best film: In the Mood for Love is a film that improves with close study. It is almost too cinematically and stylistically rich for one viewing. This is approximately the tenth (10th) best film of all-time – and is Tony Leung’s best film. But this is a very packed, masterpiece-laden category for Leung – a strength of his for sure. Chungking Express, Flowers of Shanghai, Hero, and 2046 are all masterpieces. Leung has been front and center for two (2) of the best films of the 1990s, and three (3) of the best films of the 2000s.
best performance: Tony Leung’s restrained work as Chow Mo-wan in WKW’s love trilogy wins here if one were allowed to cheat and included an actor’s best character (Leung plays the lovelorn Chow Mo-wan in three times, in Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, and 2046). Forced to pick just one, it would be In the Mood For Love, but there is certainly a strong case for 2046. Leung has to share more of WKW’s attention (with the luminous Maggie Cheung) in In the Mood for Love, whereas he is center stage for 2046. Either way, Leung is a master at the slow burn. Leung is such a gifted, subtle actor.
Tony Leung here in In the Mood for Love – the film’s form is as good or better than any film in cinema history – in fact, it may be my textbook example – visual theme and variation. Other options include Dreyer’s Passion of Joan of Arc, Ozu and Tokyo Story, and the combined oeuvre of Jim Jarmusch. In the Mood for Love is a combination of Peter Greenaway’s stylistic maximums Jarmusch’s formal repetition.
stylistic innovations/traits: His nicknames (at least here in the West) are the Asian Clark Gable or calling him the Bogart and Bacall of the east (with Maggie Cheung – they have five (5) archiveable films together). Leung is a star and has charisma like Gable and Bogart of course – but his approach may be closer to a Montgomery Clift. He is more delicate than the booming Gable. Leung can get a little louder in his performances with John Woo (his work with Woo adds such a great layer to his resume) but Tony Leung will ultimately be remembered for his collaborations with WKW – seven (7) films in the archives together and Leung is not exactly Mr. Gregarious in those films. He plays melancholy – the shade of a pained midnight blue – as well as an actor in cinema history (think maybe Bill Murray in Lost in Translation). Leung is five (5) years younger than Daniel Day-Lewis, making him now the youngest actor here in the top 12 (twelve) actors of all-time. The action and crime movie work (Internal Affairs, Woo, Hero) give him depth and versatility rounding out that work with WKW.
Four years after In the Mood for Love, WKW’s follow-up is the third and (so far) final film in the unofficial Love trilogy (Days of Being Wild from 1990 being the first) featuring Tony Leung as Chow Mo-Wan and Maggie Cheung (here only as a cutaway memory really) as Su Li-zhen.
from 2002’s Hero – Broken Sword (Tony Leung) and Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung). Leung and Cheung working together yet again just two years after In the Mood for Love.
directors worked with: WKW (7), John Woo (3), Hsiao-Hsien Hou (2), Yimou Zhang (1)
from Chungking Express – Leung’s achievement is on the same level as Faye Wong’s. The scene where he comes by and asks her out (the owner of the snack bar calls him a “smooth operator”) is a complete wow – a movie star moment.
top five performances:
- In the Mood for Love
- 2046
- Chungking Express
- Flowers of Shanghai
- Happy Together
Tony Leung plays Wang Lingsheng in Flowers of Shanghai. Leung also worked with Hsiao-Hsien Hou on A City of Sadness (1989). Leung is just a phenomenal actor – a star’s charisma without being a prima donna and having to preen like a peacock, even in a crowded room he shines like a beacon. Like Montgomery Clift, he has an instant undertone and nuance – he is an actor that looks like he always has a secret. This is such a key role for Leung’s body of work. He does not ask for the camera’s attention (he is often facing the opposite direction in a large gathering) – but it comes his way anyways as he goes through the meticulous ritual of preparing his pipe. He is often inebriated – but a sullen drunk.
archiveable films
| 1989- City of Sadness |
| 1990- Bullet in the Head |
| 1990- Days of Being Wild |
| 1992- Hard Boiled |
| 1994- Ashes of Time |
| 1994- Chungking Express |
| 1995- Cyclo |
| 1997- Happy Together |
| 1998- Flowers of Shanghai |
| 2000- In the Mood for Love |
| 2002- Hero |
| 2002- Internal Affairs |
| 2004- 2046 |
| 2008- Red Cliff I |
| 2009- Red Cliff II |
| 2013- The Grandmaster |
Haha. I am so happy to see this. My favourite actor ever. Recently I watched Happy Together and he was just incredible. Also, No Lust, Caution in the archives? It is definitely one of his best performance.
@Alt Mash- I want to get back to Lust, Caution- but I have seen it and it is not currently in the archives. I saw it in 2007 and sort of agreed with the mediocre reviews. Excited to revisit at some point.
I predicted he would rank way high on this update so this is very pleasing. What a wonderful actor with a brilliant filmography.
I love seeing this, I would put Chungking for the # 2 performance but its close for sure. 2046 has grown on me and unlike Chungking he is in basically every scene in 2046. I liked it from the first viewing but repeat viewings have been quite beneficial. I think you can say that about him in general. His performances are amazing but as you say in a more subtle way. Very different from someone like Pacino or Mifune.
I predicted this and I am so happy to see it because he’s definitely a top 10 actor in my opinion. He’s such a beautiful and captivating performer. I completely agree with you, he does melancholy better than anyone, but he’s shown a lot of versatility throughout his career. He is usually a very understated actor and we know that he can communicate volumes of emotion with just his eyes, but he can also be a powerful and intense action hero, both in wuxia and heroic bloodshed crime films. Hell, he can even pull off an out-of-his-depth robber (very similar to Pacino’s character in Dog day afternoon) convincingly in People’s hero. He may be the best actor born in the 60s, which is, by every measure, a superb generation. My only disagreement here is that I would put his performance in Happy together as his second best. He is absolutely heartbreaking in that role. But anyway, Chungking and 2046 are excellent movies and very fine choices as well.
I agree with you on Happy Together. Leung gives such a nuanced and layered performance here as he plays both subtle and intense in the same film and the way he uses his body language and facial expressions to convey emotions and thoughts without saying a word is just so incredible.
But the best thing about his performance and character was that he was so sympathetic and kinda pathetic at the same time, and the way he conveys it is just brilliant.
Also, I think the film itself is one WKW’s best. This was probably the last film where WKW and Chris Doyle collaborated so intimately (apparently Chris left the production midway on both In the Mood for Love and 2046). I am not gonna count each shot because there are so many amazing compositions here, but a few like where Yu-fai and Po-wing dance in the kitchen, when workers are playing in the golden hour, the rooftop compositions and Yiu-fai working at restaurant, walking on the streets of Buenos Aires or just laying on the boat are just visually stunning. Also Doyle uses many of his trademark shots like shooting through mirror reflection (like in Chungking Express) and specific color filtering (Here it is yellow and green, like in Days of Being Wild it was green). Now knowing their conditions while shooting this film makes it even more fascinating that how they were able to make such a great film with all those limitations.
@Alt Mash – Really appreciate this share here. I love the specificity of it – makes me excited to revisit Happy Together
Love seing this. I don’t put him this high (it’s more of a top 20/25 for me) but that’s cool. Love him. My top 10 of his performances :
1 – In the Mood for Love
2 – Chungking Express
3 – Happy Together
4 – 2046
5 – Flowers of Shanghai
6 – Lust, Caution
7 – Internal Affairs
8 – The Grandmaster
9 – Hard Boiled
10 – Bullet in the Head