Leslie Cheung

I had a chance to share a few moments with Leslie Cheung. One time was at a filming location of Lam Gong Juen (Arrest the restless)  directed by Lawrence Ah Mon, as everyone knows that Leslie was a hard working actor and also wanted things to be perfect, before the shooting I saw him hiding himself in the conner and fixing his hair and try to make sure it was perfect, he walked a few step like he is dancing and when he was in the shot , he is ready to be in his character... he said, not just the look has to be perfect but also the body movement, if you are rebel in the 50’s and love to dance, that’s how they should move, movement is part of the character. 

Other time I met him was in a recording studio doing the dubbing for the same film,  he was focus and  patient, dubbing dialog for film is a long process, it took a long time in a cold and dark  recording studio. As who he was , a super star, he could have got someone to do it for him but he insisted that  his voice is part of the acting and he didn’t want to cheat his audience.

Then the very last time I met him was 1997  in a lobby café in Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong. It was just a brief 30 minutes before he was heading home for the game of mahjong, a Chinese traditional table game which he loved.  In that 30 minutes, we talked about the restaurant he liked and the movies he watched,  he talked about anything just like everyone else.  He sipped a coffee and lit a cigarette just like he did it in his movie, at the moment I saw this person in front of me, one of the brightest artist in Hong Kong, deep
down is just a guy, a guy that who is kind and down to earth, you saw that who ever he played  in his movie, rather is Master Twelve in Rouge, the Yuddy in The Days of Being Wild, Cheng Dieyi  in Farwell my Concubine and the Ho Po-Wing in Happy Together or even Jim Law in his last film Inner Senses, you can see they all have a part of Leslie in them, not the look but the spirit, a sentimental, stubborn, perfectionist that’s always felt there’s something missing in his life and he will do his best to get it, maybe his broken family up bringing or maybe his love of his Art, he dedicated himself to what he wanted to be.

Someone who lived and breathed with love. You can listen to his songs in the later time, he is trying to tell everyone that he is just a person and hoping to find someone who will really listen to him and love him for who he really is.   He always felt alienated like he is in other planet.

In 2003 April 1,  his story ended, like Sakura.  Farewell the Little Prince.