Leslie Cheung: remembered and missed

[wongkk]

The name Leslie won't mean much to most people. He was a Hong Kong actor, singer and dancer, favoured of film director Wong Ka Wai. Tonight I found some old music CDs of Leslie's on one of my shelves and have been playing them while performing dull tasks around the house, tasks made less dull by the singing of this talented, attractive and much

Comments

[brotherskeeper1]

I am sorry you lost an actor you liked very well.
I do not know this person or recognize the names of any of the films.

This last year America has lost some actors I've known since I was a child. I am beyond the age range of liking Justin Bieber and the other 20-somethings. All of the good actors and actresses which I grew up knowing are gone :( Anthony Hopkins is about the last one left.

[wongkk]

That made me smile! I can't imagine the cats coming second in your life to Justin Bieber! There are good actors/actresses coming up but one has to keep up with them i.e. go looking, which isn't always a priority. My mother is very good at this though and often surprises me by liking actors after "her day", such as Johnny Depp and Jackie Chan. I suppose the trick is to stay interested.

I think Leslie's loss was particularly shocking because it was suicide and because he seemed - to the casual eye - to have everything (good looks, career success, artistic acclaim, adoring fans, a long-term partner). Clearly he also had depression and his last note said that he saw no other way out. He did thank his psychiatrist in the note which was a slightly back-handed compliment in the circumstances!

[brotherskeeper1]

I think you misunderstood ... I don't like, am not interested in Justin Bieber or those 20 somethings. They are way out of my age range.

Kitties come first!

[shyone05]

Your wallpaper is a lovely tribute to this very talented man who passed away too soon.
Now I need to go watch "Farewell My Concubine"

[wongkk]

Thank you. Leslie had something even beyond talent in his screen presence: there is one scene in "Once a Thief" where you (the audience) know that the bad-hats have arrived just because Leslie's face seems to change colour! His expression doesn't change obviously but you know he's spotted the hoods.

Do enjoy watching his legacy. Me too. I didn't want to see Happy Together (I'm not really into high angst between lovers) but it was - if not exactly enjoyable - an excellent film, largely through Leslie's acting and the chemistry with Tony Leung (happily still with us) and the fine camera work from Christopher Doyle.

Thank you for commenting.

[wongkk]

I watched "A Better Tomorrow" last night; the acting is always better than I think it's going to be. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Leslie and Chow Yun Fat being cool and iconic, and very over-copied since. The whole of Hong Kong spent a Summer in hot trench-coats because of that film!

I also dug out Leslie's very polite and despairing last note. Thought you might be interested to read a translation (the Prof was his last psychiatrist - bit of a back-handed compliment to be thanked in the circumstances):

“Depression! Many thanks to all my friends. Many thanks to Professor Felice Lieh-mak. This year has been so terribly tough; I can't bear any more. I am so grateful to Mr. Tong, and to my family and to Sister Fei. I never used life for bad things; why does it have to end like this?"

[shyone05]

T_T It's so sad that he thought things had to end like that...

[karadin]

I first saw him in Chinese Ghost Story when I was up late on BBC Four, and I was just so shocked and sad when he died, such a talented lovely man.

[wongkk]

That's funny - I like that film too but didn't mention it as I thought that it was too Chinese for anyone to know! I also liked him in the Ashes of Time - again probably hard for Westerners to enjoy.

I was totally shocked to find that the news was true: I kept getting texts from friends in HK saying, "Leslie's gone" but it was April the First (April Fools Day) so I didn't want to believe it at first. Now, I hate walking past the Mandarin Oriental in Central; I avoid that piece of pavement if I can - don't want to tread on Leslie's unhappiness.

Thanks for leaving your comment - I wouldn't never have guessed that you had seen a Chinese Ghost Story!

[karadin]

Yep, thanks to the folks at BBC, but since I was young I was intrigued with the culture of China, before Japan! Now that I'm studying Japanese Heian culture, it links back to China.

[wongkk]

There are certainly many common roots between the Japanese and Chinese, from martial arts to gardens to food. And, of course, the kanji.

I'm glad that the BBC were good at this (foreign films). I don't have a TV (well, no TV signal in truth - I have the TV set) so I don't have first hand experience but am pretty appalled by most of my friends (educated people pretty much) refusal to watch anything with subtitles. And I have a big box full of Hong Kong DVDs and VCDs so I never run out of movies to watch :=)

Am meeting a friend from Trenton NJ tomorrow in London. She's just been shortlisted for a composition competition (results and performance in December in London and open to the public so I hope to attend) so that's all very exciting!