Leslie Cheung Movies
Heartthrob, pop star, and celebrated Hong Kong actor, Leslie Cheung was one of Asia's most popular performers and intriguing personalities. Bearing an odd sensuality that both fueled the films he stared in (particularly Rouge, Viva Erotica, Days of Being Wild, and Happy Together) and the Hong Kong tabloids, Cheung was well-known for both the breadth of his work and his offscreen life. Although featured to great effect in several of John Woo's butch action outings, Cheung was notable for being one of the few Asian stars to play openly gay characters, a choice that gained particular resonance when he came out after playing one of his most famous gay roles in Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together.Born in Hong Kong on September 12, 1956, Cheung was the youngest of ten children. Influenced early on by both the film world, as his father was actor William Holden's tailor, and his parents' divorce, Cheung went on to study at England's Leeds University. After returning to Hong Kong, he jump-started his career by winning second prize in the 1976 ATV Asian Music Contest. His status as a pop singer led the way to work on television, film, and the stage. In 1981, Cheung became a bona fide star with the success of his album The Wind Blows On, which established him as Asia's most popular singer.
It was not until 1986 that Cheung's film career really gained momentum, thanks to his casting as a rookie cop opposite Chow Yun-Fat in John Woo's popular gangster film A Better Tomorrow. The film's success enabled Cheung to branch out in his film work, and, in 1988, the same year he starred in the sequel to A Better Tomorrow, he played the opium-smoking playboy lead in Stanley Kwan's Rouge, a romantic ghost story that oscillates between the Hong Kong of the 1930s and that of 1987. Rouge was one of the most widely acclaimed films to come out of Hong Kong during the 1980s and helped to establish Cheung as a romantic leading man as well as an action star.
The actor continued to work in a variety of films with some of the industry's most respected directors throughout the 1990s. In 1990, he starred in Woo's action film Once a Thief, again alongside fellow action star Chow Yun-Fat. Later, he got the chance to expand his acting palette in Wong Kar-Wai's Days of Being Wild (1991) by playing Yuddy, a thoroughly despicable heel who uses and abuses most of the women in his life. In 1993, Cheung starred in another action spectacular as Zhuo Yi-Hang, the sensitive swordsman and star-crossed romantic lead in The Bride With White Hair. That same year, he earned international acclaim and recognition for his performance as an opera star specializing in female roles in Chen Kaige's landmark historical drama Farewell, My Concubine. Cheung lent his character's complicated gender identity an unusual pathos and sensitivity, making the development of his on-stage love to off-stage longing all the more affecting. Three years later, he again worked with Chen, as a dissolute opium addict in Temptress Moon.
In 1994, he paired up with Wong Kar-Wai again as the ambivalent swordslinger hired to kill and protect the same person in the existential action epic Ashes of Time. In 1997, again with Wong, Cheung starred in perhaps the most daring role of his career as the bitchy Ho Po-wing, one of a pair of gay Chinese lovers stranded in Buenos Aires in Happy Together. The film's explicit sex scenes made Happy Together one of the most controversial movies of the year and one of the most acclaimed. Cheung subsequently starred as a sleazy softcore film producer in Viva Erotica.
Continuing to appear in numerous films through the millennial crossover, Cheung continued to gain accolades for his diverse and affecting roles. From his touching performance as a stockbroker who finds new meaning in life upon adopting a young orphan in The Kid (1999), to a haunting and eerily prophetic final role in the thriller Inner Senses (2002), his unique persona continued to earn the respect of longtime fans and reach out to those still unfamilar with Cheung's remarkable charm and captivating screen presence.
When Cheung's death from an apparent suicide was announced in April 1, 2003, the international film community suffered a devastating blow and legions of fans had a difficult time grasping how an actor of such talent could end his life with one fateful leap while still in the prime of his career. Following the news of Cheung's untimely death, fans began mourning the loss of the cinematic icon while simultaniously taking note of the tragic irony of his own fate in parallel to that of his troubled character in Inner Senses. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-Fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jacky Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
In the years following Ashes of Time's initial theatrical release, the original negatives were lost and multiple versions of the film began to crop up all across the globe. As a result, director Wong Kar-wai longed to compile these various versions into a restored, remastered, and definitive final cut. With Ashes of Time Redux, the director restructures the film according to seasons, effectively clarifying the central narratives, and digitally colorizes the film to render cinematographer Christopher Doyle's masterful imagery all the more lavish and intoxicatingly gorgeous. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
Visions of the dead haunt a young woman and the psychologist who falls for her in this romantic supernatural thriller from director Lo Chi-Leung. Though psychologist Jim believes that Yan's otherworldly visions have been brought upon by traumatic events in her past, he attempts to cure her and is soon deep in love with his troubled patient. As Jim's love grows ever stronger, Yan's visions fade, and it isn't long before the visions transfer into the horrified eyes of the caring doctor. Now haunted by the very same specters that plagued Yan, his memories of a girlfriend's suicide 20 years prior begin to surface. If the power of love was enough to drive away Yan's ghosts, will her love be enough to help Jim confront his dark past and vanquish the restless spirits? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Karena Lam, (more)
Leslie Cheung stars as a psycho killer in this Hong Kong bullet fest. Nick (Cheung), a former shooting range champion who has been forced to drop his career due to injury, is persuaded to compete again by his girlfriend Colleen (Ruby Wong). Nick's comeback competition is interrupted by a suicidal lunatic, whom Nick duly dispatches with a bullet to the skull. Three years later, a trial witness and four policemen are found murdered, which leads several observers to the conclusion that Nick has become a psychotic killer. With his girlfriend in custody, our anti-hero goes into hiding, vowing to kill a cop a day until his beloved is released. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Alex Fong Chung-sun, (more)
A radio talk-show host who offers romantic advice to his listeners discovers that his harshest critic could also be his greatest love in a tender tale of high profile romance starring Aaron Kwok and Kelly Chen. Zhang is the man that the heartbroken turn to when they're having problems in love; but when the generally helpful host opens a very public discussion concerning the private love life of local columnist Wu, the stage is set for a lively war of words. Now, as Wu begins penning a series of harshly-worded articles criticizing Zhang's top-rated radio show, these two popular media figures are about to find out just how thin the fine line between love and hate truly is. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1998
This Hong Kong comedy of relationships is based on composer J.S. Bach's "The Songbook of Anna Magdalena Bach" and is divided into four "movements," each of which presents a sticky romantic situation for the story's three protagonists: Chan (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a piano tuner; his roommate Yau (Aaron Kwok), a rather spaced-out writer; and the lovely Mok (Kelly Chen), the girl who lives upstairs from them. A complex romantic dance begins when Yau falls in love with Yok without realizing that Chan has secretly loved her for ages. This film was screened at South Korea's 1998 Pusan Film Festival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Takeshi Kaneshiro, Aaron Kwok, (more)
When a doctor arrives in 1930's Shanghai to care for an ailing man, he becomes involved in a fierce struggle between the Nationalists and Communists. With romantic entrapments befalling him and a country on the brink of a revolution, the doctor may not be able to hide the past that he is running from. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directs the strange, intimate drama Cheun Gwong Tsa Sit (Happy Together). Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle employed multiple film speeds and different color film stock during the shooting. Ho (Leslie Cheung) and Lai (Tony Leung) are lovers from Hong Kong who have run away to live in Buenas Aires, Argentina. However, Ho is immature and unwilling to settle down, which makes Lai depressed. When they break up, Lai works as a doorman in a tango bar in order to save money and go home. The restless Ho becomes a prostitute. After Ho is beaten and injured in an attack, Lai takes him to his apartment to recover. Ho tries to rekindle the romance, but Lai isn't interested. He leaves the tango bar and works in a kitchen, where he meets the young Chang (Chang Chen) from Taiwan. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
- 1997
Following up on his acclaimed work Full Throttle, Derek Yee Tung-sing made the unusual move of not only collaborating with movie industry unknown Law Chi-leung, but also to make category III sex comedy. After a string of commercial flops, art house director Sing (Leslie Cheung) resorts to making a softcore film called Viva Erotica in order to pay the bills. His gangster producer, Chung (Law Kar-ying), insists that Sing cast his beautiful, though talentless, girlfriend Mango (Shu Qi) in the lead role. As Sing wrestles with his desire to make this film something more than a cheap porn flick, he also wrestles with his desire for Miss Mango. Meanwhile, Sing's girlfriend, May (Karen Mok), is having a fit over her boyfriend's new project and his sudden lack of passion at home. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Gangsters abound in this lively, romantic crime drama that is set in Shanghai during WW II. The tale of Taiwanese patriot Hsu Wen-Chiang begins as he is washed up on a beach near Shanghai. He is taken in by Ting Lik, a kindly beggar who is desperately in love with Feng Ching-Ching, the daughter of a prominent gangster. It isn't long before Ting Lik successfully rises through the underworld ranks to become one of the city's most powerful gangsters. Hsu is beside him all the way and uses his own power to get revenge against those who tried to have him killed much earlier. The film's later focus is on the exploits of Feng who long ago had a relationship with Hsu when he was on the lam in northern China. Back in the present, Hsu and Feng meet again by chance and they resume their affair until Hsu learns that Feng's father is one of his enemies and kills him. Poor Feng goes mad with grief. Ting finds out and swears revenge upon Hsu. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Following up on his wildly popular gender bending comedy He's a Woman, She's a Man, Peter Chan Ho-sun picks up immediately where the original left off. Chi-wing (Anita Yuen Wing-yee) -- a young lass who dressed like a man to grab the attention of songwriter Sam (Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing) -- has attained fame as a male pop singer and the undying love of Sam, who had a little trouble with his attraction to Chi-wing until he learned she was she. Their life seems perfect until Chi-wing wins a major award for best new male singer. While at the podium, she gushes "Sam, I love you" which fuels all sorts of rumors that Sam and Chi-wing are gay lovers. Meanwhile, androgynous pop star Yim-mui (played by androgynous pop star Anita Mui Yim-fong) returns to Canto-pop scene after a ten year absence and inserts herself into the lives of both Sam and Chi-wing. Soon, Chi-wing finds herself attracted to the charismatic star. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
With a marvelously convoluted plot and featuring plenty of slapstick action, Chinese Feast is essentially a kung-fu film with a tasty twist: the combatants battle with knives, not to carve each other up but to make exquisite culinary delicacies. The story's impetus comes from a long-standing feud between cooking schools and centers on an upcoming cook-off in which two master chefs compete to present the most delicious version of the Qing & Han Imperial Feast staples -- monkey brains, bear paw, and elephant trunk. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Chen Kaige, the director of the international smash Farewell My Concubine, reunited that film's stars, Gong Li and Leslie Cheung, for this complexly layered, visually spectacular historical epic. Opening in 1911, shortly before the collapse of the Imperial government, Temptress Moon follows the wealthy and powerful Pang Family, whose patriarch is hopelessly addicted to opium, which he calls "the source of all inspiration." Zhengda (Zhou Yemang), Old Master Pang's oldest son, has married a woman named Xiuyi (He Saifei), and her younger brother Zhongliang is brought to live with the Pangs, where he earns his keep as a servant. Zhengda shares his father's dependence on opium, and Zhongliang's responsibilities include minding their pipes; Zhengda also forces Zhongliang to kiss Xiuyi in a shadowy incident that suggests an incestuous relationship. In time, Zhongliang grows to adulthood (now played by Leslie Cheung) and flees the Pang estate; he travels to Shanghai, where he becomes a gigolo, seducing women and stealing their valuables. After Old Master Pang dies and Zhengda's addiction to drugs renders him brain damaged, his sister Ruyi (Gong Li), who had been Zhongliang's playmate in childhood, is proclaimed the head of the household. Knowing of his connection to the Pang Family and long-ago friendship with Ruyi, Zhongliang is ordered by his bosses in the Shanghai underworld to return to the Pang estate, where he is to seduce her, gain control of the family's fortune, and then steal it from her. Like Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon proved to be controversial in its native China, due to its frank but unsensational depiction of sex and drug use. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, (more)
The third filmization of the Chinese version of Phantom of the Opera, this Hong Kong operatic melodrama is set in the fatastical burned-out husk of a once glorious opera house located near 1937 Beijing. The tale begins as a homeless theater troupe arrives there and listens to the caretaker describe the theater's demise. It happened a decade ago when the enemies of former famous actor Song Danping, who built the place, torched it for revenge after his affair with the already betrothed Yunyan was discovered. Unfortunately, Song was in the theater at the time and his body was never found. The troupe makes the theater their new home and as they rehearse, actress Wei Quing makes the acquaintance of a ghostly figure who turns out to be Song. He shares with her his plan for vengeance. Those plans involve a brilliant restaging of Romeo and Juliet designed to help him bring back his beloved Yunyan and restore the sanity she lost after he was murdered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A fan desperately desires to meet her idols in this gender-bending Hong Kong farce. The idols in question are singer Rose and her manager/lover Sam, who copes with his chronic ennui by playing along to Beatles records and dreaming of going to Africa. Wing is the rabid fan. To meet the popular duo, she binds her breasts, disguises herself as male, and heads out to audition during a talent search. The two are taken with the "young man's" abilities and decide to take him on. The trouble begins when Sam begins to feel a strange sexual attraction to Wing. Heretofore, Sam had thought of himself as purely heterosexual, but now he is not so sure. Romantic mayhem ensues until the mystery is finally solved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Gordon Chan Kar-seung spins this comedy about Lam Chiu-wing (Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing), an ambitious sleazebag who, at the film's outset, loses his job and his girl on the same day. He crashes with his ne'er-do-well musician friend James (Tony Leung Kar-fai) and subsequently takes advantage of him. When James falls for comely businesswoman Winnie Tsang (Rosamund Kwan Chi-lam), Lam leapfrogs over his friend and starts going out with her. He eventually lands a job at her company, impressing the higher-ups with his near-sociopathic ease of lying. Soon, Lam has crawled his way to the top of his profession but realizes that he has trashed all those around him to get there. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Kar-Fai, (more)
- 1994
Master Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai directed this lyrical, dream-like martial arts epic. A famously troubled shoot, the film took two years and 40 million dollars to produce (a shocking sum for a national cinema populated with low-budget quickies) and features a virtual who's-who of the Hong Kong film world. Conceived as a prequel to the popular martial arts novel The Eagle-Shooting Hero by Jin Yong, the movie is less a straightforward action thriller than a visually striking meditation on memory and love. It nominally centers on Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung), who ekes out a lonely existence as an itinerant hired sword. Getting on in years and tormented by memories of a lost love, he also works an agent for other mercenary assassins from his remote desert abode. Ouyang's old friend and fellow swordsman, Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-fai, who starred in the The Lover) drowns his lovelorn misery in a magical wine that makes him forget. Later, a mysterious young man named Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) hires Ouyang to kill his sister's unfaithful suitor, Huang Yaoshi. The following day, that spurned sister, Murong Yin (Lin again), hires Ouyang to protect her dearly beloved. Meanwhile, Hong Qi (pop star Jackie Cheung) finds some redemption for a life of killing by accepting a poor girl's offer to avenge her brother's death -- a task that Ouyang brusquely shunned. In another subplot, a master swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is slowly going blind. He agrees to defend a village from horse thieves so that he can afford to go home and see his wife before his eyesight fails completely. This film is one of the most celebrated examples of 1990s Hong Kong cinema: it won multiple awards in its native Hong Kong, along with a Golden Osella for Best Cinematography at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, (more)
- 1993
Jeff Lau Chun-wai spins this wild and woolly parody of Wong Kar-wai's martial arts epic Ashes of Time, which was actually produced by Wong himself and features many of the same cast members as Ashes. This loosely plotted film centers around the misdeeds of a pair of royals (Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Veronica Yip) looking to usurp the throne. Also appearing in this film is the bubble-headed Third Princess (Brigitte Ling Ching-hsia) who martial arts ability is dubious at best, a mysterious flying head (Tony Leung Kar-fai), and the dreaded kung fu form "Toad Has a Pee Pee." Because of Ashes' notoriously difficult production, Dong Cheng actually beat the film to the theaters. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung
Editor and co-writer of the original, David Wu Tai-wai directs this follow-up to the wildly popular romantic fantasy-horror masterwork Bride With White Hair. The last film ended with Cho (Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing), following the defeat of the Wu Tang clan, waiting atop the snowy peak of mount Shing for a rare flower to blossom and heal his ailing lover. Ni-chang (Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia), feeling spurned by Cho thanks to the evil doings of a pair of Siamese twins in the previous movie, has morphed into a demon with a head of white poisonous hair. She creates a cult dedicated to her hatred of men, vowing to kill every member of the Eight Clans of Chung Yuan. Among them is Fung Chun-kit (Sunny Chan Kam-hung), Cho's cousin who is in love with the beautiful Lyre (Joey Maan Yee-man). On their wedding night, Ni-chang, Ling (Christy Chung), and a number of other disciplines crash the party and kidnap the bride. Back in their lair, they slowly turn Lyre against her would-be groom. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Following on the success of 1987's Chinese Ghost Story, Hong Kong was inundated with romantically themed tales of the supernatural. Most were awful, but Ronny Yu's The Bride With White Hair has become a classic of the genre. Based on a two-volumed 1954 novel written by Leung Yu-Sang, the film tells the story of star-crossed lovers and bloody conflict. The two meet when Lian (Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia), a beautiful sorceress who was raised by wolves, saves young warrior Zhuo Yi-Hang (Leslie Cheung) from a pack of hungry animals. Though she disappears before he can thank her, Zhuo is entranced. Later Zhuo becomes a master swordsman with the Wu Tang Clan, a tight-knit martial arts society dedicated to the villainous Ji Wu-Shuang (played by both Francis Ng and Elaine Lui), a mutant half-man, half-woman creature who rules the land with an iron fist. Though Zhuo is more interested in quiet life of contemplation, the clan elders see Zhou as their best weapon against their evil King/Queen. Meanwhile, Lian has grown into a formidable adversary herself -- especially with the use of her trusty whip, which can slice a man in two. She has been recruited by Ji to thwart the rebels. In the midst of battle, Zhou and Lian meet. Ji -- who secretly lusts for Lian -- orders her to kill Zhuo. She refuses, much to his displeasure, and orders her tortured to within an inch of her life. Zhuo discovers Lian's semi-conscious body and nurses her back to health. The two soon fall passionately in love and vow to always trust one another. Unfortunately, Ji's black magic revenge spoils the lovers' new-found bliss. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, (more)
Until Farewell, My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji), not many people were aware that most members of the Peking Opera were originally orphans or illegitimate castaways with nowhere else to turn. Such is the case of the film's protagonists, Duan Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) and Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung), two homeless outcasts, trained from childhood in the grueling rigors of the Opera by master Lu Qui. The film traces the 52-year friendship between Xiaolou and Dieyi, a friendship pockmarked with fiery conflicts and tender reconciliations. Though the delicate Dieyi specializes in female roles and the gutsy Xiaolou plays noble warriors, theirs is an essentially heterosexual relationship; still, when Xiaolou takes upon himself a prostitute bride (the magnificent Gong Li), Dieyi is as petty and jealous as an outcast mistress. Farewell, My Concubine holds the viewer in thrall from start to finish; as such, it is thoroughly deserving of its many international film awards and nominations. Surprisingly, this worldwide success was something of a flop in its home country of China; perhaps it hit too close to home for those viewers who'd lived through the same years so painstakingly recreated in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, (more)
Highly unusual in that it was intended as a prequel to another film's sequel, this entry in the Lee Rock series depicts events occurring before 1991's Lee Rock II, but after the events in the first film. The story centers on Sergeant Lam Kung (well-known film producer Charles Heung) and his demotion to the police department's juvenile crimes unit for arresting the wrong person, a man involved in a kickback scheme with Lam's superiors. Lam does his best in his new job, but continues to get in trouble by harassing the delinquent teenagers of wealthy and influential parents. One such protected criminal is Sam Chow, a vicious drug-dealing hoodlum who seems to operate with a free hand because of his parents' status. The troubled young center of the film is Teddy Pak (Leslie Cheung), who runs into trouble but has a heart of gold. He also has a deadbeat mother whom he must constantly save from being executed by loan sharks when she fails to repay her debts. The 1950s-style melodrama comes to a head as Sam's gang attacks Teddy's young girlfriend and murders another girl, leading Teddy to be framed for the crime unless Sgt. Lam can clear his name. A good-looking but ultimately minor addition to the series, Arrest the Restless co-stars Vivian Chow, Deanie Yip, and Paul Chun. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
