arts film star, earned the best actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards for his kung fu movie Fearless on Monday.

 

 

The selection committee praised Jet Li's performance in Fearless as "relaxed and smooth." Jet Li beat out strong rivals Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung. Upon receiving the news Monday evening he was happy and surprised.

 

"Are you kidding?" he said. "Winning the award with Fearless means so much to me. I wanted to achieve a perfect balance between kung fu and the story in the film."

 

Chinese mainland actress Gong Li won the best actress award for her performance in the film Curse of the Golden Flower. She beat out another Chinese mainland actress Zhou Xun to win the honor for her role as a tempting and fearsome queen.

 

Gong Li said through her representative that she was delighted to win the award and indicated she'd continue to put more effort into her performances.

 

(CRI January 24, 2007)