Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien scooped top honours at this year's Golden Horse film awards in Taipei today, with his "Assassin" winning five gongs, building on his success at Cannes earlier this year.
As expected, "The Assassin" grabbed the two most coveted prizes, best feature and best director awards in a tense contest between 39 film nominations at the 52nd edition of the Golden Horse, touted as the Chinese-language equivalent to the Oscars.
Accepting the award for best director, 68-year-old Hou termed shooting films as his "life-time work and dream" and pledged to keep making them for the rest of his life.
"I want to thank my team for their hard work and want to thank the jury for awarding this honour," he told stars and guests at the ceremony at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
"I hope I can shoot more films with the Tang Dynasty as a backdrop. I read lots of stuff about this when I was a student," he added.
"The Assassin", which led the field with 11 nominations, also snaffled up awards in the categories of best cinematography, best makeup/costume design, and best sound effects.
Hou was also awarded Outstanding Taiwanese Film-maker of the Year, for what organisers describe as his "achievement and uncompromised perseverance".
Set in ninth-century China, "The Assassin" is a slow-burning minimalist movie with Taiwanese megastar Shu Qi playing a highly trained female assassin sent back to her home province to kill its governor, who is also the man she loves.
Hou won the best director category for "Assassin" at Cannes in May and has since said he is hoping the movie will garner an Oscar.
Also up for best film were "Thanatos, Drunk" from Taiwanese director Chang Tso-chi, a drama about two sons of an alcoholic mother and their dysfunctional lives; Hong Kong director Philip Yung's crime thriller "Port of Call"; black-and-white movie "Tharlo", the tale of a shepherd by Tibetan director Pema Tseden; and "Mountains May Depart", a family saga from Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke.
Film critics had praised the strong field, but Hou was favourite to win.
"I'm not saying the other films are not good -- they are all good, but not good enough to take on 'The Assassin'," Kelly Yang, a Taipei-based cinema critic, told AFP.
Hou's foray into ancient China tapped "fundamental human nature, which is universal", said Yang.
