(Busan) Legendary Hong Kong film actor Tony Leung has never had so much fun in his job, he said Thursday after winning a prize the day before at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. saluting his forty-year career.
Posted at 7:20 a.m.
“I think the first 20 years (of my career, editor’s note) were spent learning, and the next 20 years showing what (I) learned,” the famous actor told reporters.In the Mood for Love (2000), during a press conference.
The 60-year-old actor added with a smile that he is now “at a point where I can be an actor without being stressed. It’s a lot of fun, because now I can play more varied roles, and characters that I can play as I get older.”
Mr. Leung, known internationally for his roles in the films of Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai, author ofIn the Mood for Love and The Grand Master (2013), received the “Asian Filmmaker of the Year” award at the 27e edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).
Asia’s biggest film festival is taking place in this South Korean city until October 14.
This prize rewards his entire career as an actor.
The Hong Konger, who started on television in 1981, likes complex roles that make him think, he told reporters, adding that it was with age that he had the opportunity to do them. to play.
Among his best-known roles: a ruthless Chinese politician collaborating with the Japanese occupier in Lust, Caution (2007) by Ang Lee, or even an underground policeman in the series Infernal Affairs by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak.
“Personally, I would like to try to play a serial killer”, he launched, without excluding a return to the small screen which is experiencing renewed interest thanks to streaming.
Tony Leung is a popular actor in South Korea — where Hong Kong cinema was very popular in the early 1990s — and first appeared at BIFF in 1997.
In recent years, South Korea has asserted itself as a cultural power, particularly after the global success of the series Squid Game and of ParasiteOscar for best film in 2020.