R.I.P.

Sigh, I just found out that Leslie Cheung (or Zhang Guorong for us mainlanders), one of the few Hong Kong actors that I actually respect, committed suicide yesterday.

The first movie of his that I saw was "A Better Tomorrow II. Man, he kicked ass with Chow Yun-Fat in that super intense John Woo-directed action movie. He also starred in "Farewell My Concubine," one of my favorite movies of all time, although it was also one of the saddest movies I have ever watched. It was set during the Cultural Revolution, a particularly turbulent and brutal era in my parent's lives. Watching that movie really helped me to begin to appreciate the kind of hardship and repression that my parents have experienced.

In the years that followed, I have come across various other movies by him here and there, but none was as powerful as the two movies mentioned previously. It is discouraging but unsurprising since the Hong Kong entertainment industry -- movie, TV, music -- as a whole has declined tremendously. Most of the Hong Kong movies I have seen recently are downright awful because their "plots" do not make any sense at all and the directors seem to be on crack, with the nonstop panning and quick cuts. There is no such thing as character development in these movies because the actors are usually crossed over pop stars who can't act to save their lives. Subtlety has been tossed out of the window along with logic and good taste.

I will miss him.