China sends "Hidden Man" for Oscars' Foreign Film bid

15 Oct – While Dante Lam's "Operation Red Sea" is the representative film for Hong Kong, China has decided to submit Jiang Wen's "Hidden Man" to compete for Best Foreign Language Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards.

As reported on Mingpao, the movie that is directed by Jiang Wen, is set in the 1930s and revolves around a young swordsman who returns home to try and solve a five-year-old murder case.

The movie is described as the third instalment of Jiang's gangster trilogy that started with "Let the Bullets Fly" and followed by "Gone with the Bullets". It stars Eddie Peng, Liao Fan, and Jiang Wen himself.

"Hidden Man" has also recently received six nominations at the 55th Golden Horse Awards, including Best Director and Best Supporting Actress.

The decision, however, has puzzled many critics, who mostly speculated Zhang Yimou's "Shadow" to be the obvious choice to represent China.