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Edmund Lee

This is the 75th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.
When Tony Leung Ka-fai took to the stage of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre on April 19 to accept the best actor prize at the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA), he became the only person to win that honour across five consecutive decades.
Yet for the 68-year-old veteran, his accolades are a by-product of his endurance – he has previously admitted to keeping his statuettes in a cupboard under the staircase at home.
Over a career spanning more than 40 years, Leung has navigated industry blacklists, underworld coercion, shifting political landscapes, tabloid scrutiny and his own missteps – including two drink-driving convictions in the 2000s – to remain Hong Kong cinema’s ultimate survivor.

The accidental actor
Born in Hong Kong in 1958, Leung received his early education in film by osmosis. His mother worked at the now-demolished Roxy Theatre in Causeway Bay, where he would sit under the dress circle, absorbing the sights and sounds of Hollywood blockbusters.
Beyond the cinema walls, he was a quiet boy who spent much of his youth looking out the window, observing the gestures and facial expressions of passers-by – a habit that would later inform his meticulous approach to character building.
Despite this early immersion, he never set out to be a movie star. He studied advertising design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic (later Polytechnic University) and enrolled in local broadcaster TVB’s artist training programme in 1981 – only to drop out before he finished.
His trajectory shifted when legendary director Li Han-hsiang discovered him in 1982.

Li invited him to Beijing, where Leung believed he was taking a job as a personal assistant. It was only when Li told him to shave his head that Leung realised he had been cast as Emperor Xianfeng in the historical epics The Burning of the Imperial Palace and Reign Behind a Curtain (both 1983).
“When he told me it’d be a one-year shoot in Beijing, I was just like, ‘Wow, it’s very exciting!’ and that’s how I [got tricked into] boarding the ‘pirate ship’,” Leung recalled to this writer in 2012.
The role was a baptism of fire, but it paid off in 1984 when his performance in Reign Behind a Curtain earned him, at 26, his first best actor win, at the 3rd Hong Kong Film Awards, making him the youngest recipient in the category’s history – a record he still holds today.
From best actor to street hawker
Geopolitical realities soon halted his rise. Because Reign Behind a Curtain was filmed in mainland China, Taiwan’s cultural authorities – then operating under martial law – blacklisted Leung.
As Taiwan was a primary market for Hong Kong films at the time, local studios refused to hire him. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Leung became a street hawker in Causeway Bay, leveraging his award-winning status to charm customers into buying his goods.

It was during this nadir that he met Jiang Jianian, a producer who bravely offered him work recording radio dramas despite the ongoing ban. Her support during his darkest hour forged a lifelong bond: the couple married in 1987 and later had twin daughters.
The Taiwan ban was lifted in 1987, the same year that Leung returned to the big screen alongside Chow Yun-fat in Ringo Lam Ling-tung’s Prison on Fire. The film was a massive hit, re-establishing Leung’s career and solidifying his status as one of the city’s top actors.
A few years later, Leung won best actor at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei for Farewell China (1990) – an honour he would repeat in the best supporting actor category for The Drummer (2007).
A chaotic, chameleonic rise
During the Hong Kong film industry’s 1990s golden age, Leung’s profile exploded. He even gained international fame starring in director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s 1992 French production The Lover (L’Amant).

The erotic drama sparked a Western tabloid frenzy over his realistic sex scenes with British actress Jane March.
Addressing the uproar in a 1992 interview with the South China Morning Post, Leung attributed the media’s obsession to racial novelty, noting audiences rarely get “to see an Asian making love to a European young girl” on the screen.
The industry’s boom also attracted the attention of the criminal underworld. In one case, during the filming of The Lover in Vietnam, Leung was coerced by triads at gunpoint to fly to the Philippines to shoot another feature.
Despite the chaos, his artistic output remained staggering. He showcased incredible versatility, winning his second HKFA statuette for his hilariously camp turn as Inspector Lui Kay in the comedy 92 The Legendary la Rose Noire.
Leung, who has a sprawling filmography in the triple digits, treats every role as a “second life”, as he told SCMP in 2025. This has allowed him to explore countless different paths on screen, while mastering the ability to leave his characters behind by “flipping a switch” the moment he heads home.

Determined to be an actor rather than a traditional movie star, he transitioned from family comedies like 1993’s Tom, Dick and Hairy to art house epics such as 1994’s Ashes of Time and intense gangster thrillers, including 2005’s Election.
The latter won him his third best actor award, while his portrayal of a steely deputy police commissioner in the 2012 blockbuster Cold War secured his fourth.
Leung achieved his fifth win with an action-packed villain role in 2025’s The Shadow’s Edge, a mainland Chinese remake of the 2007 Hong Kong film Eye in the Sky, in which he reprised his role as the story’s criminal mastermind.
With five best actor trophies to his name, “Big Tony” – an industry moniker sometimes used to distinguish him from fellow film icon Tony Leung Chiu-wai – now sits just one win behind “Little Tony” on the all-time HKFA leaderboard.
The ultimate mainstay
In the 2010s, Hong Kong cinema became increasingly integrated with the mainland Chinese market. Leung has successfully navigated that shift, as seen from his roles in major co-productions such as Tsui Hark’s The Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014) and Yuen Woo-ping’s Blades of the Guardians earlier this year.

In June 2019, during the height of the Hong Kong protests, Leung made a high-profile appearance at a pro-police rally in Tamar Park in Admiralty, becoming arguably the city’s biggest movie star to take a vocal stance against the social discontent.
This public display of pro-Beijing sentiment occurred as Midnight Diner – a Chinese adaptation of the Japanese manga series – finally secured mainland censor approval two years after wrapping. The film, which Leung directed and starred in, was released in mainland cinemas in August 2019.
Midnight Diner, curiously, never secured a theatrical run in his home city, yet that was likely a minor setback for a man so insulated from outside noise.
After a few quiet years, Leung is back in the limelight: he had three high-profile films released in 2025 (Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, Sons of the Neon Night and The Shadow’s Edge), while Cold War 1994, the much-anticipated police thriller prequel to Cold War and Cold War 2, will open on May 1.

Throughout his career, the actor has survived not by chasing the blinding glare of fame but by treating his extraordinary, tumultuous artistic journey as exactly what it is: a job. If there is a true north to Leung’s trajectory, it is his profound indifference to his own mythology.
“I think the best award I receive is when I walk on the street as Tony Leung,” he told the SCMP last year, “and people wave to me or call my name.”
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Tony Leung Ka-fai poses on the red carpet during the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2016. His fifth best actor win at the HKFA cements his legendary Hong Kong cinema status. Photo: SCMP

Tony Leung holds up his best actor trophy for The Shadow’s Edge at the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards on April 19. Photo: Edmond So

Tony Leung (left) and Cecilia Ip pose with their trophies for best leading actor and leading actress at the 3rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 1984. Photo: SCMP

Leung at an interview with the SCMP in 1993. Photo: SCMP

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A 16-year-old Joey Yung (right) learning to sing in 1996. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

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Yung performs at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2003. Photo: Wan Kam-yan

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Leslie Cheung dances with a microphone stand at his concert in 1988. Photo: SCMP

Cheung (right), the first runner-up of RTV’s Asian Amateur Singing Contest, receiving his trophy in 1977. Photo: SCMP

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Carol Cheng at an interview with the SCMP in 1992. Photo: SCMP

Carol Cheng with her friend and fellow actor Chow Yun-fat, in Tsim Sha Tsui, in 1992. Photo: SCMP

Cheng (left) and Alfred Cheung in a still from Her Fatal Ways (1990). Cheng won the Hong Kong Film Awards best actress honour for her role in the film.

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Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

Cheung and Nicholas Tse in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Cheung in a still from Lost in Time (2003), for which she won best actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: China Star Entertainment Group

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How Kelly Chen, Cantopop star and beloved Hong Kong actress, has captured the hearts of music and movie fans for three decades

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Chen (right) is presented with a prize at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards ceremony in January 1996 by Taiwanese singer Wu Chien-lien. Photo: SCMP

Chen (left) and Yutaka Takenouchi in a still from “Calmi Cuori Appassionati” (2001).

Chen (right) and Donnie Yen in a still from “An Empress and the Warriors” (2008).

Chen and her husband, Alex Lau Kin-ho, pose during their wedding ceremony at the InterContinental Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui in October, 2008. Photo: SCMP

Chen performs in the Grand Variety Show in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 30, 2007. Photo: SCMP

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Chen (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from “Infernal Affairs III” (2003).

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(From left) Edmond So Chi-wai, Remus Choy Yat-kit and Calvin Choy Yat-chi of the Cantopop group Grasshopper at an interview with the Post in 2006. The boy band, formed in 1985, are still performing today. Photo: SCMP

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(From second left) Edmond So, Remus Choy and Calvin Choy at the Ultimate Song Chart Awards presentation ceremony at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in January 1996. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Remus Choy, Calvin Choy and Edmond So at an interview with the Post in 2010. Photo: SCMP

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Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu in a still from “This Is Not What I Expected” (2017).

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Leong (left), Jaycee Chan and Charlene Choi at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in April 2007. Photo: SCMP

Luke Ford (left) and Leong in a still from “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (2008).

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Leong in a still from “Murmur of the Hearts” (2015).

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Aaron Kwok at an interview with the Post in 2009. Kwok started his career as a background dancer nearly four decades ago. Now he is a beloved Cantopop singer and actor – and a smitten husband and proud father of two. Photo: SCMP

Kwok (right) alongside fellow Cantopop singers Andy Lau (left) and Jacky Cheung at an RTHK event in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Aaron Kwok, pictured in 1993. Photo: SCMP

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Kwok performs at an event organised by RTHK at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in 2001. Photo: SCMP.

Kwok (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from “Project Gutenberg” (2018).

Kwok with his wife, Moka Fang Yuan, in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. Photo: Kenneth Chan

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Carina Lau Ka-ling. Photo: Instagram/@carinalau1208

Hong Kong actress Carina Lau Ka-ling, pictured in 1993 soon after her career breakthrough in a Wong Kar-wai film. Married since 2008 to fellow actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, she is known for her style and class, and some iconic roles. Photo: SCMP

Cheung Siu-fai and Lau promoting TVB series “The Turbulent Decade” in 1986. Photo: SCMP

(Clockwise from top right) Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Lau, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai on the set of Wong Kar-wai’s movie “Days of Being Wild” in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Carina Lau in a still from “Ashes of Time” (1994).

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Carina Lau and Tony Leung at the opening night of hit musical “Les Miserables” at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Carina Lau in a still from “In Your Dreams” (2018).

Lau and Leung at the 16th Asian Film Awards in March 2023. Photo: Dickson Lee

1980s Hong Kong pop idol Danny Chan’s bittersweet success story: his talent, fame, the tabloid rumours, his retirement and early death

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Chan (left) and Jacky Cheung Hok-yau at the Top Ten Pop Stars Election in 1987. Photo: SCMP

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Chan performing at a concert to promote Aids awareness in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Chan was taken to Queen Mary Hospital after collapsing at home on May 19, 1992. Photo: SCMP

Flanked by singer Anita Mui Yim-fong and actor Chow Yun-fat, Danny Chan’s older brother Chan Pak-ling carries his younger brother’s picture at the singer’s funeral in 1993. Photo: SCMP

The rise of Hong Kong actress Sharla Cheung, star of Stephen Chow and Wong Jing films, and the surprise movie she made after retiring

Sharla Cheung, Stephen Chow SIng-chi (centre) and Ng Man-tat in “All for the Winner”. Photo: Handout

Actress Sharla Cheung Man at the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony in 2005. Discovered in the 1980s by Wong Jing, she starred opposite Stephen Chow, Andy Lau and Chow Yun-fat in a string of 1980s and 1990s box office hits. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Sharla Cheung, Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat in a still from “All for the Winner” (1990). Photo: Win’s Movie Production

Stephen Chow (left) and Sharla Cheung in a still from “Fight Back to School” (1991). Photo: Win’s Movie Production

Sharla Cheung in a still from “Fist of Fury 1991” (1991).

(From left) Ng Man-tat, Stephen Chow and Sharla Cheung in a still from “Fight Back to School”. Photo: Win’s Movie Production and I/E Co. Ltd

Hong Kong actress Sharla Cheung attends the opening ceremony of the Entertainment Expo in Hong Kong in 2005. Photo: Reuters

How American-born Chinese actor Daniel Wu juggled Hong Kong and Hollywood to become a star in both films and TV on two continents

US-born actor Daniel Wu, star of Westworld, Tomb Raider and Shinjuku Incident, fell into acting while on holiday in Hong Kong, getting cast in an ad. This led to role after role, and 25 years later, Wu has nearly 70 films under his belt. Photo: Harry C

Wu and Alicia Vikander in a still from “Tomb Raider” (2018). Photo: Warner Bros Entertainment

Wu next to Jackie Chan at a promotional event for “Shinjuku Incident” in Malaysia in 2009. Photo: Handout

Wu (left) and Stephen Fung play gay lovers in the film “Bishonen” (1998). Photo: Far-Sun Film

Wu with his award for best supporting actor for the film “New Police Story” at the 41st Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan in 2004. Photo: Reuters

Wu (centre) on the set of “One Nite In Mongkok” in 2004, with director Derek Yee (left) and actress Cecilia Cheung. Photo: Handout

Wu (right) in a still from “The Heavenly Kings”, the 2006 mockumentary film he directed, alongside “bandmates” Conroy Chan (left), Andrew Lin (second from left) and Terence Yin (second from right). Photo: Handout

Wu in a still from “Into the Badlands” season 1. Photo: James Dimmock/AMC

Wu and Michelle Yeoh in a still from “American Born Chinese”. Photo: Disney+

Wu and Lisa Selesner celebrate their marriage in 2010. Photo: Berton Cheng

How Sammi Cheng became a Cantopop superstar, celebrated actress and style icon, but has endured a rocky relationship with husband Andy Hui

Cantopop singer, actress and style icon Sammi Cheng in 2004 ahead of the release of the film “Yesterday Once More”. Her entertainment career spans five decades, and in 2023 she finally won best actress in the Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: SCMP

Cheng pictured in 1988. Photo: SCMP

Cheng at a performance in 1993. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Cantopop singers Cheng, Priscilla Chan Wai-han and Cass Phang Ling at a press conference in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Cheng (right) in a still from “Lost Love” (2023).

An undated photo of Cheng with Andy Hui. Photo: Weibo

Cheng and Daniel Wu in a still from “Everlasting Regret” (2005). She was nominated for best actress for her part in the following year’s Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cheng alongside Andy Lau in a still from “Blind Detective” (2013), for which she was again nominated for best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Cheng performs in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Cheng and Hui perform at a concert in 2010.

Cheng with her trophy for best actress for her role in “Lost Love” at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards presentation ceremony at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui on April 16, 2023. Photo: Dickson Lee

How Cantopop singer Ronald Cheng went from troublemaker to Charlene Choi’s secret husband to one of Hong Kong’s best-loved comic actors

Hong Kong singer and actor Ronald Cheng Chung-kei at an interview with the Post in 2006. The Cantopop star is now one of Hong Kong cinema’s most beloved comedy stars, but his rise to the top has been a bumpy one. Photo: SCMP

Cheng pictured in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Cheng after the incident in 2000 on Eva Air Flight BR005 that led to his arrest for assault. 

(From left) Actors Shawn Yu, Sandra Ng, Cheng and Jacky Cheung attend the premiere of “Golden Chicken 2” at the Windsor Theatre in Hong Kong in December 2003. Photo: SCMP

Cheng (front) in a still from “Dragon Reloaded” (2005).

Cheng and Charlene Choi announcing their divorce, and acknowledging their marriage, at a news conference in 2010. Photo: SCMP

Cheng (left) and Chapman To in a still from “Vulgaria” (2012).

Cheng and his wife, Sammie Yu, at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2018. Photo: AP

Cherie Chung a screen goddess, the Marilyn Monroe of Hong Kong, fans said – how she retired from acting at the height of her career and hasn’t looked back

Cherie Chung at an interview with the Post in 2006. Photo: SCMP

Cherie Chung at an interview with the Post in 1995. Once called the Marilyn Monroe of Hong Kong, Chung rose to fame during the 1980s and appeared in almost 50 films – before walking away from it all at the age of 31. Photo: SCMP

Chung modelling a qipao during the semi-finals of the Miss Hong Kong 1979 beauty pageant. Photo: SCMP

Richard Ng and Chung in a still from “Winners and Sinners” (1983). Photo: Eureka Entertainment.

Chung and Chow Yun-fat in a still from “An Autumn’s Tale” (1987).

(From left) Maggie Cheung, Chung and Shingo Tsurumi in a still from “Last Romance” (1988).

Chung and her husband, Mike Chu, in 1992. Photo: SCMP

Chung pursued a long-standing interest in photography. Photo: Handout

Chung at the launch of “Accredited Green Family Scheme” managed by the Friends of the Earth in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Chung at an interview with the Post in 2014. Photo: SCMP

‘The flowers were for me’: when Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-wan found fame, his belief in destiny and his 25 years with wife Amy Kwok

Lau celebrates winning best actor in the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2007. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan at an interview with the Post in 2009. Often cast to play the tough guy, Lau has shown his talent for romance and comedy too, and is a 14-time best actor winner in various film awards shows. Photo: SCMP

Lau at an interview with the Post in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Lau and Anita Yuen in a still from “C’est la vie, mon cheri” (1993).

Lau at the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards in 2023, where he won best actor for a third time. Photo: Sam Tsang/SCMP

Bowie Lam (left) and Lau in a still from “The Greed of Man” (1992).

Lau at the 18th Hong Kong Film Awards with his wife, Amy Kwok, in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Lau and his wife on the red carpet at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: SCMP

ProfileHow Tony Leung Ka-fai’s Hong Kong Film Awards record caps a wild journey for the actor

Tony Leung Ka-fai’s fifth HKFA best actor win cements his legendary cinema status amid years of resilience, reinvention and cultural impact

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tony Leung Ka-fai’s fifth HKFA best actor win cements his legendary cinema status amid years of resilience, reinvention and cultural impact

Tony Leung Ka-fai’s fifth HKFA best actor win cements his legendary cinema status amid years of resilience, reinvention and cultural impact