The face of Leslie Cheung
by Cheung Siu Hung (Human World)
"... most people only have one face,
on the contrary, as movie stars, they could have many many
different faces. The face of Leslie is the face of Ling Choi San
and also is The 12th Master, Cheng Dieyi, Ho Po Wing. The faces
of ordinary people would grow old and turn ugly, but the face of
a star is a labyrinthine network of time, just as circuitous of
spider's nets; as membranous of blood veins, making things
possible for the beauty of faces on cinematic films to speed up,
rewind, freeze, fade in and out, releasing our imagination at
random." What kind of faces make us giddy and dazzle into
our dreams? What is the most mysterious and unpredictable face?
Blossom out from daydreaming or haunting incubus, mystique and
clues, could they be all written on the faces? Contributing to a
face is the most opened and also the most seclusive part of our
body.
Leslie possesses the face that is unanimously
renowned as the most unique and beautiful ever in Chinese movie
history, the comparative relation with his five facial organs is
perfect; in between eyebrows, there is virtuousness and charm;
elegance from his high and straight nose; cute looking contour
lines of his pair of lips, in matching with two wretched in
occasion, frightening sometimes, childish, gracile and frantic
big eyes, with the girlish looks for a boy; adult's mind in
teenager's body as unconfinement of brain teasing, leaving us a
handsome boy or gorgeous man, a forever "man in floral
imagery of catching reflection in water".
However, his fall to his death is letting in
the most unique beautiful face to soak up the heart-broken sorrow
from all of his friends and fans, projecting the discouragement
and despair of general public towards wars [wars in Iraq] and
virus [SARS], and also touched the unspeakable sadness for the
sudden vanished youngster. The face of Leslie has carried the
weight of grief and added acceleration, turned into a dashing
straight downfall object of our times...***... become the most
distressing metaphor of flesh and bones in the 21st century of
Chinese movie history.
Face Reading in facies close-up of movies
Faces are always recognized as the best visual
evidences of confirming people's identity: I recognize this face,
I remember this face, I've seen this face; using partial to
represent the whole, a face could almost be used as cognizant of
credential for a person's class. But the faces of movie stars are
distinctive, most people only have one face, on the contrary, as
movie stars, they could have many many different faces. The face
of Leslie is the face of Ling Choi San and also is The 12th
Master, Cheng Dieyi, Ho Po Wing. The faces of ordinary people
would grow old and turn ugly, but the face of a star is a
labyrinthine network of time, just as circuitous of spider's
nets; as membranous of blood veins, making things possible for
the beauty of faces on cinematic films to speed up, rewind,
freeze, fade in and out, releasing our imagination at random.
Leslie is dead, but the facies of Leslie on screens had already
integrated into the form of non-destructible as gold and steel
long ago. In the memory of Leslie, his charming and lamenting
facies in close-ups on screens are all dominant, I think, could
Leslie be the actor who has the most facies close-ups in the
history of Chinese movies? Why he could have had so many
close-ups facies?
Solitary is a face of taciturnity
"But not all the faces of male actors are
suitable for close-up shots"
Leslie was bestowal of the finest skins and his facial contour
lines (of course that is also included his cosmetic efforts for
improvement), giving him more merits than other famous actors to
have close-up shots. With the famous directors of the Chinese
film-making circle, they had all given us the beautiful and sad
looking facies in close-ups of Leslie. Sometimes, his face looks
like a window, allowing us to peek through his loner's pride and
anxiety; his face can also be the utmost beautiful and
melancholic masquerade, we can never look through or peer inside
his [real emotions of] joyfulness, anger, pensiveness and
mournfulness; his face might be scenic displays of wild and
exotic eroticism; a naked notarial proclamation of covetousness,
petulance, lustfulness and the accumulation of sins; his face
could be staring at the convergence of the other strange world in
cogitating of intuitional, a suspicious realm of half God and
half beast.
Nevertheless, leaving us the most unforgettable
is the 'solitariness' that is always floating glutinously onto
his face. 'Solitariness' could be a inevitable form of
aestheticism. Facies in close-up of movies are helping the
girlish looks and unisexual Leslie to be more feminized and
materialistic and also adding the erratic, indulging and
disturbed adolescent Leslie to be appeared more solitary of
silence in abnormality on silver screens. The famous words from
Eisenstein*: movies are resurrecting the Ancient Face Reading,
facies in close-ups are "monologue with the linguistic of
taciturnity". Movie stars on silver screens could not act
like the actors on stage whom can make use of spoken language as
monologue to elaborate their inner feelings, rather they turn to
facial expression [as collaborative acting skills] for intrinsic
emotions, mood and thoughts. But this kind of facies in close-up
still requires lips closed tight, because if talking, the
movement of lips and the content of conversation would let this
kind of expressional mode to penetrate inference within the
internality, breaking up the stillness of aestheticism and
materialistic prospect. This form of 'ambiguous taciturnity'
monologue by facial expression is embodying facies close-up in
movies to have a pertinacious kind of solitary in spiritual
appearances.
In the other words, being the most shot in
close-up for facies, Leslie surely looks more taciturn with
solitary. But Leslie's 'solitariness' is not only just a kind of
formality in facial aestheticism, it is also his kind of sublime
movie star's charisma that is enveloping and circulating.
Leslie's films made him as the loner's myth of the city, a legend
of solitary love story. Sleeping with the female ghost, Leslie is
solitary; doesn't have enough gust to swallow opium together with
lover to die, Leslie is solitary; acting side by side with senior
actors, would never call it a life term if it is a little less of
a second or minute, Leslie is solitary; in foreign land with
lover of the same sexual orientation to flirt and make love under
extreme passion, Leslie is also solitary.
Besides all that, would it be his unisexual
upbringing of the mobiliary identity [of sex agenda] had already
isolated himself reclusively from men as men, women as women, an
obsoletizing in classificatory domain, can never find where he
belongs? Could it be his extreme narcissism, causing him to have
the special attitude of glaring our dusty world from a distant
and unconcerned? Would it be his entanglement of homosexual
passion in 'closet' for decades, even with the blessings and
adoration from people after he walked out from 'there', but the
unbearable during the time 'inside' had already conformed with
the heterosexual straight society, straight morality in a
hidden-seeming cynical confronting state? The solitariness of
Leslie is the kind of 'not being with you in the same country',
'not being together', but this haughty pride while helpless kind
of solitariness had transformed into enormous motivation from his
temptability on screen, leaving people couldn't help but throwing
their recognition and expressing their loving affection. His face
is well written that "leave me", "let me
alone", but fans and audience are flooded in and stayed
wondering around.
The Truth, Scar Face and The Face of Death
"and death always is the ultimate solitary
form with the final destiny for our existent mode"
[Written] history is anti-irony, when facing with
Cheung Oi Ling* who was the most concerned about her make-ups and
dress manner, we, otherwise, are unwilling to discuss her outfit
when she died, while coping with Leslie who was the most
narcissistic and cared very much about his looks, we, somehow,
are reluctant to imagine what his figure and his face might be
after the fall. No one was allowed to take photos of Leslie's
body, no fan dares to speculate how Leslie might look at the
scene. All memories and grief have been visualized into his
concerts and movies, circulated all over the media restlessly.
Finally they all set focus onto the selection of the obituary
altar photo by his love Mr. Tong and family.
The obituary altar photo is from the promotional pictures of
Leslie's movie 'He is a woman, She is a man'; in the photo,
Leslie is in deep concentration of affectionate, irresisting
glamourous in uniqueness ever and never again in the generation,
showing us [part of] his side face; on the right half of the face
is spotless and shining with cleaniness, but left half of the
face is blending to merge into shadows; the centre line is the
border between left and right in breaking down with contrast of
bright light and dark shadows, sculpting for his utmost beautiful
nose and contour lines of lips. Leslie really looks beautiful in
the photo, but he is really lonely. Almost all of the obituary
altar photos is face on, side faced photo gives people the
impression of a haughty loner, and he is looking away from
straight ahead visual focus, building in additional a kind of
internal concealed narcissistic dimensions, not allowing people
to enter.
This photo is an aesthetic form of death, not only
because it has been used as obituary altar photo, it is also a
exhibitionistic form for the face in close-up of Leslie Cheung in
perfection. Lona Barrett* once made comments about movie star
Garbo*, she said the face of Garbo is from taking different diets
beyond our human world, because she is too scarless and too
perfect, cannot see any sign of bodily deterioration or
rottenness; the face of divinity after transcendence, not a
humanly face. But this excelling death to non-decayness itself is
also adding aesthetics to become a kind of final destiny in the
form of death. And this photo of Leslie, however, is overlapped
with multiple senses of death. Firstly, Leslie's whole body is
synthetize as the refined form into the aesthetic facies in
close-up, and the shadows in the photo are portending that the
death is coming. And then the motional time and dimensions in the
movie is freeze by photography into a "I've been here"
kind of stillness mode. Eventually it was hanged up in the
obituary hall for people to mourn and send their prayers.
Before Leslie died, I had hard times in
understanding the advisory words said by the psychologist Fromm*:
"The Truth is the grimace of reality"; after Leslie
passed away, I think I seemed bluringly to be able to perceive
partially the enigmatic wonder. All of us are questioning, Leslie
had already made appointment with friends for ball game, how
could he suddenly jump down from 24th floor? Just like people are
still puzzling today about the Japanese Nobel Prize winner of
literature Kawabata Yasumari*, why would he booked tables for 40
people of fine dining in the temple, getting set for celebration
with friends just before he committed suicide? All of us would
think the whole-heartedly working for perfection Leslie could
never stand the getting old and turning to ugly of the biological
control, but no matter what kind of dramatic character, there is
no way we can apprehend a person who is so narcissistic and love
of beauty such as Leslie, would ever choose to jump to death, the
most bodily destroying, tragic and horrific way to bear for
ending his life? Is it really when the 'Truth' the darkest moment
is here, all the rational judgements and decisions would like
power failure that nothing works; standing at the edge of
dangerous shaking deep fall, there is no way to return? Is it the
choosing to commit suicide itself, actually is a ultimate form of
no alternative?
Source: News.Chinatimes.com - April 18
2003
Notes:
[ _ ] words are added from my interpretation only, ignore them if
you found them not helpful, please refer to the Chinese original.
*** 3 phrases are not translated, because of the graphic
description that might cause unrest to fans, please excuse my
personal call!
*Sergei Eisenstein, a former Russian engineering student who
turned first to theatre and then to films, famous of his
'montage' theory in film-making in the early years of movies.
*Cheung Oi Ling (fans who are more knowledgeable, please help!)
*Greta Garbo, born in Sweden, famous Hollywood movie star from
20's to 40's.
*Lona Barrett, born in 1939, American gossip columnist
*Erich Fromm (1900-1980) internationally renowned German-American
psychologist and humanistic philosopher
*Kawabata Yasumari (1899-1972) Nobel Prize winner of literature
kindly translated by Dreaming Cat - many thanks!