Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

The Two Tony Leungs

OK, OK...not all Chinese people look alike. Yet sometimes it's easy to get confused. For example, when standing in a train station during holiday season you do notice that you're surrounded by an army of short people with black hair all vying for the same ticket window. This isn't unfair, is it? After all, the Chinese often see us whiteys as big-nosed, splotchy-skinned giants. I've often been confused with other laowai who looked only a little like me; once in Fuzhou a girl I hadn't met before screamed at me on the street for not calling her back until she finally realized I wasn't who she thought I was. I was more amused than offended, and from then on reckoned that in the great stereotype race, laowai and Chinese are about even.

The Chinese do, however, have a relative paucity of last names. Scanning through my phone now, I'm reminded that about 3/4ths of my Chinese friends seem to be called 陈 (Chen)，李 (Li)， or 张 (Zhang). Chinese movie stars, at least, often adopt an English name, which alleviates confusion somewhat. But not completely, which brings me to the topic of this post. I am guilty of confusing the two Tony Leungs.

At first glance, I can be forgiven. They're both about the same age. They've appeared in both Chinese and foreign films, a few of which received wide international release. They're both from Hong Kong, and they both have slightly darker skin than the average Chinese. But none of this matters- they're completely different people.

The first Tony Leung, called Tony Leung Chiu Wai, appeared most recently in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, an internationally acclaimed film controversial due to its explicit sex content. The second Tony Leung, called Tony Leung Ka Fai, appeared most recently in Lost in Beijing (苹果), an internationally acclaimed film controversial due to its explicit sexual content. Tony Leung Chiu Wai (hereafter referred to as TLCW) plays a powerful older man who has an extramarital affair with a beautiful young woman. Tony Leung Ka Fai (now re-christened as TLKF) plays a rich older man who has an extramarital affair with a beautiful young woman.

When I saw Lost in Beijing in the cinema, my friend said, "oh, it was Tony Leung". I was initially dubious but didn't think much of it. I mostly was impressed with the (combo) Tony Leung's range: he can go from a coolly elegant Cantonese to a gruff Beijingren without missing a beat. Why, it's as if he wasn't the same person! But how many Tony Leung's can there be?

Then last night, while popping in the early 90s French art-house film L'Amant, I noticed that Tony Leung was featured alongside the nubile British actress Jane March. More Tony! This time, the dashing young Tony speaks fluent French and is a rich Chinese heir living a playboy's life in 1920s Saigon. True to form, he plays an older man who has a forbidden (though not extramarital) affair with a beautiful young woman. Is he the luckiest man in film*, or what?

In came IMDB to the rescue. As you have probably figured out by now, TLCW was the man in Lust, Caution, while TLFK was the star of both Lost in Beijing and L'Amant. Embarrassingly, they don't even really look that much alike. Here they are, respectively:

Something tells me I'm not the only one to have made this mistake.

*The luckiest man in film, incidentally, is Steve Zahn: a good character actor who nonetheless looks like the guy who sold you weed in college. Zahn has the distinction of simultaneously nuzzling the breasts of Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz in the western film Bandidas. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, and to boost my page view:

UPDATE: Chris in the comments points out a rather sizable error in my post: in Lost in Beijing, Tony Leung Ka Fai actually plays a Hong Konger living in Beijing, not a local. I should have known better, especially as I was just in Beijing a week ago! My bad.