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ian Cinema Award. For the 57-year-old "Wu Xia" star, it's yet another accolade to add to her long list of honors. Wai said she was ecstatic upon hearing the news. "This is not an acting award, it's an achievement award, so I'm thrilled and feel as if I'm walking on clouds," Hui said. With a career that has spanned over five decades, and success in both television and film, Wai reached new heights in her career last year: in November, she was named Best Actress for the second time at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, for the role of a manipulative Madame in "The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful." Wai said that the Excellence in Asian Cinema Award from the AFAs motivates her to do something for the next generations of actors, and that she's been thinking of doing something that will "help to train new actors." Although not a nominee herself in this year's AFA Best Actress category, Wai said that competition is fierce for actresses of two generations. Veteran actress/director Sylvia Chang is nominated for her family drama "Love Education." She will compete for the top acting prize with young talents like China's Zhou Dongyu, South Korea's Kim Min-hee, Japan's Aoi Yu, and Indonesian actress Marsha Timothy. Wai weighs in on the nominees: "It's hard to compare them. There's a difference in age. A lot of times, to act is to draw from your life experiences. I've seen Sylvia Chang's new film ("Love Education.") She owned that character because she has a lot of real life experiences and she has seen a lot. I loved the film. Zhou Dongyu's film ("This is Not What I Expected") I have seen as well. Zhou Dongyu has her craft as well and she's so young. She has a lot of advantage in her character. She's young so it's easier to make her believable in that role for the audience. We can't do that now, not even if we try to play someone who's young and fresh. However, Zhou gives off the vibe that she's very experienced. She hasn't been acting for too long, just a few years, but you can tell that she has very high standards," Hui explains. Wai began her career in the 1970s in Hong Kong as a Kung Fu star in the Shaw Brothers films. In 1982, she received Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her role in the action movie "My Young Auntie." However, early success caused Wai to fell into a deep depression, and as a result, she took a long break from acting. In the 2000s, Wai finally made her return to the big screen, and she came back with a vengeance. Wai thrilled audiences and impressed critics with her performance as a desperate mother in 2009's "At the End of the Daybreak," and as an Alzheimer patient in "Happiness" in 2017. Last November's Golden Horse Award was an icing on the cake. As she approaches her 58th birthday, Wai said that she knows that it was a mixture of luck and preparedness that got her career to where it is today. "The lifespan of an actress is short. It started happening when I was 50 and now I'm 58. This rarely happens for actresses, and it's happening to me. I think you can say that I've had help from a lot of good friends. You can't say that I didn't work hard, because I worked really really hard," Wai continued. Wai will receive the Excellence in Asian Cinema Awards at the Asian Film Awards ceremony in Hong Kong on March 17th 2018. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/2b4d02fed3f343b105d38a6210be8398 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork