The nominations are out for October’s 2011 Golden Bell Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Emmys, honoring the best in television for the past year. To no one’s surprise, The Fierce Wife left with the most nominations, among them netting it’s two leads Sonia Sui and James Wen both a best actress and actor nod respectively, and the Xiao San (interloper) herself Amanda Zhu rightfully gets her best supporting actress nod. Only Joseph Chang from the Drunken to Love You cast was nominated in the acting category, though the drama joins The Fierce Wife and a few others to contend for best drama of the year.
Most of the nominations are for local dramas I don’t watch, but the surprise black horse that stunned everyone was Will Pan in the best actor category for Endless Love. Even he was floored. Yeah, I’m not sure where that came from, because Will Pan and good actor does not usually come to mind at the same time. For the most part the Golden Bells really shy away from idol dramas, but I think Joseph totally deserved his best actor nod. Read on for the complete list in the major categories.
Best Drama:
Hakka Theater – Clouds Prop the Sky is Blue 客家劇場—雲頂天很藍
The Fierce Wife – 犀利人妻
Scent of Love – 就是要香戀
The Invaluable Treasure 1949 – 瑰寶1949
Drunken to Love You (Love You) – 醉後決定愛上你
Best Actor:
Jin Shi Jie for The Invaluable Treasure 金士傑／瑰寶1949
Joseph Chang for Drunken to Love You 張孝全／醉後決定愛上你
James Wen for The Fierce Wife 溫昇豪／犀利人妻
Will Pan for Endless Love 潘瑋柏／愛∞無限
Long Shao Hua for The Roadside Chairman 龍劭華／大愛劇場—路邊董事長
Best Actress:
Tian Xin for My Perfect Man 天心／我的完美男人
Sonia Sui for The Fierce Wife 隋棠／犀利人妻
Sara Yu for I Love Mei Jin 琇琴（于子育）／大愛劇場—我愛美金
Chen Jing Jie for Hakka Theater 瑤涵沂（陳靖婕）／客家劇場—雲頂天很藍
Megan Lai for The Invaluable Treasure 賴雅妍／瑰寶1949
I think the only lock among all the nominations in any category is Sonia for her best actress win. She might as well start polishing the mantle right now. I will eat my Koala fur if she doesn’t win. The lady gave a career making performance in a very tough role. The drama itself just doesn’t work for me, but the acting amongst the cast was pretty stellar all around.
yes, i also loved “the fierce wife” because of sonia’s performance. good luck to all the nominees!
My TW friends and I call TFW “the drama where you NEVER let your hot and crazy cousin crash at your house.” EVER. Unless your husband is gay and/or neutered. And maybe not even then.
hahahahaha…
super agree with your friends..
after watching TFW I made it a promise never to let a cousin stay with my family… gay or neutered, it doesnt matter, no girl cousins in the house for me…
Haha I’m a Fierce Wife fan, so I’m really happy that they got all the nods! The theme/story has been done so many times, but the execution & the actors took it up a notch. Definately rooting for Sonia. She was awesome.. but hmm..I think Amanda Zhu is an even bigger lock..(though I don’t really know who she’s up against except for TFW’s Janel Tsai). It really was a performance – she turned what could have been a one note “crazy” character into a real person. (And I think she had the harder role in comparison to Sonia).
I don’t disagree at all about her performance. But part of winning is also the perception amongst the voters in the industry, and Amanda hasn’t quite made a lot of friends that I think she would garner tons of votes. Let’s just say she often hung out by herself while filming TFW. I think she’s a nice girl, but I don’t think she’s a lock.
Sigh I did see those news/rumors about Amanda not getting along with the rest of the cast…but she did basically have most of her scenes with James. The most impt thing to me is that she delivered and was professional on set? It’s unfortunate that it’s not based solely on acting but that’s the reality (for about like every awards show).
Just a question, what kind of series did Megan Lai get nominated for? I do like Megan but am a bit surprised that she sneaked into the Best Actress race!
Not sure about what The Invaluable Treasure 1949 is about. Didn’t watch it. As for Amanda, I think she has a decent shot. Just don’t think she’s a lock is all based on her not being exactly a social butterfly.
Look no further than the great 2009 Best Actor upset of Mark Chao over Vic Zhou. It’s all about the lobbying in the end if the votes are even anywhere near close.
Still bitter about the Vic Zhou vs Mark Chao battle! Tears forever~
Guess i am the only one not impressed by Sonia? Maybe i didnt watch enough episodes of TFW…
She annoyed the hell out of me in Autumn’s Concerto and TFW just about cemented that fact. Does she have any other drama where she plays not the annoying little character that makes the list of the most hated drama bitches of all time?
No, Soler, you’re not the only one not impressed by Sonia. Sonia will always be the model-turn-actress for me, that’s all. What I don’t like most about her acting is how she says her lines. It feels fake.
No no, you mistaken me. I enjoyed Sonia’s performance a lot as well and do want her to win Best Actress. It’s just that I felt that Amanda’s performance which was very good as well was overlooked by many.
well…amanda won for best supporting 0_0
i was expecting sonia…but she didnt
and will pan won too…
Yeah I can’t believe I was correct when I thought that Amanda was going to be a bigger lock…Really thought that Sonia had it in the bag and she deserved it! Sigh really disappointing with the awards this year, can’t believe that TFW almost went home empty handed. Congrats to Amanda for holding it up!!
And cmon, Will Pan???
This is very famous in Phil. This is currently enjoying highest rating. Always the talk in different social networking site in FB, yahoo and twitter. It even trended for two days. But I never had a chance to watch this. Did i just miss one fourth of my life? lol . Think I better check this. Im not really familiar with other T-Drama. Ive seen It started with a kiss, they kiss Again, Hana kimi and Meteor Garden only. Quite new in K-drama too. Ive watched the K-drama Temptation of Wife gulay is sooo long but i like it even my mom ( though we both agreed that Angeline shud be more mean with her revenge) It’s also a hit in Phil and was even shown twice in primetime due to public demand.. Thanks for the post. I actually check and get idea here what to watch and not to watch. Thanks
The Fierce Wife was amazing. Easily the best drama I’ve seen that has tackled the subject of affairs. The characters were so compelling, so complex, so refreshingly mature. I finished the drama two months ago and I still miss the characters from time to time. I especially miss An Zhen! T__T
If Sonia Sui doesn’t win an award for performance, there is no justice!
Actually i was totally surprised by how well Will Pan performed in Endless Love!
‘Cause his acting made me CRINGE so badly in Miss No Good 2 years before Endless Love.
Nonetheless, i could NOT finish that drama..gahhhh
But you gotta admit, Will Pan is a damn good kisser. He’s my Taiwanese Gong Yoo. You can feel the passion just by the way they hold their leading ladies when they kiss. Hot.
He was convincing with female lead of Endless Love…but not so much with Rainie…oh, wait, did they even have a kiss scene?
Also, to comment on your previous comment about Sonia..she was not in Autumn’s Concerto.
Sonia annoyed the heck out of me in P.S. Man (with Blue Lan)..and TFW just pretty much confirms the fact for me…
To ilikehim. There’s no reply button anymore after your post so I just clicked on the nearest. I just don’t know where this will pop out.
Anyway, Rainie and Will did have kissing scenes in Miss No Good. And Amanda was the one I’m referring to, not Sonia, who was in Autumn’s Concerto.
I’m not a fan of TFW’s writing….at all. But I understand the hype and agree with both Sonia and Amanda’s nods. I thought James was soooo weak in it by comparison. :/
Cuz he played such a weak-assed lily-livered man? Hahaha, kidding. Yeah, he was totally the fluff to his two leading ladies substance.
Lulz u r my Mentalist. But frankly I see a potential of a more capable actor to make me peep into that beansized pile of straws inside head, IF I care that is. But seriously James has no chops to offer (not a fan of the superficial, u can tell). I never need likeable but I need to feel things as his char is going through but at meaty scenes esp, I got nth but confused, more so the confusion as an actor unable to keep up with his costars.
I have to agree. But it was more evident in his scenes with the bestfriend. He’s being eaten alive, and not because he’s getting a dressing down in the scenes, he simply can’t measure up. He’s just there, like some kind of a prop or something.
Actually I thought James was good in TFW. Looking at the nominees, he stands a decent chance. This must be his 5th or 6th nomination for Best Actor I think but has never won. Hope he gets it.
“Yeah, I’m not sure where that came from, because Will Pan and good actor does not usually come to mind at the same time”
Easy. For the same reason Hi My Sweetheart! got so many nominations last year: Angie Cai. She’s the producer for both dramas and she’s a part of Golden Bell’s committee. And quite powerful, it seems. Don’t get me wrong, even though I couldn’t finish the drama, Show and Rainie really deserved the nominations. But I will never get over the fact that HMS was nominated for best drama whilst Autumn Concert only got nominated for a minor category…
Agree, I thought HMS didn’t deserve best drama nomination but Show and Rainie did.
Didn’t watch Will Pan so can’t comment if he deserves the nom, he could be good, but I think
Golden Bell committee likes to throw in a small handful of idol
drama actors and actresses for good measure anyway?
I only really started watching TFW in the episode whereby Sonia finally realizes that James heart is really gone. I then decided to backtrack and watch earlier episodes.
Sonia was nailing those scenes for me. Another scene that really left a deep impression was the one where she was facing the paparazzi at the gate and told them
To leave her daughter out of the sordid rumour that Amanda spread about her. It was really nuanced piece of acting, not over the top but yet I could feel the ferocity if her love and protectiveness for daughter.
I’m not crazy about the theme but love the writing and dialogue. I liked how the characters are written, especially Sonia’s role, I was so glad that the part where she did a makeover to spite and try to James regret was short-lived and that she eventually grew as a woman who found her self worth and remained mature and graceful through the divorce.
Me too… 🙂 I only started to like the drama when she finally gave importance to her life than to sulk around after her husband left her for that crazy bitch cousin. lol
I rarely comment but in my opinion, Sonia has come a long way with her acting since the 1st time I saw her in “Magician of Love”. Ms. Koala, thanks a bunch for writing reviews/caps of TW/CH dramas since most bloggers only write abt K-dramas.
Only one I’ve seen on that list is Endless Love which I really liked (very angsty melodrama but with that refreshing twdrama vibe which makes it feel more natural and less overwrought, the way kdrama melos do, for me). I can’t say whether Wilbur Pan’s performance there was out of the ordinary because that was the first thing I’ve seen him in, but I thought he did a good job – I spent the drama alternately wanting to hug and comfort him or smack him so hard I’d break something.
I know I am the sole person in the Universe who feels this way but I simply cannot check out Drunken to Love You due to the title – it’s giving me FTLY flashbacks.
No Material Queen? Booo. Admittedly, I didn’t watch that many twdramas this year, but imo it was the best of the bunch I did watch.
I’m not too surprised with MQ not getting much love, TW critics and audience didn’t like Lynn’s performance at all.
And tbh I’m very sad to say it but it jumped the shark at 10, l’ve dropped it myself after 3 unrecognizable crappily written eps. *sadddddd* it was almost perfect first 10.
Will definitely surprised me with his performance in Endless Love. He delivered his role very well and it’s such a big improvement compared to what he did in Miss No Good. when he cries , I can really feel his angst and sadness. rooting for him all the way though I know his got slim chance to clinch the award. love Fierce Wife and Sonia too , but then I don’t quite agree with James Wen’s nomination.
Hi Koala! I was the one who bugged you about this drama few days ago. lol XD Yea, the nominations didn’t surprise me since the actors for this drama nailed it (except Chris Wang, but I still love him anyway, haha).
Thanks for posting this!! I haven’t done watching this drama cause I’m just viewing it online which is a bit slower since I have to wait for the video to buff and everything. And that makes me really lazy to marathon it. lol At first I wasn’t a fan of this drama cause I hate cheating husbands. But after seeing a glimpse of it, my attention was caught. Probably because I have a teeny-weeny crush on Chris Wang. XD
I really love Fierce Wife too … and I think Sonia has transformed into a good actress .. just compared from her first performance in Magician Love. She started to amaze me in Happy Time and of course her recent work Fierce Wife is also her breakthrough. I put my money on Sonia winning too. If not i would think something wrong with the judge
are they going to make TFW part 2? i left hanging at the end.. lot of things left unanswered. like will ruifan find out she was pregnant.
I don’t think so… besides, it’s much better to leave it at that (in my opinion).
I liked the ending. I cheated and actually watched the last episodes cause I want to see what will happen. Haha! But I’m not yet done with all episodes.
I guess I’ll have to check out The Fierce Wife for Sonia Sui’s performance. I’ve only ever seen her in P.S. Man and I absolutely hated her character and how she played to role. Now I’m intrigued though…
i hope JOSEPH CHANG will win as BEST ACTOR for his performance in DTLY!!!!
actually, I think all their performances in TFW was believable and Sonia Sui was really good…I can see that some see her as a bit annoying but I didn’t think so, she kept the essence of her character even as she evolved as a person and you know she really played the heck out of her character, I really felt her pain seeping through the screen (and she’s really pretty in the last episodes)
I think the drama was well-written, even Amanda Zhu’s character who I curse to the depths of hell has been handled well so that she isn’t s one dimensional
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I think Will Pan’s role in Endless Love was really good… and I saw Miss No Good which was horrible storyline and acting. So I was really surprised on how good Will carried his role, great improvement as an actor for him. I haven’t seen the other dramas… but good luck to them
The Invaluable Treasure …with 寇世勳
i’m foreigner but i ‘ve watched it.it’s a good film.
Let’s see that film…i think you will not regret.
Bravo