This episode is sponsored by Squarespace You may know about Awkwafina You may even know about Simu Liu But who is THIS actor He looks important And dare I say... Kinda hot (Cough) It's a damn shame Tony Leung isn't more famous in the mainstream West Because, in Asia He is called "the man who can speak with his eyes" That is both a compliment to his dashing good looks And his incredible acting talent Every look he gives Contains a thousand stories With 40 plus years of acting experience Whopping five Hong Kong Film Awards for best actor And a Cannes Film Festival best actor award to boot This is a man with a lot to offer It is high time we pay this man our respect So, let's take a brief look at Tony Leung's long and ongoing career And see what we can learn From the man who can speak with his eyes [How Tony Leung Acts With His Eyes] [Chapter One] Born in a poor family with a lot of arguments His father, a chronic gambler Left the family when he was eight Leung's quiet and introverted personality was formed in this environment "Not a lot of kids in my school" "Came from a broken family" "I felt like I was..." "Different?" "Right" And then, he met someone A friend who also came from a broken family Stephen Chow Now, Chow always wanted to be an actor And through him, Leung also began to learn to act Together, with an 8mm film camera They made some short films Acting became one of Leung's emotional outlets "People won't find out it's my emotion" "They think I'm acting as someone else" "But it's actually me" Eventually, Stephen Chow auditioned for the acting school In Hong Kong's biggest TV station And Tony Leung went with Chow As a moral support In an ironic twist you probably saw coming Chow failed And Leung got in Turns out, Leung is a natural At age 22 Most actors are still acting by "demonstrating" or "indicating" Walking with their elbows out To signal that they are angry It's the obvious choice But usually not the most interesting Comparatively, Leung's acting is much more layered He stands with his head up On the outside, he is confident But look at his eyes He doesn't look at his superior officer He doesn't look forward Even though his head is up, his eyes are down On the inside, he is panicking "Yes, sir" His line is all just two words But we know he is worried, scared, impatient, and a bit angry Now that really captures the complexity of human emotion With this level of talent Tony Leung's career got an early start In 1989, at age 27 He starred in his first internationally renowned masterpiece: A City of Sadness The film follows the lives of four Taiwanese brothers after WWII With the Japanese rule ended Taiwan was optimistic about the future Leung plays the youngest brother A deaf and mute character This is the first time we see him And, just from this one moment When he looks at her for a bit too long We know their relationship Now, look at this scene See how much his eyes dart around while smiling? Without a single word We know this character is optimistic Full of child-like innocence But then, tragedy strikes With a prejudice against Taiwanese people The newly established Kuomintang government Massacred thousands of Taiwanese people Post-war optimism quickly turned to horror Turns out, this is a movie about the hopelessness felt by Taiwan For much of its recent history Here is Leung, the night of the incident For me, this movie marks the high point of first-phase Tony Leung Leung at his most technical, most expressive And, in a way, most visceral Every look of his eyes Every gesture he makes Communicates the mind of a character cleanly and clearly It's a similar sort of technique used by other legends like Ng Man-tat Unsurprising, since they came from the same
school But what took Uncle Tat half a lifetime to achieve Leung managed to do it proficiently Just 6 years into his film career In this scene After all of the pain and sadness Leung still smiles when he sees his love But without the innocence he previously shown And when all is over The youth who was once naive and optimistic Is now a mature man with responsibilities What a remarkable transformation By most measure Tony Leung had mastered what he learned in school He would continue to utilize these techniques in future films Most notably in John Woo's Hard Boiled But to go up, Leung had to start forging his own path And learn without a master It was then, in the 90s He met the man who would become the most important director in his life Wong Kar-wai [Sponsored Message] Now, I read all of your emails That's how I know half of you are artists, actors, and filmmakers And I'm here to tell you You are going to need a website from Squarespace Because, speaking from experience Having a website where you can have your bios Portfolio and contact info all in once place It's just much more professional and appealing And with Squarespace All you need to do is pick a template And start from there With so many templates to choose from It doesn't matter what medium you specialized in There's bound to be something for you Start your free trial at squarespace.com/accentedcinema And use code ACCENTEDCINEMA To get 10% off your first purchase Oh, and here's a business tip Make sure your have a site for your business And a seperate site for your personal art So your business service doesn't devalue your art pieces Luckily, Squarespace is so user-friendly Making one more website takes no time at all Visit squarespace.com/accentedcinema right now And show yourself to the world [Chapter Two] In 1992 Tony Leung appears in his first Wong Kar-wai movie Days of Being Wild Wong Kar-wai, in case you don't know Is one of the most influential art-house director from Hong Kong Even Tarantino is a fan Interestingly, Tony Leung's role was limited To a 3-minute end credit easter egg In which the movie teases a sequel that was never made In this unscripted long take of a scene Leung plays a professional gambler In the process of getting dressed, making himself presentable It's a silent scene about showing off a character Without a defined goal Or strong emotions It goes completely against Leung's expressive acting style So, intentional or not Wong and Leung approached this scene with the Meisner technique Take after take Through sheer repetition Tony Leung familiarized himself with the actions of a gambler With each take There is less acting And more instinct Over 20 takes later Every movement Leung makes oozes proficiency He's doing this without thinking Despite the crushingly low ceiling Leung fits into the space like it's his home He suits himself up As if he has done this a million times It actually reminds me of Michael Fassbender Another actor whom I know is great But can't always figure out exactly what's so great But that is the point These actors are so natural at being their characters Their techniques have become invisible to us They don't look like they are acting Which may be one of the greatest achievements for an actor This is the beginning of phase two Tony Leung Gone is the direct communication of emotions Where fear and joy are all written on his
face Going forward, Leung's acting would be much more naturalistic With the emphasis on internalizing the characters It's less show-y, but much more intriguing As it invites the audience to interpret the characters Rather than the characters telling the audience This reserved and implicit style would go on to win Tony Leung His best actor award in the Cannes Film Festival For his performance in In the Mood for love In this film Tony Leung plays a husband with an unfaithful wife It was 1960s Hong Kong Gossip like this was enough to ruin someone's life So, Leung has no one to talk to And has to hold everything inside his heart If the role was played by phase one Tony Leung The anger, the frustration, the sadness And the act of him hiding it would all be perfectly expressed But instead, with a more mature Tony Leung His acting is much harder to decipher Other than the sense of loneliness You don't really know what he's thinking He stares at himself As we stare at his eyes We want to listen But he's not saying anything At times, his eyes look like they are about to tear up But they never do It's ambiguous His eyes shift, looking at nothing But his own thoughts And then he smiles At that moment, everything makes sense He, too, doesn't know what he's thinking He doesn't know how to react to everything that had happened He, by instinct, pretends nothing is happening At this point Leung's acting doesn't just have moods and emotions It has stories That is a much more naturalistic choice A distinct choice from this particular character And to do that Leung becomes the character That is some masterful work [Chapter Three] Finally, let us take a look at what I believe to be Tony Leung's best performance Lust, Caution The film tells the story of a young amateur actress On a mission to seduce and assassinate a man A traitor who's been aiding the Japanese in their invasion That man is Mr. Yee Played by Tony Leung Look at him, quickly checks his surroundings Before darts in-door like a rat It is such a "blink, and you'll miss it" moment These sort of details are all over his performance So subtle you don't see them casually But you feel them You feel the character A conniving snake of a man In a way, Leung's acting is a continuation of In the Mood for Love And 2046 Playing a mystery character Whom the audience has a hard time reading Appropriate for an antagonist In fact, these characters are so similar It brought Leung some trouble during production There were moments when he had to stop in the middle of the take Because he realized he was walking like Mr. Chow from 2046 And not Mr. Yee "I walked, and I walked like I was in 2046" "Even when you leave it behind" "It has become a part of you" "It's inside of you forever" As the mission progresses The two get closer and closer And in this scene, you can see Leung acting in full throttle He starts off staring at his opponent like a predator But as the conversation continues He begins to relax Not open up per se, but arrogance Confident that he has this under control Leung's character would constantly flip flops between a monster And a lonely, vulnerable man See how all of his venoms are gone in this shot And he communicates that without specific gestures or movements It's nothing but a facial expression And to have that level of nuanced control It is nothing short of legendary The most impressive part is The film never actually established how dangerous Mr. Yee is He just... LOOKS dangerous Half of the film's tension relies solely On Leung's venomous eyes [Conclusion] Seeing how much natural talent Tony Leung has can be demoralizing Starring in a Golden Lion Award film at age 27? It doesn't feel fair, right? But, I think, that's looking at it from the
wrong angle Remember, this man is such a shy introvert An interview is enough to make him uncomfortable That's why I only show this one throughout the video There aren't that many good ones out there He, too, has his own weaknesses he had to overcome Besides, natural talent can only bring you so far "Even to today, I'm still like this" "I see myself [on screen]" "And get bothered by all the places I can improve" Tony Leung's career is brilliant Because he constantly surpasses what he had done before To him Success should not be a one and done thing It should be a continuous process of self-improvement And that process, now lasted 40 years It led to Shang-Chi Introducing him to a massive mainstream audience So, when Shang-Chi comes out Pay close attention to his acting And appreciate his performance Those eyes Are the eyes of an acting master
