Mark Chao crowned Best Actor of the 2009

The newly crowned Best Actor of the 2009 edition of the Golden Bell Awards emerged yesterday as Mark Chao, but netizens have already started to question the fairness of the judging. They suspect that Mark won because the judges were judging him based on that of a newcomer, so therefore he bested Zaizai (Vic Chou).

The other opinion is that since Mark is signed under Director Tsai as an artiste, he would naturally cut portions of the drama whereby Mark acts better for the judges to see, and therefore he and Zaizai were never fairly judged to begin with.

Committee member Li You-ning explained yesterday: “Judges don’t base their results on the identities of the nominees, they only base the outcomes on the nominees’ performances.” He further said that the actors were based on the performances in two cuts of each show.

“Perhaps each judge has different opinions on acting and aesthetic quality, so we have this system whereby the highest score is 90 and the lowest 70 in case of a too-big difference in the scores. After the results are out, we then ask the judges to review and discuss the outcome, and everyone votes. For the Best Actor award, Mark Chao was leading Zaizai by a huge gap, so there is no doubt about the result.”

Lee You-ning commented that Mark handled all his scenes well, be they emotional or fighting scenes, and the judges really were “shocked” by his performance. He also said that Mark’s award is both an encouragement and a source of stress to him, so the newbie should focus on improving and delivering better works the next time.

However, netizen Sandy stands on Zaizai’s side: “No matter how you look at it, Zaizai’s role was the most challenging, and he also portrayed it so well. It’s unbelievable that Mark Chao got the award instead.”

Another netizen 1541108 also said: “I look down on the production unit, who used Zaizai’s fame as a form of promotion while secretly promoting the newbies. Everything, from lines to the development of character was focused so heavily on them, nobody can stand to be treated like this.”

But there are also others on Mark’s side, saying: “Like what the judges said, because it was Mark’s first time acting, therefore he had no fear and was able to fully express himself via his physical actions. After all, action scenes are more on physical movements and the such, so it’s no surprise that Mark impressed everyone.”