Taiwan’s top television gala The Golden Bell Awards held it’s ceremony last Friday night in Taipei. I haven’t been following along since, for the most part, I didn’t watch most of the dramas or performances nominated. I didn’t really care who won, as long as the winner was deserving, but I remained casually rooting for Joseph Chang to win Best Actor and Sonia Sui to win Best Actress. The awards ceremony ended up being wayyyyyy more memorable for the number of upsets and the shit that happened behind-the-scenes than anyone caring about who won.
Tian Xin won Best Actress over Sonia’s widely-lauded performance in The Fierce Wife, and in the biggest upset of the century (this one beats out Mark Chao winning over Vic Zhou in 2009), Wilbur Pan beat four other Best Actor contenders for his performance in Endless Love. I have been headdesking all weekend, and so has the Taiwan media and netizens, where the upsets are being diced and sliced for its ridiculousness.
I honestly wasn’t expecting Joseph to win, because Drunken to Love You was ultimately a fluffy idol drama that dragged towards the end and involved lots of pratfalls and silliness galore. Joseph and his DTLY co-star Rainie Yang first presented the award for Best Actress. Then came the Best Actor award, where afterwards Rainie consoled Joseph on losing. I think Joseph’s loss was not all that surprising, but losing it to Wilbur is what makes the loss bizarre and incomprehensible.
I think the loss by pretty much the entire cast of The Fierce Wife was the biggest collective face palm of the night. The only winner from that cast was Amanda Zhu in the Best Supporting Actress category, which was well-earned. Everyone else got shafted so bad the producers of TFW chewed out the Academy that very night. Ouch.
Sonia was so upset she visibly cried at the SETTV party afterwards. But it was partially because the girl had a triple whammy of a bad awards night. She started the night posing with James on the red carpet for the media, where she showed so much leg she actually showed something else. And it was captured by cameras and immediately became infamous.
Next she lost her award, but then had to get it together to go onstage immediately afterwards to present the award for Best Actor. When she opened the envelope and saw Wilbur’s name, apparently when the camera cut away Sonia was so shocked she visibly rolled her eyes on stage and said “I don’t believe this” out loud. Wilbur was in China so didn’t show up to accept the award in person, mostly because no one expected him to win, including himself. Anyways, so Sonia really had a rough night, and some anonymous Academy fogey leaked to the media that Sonia lost her award because she was so high profile and with all the media and fans expecting her to win, it created a backlash with the Academy voters. Uhm…..okay……what a bunch of bullshit.
I’ve never taken The Golden Bells (or any awards show) seriously as any validation of merit. It’s nice if you win, doesn’t matter if you lose. But this year’s Golden Bells were just egregious and unfathomable. James Wen has become the Susan Lucci of the Golden Bells, this year being the 4th year in a row he’s been nominated for an award, and the 4th successive year he’s lost. I’m glad he and Sonia were there to comfort each other. DTLY and TFW gave both sets of lead actors priceless name-recognition, so I say it’s fine for them to give a collective middle finger to 2011 Golden Bells and call it a night.
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how is the voting system in Taiwan? Is it anything like the voting system in the U.S.?
(like i'd know :P) But is it really an unfair system? They should just be humbled enough to get nominated though.
I'm not sure either. Frankly, I didn't even know there was a voting system!! -.- lol. i feel so sad for james wen and sonia sui. they are really the most serious taiwanese actors I know. i have nothing against idol actors and acknowledge their efforts, but c'mon! are taiwanese voters that easily swayed by an actor's popularity versus an actor's substance?
I really liked Wilbur Pan in EL so I don't mind his win.
Re: Sonia. Lesson n1 - wear underwear!
This is not connected to the awards, I was just browsing through the pictures... and I just had to say that I am amazed that Rainie Yang's zipper and the ends are showing (like it was a makeshift dress made at the last minute, IMO!)and that woman in black in the other picture is showing off more than her leg (Is that her cr*tch?!)when she parted her slit!
I disliked Rainie's outfit too... The zipper was a horror. She is underdressed for the occasion, should have worn a more formal gown to match her elegant hard and earrings.
Exposed zippers have been the obsession of designers for a few years now...it's so common I don't even see them anymore LOL
Rainie's dress was from the Lanvin Fall 2011 couture collection. It's hardly makeshift. Oddly edgy on purpose might be more like it. That's just Rainie's style though. She doesn't have very sophisticated tastes, she tends more towards playful.
she looks good in it anyways...
Lanvin Ruched Dress
http://www.elle.com/Elle-Shops/Elle-Shops/Product/(id)/291698315
Price: $4,225.00
Oddly enough crotch shots are SUPER common...I guess perhaps not in Taiwan LOL
I thought both James and Sonia should have won... I felt their disappointment...
thanks for the recap
i personally thought sonia did a nice job...so she should have won!
as for james wen, hope he wins next yr
i'm surprised joseph didn't win since DTLY was so popular
Haha I posted in the other Golden Bell Award post on the results..but I was so disappointed for TFW who went in with the most noms and walked away with only Amanda's! I can't believe that I was right that Amanda turned out to be a bigger lock than Sonia's...
I didn't watch the Tian Xin or Will's drama, so I can't say they did/didn't deserve. But they must have done a HECK of a job to beat James and Sonia. And that's a bit hard to believe.
Being the favorite works against you? Doesn't that just indirectly admit to the awards not being about the performance??!??!
Wow, poor Sonia. What a sucky night.
I'm kinda hesitant to being sympathetic to Sonia. Sure she gave a great performance but who knows? Maybe Tian Xin's performance was great as well. And as an actress she definitely should have been more professional. Winning or losing, it comes with the job. Wasn't it a while ago that she said that she didn't care if she won the golden bell...uhhh right.
And that dress! Good grief! I knew that situation was going to happen one day. Those high slit dresses can be tricky and they finally showed why underwear IS A MUST!
woah...i dont actually follow the happening of the T-entertainment industry much but this sounds pretty outrageous....a lot of folks i know were seriously rooting for Sonia...really sucky night for her..and damn that is some awful wardrobe malfunction O__O
Uh ehm. Thanks for the post. All I can say is Joseph and Rainie :-)