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Inaugural ELLE MEN SINGAPORE

 
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:51 am    Post subject: Inaugural ELLE MEN SINGAPORE Reply with quote

Unveiling Our Inaugural ELLE MEN Cover Star: The Legendary Hong Kong Actor, Tony Leung
by Jumius Wong
August 19, 2021
https://www.elle.com.sg/2021/08/19/unveiling-inaugural-elle-men-cover-star-legendary-hk-actor-tony-leung/



Welcome to ELLE MEN, a new chapter that we’re taking with a bold step towards creating, or rather, re-igniting that spark that makes a man (or a woman) pick up a physical magazine. We want to remind you what that feels like — to take a break and just… have a good read.

The way information is being delivered and consumed has changed radically in recent years; and the way print is receding into the background has become the push factor for me to do all I can to bring eyeballs and attention back to it. To do that, it is important to answer the following question: While everything can be easily translated or communicated via the interweb or social media platforms, what is it that print can offer but not digital?

Call me old-fashioned, but the physical experience of holding a magazine is just something that a phone or tablet can’t replicate. Reading articles on paper just feels different from doing it on a screen, especially when the latter experience often includes random notifications streaming in while you’re trying to concentrate on reading something.

To me, what counts as a good read is something that would not be easily replicated in the digital world. It is the act of producing something so unapologetically great that it leaves an impression on its readers, because it has its own identity. In the case of ELLE MEN where we have strived to create a magazine that’ll last for a season (and more), it’s even more imperative that the stories are worth the pages they appear on, from the way they are conceptualised to the way they are presented on pages in a way that digital just can’t come close to reproducing.

In this issue, we herald this idea starting with an exclusive with Hong Kong actor Tony Leung. The elusive legend who needs no introduction chats with us about his upcoming debut in Hollywood with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. We also delve into the evolving world of art, now dominated by the growing number of younger collectors; take a peek at the man caves of today, which blend aesthetics with meaning and sentiment; and examine the new breed of fashion designer who is changing the way we consume. Lastly, we look at how fashion can exist on its own, unbridled by trend, evident in three very distinct fashion spreads we did.

We had a lot of fun putting this issue together, and I hope you feel the same excitement as you go through the stories on these pages. Take a seat and enjoy the read!

Grab your copy of ELLE MEN Singapore’s inaugural August 2021 issue on select newsstands and bookstores.

Photography: Karl Lam
Styling: Sean K
Fashion Editor: Jenine Oh
Hair: Herman Law / II Hair & Nail
Makeup: Candy Law
Retoucher: Annabelle Trisha
Set Design: Samuel Choi
Assistants: Karen Tsang and Katherine Ho
Subject: Tony Leung
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 20, 2021 5:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tony Leung On The Pursuit Of Perfection
by Chelsea Tang
August 20, 2021
https://www.elle.com.sg/2021/08/20/tony-leung-on-the-pursuit-of-perfection/

A man like Tony Leung could go by many aliases.

He’s easily the unsentimental Lin Wen Ching, a deaf-mute portrait photographer with leftist leanings from 1989’s A City of Sadness, whose silent lucidity acts as a mirror to Taiwan’s “White Terror” period. Mention Happy Together from 1997, and the melancholic Lai Yiu Fai’s struggle for survival in a foreign country, and through a toxic relationship comes to mind. The reticent and forlorn journalist Chow Mo Wan from 2000’s In The Mood For Love needs no introduction — Leung’s sublime laconic performance alongside Maggie Cheung in the Wong Kar Wai masterpiece, where he’s caught in an elliptical romance that yields only quiet loss and tender longing, made him the first Hong Kong actor to win the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival the same year.

Of course, it’s only proper of a born-and-bred Hong Kong actor to be part of a classic Hong Kong cop thriller, so let’s make sure the conflicted double-life act of Chen Wing Yan, a police officer undercover in a triad, in 2002’s award-winning Infernal Affairs (and its sequels) is not forgotten. The film was so filled with nervy, evocative perfection — complete with an iconic rooftop showdown (with co-star Andy Lau) — that it got adapted into an Oscar-winning Hollywood version called The Departed, in which cinema legends Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon reprised Leung’s and Lau’s roles. True to a country that popularised martial arts-themed movies, Leung also took on the title character of Ip Man in 2013’s The Grandmaster, where he added yet another layer of complexity to the already well-known character of the kung fu grandmaster.




“These are [some of] my favourite characters,” he lets on, throwing 2046, and Lust, Caution into the mix. “It’s quite a lot, and they’re some of my better works that I’m pleased with.” Don’t be quick to get the veteran actor wrong though — the roles he doesn’t bring up (like those in the fan-favourite John Woo films Hard Boiled and Red Cliff) aren’t any less significant in his longstanding career. And now, at 59, Leung is primed to achieve yet another cinematic milestone with a flashy new alias to boot: as antagonist Wenwu in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which will hit theatres globally come first week of September.

It’ll be his debut into Hollywood after close to four decades in showbiz — 39 years, to be exact. The storyline has Shang-Chi (played by Simu Liu), a skilled martial artist trained to be an assassin by his father Wenwu, being drawn into the clandestine Ten Rings Organisation that Wenwu helms. Shang-Chi is forced to face a past he’s tried to put behind him for the past 10 years, and ends up being roped into a complicated father-son conflict.



There is little to go off on Leung’s role as Wenwu. It’s an all-new character created for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the racially offensive bits of the original character Fu Manchu from the comics sanded off. That means, what is actually known about Wenwu is confined within two trailers, narrated in Leung’s raspy, magnetic tenor voice. Yet, the nuances in Marvel’s new supervillain subtly bubble to the surface — Wenwu may be the bad guy, but unlike your typical one-dimensional antagonist, he doesn’t scream evil, nor wear it on his sleeve. Had he not been introduced as Wenwu with magical rings and an army of ninjas at his command, he could’ve very well have been Jay Gatsby against a backdrop of flappers and fireworks, and no one would’ve been the wiser. Leung’s controlled take on what makes a character — a mark of a true actor — fleshes out a classic good-versus-bad trope, and morphs a villain into something more multi-dimensional, and perhaps even attractive.

The admiration for his genius intensifies with the knowledge that the celebrated actor was deliberately kept from background references, and was only given the script a month before filming commenced. “When [Marvel] offered me the role, what they wanted was for me to create a brand new Mandarin, so I got to develop my character along with the filming,” he says. “I’ve never approached Wenwu from a villain’s standpoint. Rather, I tried to explore the reasons that led him to become who he is. He’s a man with history, who craves to be loved. He is also human, and he has a family. As I read [the script], I began to consider the many reasons why he’d turn out the way he is — a sociopath, a narcissist, a bigot.”



This villainous role will be Leung’s first; he shares that he has been thinking of taking on one in the past two years, the antithesis of his usual Don Juan characters. Over the years, he’s had offers from around the world, but turned them down because of a lack of connection with the script or character. In his words, film-making is “a kind of destiny”, and Wenwu came loaded with an offer that was hard to refuse — adding to a legitimate representation of Asian cinema by starring in Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie. “When director Destin Daniel Cretton first described the role to me, he said there are many layers to the antagonist role, and hoped that I could come on board,” Leung shares, noting that the partnership with Cretton checks the boxes for the right vibes (they spoke for an hour over a video conference call). “I accepted it because of the director. It just felt right. Plus, this is something I’ve never done before, to play an Asian supervillain. A chance to do something for Asia. I thought, why not?”



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yitian



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 20, 2021 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Continue from above ...

It isn’t too much of a stretch to find Leung caught up in his feels, for his character at hand, at least. Many would agree that his on-screen allure comes from his ability to draw upon expertly suppressed emotion; the kind that subconsciously tugs on heartstrings. Case in point: even a seemingly simple line in the Shang-Chi trailer “Be careful how you speak to me, boy” drips with menace, yet is laced with undertones of fatherly love. Such nuanced evocation can only come with years of experience, and it stems from Leung’s ability to shape fictional characters into people that everyday moviegoers can empathise with. “I feel, in order to convince someone, you must first be a believer yourself. And, to believe in the role you play, you must come up with a backstory that is as detailed as possible,” he says. “What kind of food does he like? What is his upbringing? What would he say when he visits someone at their home? A person that’s just like you and I, who has preferences. You have to be very precise.”






The process is usually a long-drawn one, and Leung is not abashed to admit that. At least a month before filming starts, he’ll be pondering upon and poring through his character 24/7. “I’d run through the script or my character 500 times in my head, adding on even more details,” he shares. “Then suddenly, one day while on set, it’ll be ‘click’ and I’m in character. This is not something you can predict or calculate, but just a habit of mine, I guess.”

He bursts into merry laughter on the topic of fight scenes, which are aplenty in Shang-Chi. “When I spoke with Destin in the beginning, he said I didn’t need to fight because I have ‘the rings’!” he says. “If I’d known earlier, I would’ve trained for it beforehand to handle the physical demands of the role. It’s definitely my biggest challenge playing Wenwu.” Such is his personal conviction that he practises: to “do” the scenes himself if he’s able to — like in The Grandmaster, where he spent four years learning and practising kung fu, even breaking his arm twice. “This is also a way to better develop the role, as well as boost confidence. It helps me really get into character,” he adds. “I get really frustrated when I’m unable to do what is required well, so I always try my best. I think it’s a ‘me’ thing.”



The sentiment of a perfectionist rings loud and proud. It finds a foothold in the unique thrill of satisfaction and pleasure that wells up when one knows that a stellar performance has been delivered. The kind of high that could only come with skill and experience, and pushes even a decorated veteran actor like Leung to strive to do better every single time. “Comparing my performance in A City of Sadness and The Grandmaster, I definitely matured a lot in the latter,” he says. “It’s just like looking back at your very first performance and realising back then, there’s no way you can deliver what you are capable of now. Growing means having more and more fun as you gain more control [over your skills] than before.”

Acting seems to be the only team affair that Leung accepts. He is a man of solitude, and revels in being alone. “Only because I love acting more,” he affirms, and it’s proving hard not to correlate his sorrowful, soulful persona with how much of a lone wolf he is in real life. Growing up, his outward personality dimmed when his father left the family when he was eight. Divorce wasn’t common in the ‘60s, especially not among traditional Chinese families, and it was hard for a child then to easily confide in such a taboo topic — which is why Leung isn’t much of a talker, even today. The sense of quietude, however, has become a part of him, one which clearly gives him peace. “Being alone makes me feel a lot more at ease. Even in the sports I play,” he says. “I don’t enjoy sports where people compete for a placing, as well as team sports. So, if you notice, I’m always doing the same few types of sports like water-skiing, snow-skiing, mountain biking, sailing; things that I can do alone.”



The sense of excitement for acting brims again during the interview though, as he lets in a little on what’s in the pipelines for work: an English-speaking television series. “Perhaps because I started out with TV, and with the wonderful experience of working with Marvel this time, the idea for such a production seems interesting,” he says. If it all goes well, filming will commence sometime next year in Vancouver. “Think of all that room for creativity!” Leung adds, his face lighting up. It’s as they say, you can grow old but never grow up — and the child-like wonder for his passion is what keeps the actor feeling fulfilled in life.

“You can enjoy every minute of your life only if you do not let anything tagged as ‘bad’ prevent you from actually experiencing it,” he says, the sentiment doubling up as a message for his 20-year-old self. “Why is a sunny day a good day or a rainy day a sad one? It’s all in your head. If snowing is romantic, why do you not feel the same about rain? Nothing stays stagnant, and that’s the same for us as human beings.”

Photography: Karl Lam
Styling: Sean K
Fashion Editor: Jenine Oh
Hair: Herman Law / II Hair & Nail
Makeup: Candy Law
Retoucher: Annabelle Trisha
Set Design: Samuel Choi
Assistants: Karen Tsang and Katherine Ho
Subject: Tony Leung
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Safran



Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2612
Location: Austria

PostPosted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really enjoyed watching the great Tony pics and reading the related Tony-article very much thumbleft Applause

Btw: In my view there's no better way to start the 1st "Elle MEN" issue than with this most wonderful man on the front page !! love: Applause

Wishing the complete "Shang-Chi" -Team....and especially "Wenwu" a successful movie-premiere in September.

Many thanks for posting /sharing the joyful news, dear Yitian flower

From Austria with ❤️.....as always
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I just notice the contents I posted contain a lot of funny looking symbols Shocked . Does anyone else see the same? I will try to fix this if you do…
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yitian



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 2172
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Videos from Elle Singapore love love love

Exclusive! Tony Leung On His Debut In Hollywood With Shang-Chi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW3HvZwdXyg

Tony Leung: Behind-The-Scenes with ELLE MEN Singapore's Cover Star
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZYZ27ZEXeA
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