For Tony Leung, 2023 seems to be an extremely busy year. The year started with "Unknown" and will end with "Goldfinger". In the middle, he also traveled far away and received what can be said to be the most important award in his career as an actor - the Venice Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. On October 26, his old work "2046" was specially screened at the ongoing Tokyo International Film Festival. After the film was screened, Tony Leung appeared amidst enthusiastic applause from the audience to attend the master class.
In the master class, Tony Leung had a conversation with the film selection director of the Tokyo International Film Festival and producer Naozo Ichiyama who is well-connected in the Chinese film industry. The topic of the conversation centered on the two directors who had the greatest impact on his career as an actor. One was Hou Hsiao-hsien, who was recently revealed to have bid farewell to his directorial career due to health reasons, and the other was Wong Kar-Wai, who he had collaborated with most.
Tony Leung. Photo by The Paper reporter Cheng Xiaoyun
“Hou Hsiao-hsien made me fall in love with literary novels”
Tony Leung co-produced "City of Sadness" with director Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1989. This film, which focuses on the fate of little people in a big era, won the Golden Lion Award, the highest honor at the 46th Venice Film Festival, which excited the entire Chinese film industry. In fact, it was also the time when Hong Kong movies were on the rise, and all kinds of commercial genre films were growing wildly. The actors had no worries about being out of filming. However, at that time, Tony Leung chose to leave his familiar soil and go to a different place to collaborate with an unfamiliar director.
"At that time, I was wanting to try different types of movies and collaborate with different types of directors. Director Hou Hsiao-hsien happened to find me. I thought this was a good opportunity to accumulate experience, so I agreed." Tony Leung explained when he took over " The reason for "Sad City". "Because I don't speak Mandarin very well, director Hou Hsiao-hsien made this character a deaf-mute."
Talking about how to prepare for the role of Lin Wenqing, Tony Leung said: "I was not familiar with Taiwanese history at the time, so I needed to read a lot of historical materials and books when filming started. When preparing for this role, I tried to give myself as much time as possible to be alone. , I didn’t do anything all day long, I just stayed in the hotel room and read a book, trying to get a feel for what the world is like for deaf-mute people.”
Ichiyama Naozo asked how director Hou Hsiao-hsien guided him from the side. Tony Leung laughed and said: "I think Hou Hsiao-hsien had too many things to be busy with at that time, so he just let me play freely. At the beginning, I was indeed a little confused. Later Hou Hsiao-hsien The director introduced me to one of his artist friends, a deaf-mute person. We took a six-hour drive to Tainan to meet this deaf-mute artist. After meeting him, I kind of had a direction for the performance, and then I imitated some of his body language and gestures.”
Stills of "Sad City"
Regarding the impact of filming "City of Sadness" on himself, Tony Leung said that he benefited a lot from two aspects.
"This is also the first time I have experienced what it is like to make an art film. When I was taking an acting course before, I watched many art films from different countries, but this time I really felt on the spot what art films are. It was shot like this. One of the great rewards of filming "Sad City" is that director Hou Hsiao-hsien made me fall in love with reading literary novels. Because I usually spend time alone in the house, he introduced many literary novels to me. I found that in these works It’s full of emotions and depicts many things in great detail. I think this will be of great help to my later performances.”
"Another gain is that I was greatly shocked by working with non-professional actors. I saw that their performances were very natural and real. From that moment on, I had doubts about my own performance. I I feel like I put too much acting skills into my performance, and I think about how I can act as real and natural as those non-professional actors. This has a great influence on my continuous improvement of my acting methods in the future."
"Working with Wong Kar Wai is my second childbirth as an actor."
From "Days of Being Wild", which was deleted to only a few scenes, to "2046", which took five years to film, to "The Grandmaster", which took ten years to complete from project establishment to completion, the collaboration between Tony Leung and Wong Kar-wai lasted for more than 20 years. Year. Talking about the first collaboration between the two, Tony Leung Chiu-wai still remembers it clearly: "For a while, I felt as if I had lost myself and felt that I could not go any further in acting. It was at that time that I met Wong Kar-wai."
"I believe that when we first collaborated on Days of Being Wild, he must have discovered my acting problems: I filmed opposite scenes with Maggie Cheung. Many times, Maggie Cheung would pass in two or three takes, but I would have to take more than ten. At most, I had to take 26 shots to pass. At that time, I was very frustrated and felt that I was not suitable for filming. Later, Wong Kar-wai told me that you used too many acting skills. He called me Throw away all your thoughts and start from the heart to express your role. After "Days of Wild" was completed, I watched the movie and found that Wong Kar-wai knows how to train actors very well. He can bring out all the advantages of actors. From then on. From the beginning, I decided that I wanted to work with him.”
"Days of Being Wild" stills
"I remember when I first started working with Wong Kar-Wai, I would go to his company to see him after dinner every night. He would introduce me to various music, novels and movies. This life lasted for about two or three years. . Through the books, music and movies he introduced to me, I seemed to be taken to another world. For example, once he introduced me to read "Norwegian Wood", and we would discuss every time Watanabe sent Naoko back in the book. When I was playing, all I saw was her back, and I never knew why her expression was expressed in this way. It was precisely because of this experience that after two or three dramas, I basically understood it as soon as I saw it. We know how he wants to shoot, and there seems to be a tacit understanding between them.”
In Tony Leung's view, Wong Kar-wai obviously has an indispensable influence on him. "For me, working with Wong Kar-wai is like the second birth as an actor. Because he and his team members are very good, such as Zhang Shuping in charge of art, Du Kefeng in charge of photography, etc. It is precisely because of such good With the team, I can continue to improve my acting methods. It also makes it possible for me to realize my dream since filming "Sad City", which is to act naturally like a non-professional actor. I think this will take a long time. Only by taking time to learn and constantly revise can we achieve what I think is the most ideal state.”
As we all know, a major feature of Wong Kar-wai's films is that they do not use scripts. However, Tony Leung, an old partner, revealed his different views in the master class. "I think Director Wong Kar-wai has a script, but he just didn't tell it to us. In fact, all the actors know the whole story and the roles they play. Director Wong Kar-wai has very clear clues for the actors to prepare. But he won't tell us how to complete the story in the end. Every day we can only get the script for that day."
However, as a "victim", Tony Leung understands this very well. "I think this is a very special way of creation. He may feel that even if he has a complete script, he still hopes to see new sparks on the scene, perhaps in the performance of actors, the movement of machines, or changes in the story possibility. Therefore, he may not want you to know too much. Because once you know too much, you will first set a direction or a method. In this case, it will not be easy to change it later. So, I think Every time I work with Wong Kar-wai, it’s like an adventurous journey.”
As for "2046", which was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival this time, Tony Leung said: "This is a special one among the works I collaborated with Wong Kar-Wai. Because it is actually a sequel, a sequel to "In the Mood for Love" . I play the same character, but Wong Kar-wai wants me to express it in another way, as if there is a person who wants to forget his past, start over, and then face the world with a new attitude."
"2046" stills
Naozo Ichiyama asked if actors like Tony Leung who are accustomed to immersing themselves in their characters would encounter the dilemma of being stuck in a character and unable to get out. Tony Leung said, "It happens when you start to be an actor. When you stay in a role for too long, you will not be able to distinguish between the role and yourself. However, later I found that after returning to the ordinary life track, I will slowly Relieved. I think when it takes you a long time to adapt to a role, it takes an equally long time to get out of the role."
Finally, Tony Leung said that he will continue to maintain an open mind and cooperate with filmmakers from all over the world. He also revealed that he is currently preparing a new film by Hungarian director Ildiko Inyetti and will go to Germany to shoot next year.
