the film was nominated for the palme d'or at the 1998 cannes film festival and also won best director and best art director (wen-ying huang) at the 1998 asia-pacific film festival, the golden crow pheasant award at the 1999 international film festival of kerala, as well as a jury award and a best art direction award (wen-ying huang and chih-wei tsao) at the 1998 golden horse film festival, where it was also nominated for best feature, best director and best makeup & costume design (wen-ying huang, shu-chen liao and bu-hai shen).