The Grandmaster has swept 12 wins at the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards, including best film, best director, best leading actress and best supporting actor.

The film has broken the record for most wins awarded to a single film at the Awards.

The previous record was nine wins, held by Cold Wars and Comrades: Almost a Love Story. It was Director Wong Kar Wai's third time winning best director at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

"The Hong Kong Film Awards have given a huge honor to The Grandmaster. I'm happy for all my team, and the crew members and actors who won today, because they deserved. For the last three years, they really gave so much of themselves for the film."

Few were surprised when Zhang Ziyi won best actress.

This is the ninth award she has received for her role as Gong Er.

"The Grandmaster has brought so much honor upon me. This trophy is my ninth award. There's a Chinese idiom 'To see the light at 99'. I think the Hong Kong Film Awards has given me a new starting line, to start from the beginning and keep working hard. Do a good job with every film and each character and hard work will eventually be paid off."

Unfortunately, The Grandmaster was unable to manage a clean sweep. Tony Leung lost the Best Actor to Nick Cheung for his role in the boxing film Unbeatable.

But considering how intensively Cheung trained for his role in that movie, maybe he deserved the award.

He took the boxing scenes so seriously that he broke the bones in his pinky finger.

(CRIENGLISH.com April 13, 2014)