Tony Leung's secret to a great 2046 performance (2046)

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The New Paper - 16 Oct 2004
Adapt and picture the character
Tony Leung's secret to a great 2046 performance

By Sylvia Toh Paik Choo
tnp@sph.com.sg

WHEN the buzz words are 'auteur' and 'festival film', reaction to said movie tends towards approaching it with a barge pole - unless you're a fully-paid-up member of the Singapore Film Society, or your name is Philip Cheah (Singapore Film Fest selector).

But when enough rumour abounds to negate those buzz words, then suddenly everyone wants to see the movie. Story of auteur Wong Kar Wai's festival film 2046.

The gossip ran the length of main street in Cannes during 2004's film fest.

WKW's 2046 is not ready. It may not be ready in time for Cannes. The intermittents (strikers) have intercepted it. He's editing it even as his cast mount the red carpet for its premiere.

It screens to wide applause. Of course it would, every WKW picture does in Cannes, his 'artistic home.' Even I, fully-paid-up fan of the Jerry Bruckheimer club, feel 2046 is a Cannes winner.

TALK ABOUT TOWN

It loses to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Triggering another round of loose talk:

Gong Li's turned on her heels and stormed off (too many of her scenes on the cutting floor). Takura Kimura has called off his interviews (unlucky me). Zhang Ziyi is a spoilt ambitious brat (ask any Hong Kong tycoon's heir). Tony Leung is apoplectic he lost out on best actor award to an unknown Japanese teenager. And WKW and his cast choose to have dinner in a Chinese restaurant rather than attend the closing night party.

I commiserate with Tony Leung, murmuring something about how politics hijacked the Palme D'Or this year.

He gives a rueful smile. Tony Leung wears rueful like a second skin. He has reserves of other expressions but they seem the monopoly of his favoured director, Wong Kar Wai.

'Wong Kar Wai is good at misleading his actors,' Tony tells me. 'When he told me to do In The Mood For Love, he said it was a story about revenge.

'It ends up an affair to remember.' (Some critics see 2046 as a sequel to ITMFL.)

Tony says he works well with the director famous for working without a script.

'A good actor,' Tony says, 'can adapt. After 10 years with Kar Wai, I suit him.'

By which Tony means Wong's 'dogme' rules of film-making. You turn up, there is no script, no deadline, the characters are sketchy, you do as he says. Tony has won 12 cinematic awards from not losing it with Wong.

'Kar Wai can be melancholic, and unexpected, you just have to get used to his ways.

'In fact, he is better now, now that he has a child,' Tony says of the director's parenthood.

Tony's own method is to 'picture the character'.

He confesses: 'I'm so suppressed, in real life. Maybe that's the real me you see in the movies.'

Another rueful smile.

When asked to describe 2046 in one word, Tony paused, then said: 'It is an emotional film.'

2046 can be interpreted as being about memory and loss and desire.

What is his best memory, his greatest loss, his one desire?

Tony takes a long time with his answers.

'When my father left me as a kid, that is my greatest loss and also the most memorable. My one desire is for happiness.'

Source: http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,75060,00.html?

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