MCLC: Golden Shrimp Awards

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Golden Shrimp Awards
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Source: Taipei Times (12/26/11):
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2011/12/26/2003521638

Worst-case scenariosThe Golden Shrimp Awards name and shame Taiwan’s
greatest cinematic blunders
By Ho Yi  /  Staff Reporter

While the Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) handed out accolades last month to
high achievers in the movie industry, the Golden Shrimp Awards (金蝦獎), a
new endeavour that aims to honor the worst of the worst, has released its
roll call of shame.

The word “shrimp” (hsia, 蝦) was chosen because it is a Mandarin homophone
for blind (瞎), which can also mean thoughtless and stupid. For the first
edition, four jurors, including noted film critics Ryan Cheng (鄭秉泓) and
Regina Ho (何瑞珠), chose nominees from Chinese-language films released
between October last year and September this year in Taiwan.

Netizens were asked to cast votes, and the full results will be made
public today.

Among the contenders, Seediq Bale 2 (賽德克‧巴萊下) picked up the Worst
Moment 
Award for its unpolished CGI effects, Hong Kong director Christopher Sun (孫
立基) won the Worst Director Award for his erotic 3D film 3D Sex & Zen:
Extreme Ecstasy (3D肉蒲團之極樂寶鑑), and Taiwanese director Chu Yen-ping (朱
延平) 
bagged the Worst Film of the Year Award for his Just Call Me Nobody (大笑江
湖).

Backed by government funding of NT$20 million, Just Call Me Nobody is a
dreadful movie full of embarrassingly dated jokes. Its box office takings
in Taiwan amounted to about NT$1.4 million.

Films funded by government subsidies did particularly well in the Golden
Shrimp Awards.

“I have reviewed Taiwanese movies [for the past decade], and each year I
come across lots of terrible movies subsidized by the government. The same
thing happens year after year. And I think, not as a film critic, but as a
taxpayer, that the whole situation should be subject to public debate and
discussion,” said Ho, a senior reporter at the CTI Television
Incorporation (中天電視公司) and film critic who writes for publications
including Next Magazine (壹週刊) and Eye-Movie (台灣電影筆記).

According to statistics compiled by Ho from the Government Information
Office (GIO, 新聞局), other poorly performing subsidized films include Who
Is 
the Murder (人不是我殺的, 2004), Wolf (狼, 2005) and Down to Love (好想談個戀
愛, 2006). 
Who Is the Murder broke the box office record for the lowest grossing film
of all time, raking in some NT$3,960 in Taipei.

Meanwhile, The Treasure Hunter (刺陵), released in 2010, fared a little
better. But in addition to a production subsidy of NT$25 million,
taxpayers also paid NT$4 million to promote the cinematic blooper, which
stars Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Lin Chi-ling (林志玲).

“You don’t have to be a reporter or a film professional to see that there
is something very wrong with the system,” Ho said.

Cheng says that subsidies should aim to encourage “diversity,” and not be
used to make repetitive genre flicks such as Dancing Without You (背著你跳
舞), 
The Tempests of First Love (初戀風暴), Will You Still Love Me (你是否依然愛
我) and 
Me, 19 (我，19歲), all of which were nominated for Golden Shrimp Awards.

Ho, on the other hand, believes that subsidies should be scrapped
altogether.

“Movies are products. If you want to expand the market, you don’t give
money; you invest … People in the industry have to find the market
themselves. If there are funds for screening and marketing, they don’t
even need to have audiences,” she said.