Before BTS and K-drama, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung were Asia’s hottest stars – who were the leading men of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age?

Oct 6 , 2020

From left, Hong Kong screen idols Tony Leung Ka-fai, Leslie Cheung and Aaron Kwok. Photos: SCMP, In-Gear Films, SCMP

The modern Korean Wave of shiny K-pop stars in boy bands like BTS and dreamy TV drama idols like Gong Yoo and Kim Soo-hyun may be all the rage these days, but once upon a time it was stars from Hong Kong who dominated popular culture in Asia.

From the early 1980s, concurrent with the rise of Canto-pop and Hong Kong cinema’s golden age, the city’s stars were world famous and icons throughout Asia. Hong Kong’s silver screen beauties were famous not just for their stunning looks but for their undeniable talent, too, and the same is true of their male counterparts who were adored for their good looks and respected for their acting ability.

How Hong Kong’s film industry got so big – and why it fell into decline

Here are seven of the most notable icons from this era.

Chow Yun-fat

One of the most famous Hong Kong actors of this era grew up on a small farm on Lamma Island in a house with no electricity. From these humble origins Chow Yun-fat rose to the top of the movie business. He was admired across the world for his portrayal of action heroes in legendary films like A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled, but he was just as adept at portraying regular folk in popular films like An Autumn’s Tale and All About Ah-Long.

What makes Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat ‘the coolest actor in the world’?

Leslie Cheung

Another iconic figure of this era is actor/singer Leslie Cheung. LGBTQ+ icon Cheung made his name as one of the brightest stars of Hong Kong’s Canto-pop industry, but his talent and fame extended to cinema too. An actor of tremendous range, Cheung could just as easily play a delicate wallflower like Douzi in Farewell, My Concubine or a caddish rouge like Yuddy in Wong Kar-wai’s Days of Being Wild.

5 inspirational Hong Kong LGBTQ+ icons

Aaron Kwok

Another (and by no means the last on this list) pop star-turned-acclaimed actor is Aaron Kwok. One of the “Four Heavenly Kings” of Canto-pop, Kwok’s acting career took off later than others mentioned in this article. Although he was nominated for best supporting actor at the 1991 Hong Kong Film Awards, it wasn’t until 2005 and 2006, when he won back-to-back Golden Horse awards for best actor (for Divergence and After This Our Exile), that film fans started to accept that Kwok was as good at acting as he was singing and dancing.

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Tony Leung Ka-fai

There are many great actors from Hong Kong but only Tony Leung Ka-fai can say that he has won best actor awards in four consecutive decades. He won his first award in 1983 for only his second film, Reign Behind a Curtain. Since then he has picked up further best actor awards for 92 Legendary La Rose Noire (1992), Election (2006) and Cold War (2012). Undeniably charismatic, with a devilish glint in his eye, Leung is one of the legends of Hong Kong cinema and despite his long career, he continues to work hard to this very day.

The other Tony Leung: 5 roles that defined Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Simon Yam

He may not have as many acting awards as Tony Leung Ka-fai, but Simon Yam has been one of the most popular and recognisable Hong Kong movie stars of the last 30 years. Always suave and with an easy going charm, Yam is another versatile actor just as comfortable in action films (Bullet in the Head and Naked Killer) as he is drama (Echoes of the Rainbow) or even bawdy comedies (Gigolo and Whore).

5 of Simon Yam’s best movies – from Election to Naked Killer

Andy Lau

Like Kwok, Andy Lau is another of the “Four Heavenly Kings” who also successfully added a career in acting to that of a singer. Despite his later fame, Lau grew up among the tenements of Diamond Hill, which was a poor neighbourhood back in the 1960s. The future star had to collect water for his family eight times a day since their house lacked plumbing. Despite notable roles in Wong Kar-wai’s early films As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, Lau’s music career took precedence for much of his early career. It was only at the end of the 1990s, when he began working closely with director Johnnie To, that Lau’s acting talent blossomed and he starred in memorable hits like Needing You and Infernal Affairs.

10 of Andy Lau’s best films

Louis Koo

Arguably Hong Kong’s last great home-grown star, Louis Koo is more than just a pretty face. Before he made it in the movie industry, he worked as a model in advertisements and karaoke videos. However, after joining TVB in 1993, Koo started to get regular roles in TV programmes and local films. His big break came in 1999 in the police drama Bullets Over Summer, which won several awards at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.

5 of Louis Koo’s best movies – from Throw Down to Paradox

From there, Koo’s career went from strength to strength and he has been one of the most recognisable Hong Kong stars of the last 20 years – and just about the only one who wasn’t a Canto-pop idol or an already established movie star from Hong Kong cinema’s mid-1980s to mid-1990s golden age. Not bad for a man who was arrested for robbery as a teen and was sentenced to 22 months in the Correctional Services’ Lai King Training Centre.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Wong Kar-wai and John Woo are among the directors who helped make these award-winning actors and Canto-pop stars famous in classic 80s and 90s films such as Hard Boiled, Days of Being Wild, Bullet in the Head, Infernal Affairs and Farewell, My Concubine

Before BTS and K-drama, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat and ﻿Tony Leung were Asia’s hottest stars – who were the leading men of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age?

How Hong Kong’s film industry got so big – and why it fell into decline

5 of Louis Koo’s best movies – from Throw Down to Paradox

Before BTS and K-drama, Andy Lau, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung were Asia’s hottest stars – who were the leading men of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age?