Tony Leung Chiu-wai has been described as Asia's Clark Gable and a beloved icon of Hong Kong cinema. The actor made his Hollywood (and English language) debut in Marvel's 2021 superhero film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – but he has been mesmerizing audiences in Asia and in arthouses across the globe for decades.
Leung is known for his collaborations with Hong Kong masters like John Woo and Derek Lee, but the actor's frequent collaborations with director Wong Kar-wai are perhaps his most famous. Leung and Kar-wai made history in eight classic films, including Chungking Express (1994), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000), 2046 (2004), and The Grandmaster (2013). For the role in the 2000 drama In the Mood for Love, Leung won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The actor also appeared in the Venice Film Festival-winning drama A City of Sadness (1989), box office hit Infernal Affairs (2002), the Oscar-nominated wuxia film Hero (2002), and others. Let’s take a look at Tony Leung's best performances, ranked.
7 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is Marvel's first film with Asian lead actors and the Hollywood debut for Leung. In the 2021 film, superhero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), the mystical master of Kung-Fu, is forced to confront his past. Leung brings unexpected depth as the antagonist of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a powerful leader of the Ten Rings criminal organization and Shang-Chi’s father Xu Wenwu.
"I think [Leung] brings a humanity that we need for that character," the director of the film, Destin Daniel Cretton, told The Observer. "We are not looking to contribute anymore to the Asian stereotypes that we have seen both in cinema and pop culture. Tommy is such an incredible actor, and I’m excited to have him help us break some of those stereotypes because that villain could easily become a punchline."
6 Lust, Caution
The Venice Film Festival-winning and highest-grossing Chinese language film of 2007, Lust, Caution is an erotic espionage drama set in Japanese-occupied China in World War II. The drama follows a shy Chinese woman, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), who joins a revolutionary group that plot to assassinate a Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Wong gets close to Yee and seduces her enemy – but becomes emotionally involved with him. For Leung, Lust, Caution offered a chance to show his dark, violent but perhaps sexiest side.
5 Happy Together
One of the best LGBTQ+ movies of the 90s, Wong Kar-wai’s romantic drama Happy Together tells the story of a Hong Kong gay couple’s (played by Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung) turbulent love while lost during traveling across Argentina. The film benefited from Tony Leung’s heart-wrenching performance as Lai Yiu-fai. For his role, Leung won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor, beating out co-star Leslie Cheung for the award.
4 Infernal Affairs
A high-water mark of Hong Kong cinema, the 2002 action thriller Infernal Affairs follows the lives of a police officer, Chan Wing-yan (Tony Leung), working deep undercover in an organized crime syndicate Triad and the Triad’s spy, Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau), in the Hong Kong Police Force. Leung’s powerful performance as a cop who suffers from an identity crisis transcends genre. The gloss and depth of Infernal Affairs were such that director Martin Scorsese remade this film for Hollywood as The Departed.
3 A City of Sadness
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, a leading figure in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement, the 1989 historical drama A City of Sadness is a powerful cinematic statement. It is the first film ever that brings to light the truth about the February 28 massacre, the massacre of thousands of Taiwanese by the Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomintang, in 1947. A City of Sadness centers on an average Taiwanese family. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai’s character is Lin Wen-Ching, the youngest son in the Lin family, an idealistic deaf-mute photographer who decides to fight the Kuomintang. A City of Sadness went on to receive the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, and Tony Leung became known worldwide after this masterpiece.
2 Chungking Express
Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 romantic crime comedy-drama Chungking Express is Hong Kong from the inside. The film tells two parallel stories about post-breakup cops, Cop 663 (played by Leung) and Cop 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Poetic and neon-soaked, Chungking Express explores loneliness, focusing on two men looking for love, featuring a phenomenally cool performances from the beatuiful Faye Wong and Valerie Chow.
The classic film (beloved by Quentin Tarantino) also features some of the best needle drops and use of music in movie history. For his performance as a despairing police officer who attracts the attention of an eccentric waitress, Leung won the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor.
1 In the Mood for Love
One of the major works of Asian cinema, the 2000 romantic drama In the Mood for Love tells the breathtakingly beautiful story of unrequited love. The film portrays two neighbors, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, who become close friends after they realize their spouses have an affair together. BBC ranked In the Mood for Love as the second of the 21st century’s 100 greatest films, writing, "never before has a film spoken so fluently in the universal language of loss and desire". Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are simply amazing in the leading roles. For his performance, Leung won the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor - the first Hong Kong actor to do so.