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LESLIE'S BEST & WORST
Some films starring Leslie Cheung

A film career as lengthy and varied as Leslie Cheung's-framed by the wacky milieu of Hong Kong show business-naturally encompasses peaks and valleys. Here's a quick guide to what to catch, and what to let drop to the floor.

Don't Miss

A Better Tomorrow (1986)
If you ain't seen it by now, just what exactly DO you chat about at cocktail parties?

A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
"Hey, Gary, how are the midnighters coming along? I've got one, absolutely fantastic, and it's just incredible. I mean, we've got 40-foot tongue monsters, we've got exploding bodies, ghouls, demons, special effects, trips into hell, sword fights, disco numbers, this is one of the best films I've seen in ages! It's called A Chinese Ghost Story. Yes, it's Chinese, and I saw it in Chinatown here, but lo and behold, the week after I saw it, it was playing the New Directors Festival in New York. This is hot stuff! I mean, it's hilarious, it's got songs and dances, and it also has a lot of elements shared with The Evil Dead and stuff like that. It's just great! Looks great, sounds great, and it's hilarious, and wild, and it's a standing ovation, guaranteed! I don't know where to get it, a print's circulating someplace, so let's try and get it, please, please, please, please, please."

(Transcript of a call from Jon Pray, in San Francisco, to Gary Tucker's answering machine. 14th Seattle International Film Festival, 1988).

The Bride With White Hair (1993)
Ronny Yu directed this hardened epic of ripping whips and ringing steel. Leslie Cheung plays foil to Brigitte Lin as a whip-wielding fury who was raised by wolves. The plot was adapted from a wiggly-'n'-weird 70s-era chopsocky called Wolf Devil Woman. He sports a heavy-metal hairdo and sucks poisoned needles out of Brigitte Lin's flesh. The villain is a monstrous, kink-crazed Siamese-twin, played with malicious zeal by Francis Ng and Elaine Yu. Psychosexual drama loaded with fury, power-grabs and desperate action; a dark spectacle of misshapen lust.

Once A Thief (1991)
John Woo's ode to high crimes/no misdemeanors. Described best by David J. Schow: "a Pink Panther film as directed by Sam Peckinpah." Leslie plays Henry Mancini to Chow Yun Fat's Burt Bacharach as they try to steal expensive Parisian art and romance Cherie Chung in the process. Great fun and nice car crashes as well.

It's A Wonderful Life (1994)
The New Year big-cast feel-good picture. Why bother? Cuz the chemistry between Leslie and comedienne Teresa Mo is delightful; these two obviously had a lot of fun making the picture. You also get Kwan Tak Hing (the original Wong Fei-hung) in his last film appearance, eighty-something and still showing those uppity whippersnappers a thing or two in the No-Shadow Kick department.

Pass

Encore (1983)
Cheung as a pretty-boy rocker wowing the local high school girls with Stratocaster-postures. Leslie's total screen time is about five minutes, leaving you with eighty-plus minutes to find something to do besides watch the remainder of this moronic juvie melodrama.

For Your Heart Only (1985)
Dopey romance-comedy with Loletta Lee. It depicts a youthful playboy who discovers that his love-'em-and-leave-'em philosophy wounds his one true paramour, causing the whelp to discover some painful lessons in love. Even diehard Leslie goh-mai will need triple espressos to stay awake during this one.

The Phantom Lover (1995)
Adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, with the romantic lead supplied by one of the Hong Kong screen's classic beauties: Wu Chien Lien (Eat Drink Man Woman, Beyond Hypothermia). The costumes are stunning, and Leslie-philes will delight in the all-Cheung soundtrack. But the film aims for the heights of passion, and settles for a static, passion-free rendering of Gaston Leroux's classic tale.

Ashes Of Time (1994)
Mister Wong's only period piece is ambitious, lush with visual promise, torturous, and thoroughly frustrating. According to critic Andy Klein: "Wong Kar-wai's incomprehensible Ashes of Time may have been (in essence) a Resnais film, but it was still a Resnais film with fight scenes." Try Bride With White Hair instead.

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