Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang was the toast of northern Italy this month, when he received the Golden Mulberry award for outstanding achievement at the 21st Far East Film Festival in the city of Udine. Wong’s latest film, the low-budget drama Still Human , had its European premiere at the event, where it also won the festival’s top prize, voted for by festival attendees, as well as the Black Dragon Critics Award. “It’s a miracle time in my life,” Wong told the Post at the event, which came weeks after he was awarded the best actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards. “In a very short time I have got a lot of awards.” Still Human , produced by Fruit Chan Gor and directed by first-time filmmaker Oliver Chan Siu-kuen, depicts the unlikely relationship that develops between a wheelchair-using curmudgeon (Wong) and his new Filipino helper (first-time actress Crisel Consunji). Wong was overcome with emotion as he took to the stage in Udine, accompanied by Oliver Chan and Consunji, dropping to his knees to salute the packed Teatro Nuovo Giovanni. “It was a good story, a good script, talking about the disabled and helpers,” Wong says of the project, which is the latest in a string of socially conscious dramas by Hong Kong filmmakers in recent years. “It’s maybe the first time we have a Filipino actress in a movie, which should have happened a long time ago, because they are Hong Kong people too.” Wong’s character, Leung Cheong-wing, is a working-class divorcee living in public housing, who struggles to communicate with Evelyn (Consunji), a migrant worker with aspirations of becoming a photographer. Cheong-wing is forced to learn English, and much of the film’s humour stems from Wong’s linguistic struggles. “I used the broken English to create the character,” explains the actor, whose own command of English is far more proficient. “I based him on my best friend. We grew up together, and I started to learn English, but he refused. When my character says ‘No problem, la’ – that’s him.” Still Human has proved a surprise box office success in Hong Kong, having taken over US$2.1 million (HK$17 million) in its first month of release, and its sympathetic message of tolerance is clearly resonating with audiences around the world. “When I accepted the job, I didn’t expect anything from it,” Wong says, adding, “especially in my situation right now.” The outspoken actor has frequently courted controversy during his 35-year career. Early on it was for playing violent, over-the-top characters in cults hits such as The Untold Story (1993) and Ebola Syndrome (1996). More recently, his vocal support of the 2014 “umbrella movement” pro-democracy sit-ins in Hong Kong and criticism of China’s Communist Party has seen him blacklisted, with job offers drying up, especially offers from China. “I was disappointed, but not surprised,” Wong says of the failure of most of his contemporaries in film to voice their support for the pro-democracy movement. “Look at performers in the West. They have their point of view, they have a responsibility to society, the world. Maybe I’m that kind of person, but maybe Hong Kong people aren’t used to expressing themselves like that.” Wong has chalked up more than 200 screen credits since his 1985 debut in Angie Chen’s My Name Ain’t Suzie , which also enjoyed a rare screening at the Far East Film Festival. Since 2014, however, Wong has been relegated to little more than cameos and walk-on parts in Hong Kong productions, save for his collaborations with like-minded provocateur Herman Yau Lai-to. Their 2016 film The Mobfathers was a thinly veiled criticism of Hong Kong’s electoral system, set within a Hong Kong triad society and starring the equally outspoken Chapman To Man-chat. He has also appeared in Hollywood productions such as Rob Cohen’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), and John Curran’s The Painted Veil (2006). Recently, he starred in the Hong Kong-set British television series Strangers (also known as White Dragon ), as an ex-police officer at odds with John Simm’s fish-out-of-water protagonist. “The director [Paul Andrew Williams] flew to Hong Kong to see me, and we had a chat. After that I thought ‘Yup, OK.’ Somebody is giving me money to practice English for four months,” says Wong. In the end, he helped steer the series away from potentially dangerous subject matter. “At the beginning, the original idea was to cover the ‘umbrella revolution’, but they changed [the story] a lot. A lot of what they took out was forbidden,” the actor adds. Last year, Wong made headlines for a different reason: a BBC report helped him reunite with the family who never knew he existed. Born to a British government official, who had left Hong Kong in the 1960s, Wong knew very little about his father except for his name, Frederick William Perry. Within weeks of the story being published, Wong was visited by his two older half-brothers, John and David, who are based, with their extended family, in Melbourne, Australia. “It’s a very weird feeling,” Wong says of the revelations. “For a long time I grew up thinking I was the only son. But instead, I have a huge family where I am not the big brother any more, I’m the small brother.” Since their reconciliation, the Perry family have not only learned about their half-brother’s standing as one of Hong Kong’s foremost actors, but also of his penchant for provocative behaviour. “My brothers have started asking me to shut up”, he says with a chuckle, tickled by John and David’s concern for his well-being. “‘Just don’t say anything about the Communists, Tony! Just shut up, or maybe you better come to Australia and stay with us.’” Wong seems to have taken to his new role of mischievous younger sibling with relative ease, but is fully aware of the risks of provoking the world’s newest superpower. “I don’t regret [speaking out], but of course I’m scared,” he says. If he continues to find substantial roles, like that in Still Human , hard to come by, it sounds like Wong already has a backup plan. “I’m going to change my name to Perry,” he declares. “I plan to get my passport.” If he does it won’t be anything new. Wong posts on social media under his English name, Anthony Perry, about his dissatisfaction with Hong Kong’s evolving relationship with China. “Seriously,” Wong adds with a smirk, as our conversation comes to an end, “it’ll be easier for me to escape.” If it ever comes to that, at least the people of Udine would welcome him with open arms. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook