'A Simple Life' big winner at Taiwan film festival

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Hong Kong's Ann Hui has won the best director award for her movie "A Simple Life" at Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival.

The jovial veteran director says she was surprised that Saturday's award did not go to one of the promising younger directors also nominated at the event for Chinese-language movies.

"A Simple Life" also won Andy Lau the best actor award and Deanie Ip the best actress honor. Ip plays a domestic helper who copes with her own aging while serving her master, played by Lau.

Lau said the awards would encourage Hong Kong's lagging film industry to keep producing good movies.

The best film award went to Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng's "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," an epic film about an aboriginal tribe's uprising against Japanese colonial rulers.