China's 'worst' films of 2014 awarded

The 6th Golden Broom Awards were held Monday, revealing the most disappointing films, actors, directors and scriptwriters of the past year.

While the total box office revenue of films shown on the Chinese mainland in 2014 reached nearly 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion), a number of films, including several box office hits, left many of the audiences who paid for them more than a little disappointed.

Tiny Times 3.0, The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom and The Breakup Guru were the winners of the most disappointing film of the year, while Guo Jingmin, director of Tiny Times 3.0, Zhang Zhiliang, director of The White Haired Witch, shared the award for most disappointing director.

Playing a leading character in both Tiny Times 3.0 and The Breakup Guru, mainland actress Yang Mi was crowned the year's most disappointing actress.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen, who had been regarded as the new representative of kung fu after he played the title character in Ip Man (2008), was given the award for most disappointing actor for his roles in Iceman 3D and The Monkey King.

Over the past six years since the Golden Broom Awards ceremony was first established by Youth Film Handbook magazine editor Cheng Qingsong, few people have appeared to accept their awards.

This year was no different.

"One reason behind their unwillingness to come might be because they don't think [the failure of a film] is their responsibility," Li Duoyu, independent film critic and judge for this year's Golden Broom Awards, remarked Monday.

"In China, film production is a very chaotic process."

"A friend once asked me if I make money from these awards. I said no. We actually lose money each year," Cheng said.

"I do not do it for the money. I just want there to be a [critical] voice. Commentary on film has almost died out in China because investors are able to suppress critical voices."