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Jan 2005 Tony on Esquire Magazine

 
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:36 pm    Post subject: Jan 2005 Tony on Esquire Magazine

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Translation by Looney Tunes (Thanks a lot!)

I am leaving the “authors impression” out (lots of superfluous things in beautiful language which is a pain to translate). Basically he said Tony is a person that embodies perfection, and is what everyone would want to be or emulate. Here’s the first installmentof the translation on the actual interview.

A Place with Restrains
Tony Leung has taken up the main role in the golden period for films in Chinese New Year period, appearing as Lam Guai Yen from the popular Tokyo Raiders by Jingle Mah. Leading a group of beautiful female assistants, showing their prowess in Seoul. Also appearing in Seoul Raiders are Shu Qi and Richie Ren. With the configuration of a major production, it is the choice pick among the films. What is sad is with the weak market condition of the film industry, there is only 2 films out for the Chinese New Year period this year. You can’t help but feel dismal. Tony Leung spoke frankly that this is a knot in his heart for this few years.

“As early as after 1997, problems in Hong film industry has been gradually emerging. With the market contracting, Hong Kong film has lost its room for nimbleness. In order to survive, you need to cooperate with other countries, especially the greater China region. It looks like this is the only way out. I am very unhappy about the present situation, especially when the market condition could deteriorate further this year. Another batch of film industry people will be made redundant. Leaving a smaller group to battle on. You can see that even for martial art films, investor will look for Zhang Yimou or Ang Lee to direct, and not Hong Kong movie makers. This is not only confine to the film industry, all profession will change together with the society. When the society changes, it affects the creativity. The rapid development of China’s film industry in recent years can be attributed to new leadership, and the open policy of the government. The films that are produced gets better and better, and the focus is back onto the movies made in mainland China. It’s the same with other Asia countries like Korea and Japan. The government in these countries respects and protects the products made by their people. They will always choose the locally made production. Hong Kong films have always been relying on export to survive, especially Asian countries. In the past, they used to just watch Hong Kong films, when there are subjects that they want to watch, they’ll pay the Hong Kong movie maker to produce the movie. But the situation is different now. Hong Kong films cannot survive on just the domestic market. “

“After the return to China, we have been working together with film makers in mainland China. This has produced a new form of films, belonging to Asia and Greater China region. It’s no longer just a pure Hong Kong produced film.” Tony stopped for a few seconds here, and continued with an optimistic smile on his face “It’s like life, you can’t be smooth sailing and be the peak all the time. Everybody had enjoyed the good times, it is time to come together and seriously think of a way to ensure survival. I am still optimistic about the future. I believe that everything has a cycle, when the old ones are gone; they’ll be new and outstanding people joining in. When you are outstanding, you’ll get the recognition. As for the future problems, it’s only a matter of time, there is nothing to worry about.”

Exactly as Tony says, we are in a place with restrains. But the most important thing is your own mood and vision, and don’t be restrained by yourself, and don’t give yourself excuses. “Whereas we should do our best, we must also know how to endure patiently.” He added profoundly.

About Seoul Raiders

After spending 2 months in Seoul, he has personally experienced and understood why the Korean film industry is booming. “To put it simply, it is the strong support from the Government. When Jingle request to seal off a street for filming, or to film on the busy subway, their Government cooperated. You know why their film is getting better all the time. Actually not all their films are good, their subject matter is similar to Hong Kong, in fact even more dramatic. Tragedy, romance, they can go to the limits. But they spend a lot of effort on production, and this enhances the quality and packaging, even if the content is ordinary or even poor, it’ll attract attention. This is something that most Hong Kong films never place importance on.” He lowered his head here and smiled “Of course, most importantly is the support from Hong Kong government….”

When we talked about Seoul Raiders, Tony looked happy. Only laborious thing is the lack of physical training this few years, makes the action scene more strenuous.

“I have always enjoyed being in Jingle film. The director himself is like a big kid, likes to play and laugh. Basically I have no pressure, so the film process is enjoyable. The only problem is executing the action scenes. The director wanted the actions to be in one continuous sequence this time. The shorter time makes it more strenuous. Lam Guai Yan is a relaxed and humorous character. When I throw myself into the character, I naturally became happy” Tony said with a bright smile.

I told Tony that Jingle said Tony seemed troubled when filming just started. As the filming progressed, he became more relaxed and more into the character. Tony smiled and nodded. “It might be due to the change in role. I haven’t had time to pull myself away from the character in 2046. It was very strange. Every time after work, I’ll listen to the soundtrack. I remembers the character and plot with fondness, and reluctant to part with it. It’s not for me to decide when I can withdraw myself from it, I needed some time. I have asked for Seoul Raiders to start filming in the summer holidays. But the preparation was already underway, and I have to collect myself and do my job. But mood is not something that can be fully controlled. In the end, I became more relaxed, and I returned to the character of Lam Guai Yen. Lam’s character is mischievous and optimistic, totally different from Chow Mok Wan. I think if I use the same method to do it, the audience would protest (This is my own interpretation.Not very sure what ”cutting the chair” means.Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.). Actors are after all human, we need time to adjust.”

My whole Life
Films for Chinese New Year are light hearted, happy and highly entertaining for the audience. For Tony Leung, he needs sports to get into these moods.

“Only sports calm my mind, especially skiing. Skiing makes me light hearted and happy. It might seem exhausting, the only time when I don’t think is when I ma skiing. I don’t think of anything as my mind is concentrated on skiing, otherwise you’ll roll off the mountains. Ha ha. Furthermore, skiing grounds are normally devoid of tall buildings, you looked down and there are only short flat houses. As I ski down from the peak, breathing in the cold crisp air, I think of nothing. I can be totally relaxed. I like table tennis and jogging too. But my mind will be thinking of other things, I can’t totally focus.”

We talked about managing emotions. Tony gives the impression that he is more tolerant and accepting now. Tony’s career, relationship, vision and his refinement seem to be all within his grasp. He stopped smiling, gave this a thought and said “Actually, I do not want to affect other people. Don’t think that I am not affected by things, I do. But I’ll try my best to hide it, and not let other people know. Especially when in a work environment, even when the situation is bad or my mood is bad, I wouldn’t let it show. The more you are a keyman in your work or of the group, the more you have to control your own emotions. Not letting other people know how bad you feel is very important. I feel that if you start showing “hey, it’s not so bad!”,everybody will feel better. I am afraid of myself or other people getting angry, because it doesn’t help with the progress of things. Of course I am also learning (to control emotions). If I really can’t take it, I’ll exercise to vent out. When I don’t have to work, I exercise everyday. I don’t have many friends or people that I can talk to, so I use sports to release these negative emotions. Some people drinks, or go shopping to de-stress. But drinking doesn’t help much for me, as the problem is still there the next day. I don’t have much desire to shop, so these two methods are not suitable for me. At least you’ll get healthier when you work out.” As he finished, he open up his palms lightly, with a “that’s all I can do” expression on his face.

I really wanted to know, for a person that hides himself, are there things that make him happy and excited. I asked him the question, and before I can finished, he said “People.”.

He drank a few sips of his hot milk tea that has turned warm, and said “There is, that’s different people. For example, working with Wong Kar Wai again, or working with Hou Hsiao Hsien again, that’ll make me excited! Later on I’ll be working with John Woo, I know that’ll be new and fun things. Actually the story is dead, it is who you work with that is important. Working with different people will have different chemistry. About ten years back when I worked with Hou Hsiao Hsien, we have thought about adapting detective stories; I have also talked to John Woo about 赤壁之战 (the martial art film), that fills me with anticipation. He has ample resources to do it, the imagery must be very strong, makes me think that it’s something that I cannot miss. All these are very exciting for me; and there is action film by Wong Kar Wai, I am interested to see what it is all about.”

Is movie your whole world? Or?

Tony Leung raised his voice and said “It’s a part of life, not just snippets, but an important part. It’s a part that I can never leave behind. I will not bear to leave movie out of me life, but movie is not my whole life, that I am sure of. There are other things in life that you must take note and treasure, for example your family, your love ones, good friends, and of course health. Only a person who can take care of all aspects can be considered as a mature person. Or you can say that life is the process of managing all these things.”

As an icon

On what Tony had said, I believed they are plenty of people who understood and approves of what he said. But who can actually achieve it? Tony frankly acknowledged that this is also the life style which he yearns for.

"This is what I am pursuing in my life, I have been trying my best to strike a more perfect balance between work and life, to be able to manage both. At this moment, this is the only thing I want to achieve. Formerly I use to place heavy emphasis on work, and place work at the forefront, but I slowly realized that, there is nothing more important than the people beside you." He was nodding and looking at his palm as he said this.

Many people already regard you as an icon in the international movie scene. You may say that to a foreign country, especially the European area, you are the window for them to know Chinese movie. What you say is taken as a representation of the standpoint of the Hong Kong movie circle. How do you feel? What do you want to say?

Tony took a deep breath: "Actually I do not dare to say that I speaks on behalf of Hong Kong, I am only representing my own standpoint. What I feel deeply is, after being in very many places, I’ve discovered that everybody agrees that this era belongs to Chinese movie, it’s a pity that at the same time, Hong Kong film industry is at its low. What I want to say is... ... I saw many talents in Hong Kong film industry, but there is no funding. This is a very sad point! Everybody really wants to do better but do not have the means! For example certain production, certain scripts... ... Why is the standard like this? Especially on the script aspect, many China's playwrights are more outstanding than those in Hong Kong. I understand that in Hong Kong, the proportion of the cost of production of a movie going to the director, the actor, and the screenwriter is not normal, but this cannot be the excuse, you have to do better, otherwise we will lose our ability to compete. For example in China they wrote many good scripts, you could see that they have put a lot of effort in it, concentrating on the story. As for foreign script, their vision and creativity is very broad, these are what the local screenwriter needs to learn. In brief, do not give yourself too much excuses, diligently doing your best is what matters!"

Advertisement spokesman

"Coming to the last question" Tony’s face transforms a tense expression to a relaxed smiling face. "Go on and ask, Ha"
"In recent years, you became spokesman for many brands. This time it is for Head&Shoulder ... How do you feel?"

Tony raises his eyebrow, gently bites his lips, smiled and said "Hmm, my feeling is very OK! I don’t feel strange that man appears in shampoo commercial, maybe it is the concept that seem interesting to me. The advertisement main theme is black, very cool and very character I frequently wears black, it’s very much like my own character, I am able to relate to it with ease. Of all the advertisement that I have shot, this is closest to me. The message of fresh, good looking and no dandruff, very healthy and correct. Moreover, I also admire the production team who came from different countries. Doing such a “black” shampoo advertisement was really special!"

For Tony to speak about a commercial advertisement, it is rare to come by in his interviews. This suits the article where we want to show you what you don’t know about Tony. Actually I do not know what you want to read about Tony, or merely looking at the photographs is satisfying enough. Could he satisfy everybody beyond the symbol that the represents? Hey, no matter what, this is what Ah Kit from the editorial department and the photographer wants to do. A different Tony from the impression everybody has of him.

The end
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