Text | Happy and sunny
Edit | Happy and sunny
preface
Recently, the Venice Film Festival has just ended, and Tony Leung finally won the Lifetime Achievement Award issued by the Venice Film Festival at the age of 61.
All stars on the Internet also expressed their blessings to Tony Leung on their social platforms. Surprisingly, Stephen Chow, who has always been low-key, also publicly congratulated Tony Leung on winning such an award.
This not only aroused the curiosity of many netizens, but Liang Chaowei actually has such great appeal, can he ask Xingye to applaud him? What kind of love-hate relationship do the two of them have?
Brothers and brothers who have known each other for many years
For most audiences, despite Stephen Chow's numerous awards in his life, he actually rejected Hong Kong's film and television industry, and in recent years he has been very alienated, with a feeling of "avoiding it".
Therefore, when Stephen Chow expressed his congratulations to Tony Leung so generously, many netizens were shocked.
Some people will lament the great appeal of Tony Leung, even Stephen Chow is willing to applaud it; Some people will also wonder if Stephen Chow is envious of Tony Leung and forwarded it to complain about himself?
However, this is not the case.
It turns out that the two have known each other for many years, and this kind of initiative to congratulate is not uncommon in the relationship between the two of them. They were born in the same year, and Stephen Chow was only five days older than Tony Leung.
Therefore, the two even celebrated their birthdays together.
But the most unexpected thing is probably that the friendship between the two of them was earlier than when they entered the film and television industry, and the reason for all this connection is because of Bruce Lee.
As we all know, Stephen Chow has always been a big fan of Bruce Lee, and countless bridges have been used in his countless movies to pay tribute to his idols. Tony Leung is also a die-hard fan of Bruce Lee.
Once, Stephen Chow watched Bruce Lee's movie "The Dragon Crossing the River" in the cinema. The wonderful plot and cool action in the movie made him discuss fiercely with the people around him.
And sitting next to him is Tony Leung, who also likes Bruce Lee.
Thanks to the common idol, the two of them kept in close contact, and after the two made friends, they found that there was so much in common.
In 1969, Stephen Chow's father cheated and completely disappeared into Stephen Chow's life, and Ling Baoer, who lost her husband, could only work day and night and raise three children alone.
Tony Leung's father had been addicted to gambling and drinking heavily in his childhood, often beating him and his mother at home.
Both of those who grew up in this environment understood the catastrophic nature of poverty and the true meaning of struggle. And the two who are both Cancer are also extremely withdrawn.
The two of them have also been laughingly called "difficult brothers and brothers" because of similar childhood experiences.
After growing up a little, the two of them ushered in similar life trajectories.
Stephen Chow, who did not have satisfactory grades, began to look for jobs after graduating from secondary school. Tony Leung, on the other hand, has been running around the streets since he was 15 years old, from newsboy to electrical salesman, which can be described as tasting the sweetness and bitterness of the bottom.
But what neither of them gave up was the love of life and the worship of the idol Bruce Lee.
Unlike Tony Leung, Stephen Chow has always cherished an actor dream, and he aspires to become an action superstar like his idol Bruce Lee in the future, so he also desperately wants to enter the film and television industry.
At that time, Tony Leung, like all teenagers, had no purpose for the road ahead, was at a loss for his future, he didn't think about what he was going to do, or he felt that he couldn't do anything.
Out of the pursuit of his dream, Stephen Chow saved up for a long time to buy a miniature camera, and also pulled Tony Leung to shoot their own movies every day.
At that time, Tony Leung was not interested in acting, only as if this activity was fun between friends, he played the villain every day, and was finally defeated by the decent actor played by Stephen Chow.
It was also during this time that Stephen Chow learned all kinds of film knowledge, from scripts to shots to editing, he supported the entire crew by himself.
In 1980, Stephen Chow quit his job and became a special actor on a TV station, commonly known as the trick.
The following year, he starred in the TV series IQ Fashion Times, but it did not respond to anything.
After another year, seeing that his development had made no progress, Stephen Chow realized that he did not know anything about his acting skills, so he applied for the TVB artist training class at that time, expecting to get professional training.
On the side, Tony Leung is still busy with his electrical salesman, he feels that as long as he works hard every day, he will definitely be promoted to sales manager, but he actually does not like such days, but he has no other choice.
At this time, Stephen Chow found Tony Leung and persuaded him to apply for the artist training class with him. Although Tony Leung did not agree at first, under the bombardment of Stephen Chow, he still decided to try something new.
In the eyes of Tony Leung's mother, Stephen Chow is like a bedbug, because his existence makes Tony Leung lose his originally stable job and pursue an unpopular actor industry.
But the two of them did not care about it, but actively prepared for the exam as agreed.
But fate always likes to play tricks, and what happens next surprises both Stephen Chow and Tony Leung.
Unexpected development trajectory
In order to get his wish, Stephen Chow also spent money on buying a pair of high heels and matching clothing, just to give himself a better chance of being recognized by insiders.
But Tony Leung was much calmer, did not prepare any equipment, and went to the exam alone.
But after the exam results came out, it was a big surprise, and Stephen Chow, who went all out, was selected, but Tony Leung, who looked careless, was selected.
This has now sparked countless heated discussions, some people are uneven about what happened to Stephen Chow, and some people are beginning to think about why Tony Leung has such a high acting talent.
But later, Tony Leung said the real reason in an interview - Stephen Chow had too many ideas.
For TVB, they just want to have a person who is obedient when acting, rather than having their own unique views on any point, and Stephen Chow is exactly the latter.
On the day of the exam, the examiner asked the students to perform a bitter drama, but Stephen Chow packaged his appearance as a comedy.
For the examiner, there are already a large number of examiners, who can have the mind to stop and think about what kind of choppy inner thoughts are hidden behind your performance?
So in fact, Stephen Chow's elimination was unexpected, but reasonable.
Later, Stephen Chow participated in two consecutive times, but was unsuccessful, and finally entered the TVB artist training night shift under the back door, a training class similar to that of an auditor.
Since then, the life trajectories of the two of them have undergone earth-shaking changes, and when Tony Leung is thriving, Stephen Chow is still crawling in major crews and accumulating experience.
Tony Leung, who entered the training version, fully exerted his innate acting talent, and immediately became the top student in the class, and he also successfully obtained the career of host and got filming opportunities one after another.
In 1984, Tony Leung starred in Wei Xiaobao in "Luding Ji", and then became a hit. Immediately afterwards, he quickly starred in the male protagonist of "Senior Brother Xinza", which also received great attention.
He was also known as the "Wireless Five Tigers" together with Andy Lau, Huang Rihua, Tang Zhenye and Miao Qiaowei, and was always mentioned in the entertainment industry after that.
But Stephen Chow was not so lucky. After Tony Leung entered the film and television industry, his position as the host of "430 Shuttle" was left to Stephen Chow.
He was unwilling to take over the baton of his friend, but what made him even more helpless was that he had been working in this position for five years, which was a world away from Tony Leung who only dared to get the opportunity to film in half a year.
He was not discouraged, but took the initiative to go to major film and television companies and crews to take the initiative to ask for help, tossing and turning I don't know how many times to get a chance to run tricks.
In 1983, while playing a dying prisoner, he offered to add a little drama to himself, but without the director's consent, the director only felt that he was disobedient.
But later in "The King of Comedy", which he wrote, directed and acted himself, this action was reproduced, and this plot also won the love of the audience.
In the following years, Tony Leung became more and more favored by major directors, and successfully won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1987. At this time, he has completely become a professional actor.
Stephen Chow only got his first male second role in 1988, but he was also nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Since then, Stephen Chow has officially stepped into the film and television industry and opened his rocket-like ascension.
Although Tony Leung became popular eight years ahead of him, they both shined in the 90s and can be called the light of the Chinese people going hand in hand.
The light of the Chinese going hand in hand
In 1990, with the success of "God of Gamblers" the previous year, Liu Zhenwei wanted to quickly make a quick profit, so he thought of "Gambling Saint".
Originally wanted to find Tony Leung to play the leading actor, but Tony Leung declined the invitation because he wanted to transform into a literary film, and this opportunity also fell directly to Stephen Chow, who rose to prominence in the previous two years.
Later, "Gambling Saint" broke the box office record in the history of Hong Kong films with a box office of 41.32 million Hong Kong dollars, and also became the first film with a box office of more than 400 million since the opening of Hong Kong.
Immediately afterwards, the second "Gambler" won 40.34 million box office, Stephen Chow was completely popular all over Hong Kong, opening his golden age, and he also became a "double Monday success" with Chow Yun-fat and Jackie Chan.
On the other hand, Tony Leung won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor five times after entering the field of literary films, which can be described as a moment.
Because of their personalities and work, the two have never put their relationship on the table, but those who really know them know that they have always been close in private.
On Stephen Chow's 40th birthday, Tony Leung even returned to Hong Kong from abroad to accompany Stephen Chow on his birthday, and the two of them often played together in private and often mentioned each other in interviews.
epilogue
When Tony Leung won such an award, Stephen Chow's blessing was taken for granted, compared to their close relationship.
They are perhaps the best proof that "gentlemen's friendship is as light as water", even if they have never cooperated, they have always maintained their recognition and praise for each other.
A few small talk in public and the blessings from each other when winning the award may be the best proof of their friendship.