Born in Hong Kong, Tony Leung Chiu-wai had a complicated childhood filled with financial difficulties as a result of his father’s gambling (via GQ). Although he attended a private school for some time, he had to drop out due to lack of adequate finances. What’s more, Leung juggled different jobs until he met then-wannabe actor Stephen Chow, who influenced him to take acting classes. It was evidently a life-altering decision, given how Leung has since become one of Asia’s most successful and internationally renowned actors of all time.
Indeed, Leung has grown into a critically acclaimed and commercial superstar, working in various international cinemas and across all genres. He is perhaps best known for his work in Wong Kar-wai’s movies like In the Mood for Love and Happy Together. More recently, Leung made a splash in the MCU film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He’s been stealing our hearts in films since the 80s, taking on damaged, sensitive, and deeply feeling characters. With his great looks and humble personality, he is very easy to fall in love with. Let’s take a look at ten different movies where we couldn’t resist his charisma.
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10 Cyclo (1995)
New Yorker Video
Cyclo is a 1995 film by Tran Anh Hung, starring Lê Văn Lộc, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Trần Nữ Yên Khê in the leading roles. With its focus on the hard lives of the labor force in the 1990s in Ho Chi Minh City, the plot focuses on an 18-year-old cyclo/pedal-taxi driver who gets his cyclo stolen and is forced to fall into the world of crime to pay back his debt. He finds out that his crime boss is also his sister’s pimp. Leung plays the brooding gang leader who’s also a poet. Carrying love for the arts and music shows that the crime boss could have been a good person if under different circumstances. As we’ve come to realize, there’s something magical about Leung playing morally gray characters.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
9 Happy Together (1997)
Golden Harvest Company
Regarded as one of the best LGBTQ+ films in the New Queer Cinema movement, Happy Together is a romantic drama directed by Wong Kar-wai and starring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai, respectively. The film shows the turbulent romance between Ho and Lai after they move to Argentina to start a better life together. Their dreams soon turn into a fantasy when the relationship gets abusive, and they each become lonelier and lonelier. If you’re up for an angsty gay love triangle, feelings of claustrophobia, and Leung’s heart-wrenching performance, make sure to watch this one.
8 2046 (2004)
Yet again directed and written by Wong Kar-wai, 2046 is a romantic drama with science-fiction elements, starring Leung in the leading role as Chow Mo-wan. This film serves as a loose sequel to Wong’s previous films Days of Being Wild (1990) and In the Mood for Love (2000). The plot spans over the course of a few years when a science-fiction author (Leung) has affairs with different women to get over the loss of a woman he once loved. Chow’s novel is set in a train in a futuristic landscape, which takes its passengers to a place where they can recapture their memories. Wong apparently said to Leung that 2046 is his best movie, and we believe that.
7 Chungking Express (1994)
Jet Tone Production
Chungking Express is yet another collaboration between Wong Kar-wai and Tony Leung. It’s a romantic crime-drama comedy starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Leung in the main roles as Cop 223 and Cop 663. Both of these police officers are lovesick, trying to get over their failed relationships. Cop 223 (Kaneshiro) finds refuge in a mysterious drug smuggles, while Cop 663 basks in the attentions of a quirky snack bar worker. The movie is filled with allegories and metaphors of finding love and the closeness of it. You cannot avoid falling in love with Leung after watching this film.
6 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Marvel Studios / Disney
Those who didn’t know about Leung before definitely got to know him through his excellent performance in the MCU’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The film follows martial artist Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) who has managed to escape the Ten Rings organization led by his father Xu Wenwu. Leung yet again plays a morally gray character and avoids the Asian stereotypes of strict fathers that Hollywood likes to portray. With the deeply embedded love story between Shang-Chi’s parents, it’s very clear why Wenwu has made all the bad decisions. The complexity of his character makes him one of the best villains in the franchise (via Collider).
5 Red Cliff (2008)
Beijing Film Studio
Directed by John Woo, Red Cliff or Chibi is a Chinese epic war film starring Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, and many others in the leading roles. The storyline is based on the Battle of Red Cliffs at the end of the Han dynasty and immediately prior to the Three Kingdoms period in Imperial China. The plot is centered around two rivaling warlords who make a pact to unite China by waging a war. Although Leung isn’t the only main character, he gets a lot of screen time, enough to show off his acting chops.
4 In the Mood for Love (2000)
We’re aware that there’s a lot of Wong Kar-wai included on this list, but In the Mood for Love is yet another romantic drama from the director with Leung as the leading man. As the second movie in an informal trilogy that includes Days of Being Wild and 2046, In the Mood for Love depicts Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) and Chow Mo-wan (Leung) who become close friends and find out that their spouses are having an affair. As this discovery, they gradually start falling for each other. Watching Leung portray a never-ending despair never gets easier.
3 Infernal Affairs (2002)
Media Asia Films
Co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, Infernal Affairs is an action thriller film, starring Andy Lau, Tony Leung, and Anthony Wong in the lead roles. As the first film in the Infernal Affairs series, the film follows an undercover Hong Kong cop (Leung), who infiltrates a gang, and a tried member of the gang (Lau), who becomes a mole in the police force. The two of them are on a mission to uncover each other’s true identities. It’s essentially a story of corruption and morality — a classic for Leung’s movie-lovers.
2 Bullet in the Head (1990)
Golden Princess Film
Directed and written by John Woo, Bullet in the Head is an action film starring Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee as members of a gang. These three gang fighters decide to try out criminal activities in Vietnam, but they immediately get captured and thrown into a prison with U.S soldiers. The film incorporates the war, drama, and crime genres. We’re purposefully including some of Leung’s older films, because they deserve to get remastered and paid attention to.
1 A City of Sadness (1989)
3-H Films
Last but not least, we have 1989 Taiwanese historical drama directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien: A City of Sadness. It tells the story of a family effected by the “White Terror” that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late-1940s. The eldest brother of the family (Chen Sown-yung) disappears and ends up in an asylum. His deaf-mute younger brother (Leung) decides to fight the Kuomintang government to get his brother back. It’s Leung’s breakthrough role as an actor and, even early on, it was clear how singular of a talent he possesses.
