Mark Lee and Peter Yu win awards for Wonderland at Ho Chi Minh International Film Festival
Lee won Best Actor Award, while Yu took home Best Supporting Actor Award. The local film has already picked up an award at Palm Springs International Film Festival earlier this year.
Singapore film Wonderland has scored another win – or shall we say, two wins – this time, a Best Actor Award for Mark Lee and Best Supporting Actor Award for Peter Yu at the Ho Chi Minh International Film Festival on Saturday (Apr 13).
In January, the same film had picked up the Local Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for promoting understanding and acceptance between people. The other contenders in the category were from the US, UK and Poland.
Lee took to Instagram to announce the good news, writing: “This is my first international award! Thank you judge! Thank you director! Thank you producer and screenwriter! Thank you to all the cast and crew! Thank you! Thank you!”.
Producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Mocha Chai Laboratories Michelle Chang congratulated the actors’ wins with a statement: “This is Mark’s first acting award in a feature film. Seeing Mark and Peter move the audiences here in Vietnam made us even more confident that Wonderland’s themes transcend boundaries and borders and are universally relatable”.
In an earlier interview with CNA, Lee recounted that he understood the story of Loke, the single father he portrayed in the film. “In this movie, my daughter is about 20 years old. I personally have two daughters, one 15 and the other 11. So, I know a father’s love for his daughter. When I read the script, I understood the story and what it was trying to tell.”
It was a breakout character for the Mandarin-speaking veteran actor. “For so many years, I tried to change my style or play a new character. People have always known me to play the ah beng or gangster,” said Lee.
The Mandarin and Hokkien language film was set in 1980s Singapore and required Lee to speak Hokkien. “I was so happy when the director told me I would be speaking entirely in Hokkien in the movie!” Still, he conceded that there was homework to be done. “The Hokkien spoken then and now are different, so I had to do some research.”
In the same interview, Chang said that the heart-warming film had three layers: The father-daughter relationship; the friendship between Lee’s character, Loke, and Yu’s character, Tan; and “the community that Loke and Tan operate in”.
“There is a very complicated white lie running through the movie. And sometimes in life, we have no choice. In order not to hurt somebody, we have to make up a beautiful lie to help the other party’s life go on," she said.
Wonderland will be playing in Singapore cinemas from Aug 8.