20 years, why unforgettable Leslie Cheung

"In 20 years, a lot can happen and a lot of people have met. They may leave some traces and gradually leave our lives again. The pace of Hong Kong is always fast, and it seems like a luxury to stay in one place and remember someone. There is one person who makes Hong Kong people break the habit of forgetfulness. It's been 20 years, and we still miss you, our brother, Leslie Cheung. ”

This is a passage from TVB in the 20th anniversary of Leslie Cheung's death program, and it also speaks the questions in the hearts of many people - 20 years is very long, long enough to forget a person, but why, not long enough to forget Leslie Cheung?

He is like an accident that transcends time and space and life and death

This question is asked every few years. People ask about the 5th anniversary, people ask about the 10th anniversary, and the 20th anniversary still keeps asking - people seem to acquiesce that pop culture is fast-moving, idols are time-limited, the media is forgetful, fans like the new and dislike the old - perhaps, this is usually true, but there are always surprises.

Leslie Cheung is like that accident that transcends time and space and life and death. On the 5th anniversary, the open-air square of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre was packed; 10th anniversary, commemorative concert crowded alleys; Today, on its 20th anniversary, the procession of flowers at the entrance of Mandarin Oriental Hotel is still hundreds of meters away... Over the years, the official commemoration of the global film festival has been one after another, and the spontaneous exhibitions and lectures of the people have never stopped, and the honored fans from all over the world do not explain the reason, but answer freely in the wind.

As early as more than a decade ago, in 2007, Luo Feng, a professor at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, conducted a questionnaire survey spanning more than a dozen regions, distributed online in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean, and received 1 Chinese,393 receipts, and found that 42% of people began to like him after his death, which was very close to the 58% before his death. This peculiar phenomenon of "post-glory fans" is a topic worth exploring in the history of Hong Kong popular culture. Luo Feng therefore wrote: "A dead person endlessly nourishes the cultural memory of the public. ”

Looking at it after more than ten years, I was surprised to find that this number ratio has been inverted - at the scene of various commemorative activities, there are gray-haired old people, there are Leslie Cheung's contemporaries of urban men and women, but more than half of them are young people who do not look more than 30 years old, and when we talk about it, it is not uncommon to find that they were born in 1999 or after 00. In other words, when Leslie Cheung died, they were all elementary school students, or even just born! Since there are no years of companionship, where does the infatuation come from?

The answer is actually bland to no drama - which of his songs have been heard, which of his plays has been seen, whether it is "The Wind Continues to Blow", "Farewell My Concubine", or his parents are his fans - in short, "into the pit" is so easy, classic works or intergenerational inheritance, there are people with lights. The young person himself does not even think it is strange to like an idol who became popular all over the world in the 80s, and talking about him in a tone is like talking about a rookie who only debuted last week.

I don't like Leslie Cheung because of nostalgia – it's more surprising than Leslie Cheung remembering for 20 years. But after thinking about it, it makes sense. There is a line in the movie "Erotic Men and Women": It's good that you walk a few steps faster than others, don't be too fast, it's no good. When Leslie Cheung was alive, he was called by Time magazine "the smartest but most controversial headline figure in the Asian entertainment industry" - 20 years ago, he lived in a generation that was always the "shocking" person, walking too fast and too forward, reflecting in vain the conservative and backward society. Now, 20 years later, people have finally followed his footsteps and obtained the same frequency resonance of the spirit.

Above: Continue to pamper the "passionate" concert costume displayed at the Leslie Cheung Memorial Exhibition.

Such "time and space dislocation" resonance is not uncommon, and some people, some works, are destined to have a greater and deeper impact on the audience of different generations. "Fire Youth" screened at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival is an example - director Tam Ka Ming's 1982 film, which was complained and cut by the audience because of its bold consciousness the year it was released, and the box office was not necessarily excellent, until today, 40 years later, the director's cut version was re-screened, and the footage that had to be deleted that year was restored one by one, and it was finally difficult to find a ticket.

Another example is "The True Story of A Fei" directed by Tan Jiaming's apprentice Wong Kar-wai, which also lost money that year, the investor went into the hospital to take a drip, and the audience stood up in the cinema and shouted: "Who is Wong Kar-wai?!" At that time, who would have thought that 20 years after its release, it would become the first place in the "Hong Kong Top Ten Films" by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.

In Leslie Cheung, there is often such a "dislocation". The most famous is the "Passion" concert in 2000, where the famous French designer Jean-Paul Gaultier created the concept of "From Angel to Devil", which was praised by Time magazine as "the peak of passion and fashion" and by Asahi Shimbun as "a talented performer". But in the mouth of the local media, he was ridiculed as "long hair dressed as a sadako", and Gaultier said in anger that he would never design clothes for other Hong Kong singers again - when Leslie Cheung said the phrase "I think artists can achieve the highest state can be in the same person with both genders, and art itself has no gender", he may not have thought that it would take 20 years for the Hong Kong media to gradually digest this sentence and turn around to praise the "passionate" concert.

Looking back, the people who walked fast were similar, even in parallel.

Above: Continue to Pamper Leslie Cheung Memorial Exhibition.

When "Fire Youth" was complained about being cut 40 years ago, Leslie Cheung once said: "I don't know why the electrical inspection department must cut my nude shots, I didn't mean to expose it, and my figure was not necessarily too good, but I would take it off if the plot needed me." Considering that this year is not too far from him being tricked into making the third-grade film "Spring in the Red Mansion", this remark is even more moving.

When 30 years ago, "The True Story of A Fei" was neither applauded nor popular, and Wong Kar-wai had to rely on Chen Xunqi to take in to write a play, Leslie Cheung said quite confidently that "The True Story of A Fei" was his best work since filming, and Wong Kar-wai was the most promising director today.

They were walking too fast and needed to stop and wait, so that we could sense the initial throbbing from generation to generation.

Our screen is not big enough for him

"He who dies and does not die lives." Death is not the end, oblivion is. For literary and artistic workers, life is limited, while works are immortal.

Recently, veteran Korean journalist Zhu Shengche's "Forever Brother Leslie Cheung" was introduced and published, and Zhu lamented in the book: "He always works with top directors, although it is difficult to imagine Chow Yunfa playing Wong Kar-wai's movie, Stephen Chow starring in John Woo's movie, Andy Lau starring in Kwan Jinpeng's movie, or Jackie Chan starring in Chen Kexin's movie, but Leslie Cheung has worked with these directors, and these directors' film works, which can be called masterpieces, also have the name of Leslie Cheung." Taiwanese writer Fu Lizhong once expressed a similar sentiment: "Leslie Cheung as a muse of so many works as a man is extremely rare in the entire history of Chinese film." ”

Above: Leslie Cheung speaks at Chinese University in Hong Kong in 2002.

Hong Kong is a paradise for genre films, but Leslie Cheung, who stands at the top of the pyramid, has never been a genre actor. Compared with the famous actors who dominate kung fu and comedy, Leslie Cheung never dominates any movie genre, but shows the multi-faceted characteristics of looking horizontally at the peaks on the side of the ridge.

An interesting phenomenon is that he seems to have different "stereotypes" in the eyes of different directors: John Woo always gives him the role of a loyal brother, Tsui Hark sees him as a thick and honest scholar or priest, Kwan Jinpeng likes his nobility and elegance, Chen Jiashang likes his dashing and unruly, Chen Kexin thinks he is very literary, Chen Kaige thinks he is very pathetic, and Wong Kar-wai always thinks he is the footless stray bird.

A more interesting phenomenon is that if he plays any of the above roles, he will be labeled as "true color": Ning Caichen, Twelve Shao, Gu Jiaming, Cheng Dieyi, A Fei, Xi Poison, He Baorong... These roles that are considered "unimaginable to Leslie Cheung" are ultimately called "tailor-made", so aggrieved that he once couldn't figure it out: "I don't understand why whenever an actor plays a role well, others always say that a certain role is tailor-made for a certain actor, how can they ever think that in fact, this actor plays well, I think unless it is to play himself, no play or a role is really tailored for an actor." ”

Perhaps, "tailor-made" is also a high praise for an actor to some extent. In this regard, I very much agree with the statement of Hong Kong cultural critic Lam Pui-li. "For most actors, acting is a process of putting on a mask, but for Leslie Cheung, acting is a process of removing the mask. This way of acting is actually based on an attitude to life, an attitude of life that is honest and loyal to oneself. He said, "I think Leslie Cheung is a very rare 'actor author' in the Hong Kong film industry, and his most moving and intriguing performances on the screen, or delicate, or gorgeous, or cone-piercing, or palpitating and mourning, all have a real unfake, from life, and true feelings rooted in painful experiences, a concentration of feelings, a living 'me'." Leslie Cheung had no formal theatrical training, and the greatest resource he relied on as an actor was his life experience, the hurts he had suffered, his fears, his love and hate, his blood, tears and suffering, and the courage and determination to extract this resource. This kind of interpretation is true, this kind of actor can achieve the most moving performance, but also take the greatest risk... They must enter the world, bow down to heaven and earth, plunge into life, face themselves, be open to everything, and for them, the only defense is not defense. ”

Back in the 80s, Leslie Cheung said: "I don't want to be a star because I already am." I want to be a real actor. "He has always been very conscious when it comes to stripping himself of his idol singer identity. Since the late 80s, he has declined those "love saint" roles that focus on appearance, as Kwan Jinpeng said: beauty is an obstacle to Leslie Cheung. In order to break this barrier, he took over the role of the sissy second brother in "Family Has Happy Events", Cheng Dieyi in "Farewell My Concubine", the disfigured Song Danping in "Singing in the Night", and the English-speaking underground party in "Red Lover" - when Ye Daying filmed "Red Lover", he wanted to find an underground party image different from the guerrilla leader, with deep cultivation and spiritual life, he didn't believe that Hong Kong actors could at first, but after seeing Leslie Cheung who did his homework, he immediately clapped: "This buddy can do it, absolutely." ”

His performances are always based on the recognition of the characters. While most people think that Cheng Dieyi is a tragic character, Leslie Cheung does not think so. In 2002, at the invitation of Xiaosi (Lu Weiluan), he went to Hong Kong Chinese University to give a lecture on "How to interpret the characters in Li Bihua's novel", mentioning that the movie "Farewell My Concubine" is not without homophobia due to some concerns. And as an actor, he "only tries his best to do his duty, play the role of Cheng Dieyi, and convey his insistence on the same sex to the audience through appropriate eyes and movements", thereby balancing the director's avoidance. In his opinion, "Cheng Dieyi is not sad at all, because he can independently face everything in front of him, such as drunken dreams and death on the stage, such as his feelings for his senior brother, he is obligated to do it."

After the premiere of "Farewell My Concubine" in Cannes 30 years ago, more than 3,000 spectators gave a standing ovation for 10 minutes, at which time Leslie Cheung only had a strong feeling: "I will gradually reduce production in the future and stop making bad films." Of course, this is an idea that is incompatible with the Hong Kong film industry. As we all know, Hong Kong films have always been gold, stone and sand, and it is the norm to start shooting several sets of scenes at the same time, and rolling several or even a dozen actors at the same time. But Leslie Cheung almost never made two plays at the same time after the 90s. Later, he became the first Chinese actor to serve as a jury member for the world's three major film festivals.

Above: A still from the movie "Farewell My Concubine".

He began to be more involved in behind-the-scenes production, screenwriter, executive producer, assistant director, executive director... More than once, he expressed his interest in becoming a director, and also established his own film production company, Dream League. From all indications, he can be a good director, and the directors who have worked with him say that he is extremely assertive, and his opinions are not only for his own role, but for the benefit of the entire film; said that he would remember the opponent's actor's position and lines, and help the actor enter the play; He said that he has a sense of rhythm and has a lot of things he wants to express. It all looks like traits of a good director.

However, judging from the general environment at that time, his dream of directing seemed destined to be shattered. In Hong Kong at the beginning of this century, piracy was rampant and bad films were on the ground, and investors gave Leslie Cheung the feeling that "it was nothing more than a business", but what he wanted to make was a good movie. This misalignment of environment and ideals has already appeared when he was an actor - the last two plays "Gun King" and "Different Dimension" before his death fulfilled his long-cherished wish to become a killer and a psychopath, but the "good and evil" he wanted to express always lost to the "happy ending" pursued by commercial genre films. He once said that the biggest blow to Hong Kong films is not only piracy, "the most fatal reason is that filmmakers have not sought progress, and they are also shooting indiscriminately every day to make quick money, while mainland filmmakers have been making progress and will one day catch up with Hong Kong."

In June 2003, the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) was signed, which kicked off a wave of co-productions by Hong Kong directors going north. Unfortunately, Leslie Cheung did not wait for this day.

Chen Kexin, the director who first went north, said: "I think he is a big-screen actor, our screen is not big enough for him, Chinese mainland open market is very large, maybe at that time is the most suitable space for him to live, I really think that the Hong Kong film industry, in fact, includes his way of being a person, including his perfectionism, including his personality, including his sexual orientation, anything I think we are not big enough, I think my mind is not big enough, in fact, in all ranges, he is bigger than us." ”

Above: "Brother Bus" shuttles through the streets of Hong Kong.

Above: Tickets for the 4.1 concert sold out in 2 hours, and the audience entered the venue one after another. Photography / Que Zheng

Love and righteousness, achieve the golden years

"How so? It shouldn't be like this. When the news of suicide by jumping off the building came and confirmed, suddenly, like the usual order of life was disrupted, like the traveler who set off with suddenly had one less person, got off the car, or got lost, summoned and could not come back, like a very familiar friend completely lost contact, leaving suspense, leaving worry, the only thing the living can do is to accept the facts as soon as possible, and then slowly get used to the facts, admit it, but worry about him. Hong Kong writer Ma Ka-fai wrote, "The more rushed the times, the more it is inevitable that we will find solace in the defined past." In those years, it was as if all ideals, even if they had not yet been achieved, were waiting ahead, waiting for us to pursue, waiting for us to hope, waiting for us to move faster or slower towards our goals. Our wind continues to blow, our unruly wind, handsome men and beautiful women and gold and jade, like sparkling jewels resting and dangling in the night sky of Hong Kong, reaching out and not touching, but at least being able to see, seeing is satisfying. ”

If the post-00s fascination with Leslie Cheung is that the pulse of the times has finally caught up again, then the endless remembrance of people who have walked with Leslie Cheung all the way is more like a reminiscence of the golden age and self-healing. This year, Hong Kong hosted its first pop culture festival, and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum's "Continue to Pamper Leslie Cheung Memorial Exhibition" became the leading program.

Perhaps because of its fame in the future, many people forget that Time magazine's omnipotent "One-take Leslie" (Leslie Cheung who made a movie once) was once "silently going upstream" of "Leslie Cheung also has to suffer for 8 years". His dashing and unruly may hardly be reminiscent of "Under the Lion Mountain", but Leslie Cheung does have a bit of "Under the Lion Mountain" spirit.

From Li's to wireless, from Hong Kong to the world, Leslie Cheung's history of struggle has also witnessed the TV storm in Hong Kong in the 70s and 80s, witnessed the Hong Kong film sales port in Southeast Asia, to the cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong, and witnessed the Hong Kong film industry from the new wave to a hundred flowers, from the torrent to the gradual decline. In the early 80s, TV unit dramas were popular, and he was a small character in unit dramas; When TV variety shows were in the ascendant, he was also a small role in comedy variety shows - I admire him the most for his ambition, although he is from a rich second generation, and his guardian when he was studying in the UK was the sister of Shaw kung fu superstar Fu Sheng, the two have always been on good terms, and it is just a matter of a word to debut in the entertainment industry, but he neither asks for big nor asking for people, asking the maid to borrow twenty yuan to take the star ferry across the sea to participate in the singing competition, the runner-up debuted, step by step from the "factory screw punch" to start, victory is not arrogant, defeat is not declined.

Above: Timeless Leslie Encounter At the exhibition scene of "Encounter with Eternal Legend", the famous designer Chen Youjian and actor Wen Xueer, who have cooperated with Leslie Cheung, were present. Photography / Que Zheng

Everyone yearns for the golden age, but few people see the endless efforts and dedication behind the golden age. In the 20 years since Leslie Cheung's death, there have been partners who have come forward to remember the past, and we know that when he and Li Xiaotian recorded records, they would sing the whole song again instead of recording a sentence when they found a problem in one place, because "the place where the supplement is picked up will be heard from the sound of breathing." It turned out that in order to collect data before filming "Different Dimension", he went to see a psychologist twice, and when he went to the scene, he could see at a glance that the medicine bottle prepared by the props was not suitable for the characters in the play. It turned out that he filmed "Star Moon Fairy Tale" even the shadow had to perform himself, director Li Rengang said: "Ordinary actors will let the stand-in act when they only shoot a certain part of the body, but Leslie Cheung even performs the shadow himself, and other actors have filmed several times with Leslie Cheung's shadow, and Leslie Cheung will not be impatient." ”

Thinking about the "head-picking" green screen trick used by traffic stars in our era, we finally understand what we are remembering when remembering a superstar like Leslie Cheung.

At the end of 1997, the Asian financial crisis, Hong Kong film production plummeted from 234 at its peak in 1993 to 92 in 1998. In order to save himself, Cen Jianxun proposed the idea of a "creative alliance" - the main actors reduced their remuneration, so that filmmakers could start working with a lower investment. Although the idea is good, many actors are embarrassed when they hear "reduce the salary". In the end, Leslie Cheung accepted the invitation and took over "Meteor Language" with a salary of 1 yuan. Director Zhang Zhiliang said: "It really shocked me. I knew he was getting paid to be among the top three in the industry, and he was able to do that, and I think he's an actor who really loves movies, loves artistic life, loves Hong Kong. He originally thought that Leslie Cheung opened this head, and the follow-up would be easier. But in the end, this "creative alliance" produced only this one film. Nearly 10 years later, "Meteor Language" finally reached breakeven in the continuous re-screening, and he happily gave dividends to Leslie Cheung's family.

If it is not a person of love, how can there be a golden age.

There are many good people in this world, and there are very few real people

April 1, 2023, 8:30pm, Hong Kong Hung Hom Stadium – Opened in April 1983, this stadium has gone through 40 years of vicissitudes and has always been regarded as a landmark of Hong Kong pop culture. That night, its owner was Leslie Cheung, who had held hundreds of concerts here.

"Treat people with sincerity, and people insult each other", this was Leslie Cheung's self-condition. But after 20 years, he finally demonstrated to 10,000 viewers what "good is rewarded". On the stage, those people he had helped, taken care of, and cared for, one by one, took the stage to perform his famous songs, telling his goodness and sincerity.

Above: A still from "The True Color of Heroes".

Rong fans have a saying, called "start from appearance, drown in talent, loyal to character", Leslie Cheung's character, not many heard of before, but the peculiarity of this person is that after 20 years of continuous recollection, there is still new material - B brother Zhong Zhentao recalled on stage that he was bankrupt, and Leslie Cheung asked Huang Baiming to change the planned New Year film "Eight-Star Annunciation" to "Nine-Star Annunciation", adding an extra role for him, and sending charcoal in the snow. Zhou Huimin thanked him for composing music for his fledgling self. Tam Yaowen called Leslie Cheung an idol, and he debuted in a singing competition in 1988 for the song "Refuse to Play Again". And Dawn remembered Leslie Cheung at another concert hosted by Universal Records, when he saw that he was lonely and unsocial, and offered to produce a record for him. Help peers, promote future generations, and now these trickles have converged into rivers, lakes and seas, and in the depths, it is the induction of goodwill in the world.

Recently read Leslie Cheung's biography "With the Wind", only to find that this person is really good to be a little outrageous: treating people with sincerity will not change because of the other party's identity and status, in the past, I only knew that after he finished filming "Farewell My Concubine", he invited young actors from the drama school to visit Hong Kong as concert guests, but it turned out that there was a lottery link at the celebration banquet, and when the children drew impractical travel coupons, they were carefully converted into cash. It turns out that not only did he arrive in advance to play with the young actors when filming "Meteor Language", but even tutored the young actors in English when filming "Different Dimension"?! Even the domestic servants' rooms had to be consulted to design and decorate themselves, and after completing the project, they had to ask: "Do you like it?" "I was really shocked.

However, beauty or goodness, Leslie Cheung's most touching thing is actually that truth. At a time when stars become more and more like official spokespeople for their studios, this sincerity seems more like a scarce commodity.

Love that he never hides his ambitions and ambitions to become famous. In the 80s he had a fan mailbox, and the media asked him, will you open the letter yourself? He replied: I have been looking forward to it for many years, but now I have why I have to pretend to others.

I like his little worry and self-deprecation: At midnight in "The True Color of Heroes", he sat next to Lin Yanni and waited to see the audience's reaction, saying: "I'm going to die, the audience likes Fa Zi so much, but I am a policeman who wants to arrest Fa Zi and my brother." But every time he saw himself appear, he clapped his hands happily and said innocently: "I don't shoot anyone first, I have to drive the audience to clap their hands." ”

I like him sitting between Huang Xiao, Ni Kuang and Cai Lan, "No Defense Tonight", taking out the bottom of his heart, without taboos, he boasted arrogantly: "I, Leslie Cheung, standing on the stage is a guarantee of performance." ”

Likes his comeback in the music scene, the media thought that he had to find an excuse to break his word, but he didn't care about saying bluntly: "It's enough for me to endure for six years", and Canada "is bored to the point of not having a fart".

I like his generous show of love at the concert, "The Moon Represents My Heart".

Like that he cherishes life, he still insists on seeing a psychologist in the surrounding and defamatory tracking of paparazzi, and uses his last efforts to make the world more aware of depression and the difficulty of self-control when it occurs.

"Don't dodge, live for the life I love. No need for ink, just stand in a corner of light. "That's how he sings and lives like this. Reporter | Que Zheng