6th Asian Film Awards nominees bared

Tsui Hark's Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War lead the nominations at the 6th Asian Film Awards.

Three blockbusters from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong lead this year’s competition for the Asian Film Awards, with the 3-D martial-arts movie Flying Swords of Dragon Gate picking up seven nominations, including best film.

That was followed by Yimou's Flowers... and Wei Te-sheng’s two-part, 4-1/2-hour epic, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, with six nominations each, also including best film.

Postcard from Japan, A Separation from Iran, and India’s You Don’t Get Life a Second Time round out the list for best film.

Flying Swords picked up nods for veteran Hong Kong director Tsui Hark and best actor for Chen Kun for his dual role as a power-hungry eunuch and a look-alike treasure hunter. The movie also stars Jet Li as a Ming Dynasty-era general who battles imperial assassins at a remote outpost in the Chinese desert.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou was also nominated in the best-director category for Flowers..., which features Hollywood star Christian Bale as an American caught up in Japan’s brutal occupation of Nanjing in 1937. With a price tag of nearly $100 million, it’s the most expensive Chinese film ever made.

Taiwan’s Wei Te-sheng was nominated for best director for Warriors..., an epic based on the true story of the island’s Seediq tribes, who launched a bloody uprising in 1930 against Japanese rule.

Amid the blockbusters, several high-profile small-budget films were recognized, mainly in the acting categories. The two stars of the hit Taiwan coming-of-age comedy You Are the Apple of My Eye were nominated: Michelle Chen for best actress and Ko Chen-tung for best newcomer.

Deanie Ip and Andy Lau were nominated for best actress and best actor in A Simple Life , about an aging household servant and her master.

Actress Eugene Domingo and screenwriter Chris Martinez of the Philippines were nominated for The Woman in the Septic Tank, a satire on Asian art-house directors making films for Western audiences. The movie was hit in the local market last summer.

This year’s nominations reveal that China “is a growing powerhouse in movies,” said Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, which organizes the awards.

The mix of historical epics and fantasy-action films highlight China’s “ambition to make big movies,” he said. “It’s a sign of how Chinese-language cinema is trying to attract mass audiences.”

In addition to best film, A Separation received four other nominations, including two for Asghar Farhadi in the best director and best screenwriter categories. The film, about a woman seeking a divorce from her husband, has been one of the most acclaimed of the past year and took home the award for best foreign-language film at Sunday’s Golden Globe awards. “This is a film that has resonated throughout the world, and the AFA is no exception,” Mr. Garcia said. “It’s a story that has universal appeal.”

This year’s AFA will be presented on March 19 at a ceremony in Hong Kong. The 12-member jury that will select the winners is headed by Singaporean director Eric Khoo, the first jury president who isn’t part of the Hong Kong movie industry. Past presidents include actress Michelle Yeoh, actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and director Yonfan.

The full list of nominees:

Best Film