Tony Leung Chiu-Wai Movies
One of the most sought-after actors in East Asia, Tony Leung Chiu-wai made his mark on world cinema for his work with high profile directors like John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, and Hou Hsiao-hsien. He got his start as a television actor and children's show host, and quickly made the jump into Hong Kong's thriving mid-'80s film industry, where he proved his versatility in a string of movies by Hong Kong heavyweights like Stanley Kwan (Love Unto Waste), Patrick Tam (My Heart Is That Eternal Rose) and Sammo Hung (Seven Warriors). But it wasn't until his first foray outside of Hong Kong's movie industry -- a moving portrayal of a hearing-impaired photographer in Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's historical epic A City of Sadness -- that the full range of his talent became apparent.International recognition began to come Leung's way in the 1990s, thanks to roles in Woo's operatic action thrillers Bullet in the Head and Hard-Boiled, and to a fruitful long-term collaboration with the acclaimed Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai, with whom he has made five films. His gently humorous performance as a lovesick policeman in Wong's international cult hit Chungking Express won him a Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, as did his turn as a depressed homosexual exile going through a stormy breakup in Happy Together. He and Maggie Cheung both won top honors at the Hong Kong Film Awards for their performances as neighbors who suspect their spouses of having an affair in the sumptuous chamber romance In the Mood for Love, for which Leung also won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Leung's relaxed charm and matinee-idol looks make it easy to overlook the complexity of his performances. His most memorable ones are the result of working with directors attuned to his talent for suggesting the conflicted inner lives of his characters through introspective silences and subtle gestures. In Hou's Flowers of Shanghai and Anh Hung Tran's Cyclo, entire scenes seem to revolve around his melancholy, nearly wordless performances. While he is known worldwide for his high-profile work with Hou, Wong, and Woo, he is an even bigger star in Hong Kong, where he continues to star in everything from B-movies to glossy, big studio productions. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
- 1986
An exceptional and at times disturbing drama, Lunatics is among the top-grossing films of all time in Hong Kong. The somewhat fact-based tale centers on a social worker's attempts to help the mentally ill people who furtively live and work on the teeming city streets. As the story opens, Fung the social worker is calming a confused patient who has been threatening patrons of the local marketplace with a meat cleaver. Later, an investigative reporter assigned to write a critical report of an apparently failing health system, Yip, catches up to the busy Fung and begins following him on his rounds. It is an eventful day and Yip sees that Fung does much good for the outcast and the dispossessed. For Fung it is just another day until he must face down a desperate husband who is making a final, bloody stand in a kindergarten to keep from losing custody of his young son. After he kills a teacher, Fung has no recourse but to kill him. Towards the end of the day, the meat-cleaver man is back at the marketplace. Again, Fung comes to the rescue, but unfortunately, a photographer's flash frightens the deranged fellow and he murders Fung. The story ends on a brighter note when Yip decides to become a social worker just like Fung. Many of Hong Kong's most popular actors make cameo appearances throughout the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanie Yip, Chow Yun-Fat, (more)
- 1986
Billie (Irene Wan) is a beautiful model who falls for Tony (Tony Leung) in this engaging crime drama. The playboy son of a wealthy rice merchant, Tony has a penchant for nightclubs and drinking when his daily work with his father is complete. Jade Screen (Elaine Jin) is a starlet who comes home to find that her roommate, singer Jane (Tsai Chin), has been murdered. Sergeant Lau (Chop Yun Fat) is the methodical detective called in to unravel the twisted case. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Wan, Elaine Jin, (more)
- 1987
Derek Yee Tung-sing directs this critically praised crime thriller about two amateur thugs -- Sai (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Boney (Ronald Wong Pan) -- who bungle a bank heist, resulting in a hostage situation. Unbeknownst to them, one of their hostages is the notorious criminal Sunny Koo (Ti Lung) who quickly wrests control of the standoff from Sai and starts making his own demands to the police. Though at first he treats his captives with a measure of kindness -- even reviving an old man who has a heart attack -- he soon grows violent when the police refuse to spring his girlfriend from jail. Worse, when the cops do cave into his demand, his girlfriend refuses to join Koo. Tony Leung Kar-fai and Bowie Lam Bo-yee also appear. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ti Lung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
- 1987
Hong Kong director Patrick Tam's Cantonese-language saga My Heart is That Eternal Rose explores the social dynamics and tumultuous life-changes that unfold between two young men who are fast friends - Cheung (Tony Leung) and Rick (Kenny Bee) - and the sexy young woman caught between them, Lap (Joey Wang). Rick and Lap became romantically involved years prior, when Rick worked at a bar owned by Lap's triad-connected gangster father. In time, for political reasons, it became necessary for Lap to put herself on the table as the mistress of Godfather Shen, and Lap inevitably drifted away from Rick while immersing herself in Shen's world. Lap then fell in love with someone else: Cheung, who worked as her driver. Six years pass, during which Rick establishes himself as a hired killer and temporarily loses touch with Lap. The lovers re-encounter one another, and fall back into love, prompting Lap to decide that she wants to leave Godfather Shen; Shen, however, won't let her - which sparks a bloody, tumultuous confrontation between the trio of friends-cum-lovers and Shen's minions. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Wong, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
- 1989
Seen through the prism of the Lin family, this complex family drama from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao Hsien details a brief but crucial moment in Taiwanese history between 1945, when 50 years of Japanese colonial rule came to an end, and 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Kuomintang forces established a government-in-exile after the Communist army captured mainland China. The film opens with the reedy voice of Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's surrender as the eldest of the Lin clan's four sons awaits the birth of his child in a coastal town not far from Taipei. Soon afterward, he changes the name of his Japanese decorated bar to "Little Shanghai" and begins trading in the post-war black market. The second son has died in Philippines during the war. The third son, who had a nervous breakdown in Shanghai, starts to consort with Shanghaiese drug dealers upon his return to Taiwan. Once the eldest learns of the third's dealings, he forces him to stop. In retaliation, the Shanghaiese mob arranges for the third son to be imprisoned on trumped up charges of collaboration with the Japanese. The youngest son, Wen-ching, is a gentle deaf-mute photographer who has leftist leanings. The film climaxes with the notorious Incident of February 28, 1947, a Tiananmen Square-style massacre of native Taiwanese committed by Kuomintang troops resulting in between 18,000 to 28,000 causalities. The wounded pour into the neighbor clinic as Wen-ching and his friend Hinoe get arrested. After his release, Hinoe heads for the mountains to join the leftist guerillas while Wen-ching promises to look after his friend's sister Hinomi. Soon after, Wen-ching and Hinomi marry. Just as she is about to bear a child, however, the Kuomintang arrests Wen-ching for his involvement with the guerillas. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Jack Kao, (more)
Following up on his 1989 masterpiece The Killer, superstar action director John Woo directs this emotionally wrenching look at three friends waylaid in war-torn Vietnam. Set in 1967, when clashes between leftists protesting British rule and the police were tearing the colony apart, the film opens with Frank (Jacky Cheung Hok-yau) offering the deed to his parents' home as collateral to a loan shark, so that he can pay for his buddy Ben's (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) wedding party. Unfortunately, Frank is ambushed by a thug named Ringo and his associates who make off with the money. Ben and Frank vow revenge and end up accidentally killing the guy. Wanted by both the law and the triads, Frank, Ben, and their pal Paul (Waise Lee Chi-hung) head for Vietnam with a case of fake Rolexes and dreams of making a quick buck. Immediately upon arrival, those dreams are dashed -- their wares are blown up in a tin-can military coup, they are almost shot by the South Vietnamese army, and their passports are seized. Though tempted to throw in the towel, Frank and Ben are convinced by Paul into joining forces with shady hit man named Luke (Simon Yam Tat-wah) to shake down club owner Leong (Lam Chung). The scheme goes horribly wrong, ending with the death of a beautiful drug-addled singer named Sally (Yolinda Yan Chi-sin) and our three heroes accused of being CIA agents in a North Vietnamese POW camp. Later, though, Frank saves Paul's live and get injured in the process, Paul can only think of financial gain and saving his own neck. He shoots Frank in the head when he fears his friend's cries of agony will tip off the Vietcong. Unfortunately, the bullet doesn't kill Frank, leaving him brain damaged, drug-addled, and in chronic pain. After Ben learns of Frank's condition, he confronts Paul who has since returned to Hong Kong to become a prominent businessman. John Woo was originally planning to make this film under the name A Better Tomorrow 3 until Tsui Hark took the franchise away from him, fashioning his own version. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, (more)
This is the third in a series of movies featuring creatures from Chinese ghost stories. It begins with a scene from the first movie of the series, which shows the hero in an epic conflict with something called the Tree Devil, which has been put to sleep for a hundred years. Now it is "later," and the story focuses on two traveling monks, a scholarly disciple and his aged master, who are traveling the countryside bearing an image of the Buddha to be given to a particular shrine. One night they stay at a haunted temple and become the focus of the amorous attentions of two sexy ghosts, who are in league with the Tree Devil. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Wong, Jacky Cheung, (more)
TVB network's five most popular male idols all star together on the silver screen in this critically panned crime thriller. The film centers around a quartet of young police detectives -- Chi-ming (Andy Lau Tak-wah), Tau-pi (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), Bong (Felix Wong Yat-wah), and Wai (Miu Kiu-wai) -- who are in hot pursuit after notorious drug kingpin Fong (Kenneth Tong Chun-yip). During a bust, another officer named Lam (Leung Kar-yan) catches the criminal but lets him get away because he realizes that Fong is his relative. Meanwhile, Chi-ming, Tau-pi, and the gang steal a billion dollars from Fong's safe instead of admitting it as police evidence. Not only does their sudden spending splurge soon threaten to unmask their misdeed, but Fong, who's still at large and hungry for revenge, is threatening to tell all. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Hard-Boiled is the last film directed by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo before his arrival in the U.S. This 1992 thriller, along with The Killer, is widely seen as one of his best from his Hong Kong days. Every ingredient of the quintessential Woo thriller is present, including his ever-present anti-hero (Chow Yun-Fat). Yun-Fat portrays a maverick, clarinet-playing cop nicknamed "Tequila" whose partner is killed in the dizzying chaos of a restaurant gunfight with a small army of gangsters. It is soon revealed that one of the mob's high-ranking assassins is Tony (Tony Leung), an undercover cop who, despite his badge, is dangerously close to the edge. Tequila and Tony must team up in a tense partnership, and their common pursuit of a vicious crime lord results in a brilliantly elaborate climax in a hospital, where the heroes must rescue newborn babies from the maternity ward while fighting off dozens of mob soldiers. The characters Tequila and Tony are two sides of the same coin, another trademark theme of Woo's films that would later be most fully realized with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in the American hit Face/Off. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chow Yun-Fat, Bowie Lam, (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
Michelle Yeoh (aka Michelle Khan) began her comeback bid with this flamboyant Hong Kong action film from director Michael Mak and choreographer Ching Siu-tung. Based on a novel by Ku Long, previously filmed in 1976 as Killer Clans, the film stars Yeoh as Sister Ko, part of the Happy Forest clan led by the dying eunuch Tsao. Before he expires, Tsao orders Ko and her friends to kill the head of the Elite Villa clan, Master Suen (Elvis Tsui), and steal a precious scroll. Yip Cheung (Donnie Yen) leads the first assault and fails, so Ko gets the skilled killer Sing (Tony Leung), whom she has a crush on, to help. Sing is engaged to Butterfly (Joey Wang), who has no idea that he is actually a trained assassin. When Sing infiltrates Master Suen's clan, he meets his childhood friend, Ho Ching (Yeh Chuan-chen), who is also working undercover for Sister Ko. Ho Ching's murder sets the stage for an angry encounter between Sing and Sister Ko, the final assault on the Elite Villa clan, and the revelation of a secret betrayal. Pop singer Jimmy Lin appears as Prince Cha; some of the fight scenes were later re-used in Chu Yen-ping's erotic Category III melodrama Slave of the Sword, which was filmed on the same sets later in the year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Benny Chan directs and Tsui Hark produces this sprawling fantasy yarn. The film opens with kung fu master Ma Kwun-mo (Tony Leung) being saved by the stunning Pak Wan-fai (Anita Mui) and her pet crane Yuen Yuk. In gratitude, Ma promises not to reveal Pak's identity to anyone. Later, at a kung fu meeting attended by Ma, the evil So Pang-hoi (Lawrence Ng) orders a fleet of poisonous bats to kill every other student at martial arts schools. His plans are thwarted by Yuen Yuk. While hurriedly searching for a remedy for the bats toxins to treat stricken pupils, Pak encounters the embittered Butterfly Lam (Rosamund Kwan), and soon the two are embroiled in a vicious battle using lethal sound waves. Meanwhile, So continues on his quest to take over the world. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Peter Chan Ho-san and Lee Chi-ngai deliver this engagingly loopy romantic comedy about a trio of roommates. Tom (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) is a quiet, reserved lad about to enter into an arranged marriage with upper-class ice queen Joyce (Jay Lau Kam-ling); his roommate Dick (Tony Leung Kar-fai) is an incorrigible womanizer who dubs himself "The Terminator"; and Hairy (Lawrence Cheng Tan-shui) is generally a loonball who's obsessed with both his potted plants and idol Vivian Chow. As Tom's doubts about the marriage start to take their toll, he finds himself having visions of talking with a massive version of his own penis. When he meets sexy party girl Cat (Ann Bridgewater), Tom's immediately falls for her and soon his life starts to make some sense. Meanwhile, Dick uses and abuses Tom's sister Pearl (Athena Chu Yun) and quickly pays the price for it, while Hairy finally meets Michelle (Michael Chow Man-kin), the woman of his dreams. Unfortunately, Michelle is a guy. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1993
As Larry Lau's gentle coming-of-age drama Three Summers opens, a young man with a difficult past leaves his present home in the city of Hong Kong and hearkens back to the fishing village of his youth. Against the backdrop of that locale, his young sister (Cherie Chan) has recently befriended a group of adolescents who visit the isle perennially - every summer - and who share their individual stories with her. One tale at a time, she begins to experience life vicariously through the others' recollections. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 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)
A Hong Kong fast food restaurant acts as the link between two unusual stories of police officers in love in this eccentric, stylish comedy-drama. Director Wong Kar-Wai plays freely with traditional narrative structure, dividing his film into two loosely connected segments. The first centers on a depressed cop struggling to come to terms with a recent break-up. His sad isolation is transformed when he encounters a beautiful, mysterious femme fatale, whose involvement with the criminal underworld proves troublesome for both. The second story explores the odd relationship between a female restaurant worker and another recently jilted police officer. The strange woman decides to regularly clean and redecorate the man's apartment in his absence, allowing the two to form a close intimacy without meeting face to face. Both stories present a beautifully atmospheric look at modern urban life and romance, with its combination of isolation and casual, unexpected meetings. Chungking Express came to the attention of American audiences thanks to the efforts of director Quentin Tarantino, whose own brand of fractured storytelling and urban cool owes a debt to Wong Kar-Wai. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
A "cyclo" is a bicycle-drawn taxi similar to a rickshaw, and, in this story, the nickname of an 18-year-old boy trying to scrape together a living in the desperate poverty of Ho Chi Mihn City. Cyclo lives with his grandfather (Le Kinh Huy) and two sisters (Tran Nu Yen-Khe and Pham Ngoc Lieu), and drives his taxi for a bitter woman (Nhu Quynh Nguyen) who devotes most of her time to her mentally unstable son (Bjuhoang Huy). When the pedal-cab is stolen, Cyclo is forced into a life of crime to repay the debt and falls in with a group of petty thugs led by a self-styled poet (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). What Cyclo doesn't know at first is that the poet is also a pimp, and he's been using his romantic wiles to lure Cyclo's older sister into a career as a prostitute. Cyclo was directed by Tran Anh Hung, whose breakthrough film was the acclaimed drama The Scent of Green Papaya. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Le Van Loc, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
- 1996
The cynical bite of this Hong Kong comedy will be most appreciated by those intimate with the culture as it comments upon those who use superstition and religion for their own benefit. Fung was raised in a Buddhist temple and so has the first-hand knowledge needed to run a first-class scam with his buddy Chi. Things go well until Chi tries for more than his share. After they split, Chi becomes a renowned, wealthy television prophet. Fung enacts his revenge by staging miraculous healing sessions with an unemployed actor posing as a priest. Sure enough the ploy works and Chi tries to lure the magical priest, Chun, to his camp. The trouble begins when Chun begins believing that he really can heal the sick. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Herman Yau Lau-to spins this goo wak jai gangster yarn featuring Tony Leung Chiu-wai. The film opens with a gangland fight that breaks out at a screening of Young and Dangerous 3 -- which also happened to be made by this film's producers. During the fight, bumptious gangster Siu-chun (Jordan Chan Siu-chan) from the Hung Hing clan is about to be clobbered by Scum (Ngai Sing), a thug from the rival Tong Sheng gang, when he is saved by celebrated street fighter Hong Fei (Leung). Later, Siu-chun's journalist sister Tong (Carman Lee Yeuk-tung) becomes fascinated with Fei when the charismatic gangster takes her to an underworld drag racing meet. She eventually learns that Fei is the heir to the Hung Hing dynasty. Yet Fei quietly blames his father Hong Sheng (Ku Feng) -- and current don of the gang -- for the brutal deaths of his sister and mother. hen Sheng does die of a stroke, Fei's reluctance to take the reigns of power results is chaos on the streets. ~ Jonathan Crow, 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)
The title of this Hong Kong crime tale translates as "dark flowers," slang for an underworld contract. While a gang war is developing, Macao cop Sam (Tong Leung Chiu-wai) takes on a gunman in a restaurant where bald Tony (Lau Ching-wan) is eating. After Sam goes to a mobster's restaurant where an informant is tortured, he finds a headless corpse in his apartment. Then a nightclub owner is murdered, and Sam moves fast to find the killer in an effort to prevent the gang war from escalating. However, he gets a full dose of action after he pins the crime on Tony. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lau Ching-Wan, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, (more)
Hou Hsiao-hsien (Goodbye South, Goodbye) directed this Taiwanese-Japanese period drama set in the British section brothels of 19th-century Shanghai. Chu Tien-wen's screenplay was adapted from Han Ziyun's 1894 novel Haishang Huia Liezhuang (Biographies of Flowers of Shanghai), translated from the original dialect to Mandarin during the '30s by Shanghai writer Eileen Chang. Around 1884, during the closing years of Imperial China, Crimson (Japanese actress Michiko Hada) worries that she's about to be dropped by civil servant Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), since he's spending so much time with Jasmin (Wei Hsiao-hui). Emotions escalate when word arrives that Wang will relocate to another post in the Canton province. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Michiko Hada, (more)
