Heart & Soul--a private audience with Tony Leung

[Marisa]

From today's Post Magazine, SUNDAY MORNING POST

[mu99le]

?? where's the article??
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"Soon we must all face the choice between what is right...and what is easy"

[Marisa]

sorry, I can't find it from scmp.com too.

[mu99le]

where u learned about it? could you scan it from the actual newspaper?
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"Soon we must all face the choice between what is right...and what is easy"

[Marisa]

It is said that if the eyes are the window to anything, it is to the soul. And in the case of Tony Leung Chiu-wai, it just might be a pretty dark place.

You can see it on the big screen -the shadow lurking in his stare, the feeling there's something else going on behind the facade that has to be lifted whenever he incarnates another character. It might be in comedies , where he is smiling , all charm and grace, or he may be twisting himself up with the fraught, unbridled displays of passion that have marked his edgier roles. But behind it all you are never quite sure exactly what he has on his mind.

[Marisa]

Leung, 42, is the first to admit he draws on experiences hidden in the recesses of his mind when he is performing."Filming is the only channel [for emotions] I have ," he says."I am not brave enough to express my emotions. I usually have them repressed. But in films i can express them freely . I can cry, I can be happy, I can laugh, which I seldom do in my everyday life. So it [acting] is kind of like a therapy."

We are sitting in the rarefield air of the China Club's library, tucked away in a corner far from the door, centimetres from one of the room's many overstuffed book shelves. Leung has long kept the public, and its preying media, at arm's length, and so the interview process-when it comes-is one he treats with caution. Matters are not helped by a crowd of 10 hangers-on-Leung's assistants, film company representatives, photographers-who stand around us, watching and staying almost deathly silent.

[Marisa]

But , in the end, interviews are a part of show business and this particular day sees the star toeing the company line and turning out for a select few as part of the promotional for director Jingle Ma 's Lunar New Year offering , seoul raiders.

The fact he has two of us-interviewed and interpreter-to deal with, one on either side as he takes his place on a sofa, sees Leung first sending a quizzical glance in the direction of a film company assistant who has taken up a seat safely within earshot.He is okay with letting us close-but maybe this is a little too close.

Watching Leung some minutes earlier , while being interviewed for a local television station, you get the same feeling-the actor has to first go through a process of carefully surveying his surroundings before he will let down his guard. It's not that he looks entirely uncomfortable-dressed in distressed brown leather jacket and blue jeans, he comes across every bit the casual, easygoing and confident movie star - it's just that he seems to take a step back into himself whenever an answer he provides comes close to revealing too much. it's like he wants to keep something to himself, as though there are parts of an on-screen persona we see that are very much a part of the man-made flesh as well.

the explanation for this, Leung says, is simple." I am a shy person. I don't like myself, maybe because of my poor relationship with my father," he says, referring to his father who left Leung , his mother and sister when he was eight.

" I don't like my father," Leung continues."But I find myself quite like him.I am also an escapist, I like to project myself into a world of fantasy.When I get in touch with films, I find it is something I am looking for, this fantasy world."

Leung was able to find a way into that fantasy world after first trying his hand at a number of sales jobs on leaving school. When that career path appeared to be going nowhere, long-time friend Stephen Chow suggested Leung follow his lead and audition for TVB's training school.To his surprise, Leung was accepted, finding work first as the host of an early 1980s children 's show.He went on to star in a procession of comedies and dramas, including The Duke of Mount Deer, alongside Andy Lau.

[Marisa]

"it is just coincidence that led me into acting," says Leung."During the 60s, there wasn't computer or video games around to keep us entertained.But my mother's brothers and sisters took me to the cinema and made me watch different genres of films according to their own preference.

"So, since I was little I had watched many films. But I never thought of being an actor myself.It was only later I saw the advertisement on TVB. I still don't really know why I went for an audition."

Even as a TVB bit player, Leung grabbed people's attention and his big break came when Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien lines him up to play in A city of Sadness in 1989. That historical drama- charting the course of events in Taiwan between Japanese occupation and the establishment of a Kuomintang government- was the first Chinese-language film to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Leung was the star- and he has never looked back. John Woo threw him into Bullet in the Head (1990) and then Hard-Boiled (1992), and he started his long and fruitful partnership with Wong Kar-wai with Ashes of Time (1994). That relationship has brought with it best actor awards for Leung from Hong Kong to Cannes. Leung is also in the running for this year's best actor award at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards for his role in 2046. The awards will be held on March 27.

"When I started out acting, I felt very comfortable immediately," says Leung." I found how much I liked to hide behind the roles and how I could then express my emotions. As I get older, as I am more mature as time goes on, I think I am more skilful at doing this."

While Leung's career has covered some of the more critically acclaimed features to come from our shores, he has also kept up a remarkable strike rate for appearing in smaller commercial films aimed at the local market. These include Ma's box office hit in 2000, Tokyo Raiders, where Leung plays a Hong Kong cop who has moved to Japan, and who comes to the aid of a distraught (and ever-pouting) Kelly Chen as she looks for her boyfriend. Nothing fancy-just Hong Kong's prettiest (Ekin Chen and Cecilia Cheung came along for the ride ) in a different setting. This time around-for Seoul Raiders-we'll see Leung surrounded by the likes of Richie Jen and Shu Qi as they strut their stuff in Korea. As with all Lunar New Year releases, the emphasis is squarely on entertainment.

"The difference with filming for the Chinese New Year festival is it is more relaxing," says Leung." You know what you are doing , usually they are comedies or action like this one, and they are usually roles you have played before-if not the same character the the same type of character. But the process I go through is the same. I try to become the character in the same way. I used the same method to approach the roles for 2046, In the Mood for Love and Tokyo Raiders.I look into the role and see what i can do with it, what changes I can make to make it fit."

Given the acclaim Wong's films have brought Leung, it's no surprise the conversation returns to the director and their working relationship. Apart from the recent sucess of cop thriller Infernal Affairs, it is Wong's films above all else that have catapulted Leung in front of an international audience.

"Being in Wong Kar-wai's films has made me famous overseas," Leung says." But my main purpose in co-operating with him is not just that. I found his crew are like a family to me. When I work with him, we don't have to think about anyhting else other than going for the shared goal of making a good film. It is the biggest satisfaction I get from co-operating with Wong-going for quality.Wong Kar-wai is a perfectionist. I am also one. But Wong is much more so.

[Marisa]

"I guess Wong Kar-wai's films reflect some of my qualities, which are unknown or unseen to me. This is what Wong is best at-observing. He observes his actors and finds parts of them that are hidden or they don't even know they might have.

"I know starring in In the Mood for Love was an important moment in my career-the most important-as it earned me the best actor award in Cannes. Suddenly, because of this film, the press and audience sround the world knew me and it has opened up my career in that I now have more choices."

Zhang Yimou's Hero was the first of those new challenges Leung accepted -a Chinese epic made with an international audience in mind. That it gained better reviews overseas than it did locally-even winning an Oscar nomination-says a lot about the direction the film was pointed. Leung is not the first to identify it as a direction the local film industry needs to follow-local productions aimed at international audiences or even local filmmakers joining forces with industry colleagues withing Asia.

"Hong Kong films had never been made for any other audience than the Hong Kong audience," he says." But from the 60s, they were made for export and depended on funds from other Asian countries. The biggest markets were Taiwan, singapore, Malaysia and Korea. But now the market is shrinking.

"There aren't other markets for Hong Kong films any more. That's why, from five to six years ago, China-Hong Kong co-productions appeared. I think from now only Pan-Asian films, such as the joint production of China-Hong Kong or Hong Kong-Korea, can survive, as the markets for them are much bigger. Filmmakers who only make films for the Hong Kong market just won't survive."

Leung is looking forward to acting solidly for the next "three to four years" before trying his hand at producing. "Actors are very passive,"he says."It was always the director who comes up with a role and thinks that perhaps Tony Leung is suitable for it. That's why, in a few years, I hope to be a producer. Then I can initiate what story to be used and what films are to be shot and I can use incidents I encountered in life, which have had an impact on me , into the films and make them more personal."

It will also allow Leung to retreat even more from the public's glare."I never like being stared at in the street," he says, getting seroius." I feel like an animal in a zoo. So already when I'm not filming, I hide myself at home." Have there been any incidents that have directly led him to feel this way? "Not really. Not that I want to talk about anyway."he smiles.

And maybe that's what it is with Tony Leung- he leaves you thinking you got to know one side of him. But there remains that other side. The side he will always keep locked away at home.

Mattew Scotts reports.

[Looney Tune]

Thanks Marisa. I find myself wondering what kind of movie this man will produce. Maybe that'll let us know his inner world a little better. Looking forward to it.

[mu99le]

thanks so much Marisa. did you retype the article by urself? thanks so much for the great effort!
_________________
"Soon we must all face the choice between what is right...and what is easy"