Tony Leung defends blacklisted Chinese "Lust" actress

2nd picture caption: Tony Leung and South Korean actress Jeon Do-yeon

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Award-winning Hong Kong actor Tony Leung said Chinese actress Tang Wei should not have been singled out and blacklisted by Beijing, following her sexually explicit role in the acclaimed movie "Lust, Caution."

China's State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) recently demanded local stations cease airing ads starring Tang, including skin care commercials for cosmetics brand Pond's, which local media have linked to her sexually explicit and politically sensitive role in "Lust."

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August, China has moved to crack down on broadcasters, Web sites and print media showing sexually explicit content.
"I think the (Chinese) film authority understands an actor's place," Leung said after picking up the best actor award at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong on Monday night. "Our work is only to express our roles and I don't think that an actor should be blacklisted because of this."

He said the entire film crew including himself had a shared responsibility to bear any controversy generated by the film. "If a film has problems, then the whole (film production) crew should have a responsibility. We are a team and not an individual, and I'm a part of this team," said Leung at a post-award media conference.

Tang, 28, lost out on the best actress award at the Asian Film Awards for her debut performance in "Lust, Caution." She played a student activist who seduces a Japanese-allied Chinese spy during Japan's World War Two occupation of Shanghai.

The film's Oscar-winning director Ang Lee earlier expressed "regret" that Tang had been hurt by the blacklist decision.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; editing by Mary Gabriel)

credits to Reuters

I'm not so surprised to hear about this since I am one of the few conservative people who still exist in this progressive world. I know I have said that I would not watch "Lust, Caution" but I still could not resist. Not that I could not resist the "scene" *__^ but because I was missing Tony. I'm very much anticipated for the release of "Red Cliff" because I have not watched Tony onscreen for quite some time already. I always like the war strategy in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and so I believe "Red Cliff" will be a great movie. While waiting for the movie, I got a chance to watch "Lust, Caution" that I found it hard to pass it up when it was right in front of me.

After watching the movie, I must speak my regrets. I really should not have watched it. No, it does not ruin my fondness for Tony because I have seen him in love scenes before. However, the ones in this movie are BAD; not one, but TWO! The scenes are so sexually provocative that I find it unbelievable that Tony and Tang Wei agreed to film this movie. Call me conservative, outdated, whatever, but I still say these scenes were unnecessary. Now I totally understand what Andy Lau meant when he said that he would not be able to film such scenes. If it wasn't for the big names of Ang Lee and Tony Leung, would "Lust, Caution" be considered pornography? I would say yes. However, with Tang Wei being the only person who is being punished from filming the movie whereas Tony is grabbing awards for the same performance, I find it very unjustified. My best wishes are with her. I believe she won't be severely affected by this incident and will even gain better recognition in the near future.

Frankie & Kenix at Lydia Shum's Memorial

February of 2008 was such a memorable month for the Hong Kong showbiz. First was the tabooed scandal, then Jackie Chan's father's passing & Jacky Cheung's grandmother's, the departure of Lydia, and the snow storm in China with artists lending a helping hand.

Rest in Peace, Mrs. Lydia Shum!

Image Source: Tungstar

No Justice For All

Starring: Kenny Ho Kar King, Kenix Kwok, Jin Chao Chun

No Justice For All was the very first movie that Kenix made in her early showbiz days. She and Kenny looked very compatible since both have the looks and the talent. This was, and is still a very rare movie that it's almost impossible find it anywhere. I've been looking all over the internet, the video stores, etc... but there was NO WAY that I could find it. Luck only started to smile with me "YAY!" when a fan uploaded the movie online for others to watch. Many fans were THRILLED because we really thought that we would never get a chance to watch this early work of Kenix. I was especially disappointed because I would love to watch Kenix and Kenny as a couple. Who wouldn't love Kenny as Zhan Zhao in the Taiwanese/ATV classic Judge Pao? Perhaps due to the tremendous popularity of the Judge Pao series, NJFA is like a movie version of it. It reunites the main casts of Judge Pao with Kenix's story being "the case."

The story starts when Kenny, being a talented lawyer, just wins a case in the court. He's eating in a restaurant with a colleague to celebrate and meets Kenix there. She introduces herself as a hairstylist and gives him her business card. He then goes to the salon to have his hair done. While Kenix is doing his hair, she receives a phone call from her brother who needs her to bail him out from the police station. He and another friend go to a convenient store and the cashier is not there to check them out. Suddenly, a man comes out from the back of the store with blood all over his body and falls dead on the floor. These two boys are too scared that they run out of the store and bump into a few CIDs who are on their way in. The police see the dead body and understandbly assume that the boys must have done something. They chase after the two boys and only Kenix's brother is caught. In the police station, the CIDs interrogate the boy and conclude that he's the murderer. Without the boy's confession, they start to beat him up (I guess this happened back then) until he admits the crime. The whole interrogation process takes hours and finally the boy gives in to the brutality and comes near the window. Pardon my memory on this part because I have seen this movie quite a while ago. I think the police push him out the window and threaten to throw him down if he doesn't admit the crime but he ends up falling down anyway. This part seems unrealistic because it's hard to believe that the police, even back then, would go to such extent to crave out a confession. Nevertheless, the boy is dead and fortunately, there are two people who witness the whole scene. One is a very young school boy who is about six or seven years old, and the other one appears to be a resigned policeman. There is also an evidence because when the brother is about to fall down, he is too terrified that he grabs on to a CID's necklace.

Kenix as a sister comes to the place and sees that her brother is lying dead on the top of a car. When she still hasn't seen her brother's body yet, the school boy pulls her aside and tells her that he has seen the policemen pushing this young man down from high above. Kenix decides to sue those 3 CIDs and hires Kenny to help her with the case. Kenny has recently joined a law firm and his boss played by Jin Chao Chun (Judge Pao) also agrees to take on the case. As easy as it might seem, the case starts to get real complicated mainly because the lawyer on the opposite side is a filthy talent. First, the police department will not cooperate because they know that revealing the truth about using violence during interrogation will damage the Hong Kong police's reputation. Second, the school boy is unqualified to be a witness because he is too young. The resigned policeman also refuses to appear in court because he fears revenge by the CIDs (this part might be erroneous due to my rusty memory). Kenix and Kenny then have to search for the friend of her brother who is in hiding but that doesn't help either. In addition, the CID with the necklace claims it was lost before this incident happens. In order to make Kenny continue with the case, Kenix lies to him by claiming that she sees the CIDs pushing her brother down with her own eyes. Her testimony is then proven false by the other lawyer due to the inconsistent timing and that she has been diagnosed with mental illness a few years back and thus, her words are not reliable. In the end, the court rules in favor of the CIDs and they walk out the court freely right under the blind-folded Statue of Justice. I guess it's because she's blind-folded ^__*. Overjoyed by the victory, the CID with the necklace walks over to Kenix and whispers in her ear that he did push her brother down and will do it again if given another chance. Enraged by the inequitable verdict, Kenix decides to take the law into her own hands. Taking advantage of the crowded and busy atmosphere, Kenix uses Kenny's car and aims to hit that CID at full speed. As the man is dying on the street with reporters snapping pictures, Kenix contentedly steps out of the car with Kenny running towards her. He asks her if she has gone mad and that she can go to prison for this, she calmly answers him, "Don't you worry. I will tell them that I'm mentally unsound."

NJFA is overall a good movie and Kenix's & Kenny's appearances only spice it up. Even though the cause that leads to all this mess is somewhat unreasonable, the court case and the evidences that follow it are properly presented. It does make sense that the police department would not want to lose reputation, that the school boy is too young to testify in court, that the necklace is claimed to have been lost long before the incident, etc... The best part about this movie, of course, is the collaboration of Kenix and Kenny. Both are beautiful actors and both are on my favorite list. Even though their love story is overshadowed by the court case, it still manages to shine. It is because of his feelings for Kenix that Kenny agrees to take on the case and continues with it to the end, even when he knows they will lose. They have many scenes together for the need to discuss the case and thus show sufficient chemistry. Too bad that they only worked together this one time and later went their very separate ways: Kenny in Taiwan and Kenix in Hong Kong, thus leaving no chance for another collaboration.

Poster image: www.kenixkwok.net

Tony Leung in the Mood for Marriage

Tony Leung says marriage with longtime girlfriend Carina Lau in the works

HONG KONG - Cannes best-actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai said Monday he hopes to find time this year to wed his longtime girlfriend, Carina Lau, in between promoting his new film and preparing for his next role. Leung and Lau, both based in Hong Kong, are among the Chinese entertainment world's most closely watched couples.

"I'm getting up there in age. It's time to consider marriage . . . I'm in my 40s. I can't wait until I'm 60," Leung said as he joked with reporters on the sidelines of a news conference to promote Entertainment Expo Hong Kong, an event to promote the territory's film industry. Leung said that the wedding has been in the works for many years, but that the two have had a difficult time co-ordinating their busy schedules.

"Even though the Hong Kong movie industry has gone through a recession, it's still quite vibrant. I'm very busy," he said. "Let's see if we're luckier this year and can find a date."He said work commitments this year include promoting John Woo's Chinese historical epic "Red Cliff," which he just finished shooting. He'll also prepare for his next role as Bruce Lee's kung fu master, Ip Man, in famed Hong Kong art-house director Wong Kar-wai's planned biopic.

Leung is known for playing subdued characters like the melancholy writer who had a love affair with a married woman in "In the Mood for Love." That performance won him best-actor honours at France's Cannes Film Festival in 2000.

Credits: The Associated Press, Prince George Citizen

Kenix at Hacken Lee's New Year Concert

Kenix is in a white shirt in the front row.

It's so nice to see Kenix almost always attending Hacken's concerts to support her good friend. Until this day, I still did not understand how and why the reporters started those rumors about Kenix and Hacken a few years ago. For those who haven't heard of these rumors, it was said that Kenix and Hacken had been secretly dating for about 2-3 years, ever since their last collaboration in the Legal Entanglement series. Allegedly, Hacken's wedding with his current wife Emily had to be postponed due to these speculations.

If I remember correctly, during this time, there was not much news about Kenix because she had stopped accepting series from TVB. Then suddenly, I went on the internet one day and read news about her so-called affair with Hacken. I was shocked, not because they were an "item" but because the news seemed to pop out of nowhere. I was talking to my sister that why didn't they start this rumor right after the filming of Legal Entanglement; why now? I also think this was the reason Kenix did not attend Hacken's wedding to avoid causing more speculations. What a pity! If it wasn't for this, I'm sure she would've attended.

Anyway, it's nice to see them still being friends after those absurd rumors. In the clip, it's obvious that Hacken was surprised to see Kenix, so I guess she didn't get free tickets from him this time ^___^.

Video clip: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/wingshan/?action=view&current=18_02_2008.flv

Credit: www.kwokhoying.com
Thanks to mtd for the information.

Kenix Kwok's Valentines Day: No Sign of Husband Frankie Lam

Kenix Kwok and Frankie Lam usually appear in a pair. Earlier Kenix was photographed to be celebrating Frankie Lam's birthday in a beautiful atmosphere. But last night Valentines Day, there was no sign of husband Frankie with Kenix. In contrast,there were 2 other female good friends accompanying Kenix for a meal in Central District. Although her husband wasn't there, but Kenix was still in a good mood. When she noticed reporters taking pictures of her, even turned around and smiled for pictures, she wasn't mad at all that she was being followed. As Kenix was in Mainland and received a bush of beautiful blue flowers, she was asked if her husband send it to her? She immediately smiles and only said: "Happy New Year!" as she got into her car.

Source: Oriental Daily

Translated by: aZnangel @ http://asianeu.net/forums/
News taken from AsianFanatics
Kenix was in mainland earlier without Frankie? I thought she went there with him, along with Cheng Ming Ming? I thought they were visiting some poor place there with the children. Or maybe that was another event.

Kenix at Wedding of Ada Choi and Zhang Jin

I'm THRILLED that Kenix finally decided to show up at a friend's celebration. She just seems to disappear for the whole year and has not been hanging out with celebrity friends for like forever. I was waiting to see her at Raymond Cho's wedding but I was upset that she did not attend; only Frankie did. And Raymond was among the best men at Kenix-Frankie wedding. I was praying that she would attend Ada's wedding because they were very close friends in the past. I have not seen many pictures of them in the recent years so I don't know how their friendship has developed. The last close pictures of Kenix and Ada were during At the Threshold of an Era days. My point is: ever since her wedding with Frankie, I barely see her with a friend. I was so desperate to see just one picture of her with any old pal but that still didn't happen. Gone were the days that this group of friends hung out together at both private and public events: Kenix, Monica Chan, Anita Lee, Athena Chu, Frankie Lam, Francis Ng, Noel Leung, Ada Choi, Kitty Lai, Lee San San, Gary Chan, etc... As I see, Athena, Kitty, and Catherine Hung were more of Ada's friends.

Despites of being called "a simple wedding," many celebrities attended Ada-Zhang Jin wedding. I see the familiar old pal faces such as Kenix (Yay!), Gary (but where's Noel? She was at Kenix's wedding), Athena-Catherine-Monica (& also Ada's assistant) as bridesmaids, Carol Yeung Ling, and Kitty Lai. From the "friends" group, I notice the absence of Anita Lee, Francis Ng, Noel Leung, Lee San San, and Jacqueline Law. Perhaps they were busy. Another piece of news said Jacqueline Law was present. Maybe I just didn't see her picture.

Other celebrities in attendance were Jessica Hsuan, Gigi Lai, Virginia Lok, Wong Hei, Joe Ma, Hacken Lee & wife, Liu Kai Chi and wife Money Chan, Ha Yu, Moses Chan, Nick Cheung, Flora Chan, Eileen Yeow, Charmaine Sheh, Timmy Hung, Paul (forgot last name, Athena's boyfriend), Shirley Yeung, Lawrence Ng, etc...

Ada looked very beautiful as a bride. Her simple white dress and cute floral on the head made her look very elegant and happy. Congratulations to Ada and Zhang Jin!!!

Images: tungstar, on.cc, ent.163

Credits to kuangaitvb.com, TVBVN Fan Club

Sword Stained with Royal Blood

This is not a series review but it contains some spoilers. Read at your own risk!



SSWRB was a 20 episode series adapted from Jing Yong’s novel in 1986. It stars Felix Wong, Patricia Chong, Michael Miu, Lawrence Ng, Mou Shun Kwan, and the cameo faces at the time: Michael Tao, Francis Ng, & Bobby Au Yeung. I’ve always wanted to watch this series because I found Michael Miu and his mustache go well together. This is odd because I generally do not like men with mustache. I can tolerate beard (Tony Leung in the Grand Canal) but not mustache. Ok, enough with the facial hair before I go off topic.

As much as I was anticipated to watch another series of Felix & Michael together, I was disappointed to learn that Michael’s character dies before Felix’s appears. Michael only appears in more or less two episodes but his presence is worth every minute. Throughout the series, we’ll see him again and again as flashbacks but he’s no more than a guest star, like in The Two Honorable Knights. Michael looks very charming as usual even though unlike his other series, his costumes in here are very simple. If I remember correctly, he only has two costumes and they are all black and white. I believe it is because playing a character who only has vengeance in mind, Michael finds no need to dress dashingly. Even though his appearance is worth every minute, it is also painful for me to have to watch him pairing with older actresses. Michael’s character dies early, but we still see his women in the later generation, so I guess that’s why TVB chose older actresses. It’s such a pity that TVB couldn’t choose a more matching partner for him. His love story with one woman is short but sweet. It is because of her that he gives up his plan of vengeance and goes to his doom.



The main story is, of course, about Felix and his other story of vengeance. Kenneth Tsang plays his father, a very loyal general but is killed off for treason by the villain and the brainless emperor. Felix’s goal throughout the series is to help the rebels overthrow the emperor and then kill him and the villain to get revenge for his wrongfully accused father. Also unlike his other series, Felix looks very gallant in here. He dresses similarly to The Wild Bunch with very nice costumes and manages to look so fine. It is also the first time I see Felix hold a fan like a noble gentleman even though he only has it in the early episodes. His character has no extraordinary quality that makes him distinguished so it is a forgettable role and therefore, Felix’s performance is only passable.

The life of the whole show, to me, is no other than the naughty but adorable Patricia Chong. Michael & Felix were the reason I started on the series, but Patricia was the sole reason I kept on with it. Patricia was one of the few actresses who looked beautiful and adorable at the same time (e.g. Margie Tsang). Her character is also the most interesting. She plays the daughter of Michael & his fiancée but grows up as fatherless. She lives with her grandfather and great-uncles but they are no more or less thieves. All they do is kill and steal so they teach her to do the same. The first time she appears, she steals. In the third scene or so, we see her fight and kill other thieves. She likes Felix very quickly because he helps her fight off other thieves the first time they meet. Patricia looks very nice in here with many beautiful costumes. She looks beautiful as a girl and very handsome as a man when she dresses up like one. Her elegance as a male reminds me of Idy Chan dressing up as a man in the Grand Canal. Both actresses manage to look dashing in both.

By chance, Felix finds Michael’s cave and learns the martial arts in a book that he writes before he dies so his techniques won’t be lost. Michael also has a treasure map that now belongs to Felix, but whoever finds the treasure has to give a share to Patricia’s mother. When she learns of his death, she commits suicide & begs Felix to take good care of Patricia because Michael is, in a way, Felix’s sifu now. Felix agrees and from now on starts the adventures of the two. On their way to find the treasure, Felix & Patricia encounter various types of people and their problems, and are able to make friends as well as foes. While watching, I couldn’t help but notice that their partnership resembles Kwok Jing & Wong Yung from Legend of the Condor Heroes. Patricia is smart, mischievous, and likes to meddle into other people’s business, while Felix is the opposite. The differences are that Felix only treats Patricia as a sister and that both of them aren’t as smart or simple-minded as WY & KJ.

The only thing I despise about this series is that Felix does not return Patricia’s affection. He finds himself falling for the princess whose father he must kill. Mou Shun Kwan doesn’t look attractive and in my opinion, she’s a far cry from Patricia’s charms. Contradicting to the princess position, she only has about two dresses that she wears through out the series that you’ll wonder if she’ll ever change. I began to like the series when Felix & Patricia start the adventures together and how caring and protective he is towards her. I then started to dread at his love-at-first-sight scene with the princess and how he can’t stop loving her. I was hopeful, however, that because her father kills his father, he’ll realize that he can’t be with her and have a change of heart. I was completely beaten down when very near the end, he still loves her. I screamed and really wanted to smack him at the ending when he’s standing on the mountain, reminiscing about her & his closest friend’s death (Lawrence), and then going away. Patricia runs all over the mountains screaming his name but he is no where in sight. The series just ends like that. TVB just love to play with the audience in many “cruel” ways.

The series ends with Patricia and ME screaming! I was like “what?" At least I hoped it would end with Felix and Patricia together even if he doesn’t love her, because he still has to take care of her. Their relationship has developed so much that I don’t believe he can just leave her behind like that. I wonder how it really ends in the novel. Nonetheless, Felix & Patricia make a great couple. I just know four series that they were in together: Heaven’s Retribution, Soldier of Fortune, the Young Wanderer, and this one. The Yang’s Saga doesn’t count. But in all of them, they don’t end up together. In HR, Felix pairs with Jamie Chik; in YW, he pairs with Carina Lau; in SoF, they are lovers but she dies. Plus, I didn’t enjoy SoF because Tony still had a minor role even though he looked absolutely adorable while Kent played the bad guy. I didn’t finish the series but I did watch the part that Patricia’s character died.

Watch it or forget it: well, hard to say. If you are a fan of the 80s & 90s like me, you’ll probably want to give it a try since it’s so nice to watch the real talents of the old days. Even though the plot is forgettable, watching Felix, Patricia, & Michael was well worth the time.

Images: credits to Felix Wong Ancient Series Homepage

Some captures done by me.

Tony Leung's Psychology

Tony Leung: Lust actually

Tony Leung is best known for playing a repressed lover in 'In the Mood for Love'. But in Ang Lee's latest film he's finally unleashed his sexuality. And it feels great, he tells Stephen Applebaum.

Tony Leung is one of Asia's biggest and best-loved stars. He is also one of its most versatile. In his acclaimed body of work with the mercurial film-maker Wong Kar-wai, he is as at home in the martial-arts world of Ashes of Time as in the Sixties Hong Kong of their international breakthrough, the dreamily romantic In the Mood for Love.

Able to make silences speak volumes with just his melancholy eyes, Leung became the ideal avatar of Wong's impressionistic style. Now teamed with the Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee, the actor gives one of his strongest performances in Lust, Caution, subverting the good-guy image that he cultivated with Kar-wai. However, it is probably not Leung's acting masterclass that has been pulling in the crowds in Asia. More than likely, it is the film's seven minutes of graphic sex (although not in mainland China, where the scenes have been excised by the censor), the fleshy frankness of which has been generating shock and surprise ever since Lust, Caution's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.

This was Leung's first opportunity to view the finished film. "I think I did a great job," he said afterwards, apparently unfazed by the gobsmacked reactions on the Lido. "When I saw it the first time, I tried to focus on myself to see how I did as that character. The second time I watched it, I saw the whole movie, and I think it's great." Did he expect his fans back home to be as tolerant? "I'm curious about how they'll respond," he admits. "I think they expect me to change. They expect me to give them something different in every movie."
This may well be so. I am just not sure that the 45-year-old star appearing naked in highly charged scenes of explicit – though not pornographic – sex is the kind of "different" anyone had in mind.

Based on a short story by the respected Chinese author Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution offers a handsomely presented tale of patriotism, espionage, love, betrayal and revenge, set during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the Second World War. Newcomer Tang Wei is a star-in-the-making as Wong Chia Chi, an idealistic student who becomes the lynchpin in a plot by radicals to assassinate Leung's traitorous secret-service chief, Mr Yee. As the honeytrap draws the pair closer together, brutal rape gives way to tenderness and love, creating a conflict between will and duty.

When I meet Leung to discuss the film, it appears that even he was astonished by how far Lee wanted to go with the sex. Speaking softly, in Chinese-accented English, he says that the director was coy when they first met. "He didn't mention much at all," Leung says, laughing. "I was quite curious about why he always said, 'There's a love scene.' I said, 'How come you always emphasise this love scene? I do a lot of movies that have love scenes.' Ang said, 'There's a love scene.' I said, 'OK, love scenes are fine for me.' "After three months, when we had to do some rehearsals before shooting, he told me that we were going to do love scenes this way." Leaving little to the imagination, that is. "I said, 'This way? Er, OK. Let's try'." The surprise is still evident in his voice.

Lee says that he found the scenes "extremely painful" to shoot because of the trust he commanded from the actors. Leung is more relaxed, however. "Doing love scenes is always difficult without a strong emotional background. But I think the love scenes in this movie are not just trying to show the bodies of the actors, they're trying to reflect the inner accents of the characters. So it's easier that way." Asked if he did anything to help the less experienced Wei get through them, Leung's reply seems cold. "I didn't have time to help her. I was just trying to help myself."

The hardest aspect of Lust, Caution for him, though, was trying to strip away his usual persona to find something darker and more masculine. Under Lee's guidance, Leung watched films starring Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Humphrey Bogart, and pored over history books about the Japanese occupation and biographies of secret agents. "I learnt how they functioned and how they worked; I needed to see a lot of documentaries to see how they talked, their gestures, and how they walked.

"Ang wanted me to be a different Tony Leung because the audience is familiar with what I've done before, so I had to change everything. It was very tough. Ang taught me to walk like his father. So my character actually walks like his father."

Leung is well known for immersing himself in his roles. He will take a script home and read it until he has explored every nuance. He does not just act a character, he lives it. Inhabiting Yee's darkness for months on end was difficult, the actor admits. "It was exhausting. Sometimes you just lost your appetite. You're always down. You're always very unhappy. You carry this character. It's very tough. But this is a new experience for me, and I think I had a breakthrough in my career."

Acting has always been more than just a job to Leung. When he entered acting training at the Chinese television channel TVB, aged 19, following a spell selling household appliances, he was painfully shy and reserved. As a child, he had watched his parents bicker constantly, and between the ages of three and six, his father – a captain at a nightclub – had left home three times, finally for good. "Suddenly, one day, he'd just leave and then maybe he'd come back six months later without telling you why, and then he'd disappear again after a year," Leung recalls. "It's very difficult to understand when you're three or five years old, so you just don't know how to handle it." He never met his father again. "He passed away a few years ago. I know he tried to see me, but my mother didn't want me to see him."

No one in the family talked about what was happening, he says. "In the Sixties, it wasn't that common for people to divorce, so I felt very bad. My mother didn't know how to tell us. And she needed to work because we needed money to live." Leung withdrew into himself. "I shut down all my emotions, I wasn't talkative, I didn't know how to communicate; I just tried to separate myself from people."

Acting provided an outlet for his bottled-up emotions. "I could cry behind a character, I could shout behind a character, and that kind of relief was fun." Acting became an addiction, something he needed. Gradually, though, as he has found other ways of expressing himself, the therapeutic element became less important. "I've enjoyed it more and more in recent years," he says, "because it's more than just using it as an outlet for my emotions or what I suffer. I enjoy doing movies now. That's the only thing I'm really concerned about now, working with really great film-makers, great partners, great actors. It's fun. It's exciting."

It appears he can't get enough of that excitement. Instead of taking a break after Lust, Caution, he moved straight on to Red Cliff, John Woo's historical epic set during the Hang Dynasty, which is being touted as the most expensive film ever produced in China. "It's very tough because it's a war movie and there are lots of people every day," says Leung. "You need an hour for a take because we have a lot of costumes to wear. The weather is very hot and we wear winter costumes, because the war happens in wintertime, and we have to wear armour weighing 20lb."
Already a huge star in Asia, it is surely only a matter of time before the Hong Kong-based actor makes his English-language debut in the West. But despite offers from Hollywood, Leung says he is not in any hurry to head to America. He would like to make at least one film there, but is certainly not looking to increase his fame. "I don't have any privacy anymore and I hate that. And besides work, I just want to be an ordinary person, not to be recognised, not to look like a monkey on the street, with everyone staring at you."

Leung reveals that he and Kar-wai are likely to reunite in 2008 for a project about Bruce Lee's kung-fu master. "We planned to do it five years ago, but I felt quite bored with him," he admits. "We'd been working together for over 10 years, so we needed a break."

It will be interesting to see what emerges. Kar-wai's films are notorious for beginning as one thing and ending up as another. "Maybe it's not a kung-fu movie at all," says Leung, laughing. "Maybe it's another movie about walking on the streets and smoking cigarettes. No more kung fu."

News source: Belfast Telegraph
Images: credits to respective owners.

TVB Top Ten Highest Rated Serials

TVB 2007 Top 10 Series (Based on average rating)

1) The Family Link - Average 32.4
2) Fathers and Sons - Average 32.3
3) Heart of Greed - Average 32
4) Ten Brothers - Average 31.3
5) On the First Beat - Average 31.2
6) The Green Grass of Home - Average 30.8
7) Steps - Average 30.4
8) The Drive of Life - Average 30.3
9) War and Destiny - Average 29.7
10) Men Don't Cry - Average 29.4

TVB 2007 Lowest 3 Series (Based on average rating)
1) Life Art - Average 26.6
2) Best Bet - Average 27.2
3) The Conquest - Average 27.3

Source: Ming Pao Daily
Credits: asianfanatics

Congrats to Kenix, Frankie, & Sunny for making it to the top ten list! From the list, I have only finished watching Ten Brothers & the Green Grass of Home. I started on Heart of Greed and War & Destiny but did not have time to finish. I watched WAD solely because of Sunny but i really dislike his mustache. Despites of the fact that Sunny is the lead, Ron Ng has way much more screen time so I gave up on the series. I like Ron as a new actor, but him appearing more often than Sunny, no way! I was attracted to the star-studded cast so I gave the Drive of Life a chance but it's so boring even at the first episode. Michael Miu was really charming and funny; Jessica had a different role instead of her usual strong character; Damian gave a strong performance as always. However, that's not enough to save the whole boring & draggy plot. I watched here and there and then totally gave up on the series.

I know everybody has been saying this for countless times, but I still want to say it again: TVB is going downhill. As of right now, I only look forward to Catch Me Now and Forensic Heroes II for the sake of Idy Chan and Frankie Lam.