He is well-known across Asia for his work in heroic bloodshed action films and has also starred in several films that performed very well in Western box offices.Īfter making a name for himself on TVB with television series The Bund, Chow established himself as a film superstar with John Woo’s gangster melodrama A Better Tomorrow (1986), and quit TV entirely to focus on the silver screen. Tony Leung was awarded Best Actor for the film, becoming Hong Kong’s first actor to win this award at Cannes.Ī household name since 1980, Chow Yun-fat is respectfully referred to in Hong Kong’s media as ‘Big Brother Fat’. Must-watch work: In the Mood for Love, also starring Maggie Cheung (see below). We are positively vibrating in anticipation for his Hollywood debut. Leung represents the best of Hong Kong’s acting talent and has long been under-appreciated among mass western audiences, but it was announced this year that he is to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the Mandarin in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, slated to come out in 2021. Īpart from his spectacular filmography with Wong Kar-wai, featuring stellar films such as Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), and In the Mood for Love (2000), Tony Leung is best known to international audiences for starring in the iconic Infernal Affairs (2002), for which he won Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Award, the Golden Horse Award, and the Golden Bauhinia Award. Leung first received large-scale attention in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 film A City of Sadness, which won the Venice Golden Lion, but he truly shot to stardom with John Woo’s classic 1992 action film Hard Boiled. He has also starred in films by Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, and John Woo, most of which are internationally-acclaimed productions. Leung has famously collaborated multiple times with director Wong Kar-wai for a total of seven films. He has also been listed by CNN as one of “Asia’s 25 Greatest Actors of All Time” and both Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt have been quoted as being fans of his work. There’s no doubt that Tony Leung Chiu-wai is one of Hong Kong’s most widely-acclaimed actors of his generation, and has won multiple acting awards-including Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. This raw film about a turbulent romance was nominated for Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Must-watch work: Happy Together, also starring Tony Leung (see below). Even more than a decade after his death by suicide in April 2003, Leslie Cheung remains a beloved Hong Kong icon whose star still shines bright in the hearts and minds of most in the city, and indeed across Asia. He refused to self-censor, and such blatant flouting of social convention was unfortunately not well received in Hong Kong, though it must be said none of it diminished Cheung’s popularity. He collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier to create cross-cultural drag costumes, which highlighted androgyny and queerness, and also worked with William Chang-the art director in Wong Kar-Wai’s Days of Being Wild- in his music video Bewildered, featuring a homosexual relationship between men. His most famous films included Rouge (1987), Days of Being Wild (1991), Farewell My Concubine (1993), Viva Erotica (1996), and Happy Together (1997).Īs a bisexual artist, Cheung was a forerunner in Hong Kong’s mass media for queer representation. For Western audiences, Cheung was better known as a prolific actor, whose big break came in his starring role in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow in 1986. He rose to prominence as a pop icon and was largely considered one of the “founding fathers” of Cantopop, receiving multiple accolades for his work, such as the Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards, the Golden Needle Award, and the RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards.
The inimitable Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was one of Hong Kong’s most loved celebrities. Everybody already knows all about Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, but how many works from these other Hong Kong actors have you already seen? In honour of the glitz and glamour of the silver screen that was part of what made Hong Kong great, here is a list of the city’s most iconic actors of the late 1980s and 1990s, who more than deserve their fame and accolades, with film recommendations for each artiste. Despite our return to Chinese sovereignty, we still enjoy a greater level of autonomy as a creative hub and have retained much of our distinctive film identity, producing works that continue to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. Hong Kong might be well-known for its fantastic cuisine and iconic cityscape, but let’s not forget that we are also the Hollywood of the East, home to a wealth of gifted actors and a top-notch film industry that was first in the world in terms of per capita production, and the third-largest motion picture industry worldwide, behind only Hollywood and Indian cinema.
0 kommentar(er)
