KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian director Lau Kok Rui won Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay for his Hong Kong debut film, The Sunny Side Of The Street, at the 59th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday.
According to Says.com, the 32-year-old filmmaker did not expect to win anything for the film that he also wrote and thanked his mentors during the award ceremony known as the Chinese version of the Oscars.
The Sunny Side Of The Street, which tells the story of a Hong Kong-born Pakistani refugee boy who forms an unexpected bond with a local taxi driver, also saw veteran Hong Kong actor, Anthony Wong, winning for Best Leading Actor for his taxi driver role.
The film also garnered nominations for Best Narrative Feature, Best Cinematography and Best New Performer for Sahal Zaman, who can speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Sunny Side Of The Street was produced mainly by Petra Films, a new production company under the Petra Group, run by Malaysian businessman Vinod Sekhar.
For its debut project, the studio reportedly spent an estimated USD1 million (RM 4.57 million) on the film.
Lau, who is a Malaysian-born immigrant based in Hong Kong, said that every refugee has their own set of reasons and problems as to why they flee from their own country.
"This group has its own complexity. Their pressure often comes from the uncertainty and insecurity of the future," he said.
The story in the film is close to Lau's heart since he had lost contact with his father and had to learn to be independent after moving to Hong Kong at a young age.
The film portrays a child who longs for his father's attention and feature's him struggling with wanting to be loved.
"These two main characters, the refugee boy and the old taxi driver, portray my immigrant life. I see this film as a conversation with my father," he said.