Twenty years have passed, and Leslie Cheung has been gone from the world for twenty years. He is a unique star who will be remembered every year. In Coco, it is said that when a person is forgotten by the last person in the world who remembers him, his soul will truly leave. That Les Chuo Rong will stay in the soul longer than most of us in the present.
In 2003, I just went to work as an entertainment reporter for Sanlian Life Weekly. In those years, big news frequently hit people's nerves. On the day of Leslie Cheung's death, everyone thought it was April Fool's Day news, and after confirming it, the editorial office panicked, and the editor-in-chief asked us to quickly contact the interviewees separately.
At that time, I was still using a BP machine, and I called an actor from "Farewell My Concubine". He was working out, and the call back was answered by an intern who said he was angry and that he would never answer our questions.
It is understandable that as a journalist for many years, I was very afraid of being sent to interview the relatives and friends of the deceased, which was cruel, and I was forced to bite the bullet every time.
After making a round of phone calls, I only contacted Huang Lei and Cui Zien, a teacher at the film school, who was a relatively active coming out filmmaker at that time. In the movie "Singing in the Night", Leslie Cheung is the male protagonist Song Danping, and Huang Lei is the male number two, and the movie is poignant and tragic. That day, Huang Lei was working on the script with the screenwriters in the studio, and he stood outside the house and chatted about Leslie Cheung's memories. Turn it over today and regain this memory.
△ "Singing in the Night" drama group photo
Huang Lei: He has the grace of knowing me
When he met Huang Lei, he was discussing the script of the TV series "New Night Half Singing" with his work partners, and eight years ago, Huang Lei and Leslie Cheung met for a movie called "New Night Half Singing".
On April 1st, after 6 p.m., I received a short message: Leslie Cheung committed suicide! I thought it must be fake news for April Fools' Day, but one short message after another, I quickly called Dongfang (film company) to find out that it was true. He loves beauty so much, why would he choose to jump off the building?
He was a superstar when he filmed "Singing in the Night", and everyone called him "brother", but he was not very distant from you. I remember that before the start of the film, he invited all our crew to eat the shabu mutton of Fuju, he was very thoughtful, and he greeted everyone. I filmed this drama because of him, I used to film Chen Kaige's "Sing While Walking", and he happened to shoot "Farewell My Concubine", and he saw my film from Chen Kaige and said, "This kid is good." ”
△ Stills of "Singing in the Night"
He was good-looking, he sang well, and he was smoking at the time, which he quit later. It was very cold, and we were sitting outside in the communication room smoking a cigarette in the filming break, and he sang the theme song of "Midnight Song", which he also wrote. I sang along, and then he sang the harmony. He is a very relatable and memorable person.
I have a good relationship with him. In 1996, I went to Hong Kong to film, and in a building, someone told me that Leslie Cheung was also in this building, so I ran and saw that he was filming "Erotic Men and Women".
The last time we saw each other was in Shanghai, he was doing "Red Lovers" promotion, I was doing "I Think I Am the Sea" promotion, and I happened to be staying in a restaurant. I was so impressed that day that he cut fruit for me to eat and we talked all afternoon. He had nowhere to go, because everyone knew him and could only sit in his room.
△ The filming period of "Red Lovers"
He took good care of me during the filming of "Singing in the Night", and there was a scene at the end in heavy rain, it was March and April, and it was necessary to use water dragons. The crew bought him a wetsuit to wear on because he was the male lead. We are newcomers so we don't have wetsuits, we only wrap them in plastic wrap one by one, and it doesn't work very well, and the water will still go in. When he finished shooting, he gave me his wetsuit. He gave me all the publicity at the time.
There are many unforgettable things when filming, such as the intersection of eyes, and he will always think about the person who creates, including other people's plays. What I remember most clearly is a scene where he suddenly took off his mask after being disfigured, and that feeling was not acting, it really scared me, his expression.
△ Stills of "Singing in the Night"
I listened to his songs since I was a child, and the newspaper also said that he was a youth idol of the 25~35-year-old generation. When I was in junior high school, I learned to make pirated copies by myself, and whoever had Leslie Cheung's new song would record it with a blank tape. After his comeback, I have an album "Pampering" that he gave me, his songs are very good, I like the theme songs of "Midnight Song", "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch" and "Farewell My Concubine" that he sang.
Huang Lei most wanted to say to Leslie Cheung in heaven: "I miss you very much, I hope you can be calm and forget about unhappy things." He suddenly said very solemnly, "Let's not speculate about the cause of his death, he must have his own reasons, this matter makes us think about how to face life and face responsibility." ”
△ Stills of "Singing in the Night"
Choi Zien: He is a person who is always emotionally new
Cui Zien said: "I knew Leslie Cheung because of a friend who wanted to make a movie directed by Leslie Cheung, but because something happened, the movie was not made. Leslie Cheung is the kind of actor who has a tragic meaning, he is very courageous and stands up with a strong posture, so his career has not been greatly affected by his disclosure of his sexual orientation."
Many of the people who really scold Leslie Cheung are actually "gay", and I have seen a lot (messages) on gay websites, mainly for his women's dress at the concert, thinking that he demonizes gay people, is CC (sissy), and is a corruption of the gay community. I also had the same problem and was scolded by many people. Some celebrities are gay but did not stand up like Leslie Cheung because they were afraid of trouble and being followed by paparazzi. In fact, even if Mr. Tang is a woman, the paparazzi will still guard the door of Leslie Cheung's house, and the entertainment industry in Hong Kong is enough to accommodate gay romance, and Rowan also disclosed his sexuality. In Hong Kong, readers only care about entertainment news, and they are too popular with the media, of course, there is a lot of such news. It would be much better if there were people on the mainland who cared about current affairs, sports, and other news.
Leslie Cheung's "Spring Light" is the best Chinese gay movie, and the two maintain and tear tightly together in a relatively closed world. It is not an exceptional case, but a universal character. Its plot is simple, without the glitz and drunken gold fans of ordinary Hong Kong films. Leslie Cheung performed best in "The True Color of Heroes", "A Fei's True Story", "Farewell My Concubine" and "Spring Light".
Leslie Cheung is a Virgo, with perfectionist tendencies and high demands on his career, which spans two major areas: singing and acting, but is always jokingly referred to as "Vice Principal". In fact, it doesn't matter who is NO.1, but the society has a system of competing for the first, this system is not cute at all, and Leslie Cheung's death makes us think about how society can build a better system. For example, the Rotterdam Film Festival has three gold awards, which is good.
Leslie Cheung and Mr. Tang have been together for 17 years, which is not uncommon in gay circles, but how can a 46-year-old man with money and status commit suicide for feelings? In fact, maybe for gay people this is possible, gay emotions are always new is a norm, because there is no need to get married, there is no pressure of marriage age, no children to remind your age, their hearts will feel very young, but also to pursue a very fresh feeling, the expectation of feelings is very high.