Who was Tina Leung – Ti Na – the Hong Kong movie star who regretted a nude scene and worked as a spy for communist China?

Mar 31 , 2020

Dubbed Hong Kong's ‘Marilyn Monroe’, Tina Leung had a colourful life both on and off the screen, Photo: SCMP

March 31 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Hong Kong movie star Tina Leung Kwok-hing, aka Ti Na, yet her legendary life – both on and off the screen – still inspires and captivates

Often referred to as an enigma in Hong Kong’s entertainment world, Tina Leung Kwok-hing – widely known as Ti Na – led a colourful life both on and off screen. She passed away at the age of 65 in the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital on March 31, 2010, due to multiple organ failure.

Leung, who passed away 10 years ago, led a colourful life. Photo: SCMP

Throughout Leung’s cinematic career, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, she made 54 films. Although she later left showbiz and engaged in different businesses both in Hong Kong and mainland China, her performances are remembered.

From the nude scene in the movie The Warlord in 1972 to the espionage she engaged in, we take a look back at the adventurous life of the legendary screen siren.

Although Leung starred in many movies in the 1960s, it was her role in the late director Li Han-hsiang's The Warlord in 1972 that etched her sultry image indelibly into Hong Kong's collective memory.

Playing one of the warlord's wives, she was filmed lying on the bed with her lover. However, she regretted that legendary scene throughout her life.

Her performances on screen earned Ti Na the moniker 'flesh bomb’. Photo: SCMP

She revealed the story behind the nude scene in her fourth book, an autobiography named Movies – My Absurdity, published in 2010, saying that she was actually tricked by the director. The director said the scene would be veiled by gauze.

Movie still from the 1972 film, The Warlord, in which Ti Na performs in a nude scene. Photo: Celestial Pictures

“He said the camera would be ‘placed far away from you and would only reveal your waist',” Leung wrote. “But it turned out another camera was placed in an unlighted position out of my view that got a panoramic view [of the bedroom],” she wrote.

In an interview with the Chinese-language East Week magazine in 2009, Leung said of this scene, “I have done some stupid things in the past. To this day, people still use the pictures of the sexy scene … It is more important that you should study more to increase your knowledge, and to make yourself smarter.” she said.