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Tony Leung Chiu Wai () (born June 27, 1962) is a Hong Kong movie and ex-television actor. He is not to be confused with another actor, Tony Leung Ka-Fai. (Due to the difference in their respective physical stature, Chiu Wai is known colloquially in Hong Kong as "Short Tony," while Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony.")

Background

Born in Hong Kong, with ancestry in Taishan, Guangdong, China, Tony Leung was brought up by his mother in a single-parent family. In 1982, after passing the training courses of the television channel TVB, Tony Leung became an actor and became known for his comedy roles in television and film.

Many consider Tony Leung's role in director John Woo's 1992 action film Hard Boiled where he acted with Chow Yun-Fat as his breakthrough role. However, Leung first gained international exposure through Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion.

Leung often collaborates with director Wong Kar-wai and has appeared in many of his films. His most notable roles in Wong Kar-wai's films include the lonely policeman in Chungking Express (1994), a homosexual Chinese expatriate living in Argentina in Happy Together (1997), and a repressed victim of adultery in In the Mood for Love (2000), for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes.

He is considered by many to be the finest actor of his generation in Hong Kong. Robert de Niro, who is an admirer of his work, has called Leung Asia's answer to Clark Gable.

He is good friends with actor and comedian Stephen Chow.

Carina Lau, a fellow actor, has been in a steady relationship with him since 1989. Despite this, the couple have no intention of marrying.

Leung also has an on-and-off Cantopop and Mandarin pop singing career and sang the theme song of Infernal Affairs with Andy Lau.

Leung speaks fluent and impeccable English and is well read and well versed on historic issues. During the late 1990's, some predicted that it would be difficult for him to break into Hollywood since he would not take on degrading roles because of Leung's pride and character. To date, he has not done a Hollywood movie, but is primed to appear in one after signing on with an American film agent. [http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/349/2005/08/18/60@10200.htm

During the promotion of the movie Hero, pro-colonial and pro-British politicians and commentators in Hong Kong attacked Leung for expressing the view on that the suppression of the Tiananmen Square demonstration was necessary to maintain stability. Under constant political pressure, Leung made a single statement that he may have been quoted out of context. * However, the movie magazine editor said that the orginal statement was not out of context.

Relationship with Carina Lau

Dated Carina Lau since the end of 1989.

He had known her since "The replica" in 1984. She used to be a good friend with Margie Tsang, his ex-girlfriend.

Except for a few short breaks, Tony and Carina have been dating steadily since 1989. In 1993, Tony was rumored dating Valarie Chou after shooting an MTV with her. One time, Carina met Valarie at a movie premiere, and she refused to take picture with Valarie. However, eventually when the rumor cooled down, everything was back to normal. In 1994, Carina filed a law suit against her personal assistant for stealing her check. Her male assistant testified on the court that he had sexual relationship with her. But later, Tony dismissed the case by publicly going on air and said "I love Ka-Ling" on a radio show in new year eve. Then in 1997, Carina were again involved in a complicated family matter. Her long time friend Mr. Lo was filing for divorce.The rumor said she was the third person in this marriage. Both Tony and Carina denied the rumor, and defended themselves. The never ending rumor mills were targeted at Tony again on the March of 1998, Tony was being caught on camera driving Rosemund Kwan home. The HK East Touch Magazine took photos of Tony and Rosamund outside of a night bar on 3/7. Apparently, they were having a good time with a group of friends in the "97's bar". Later, Tony drove Rosamund home. Rosamund claims there is nothing going on with Tony. She is a good friend of Carina, and Tony simply gave her a ride home. Right after that, another rumored affair between Carina and a Taiwanese actor hit the stand, Tony claimed the rumor was ludicrous. All of things listed above were so-called "juicy" rumors, none had been proven true.

In 1990, during the filming of Days of Being Wild, Carina was abducted and topless photos of her snapped. (Years later, photos of a nude and frightened Carina tastelessly appeared in Hong Kong tabloids.)

Originally, Wong Kar Wai said, there were plans for "Days of Being Wild" I and II, and the sequence featuring Tony Leung was meant to be the opening scene of the second movie. But two things happened, both mundane and dramatic. The mundane one was that "Days of Being Wild" didn't do well in Hong Kong, so the producers said, "No Part 2." The dramatic one occurred during filming and involved a mysterious act of violence that fans of Tony and his longtime companion, Carina Lau, still buzz about in Internet chat rooms.

"I was doing the shoot," Tony said, "and a friend came and told me, 'Your girlfriend has just been kidnapped.' And I told Kar-wai I couldn't do any more, I had to go find her." The thugs who grabbed Carina set her free several hours later, and it is now believed that the man behind the kidnapping is a show business entrepreneur with whom Carina was having a financial dispute. Tony said she has never wanted to talk about what happened in those missing hours with anyone, including him. "I told her that was fine, I had no right to ask," he said. "I was just glad to have her home safe." He then told Kar Wai that he didn't want to go back to work anytime soon. "A human being is more important than a movie," he said.

Awards and nominations

  • Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award in 2000 (In the Mood for Love)
  • Golden Horse Film Festival
    • Best actor award in 2003 (Infernal Affairs)
    • Best actor award in 1994 (Chungking Express)
  • Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor awards. Nominated nine times, won five times:
    • 2005 Won Best Actor (2046)
    • 2003 Won Best Actor, for his role as the undercover cop Yan (Infernal Affairs)
    • 2001 Won Best Actor (In the Mood for Love)
    • 1999 Nominated Best Actor (Longest Nite)
    • 1998 Won Best Actor (Happy Together)
    • 1995 Won Best Actor (Chungking Express)
    • 1993 Nominated Best Supporting Actor (Hard-Boiled)
    • 1990 Won Best Supporting Actor (My Heart Is That Eternal Rose)
    • 1988 Won Best Supporting Actor (People's Hero)
    • 1987 Nominated Best Actor (Love Unto Waste)
  • Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor award in 2005 (2046) *

Female Co-stars

Maggie Cheung Police Cadet (1984), The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1991), Ashes of Time (1994), In the Mood for Love (2000), Hero (2003), 2046 (2005) Margie Tsang (also his ex-girlfriend) Police Cadet (1985, 88), The Yangs' Saga (1985), The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (1986), Grand Canal (1986), Young Cops (1985)

Kitty Lai The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (1986), Two Most Honorable Knights (1988), Da Du Hui (1988) Carina Lau Replica (1984), Duke of Mount Deer (1984), Police Cadet (1984,85,88), The Yangs' Saga (1985), Days of Being Wild (1991), He ain't heavy, he's my father (1993), Ashes of Time (1994), 2046 (2005) Michelle Reis Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Healing Hearts (2000)

Christy Chung Aces Goes Place (1997), Mack the Knife (1995) Anita Mui Mad Mad 83 (1983), Young Cops (1985), The Magic Crane (1993) Faye Wong Chungking Express (1994), 2046 (2005)

Barbara Yung The Roughride (1985)

Chingmy Yau Blind Romance (1996)

Gong Li 2046 (2004)

Zhang Ziyi Hero (2002), 2046 (2004)

Friendship with Maggie Cheung

In an interview with Tony by renowned director Wong Kar Wai, Tony had this to say about Maggie:

"She is like my alter ego. We started our careers at almost the same time and acted opposite each other in our first television series and on some other occasions - like on the Days of Being Wild sequel, which was never released, and on Ashes of Time. But we did not work opposite each other again until In the Mood for Love. Maggie is a truly formidable partner - one to waltz with. We do not spend a lot of time with each other, as we like to keep some mystery between us. Whenever I see her, I discover something new about her."

//www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_35/ai_n14931780/pg_8

Filmography, as actor, includes

Personal quotes

"I like not knowing from one day to the next. It keeps me from thinking and allows me to just be in my character. Too much information restricts your creativity." (On working with the director Wong Kar-wai, who doesn't use scripts)

"Acting has always been a way for me to express the emotions I had buried. If I hadn't acted, I would have gone insane. In my acting class, I could let out my real tears and everyone thought it was the character. But no, it was me." (On acting)

"Kar-wai is very demanding, and we never have a real script. he challenges me. He is always pushing me to go deeper, to become that person. I like it." (On Wong Kar Wai, while working on 2046)

'She looks for happiness, and will do whatever makes her happy. I'm very pessimistic. Sometimes, out of the blue, she will want to do all sorts of things. I can't deal with that, I have to plan everything properly first.' (On co-star, Maggie Cheung)

"My character has the same background as 'In the Mood for Love,' the same hairstyle, the same costume, it's filmed on the same set and because it's Kar Wai I don't have a script. I need something to get hold of, and I said, 'Can I have a moustache at least?'" (On discussions with Wong for his character, Chow Mo Wan)

"I have to have this stuff in my hair again, and it is terrible. It gets on your clothes, on your skin, on your hands. I try to wash it out every night so my skin won't break out, but nothing works. I even tried laundry detergent. No result." (On slicking his hair down with pomade for stories set in the 1960s)

"I prefer drama. Action is too much for me at this age - you need to be very well prepared. But even for a drama like this, I feel very exhausted. I dare not think about action films with Wong Kar Wai, but we are supposed to do one next year." (On whether he prefers drama or action movies)

"I think I was influenced by a lot of American actors. I'm a great fan of Martin Scorsese and I saw a lot of Gene Hackman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson. I watch a lot of them; I might be influenced by them in some ways, but when I was acting I did not intend to imitate them." (On his influences)

"Ma is like a child at times. He gives me no pressure at all. It's definitely great working with him again." (On Jingle Ma, director of Seoul Raiders)

"As for Richie, we had the opportunity to work together in the Jackie Chan movie, Gorgeous. He's really a nice chap. It was a very comfortable feeling to be working with him again." (On working with Richie Jen in Seoul Raiders)

"As for Shu Qi, it's also not the first time that I'm working with her. I have always admired her work. She has much potential as an actress." (On working with Shu Qi again in Seoul Raiders)

"I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted this character to be very optimistic, always with a smile on his face, but I just wasn't able to put it into the scenes. I don't know why." (On his character Chan Wing Yan in Infernal Affairs)

"Maybe it's because I came from a broken home. I wasn't so happy in my childhood. My parents broke up when I was six. Before, I was a very active, naughty child, but after my father left me I stopped talking. I became very good at hiding my emotions. I felt so ashamed of telling others that I didn't have a father, because that was not common in the 1960s. People didn't break up - even if they didn't love each other - in traditional Chinese families. Not like today." (On the origins of his mournfulness)

"Once I'm committed to a role, I will go very deep into it, even when I'm not at work. I'll keep on studying the script, maybe 40 or 50 times. I might call a scriptwriter at three in the morning to say I've thought of something new." (On how he works)

"Absolutely. I found myself buried in the character. I need some time to tune myself out." (On whether the character Chow Mo Wan has entered his life)

"We love and care about each other. But we would never say these words to each other. We are the kind of people who do not know how to express our feelings to each other. My mother was against my going into TVB." (On his relationship with his mother)

"Hero was the first time I had ever worked on a mainland Chinese production. It was great to work with such a good cast that included Maggie, Jet Li, Chen Daoming, and Zhang Ziyi. I was particularly excited to work with Yimou, a director whose work I have always admired. When I first heard the story, I thought of Kurosawa's Rashomon *." target="_blank" >In the end, I did what Yimou wanted and played Broken Sword, who is the lover of Flying Snow, played by Maggie. Because I have a baby face, I was quite concerned about my looks in this film because I was to play a martial arts hero. I did not want to look unconvincing. I spent a lot of time working with Emi Wada, who designed all the film's costumes, on the look of my character, as the wardrobe was very important to play this heroic figure living in ancient China." (On working with Zhang Yimou in the movie, Hero) [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_8_35/ai_n14931780/pg_7

Discography

  • Hard to Forget You (1993)
  • Cannot Forget Collections (?)
  • The Past And The Future (Cantonese) (?)
  • The Past And The Future (Mandarin Ver.) (March 2000)
  • Tony Leung Greatest Hits (June 2000)
  • IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Nov 2000)
  • Feng Sha (2004) (The reissue version was released in January 2006)

External links


1962 births | Living people | Chinese actors | Hong Kong actors | Cantopop | Taishanese people | Best Actor HKFA

Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Τόνι Λιούνγκ Τσίου Γουάι | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | 梁朝偉 | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Lương Triều Vỹ | 梁朝偉

 

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