Hong Kong icon Tony Leung’s forgotten TV career: before Marvel’s Shang-Chi and Wong Kar-wai films, he trained with Stephen Chow at TVB and starred in Police Cadet

Sep 17 , 2021

Tony Leung Chiu-wai attends the 23rd HK Film Awards Presentation held at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. 04 April 2004

Marvel superhero flick Shang-Chi has been the talk of the town since it was released earlier this month. Particularly buzzworthy is legendary actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai being the first Hong Kong actor to star in a Marvel film. He plays Wenwu – titular character Shang-Chi’s father who has a criminal past – and his performance has garnered plenty of attention.

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Hongkongers might recall that the celebrated actor started his career with local TV channel TVB. Let’s take a closer look …

Tony Leung and Stephen Chow. Photo: Handout

Leung, who is now among the highest-paid actors in the city, began his career by enrolling in a TVB training course together with Stephen Chow in 1982. The friendship between the two budding actors, who were both born in the same year, started even before they entered the entertainment industry.

After passing his training courses, Leung was assigned to be one of the hosts of classic children’s programme 430 Space Shuttle. The show focused on astronomy, incorporating songs and games about the subject. Most Gen Xers who grew up in the city are likely to remember it.

Leung only hosted the programme for a short time, between 1982-83, but it became a stepping stone into the TV industry.

Thanks to his good looks and sentimental character, Leung was soon promoted to lead roles in some of Hong Kong’s best TV dramas. His 1984 performance in The Duke of Mount Deer, a comedy and historical fiction drama, is among his most notable performances at TVB.

Adapted from The Deer and the Cauldron, a famous novel by late Chinese literary giant Louis Cha Leung-yung, aka Jin Yong, the drama starred two members of the “Five Tiger Generals of TVB” (the five most popular young leading male actors in the 1980s on the channel): Andy Lau as the Kangxi Emperor and Leung as Trinket, or Wai Siu-bo.

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In 1986, Leung starred in New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, another series adapted from a Cha novel, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. This was not the first TV version of the well-known novel, but it received a lot of positive feedback.

Leung also starred in Police Cadet – a highly successful and well-received drama. The story revolved around police cadets’ training and their ups and downs in romance and friendship.

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After eight years with TVB, Leung decided to leave and focus on his film career. The actor starred in a number of great films – including seven films by famous director Wong Kar-wai.

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Asian cinema

Leung’s Hollywood debut with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings marks MCU’s first superhero film with an Asian-led cast
The legendary actor began his acting career with friend Stephen Chow as a TVB acting trainee in 1982, starring in adaptations of Jin Yong’s wuxia novels