Book originally published in Japanese by Sangyo Henshu Center
Original translation for overseas fans from Japanese to English by Keiko and Sim
Thanks to all of the above!

Fan frenzy at Tokyo station and pictures of an intoxicated Leslie

Fan frenzy at Tokyo station and pictures of an intoxicated Leslie

As soon as we jumped onto the train, the Shinkansen left the station. Leslie was seated by the window with Mr. Tong beside him while a staff and I took the seats behind them. Mr. K and some of the other security personnel sat at the front and on the opposite side of Leslie. With Leslie safely on the train, the guards from Osaka completed their mission and left.

The first class carriage we were on was not crowded but I saw some fans also got on the train at the Osaka station. There were about 10 of them that came on our carriage; they had bought first class carriage tickets from the conductor. They have probably already planned to get on the same train to go to Tokyo with Leslie. I was very impressed with their swift action and their power of mobility! Anyway, it is wonderful to be able to shower love on someone that one really adores with a love and passion that is unconditional. Their only expectation was the anticipation of watching Leslie through his movies and concerts which provide them with dreams and happiness. I was envious of their pure passion on seeing the sparkle in their eyes.

On the other hand, as for Leslie, as soon as he sat down, he turned around and asked me “Do you have any chocolates or cookies?” I happened to bring some snacks in a paper bag, so I handed it to Leslie. Holding the paper bag in his hand, Leslie immediately began to eat the snacks. He was like a small animal keeping his food all to himself. Mr. Tong sitting beside Leslie took some snacks from the bag and ate them once in a while.

After a while Leslie turned around again and asked me “You spent a lot of money on all these guards, didn`t you?” So I answered in an exaggerated way with every intention for Mr. K to hear every word, “Oh, yes! We spent so much money on your guards that our business is now in the red!” Leslie also said to Mr. K, “Oh, no! You should not be asking for so much money. You don’t have to do much to protect me. I am not such an important person. Please give a discount. Maybe this would be enough.” Leslie then held out the snack bag. We all burst into laughter. Leslie was in a good mood; maybe this was because he was free from the car with the curtain and was now in his favorite Shinkansen. He said repeatedly, “Let`s go to ‘Zettai Hodai’ when we arrive in Tokyo!” At first I wondered what it was, later I guessed it must be `‘Tabe Hodai’ (an ‘all-you-can-eat’ place). After chatting like that for a while, Leslie fell asleep.

Mr. K had been keeping an eye on the fans sitting behind us from the time the train left Osaka Station. So far the female fans had been sitting quietly in their seats but when the train had passed Nagoya Station and Leslie had fallen asleep, they started to make their way to the washroom one by one; glancing at a sleeping Leslie as they passed by our seats. Gradually other fans came to our carriage. I think they got the information from the ladies in our first carriage. They walked past and stole glances at Leslie before going to the next carriage, then came back again and then back to their carriage. Some of them were bold enough to intentionally drop something onto the floor; then pick it up slowly thus using this opportunity to take a closer look at Leslie. I admired them when I saw that they stopped at nothing to steal looks at Leslie.
Then Mr. K seemed to think it was about time for him to do something to stop them. When the next lady came along to look at Leslie, he got up suddenly and stood beside Mr. Tong while she was passing through hence obstructing her view of Leslie with his body. After that the number of fans coming to our carriage lessened.

As far as the fans were concerned, it was very natural that they wanted to glance at Leslie when they were traveling on the same train with him. Perhaps they thought, “Why not? There’s nothing to lose!” However for Leslie, who had just finished his work and wanted to take a nap without any disturbances, it must be hard with a never-ending throng of people walking past trying to steal glances at him. Without a doubt Leslie’s profession as an artiste called for him to be seen by the public, but he was also a mere mortal. It is impossible for him to live under such tense conditions 24 hours a day. Therefore I really wanted him to be free from all cares in his own private time.

Though there were some incidents on the train, the atmosphere was tranquil compared to what was about to happen in Tokyo station later but this was just the lull before a storm.
I thought our troubles were over because we did quite well in protecting Leslie at Osaka station but it was a big mistake. The information about our train was sent to the fans in Tokyo immediately and a lot of fans were eagerly awaiting Leslie’s arrival at Tokyo station. Our train pulled into the platform lined with fans. The situation was far beyond our imagination. I feel dizzy even now when I recall what happened at Tokyo station.

When the train slowed down and we saw the strange atmosphere, we all held our breath. The platform was full of women. They must have known the exact carriage that Leslie was in. The place where our carriage was expected to come to a halt was thronged with women. In front of them, 5 or 6 guards were trying to form a passage, but their power was not enough against so many women. When Mr. K saw the situation, his face became tense and he told the guards in the car to prepare for battle. My heart was beating rapidly as if a real war was about to start. It would be very troublesome. From the bottom of my heart I felt it was a very good decision to hire professional guards to protect Leslie after all.

As soon as the door was opened, Mr. K and the other guards protected Leslie by forming a tight circle around him before stepping onto the platform. Many fans rushed towards us with their shrill screams coming from all directions. The guards on the platform were struggling very hard but in vain. Mr. K and some guards surrounded Leslie tightly; then they made a quick dash for it like a gust of wind. They were so fast! Running right behind Leslie was Mr. Tong and we followed after him. They ran so fast, just like athletes! I could understand the tough guards running fast as they were all well-trained but to my surprise, Leslie ran just as fast as them and so did Mr. Tong as well. Above all I was so impressed with the physical strength of the women who kept running for their dear lives in their pursuit after Leslie. As he ran, Mr. K turned to us and shouted “Keep it up! Follow us!” However we could only hear his voice in the distance because we were too slow for them and were left behind.

Mr. Tong was running in our midst with Leslie in front of him and us behind him. Every now and then he turned around to check on us anxiously. He was caught amid the mass of fans. This big black crowd rushing through the platform must have been a fearful sight for the other people on the platform. They stepped aside with startled looks on their faces. We all had no idea what was going on or where we were heading except that we had to keep on running as fast as we could. I think only Mr. K knew what was happening and where to go.

Halfway through my run, I had difficulty in breathing and lost all my fighting spirit, so I started to walk. At that moment I recalled the marathon race during my childhood days and how I always got left behind; only to end up walking alone. There were some fans like me that were also out of breath and were left behind. They were tottering behind but still following Leslie. Perhaps they thought I was also one of them. For me the most interesting moment was when they went through the ticket barrier. A big crowd, almost all women, was suddenly rushing to exit out of the gate. The ticket barriers remained closed and some fans just threw their tickets at the station attendants standing nearby who looked on helplessly with their dumbfounded expressions.

I almost caught up with the last group of the crowd when I saw a large number of people gathered around in a circle in an open space. When I went near to them I found security guards were controlling the crowd; they were obstructing the large crowd of fans forcing them into forming a circle and in the center of the circle were 2 cars. Leslie and Mr. Tong were in one of the cars. They seemed to be waiting for us and as soon as we got in the car, both cars drove off immediately. I did not know if Leslie showed himself to the fans or waved at them but if he did; they must be very pleased that their efforts had been rewarded.

It was already dark when we arrived at the Park Hyatt Hotel. We did not choose this hotel for the first autograph event to avoid the confusion but this time we decided on this hotel according to Leslie’s wish because of the sound security measures. Leslie seemed relaxed in this hotel. As soon as he entered the room, his tenseness dissipated; his facial features became soft and calm. When he found a fruit basket on the table, he untied the ribbon and picked up some grapes saying “Looks tasty!” Then he offered some to me.

We went to an ‘all you can eat’ Syabu-Syabu restaurant that Leslie had insisted on going to when he was traveling on the Shinkansen. The restaurant in Azabu was a specialized Shabu Shabu restaurant which looked like a big pub from the outside. The price was quite reasonable for such kinds of restaurants. Anyway Leslie was not one with a huge appetite even if it was an ‘all you can eat’ place. For Leslie the price or the quantity did not matter; rather he seemed to find this style of dining interesting; that is you pay the same price regardless of the amount you eat. I think there is no such restaurant in Hong Kong. The system might work well in Japan where people generally do not eat a lot.

Every time a big plate of meat was served, Leslie received it with a shout of joy. Then suddenly he lowered his voice and began talking to Mr. Tong in Cantonese. I guessed from their gestures, they seemed to be debating on the price for the number of plates of meat. They did not seem to agree and kept arguing about the number of the plates. Hong Kong people who are renowned for their good sense of money seemed to be very particular regarding such things. Anyway I could not help being amused at this lovely sight.

After chatting with him for a while about many things, I suddenly noticed that Leslie had not mentioned the movie that he was planning to direct. Somehow I sensed that Leslie had intentions of avoiding the topic so I stayed off that subject as much as possible thinking that perhaps the plan had met with some difficulties. At least that was my impression but later when I thought about it carefully, I remembered that not only did he not mention about his movie directing but also all his other works such as films or singing. Now come to think of it, all he talked about was mostly private matters such as his new house and how the paparazzi were keeping a 24-hour watch around its vicinity, traveling, an interesting episode of his friend’s wedding ceremony, his gains and losses on the stock market and so on. On that day Leslie laughed a lot; even Mr. Tong was laughing heartily as well, which was most unusual of him. That was a very sweet memory to reminisce even now.

Even though we knew that we were going to have another tough day of a-1000-autographs event the next day, we could not stop drinking and chatting till we were totally drunk that night. Then Mr. K made arrangements to send Leslie and Mr. Tong back to their hotel while we were also taken home by cars. Before going home, we wanted to take some pictures, but no one had a camera so I had to buy an instant camera at a store. We took turns to snap many pictures of one another. The pictures were developed the next day. When I took a glance at them, I burst into laughter together with my staff upon seeing how silly we looked in the pictures! All the pictures were blurred. We were totally drunk and looked awfully stupid with our poor coordination and impaired balance. All of us could not even sit up straight on our seats; instead we leaned against each other in a sloppy manner. We looked so unkempt yet Leslie was the only one who could still maintain a certain degree of presentability. We looked at the pictures with admiration saying “He is truly a star! He is still different in such a condition!” Even so I decided not to show the pictures to Leslie, as I thought he would not want to see such disheveled appearances.

2001 Fresh Autumn

A Major Calamity on the eve of the Autograph Event

We decided that the autograph event of the book “ ” should be held in Tokyo and Osaka. The preparatory work for the event was a lot harder than we had expected. The overnight queue of many fans around Tokyo Forum on the previous event had become well-known throughout all the book stores. Many big book stores that seemed suitable declined our offer because of their concern about causing an inconvenience to their neighbors as well as the difficult issue of security. There were some stores that were keen to accept, but these stores did not have the capacity to hold an event for a thousand people. Hence our negotiations deadlocked over a series of issues and problems. After several months of negotiations, we finally secured the contract with the main store of Aoyama Book Centre in Tokyo and Maruzen at OCAT, Nada in Osaka.
According to the schedule of the book stores, we decided that the event would start in Osaka on September 29th, then in Tokyo on 30th. Though we managed to finalize the venues yet we still had a major hurdle which was how to move Leslie from Osaka to Tokyo safely without any problem. Taking into consideration the risk of his exposure, airplane would be the better option, but Leslie preferred to take Shinkansen. If it was merely in Tokyo, it would have been easier for us to handle, but traveling from Osaka to Tokyo with Leslie by Shinkansen was too much for us. Hence after much consideration of the various situations, we decided to ask Mr. K’s security company to provide security for Leslie. Mr. K had worked for Leslie as a guard when Leslie came to Japan to hold concerts or attend Tokyo International Film festival. However I was also wondering whether we could afford it for the proceeds from the photo book sale would not be as much as those from concerts or movie festivals. When I asked Mr. K timidly regarding Leslie’s security, he said, “Mr. Leslie is special; I will try to manage it with my pleasure!”

The production of the photo book finally managed to finish on time. Our plans for the autograph event were all finalized; even the security would be perfect. Everything should run smoothly or so I thought but suddenly a major and unexpected incident happened on the eve of the autograph event.

It was September 11th, 2 weeks before the autograph event. At that time I was talking with our staff about the previous autograph event in Tokyo. We remembered almost the same time about 2 years ago, there was the ‘Sun’ affair and we were on the verge of canceling our event. Then suddenly someone brought the shocking news into the editorial department while we were talking in the editorial room. It was the news of the 911 terrorists’ attack. An airplane hijacked by the terrorists had crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York resulting in the collapse of the two towers. At the same time similar incidents happened in other places in the U.S. The whole world was shaken by the simultaneous large scale terrorist attacks.

Initially I thought this calamity would not affect Leslie’s autograph event in any way, but it turned out that I was wrong. These attacks were committed by Al-Qaeda; the speculation that they would launch similar attacks at all advanced countries that support USA was widespread. There were rumors that the airlines in Japan or Hong Kong would become their target, and further more, even Tokyo would be dangerous. As a result a lot of mail and calls from fans came to our office. There were opposing opinions that came from two factions. One group said “Are you going to cancel the event? Please proceed with the event no matter what may happen!!” and there were those who said, “What are you going to do if something happen to Leslie? You should cancel this event!!” Both groups stood firm to their respective proposition; they requested that we should come up with a reasonable clarification. We had been preparing for this event with great discretion, but never did we expect worldwide terrorism to be our obstacle.

Personally, I did not think that Japan could be attacked so soon; it was not likely that Leslie would be injured during his two weeks in Tokyo. Of course I could not be a 100 percent certain, but if we begin to be concerned about minimal possibilities, we cannot have any future plans at all so with great efforts I decided to declare that the event would not be cancelled despite receiving a lot of warnings and reproach from some fans.

However on the other hand, I also had a bad hunch within my heart because Leslie’s reaction towards the Sun affair came into my mind. This time my premonition came true. Several days later, Leslie called me to say, “I heard Japan is now very dangerous. Tokyo and Osaka are now under a kind of martial law. Is this true? If so, traveling by air seems also dangerous. We’d better cancel the event.”

I could imagine some media in H.K. would make a fuss and play up the danger in Japan. From my experience, my perception of Leslie is he did not mind any difficulties when his mind is positive, while he tends to lose his good judgement easily, like a stone rolling downhill, once his mind becomes negative. To make him positive again, I explained to him that the Hong Kong media news report was an exaggeration; that Japan was not dangerous nor under the martial law, and that no events like ours would be canceled. I managed to persuade him not to cancel the event. Leslie, however, seemed not to be in the mood to stay in Japan for a long time for he canceled his earlier plan of traveling elsewhere in Japan deciding instead to return to Hong Kong immediately after the event in Tokyo.

On the evening of September 28th, Leslie arrived at the Kansai International Airport. There were more fans at the arrival hall than the previous time, but I felt more relaxed as I had entrusted all the security responsibilities to Mr. K and his staff. I know this could be an imprudent remark as I was the one who had asked for Mr. K’s services, but the truth is I felt that it was not Leslie’s style to walk with so many strong bodyguards. Though it made him looked like a VIP but for the sake of Leslie’s safety I really had no other choice although I did wonder if this was the right decision just for an autograph event.

It had been only 2 years since the previous event. At that time Leslie said “It will be no problem. I will take the airport bus by myself!” In the last 2 years, his position in the Japanese entertainment world had changed a lot and Leslie along with it for he has changed as well in some way. I cannot describe it in words except that there had been ‘some kind of change’. Although at that moment Leslie was right in front of me smiling as usual, but there was this distant feeling as if he were very far away. I missed the day when we were surprised by the excited fans, both of us running away to the car hand in hand just like in a comedy film. Those days seemed a long time ago.

Leslie was staying in the Westin Hotel in Osaka. The lobby was already full of fans when we arrived there. Leslie and Mr. Tong, escorted by hotel staff and security guards, got into the special elevator that took them directly to the floor where their room was located. After receiving confirmation from the hotel staff that there was nobody loitering around except our staff, Leslie and Mr. Tong went into their room. Our room and Mr. K’s room were on either side of Leslie’s room. The other rooms in the vicinity seemed unoccupied with no guests in them. Then suddenly several women came along to our rooms. They were asked by the guards, “Are you staying on this floor? Could you tell me your room number?” They went away with the guards, complaining, “Why should I answer such questions?” “We are only walking along the corridor, leave us alone!” or “How come this hotel won’t allow those who are not their guests to enter inside the hotel?”

Leslie, did you start it again?

After waiting for a while till everything became calm, I visited his room. Leslie was looking at the book, ‘’. I asked him, “How do you like this book?” Leslie was rather ambiguous in his answer, “Mmm, I am not sure.” Although I had no idea what was on his mind, I guessed that the book was not what he had expected. When Leslie had finished browsing through the book, he asked me, “Is there any picture you like in this book?” After flipping through the pages of the book, I said, “I like this picture of you standing with your hands in your pockets. I like this profile!” Then he took out his silver pen and signed on the page with these words: ‘To Miss. Shima. I dedicate this picture to you! Leslie.’

When he was penning his signature on the page, Leslie leafed through the pages of the book and said, “I like this kind of picture.” It was a picture of Leslie taken from behind, which had the text: ‘I am going to play this stage at my best. Is this for you or for myself?’

While talking with Leslie, I noticed something which shocked me. To my great surprise, Leslie was smoking. He was not just smoking but he was chain-smoking. I asked him “Leslie, did you start smoking again?” Like a child caught doing some kind of mischief Leslie gave me a nod and said, “Yes, but it is a secret.” Then he put his forefinger on his lips and gave me a quick smile. I asked, “Why? What made you take it up again?” He answered he had to smoke in the scenes of the film he was shooting. I got tough with him saying, “But you have had a lot of such occasions all these years, haven’t you?” Then he replied, “Well, that is right, but I recently saw the scene on a preview and realized that I looked better when I am smoking!”

His excuse did not make sense to me at all. I know I am not his guardian or anything like that, so I have no right to question him when he decided to smoke again but I still had my own reason to query him. I had been told about the merit of not smoking by Leslie since I met him. After a while I finally decided to quit smoking following Leslie’s advice. For me, Leslie was the teacher who had taught me how to quit smoking. How dare the teacher himself go back to being a chain smoker!? I told him indignantly, “You know I have quitted smoking!” Leslie stared at me and said “Really? Is this because of my advice? Ha ha! This is good for you! Congratulations!”

He offered me his hand for a handshake as if nothing had happened. So I could not help saying thank you, but still I am not quite impressed with him.

As we talked, we began to feel hungry and decided to eat out somewhere. Leslie wished to go to a Japanese style pub. However I was a stranger in Osaka so I asked a local body guard to lead the way. When we went down to the lobby, there were still a lot of fans gathered there. They became excited when they sighted Leslie but thanks to the perfect security of the guards, we got safely into the car which was waiting for us in front of the hotel. We left the hotel in a flash.
The local guard took us to a Japanese style pub in Nishi Nakajima. It was a small pub with a homely feel. A lady owner who spoke Osaka Japanese came to serve us. While I was ordering some dishes, Leslie suddenly said in Japanese “Give me an ice cream!!” The lady thought she was being teased. She said angrily, “This is a pub! We don’t have such things!” Leslie did not understand what she had said and gave a surprised blank look. I remember that he looked so cute and funny at that moment.

On that day Leslie had just got off the plane and it seemed that the ride was quite rough, so his topic of discussion was on plane travel. Leslie expressed he had a slight fear of heights; if it was not necessary he would avoid traveling by plane as much as possible but in his profession this was not possible. He then went on to tell me about his fearful experiences of traveling by air, most of which I have forgotten. Leslie was not only knowledgeable about hotels but he also seemed to know a lot about airplanes as well. He told me about the merits and shortcomings of each airline as well as the special characteristics of the airline’s service. In the midst of our conversation, Mr Tong chipped in with some interesting comments.

As for Mr. Tong, he is a man of few words with an expressionless face so I could not tell whether he was in a good mood or otherwise. However his occasional comments and remarks seemed to please Leslie immensely. At times Leslie bent over in peals of laughter whenever Mr. Tong made a comment. Leslie laughed so much that he had difficulties in breathing for he started to gasp for breath. While Leslie convulsed with laughter, Mr. Tong did not laugh along with Leslie nor did he appear to be sullen. He just kept talking calmly with his gentle expression that gave me a warm feeling; I thought both of them were very well-matched. Once they started to speak in a low voice in Cantonese, I felt a bit left out for I did not understand a word of what they were saying. I could not figure out why Leslie was laughing so happily but anyway it was a blessing for those who were able to see Leslie’s smile for it was a picture of happiness. Above all, the fact that Leslie was laughing like an innocent and naughty boy filled me with relief as he looked a bit stiff and uneasy when I met him earlier at the airport.

On the morning of the autograph event, Leslie took his time to come out of his room. They had ordered breakfast from room service, but Leslie ate little. At the eleventh hour, he finally he came out of the room, so I asked him, “What is wrong with you?” Leslie replied he had not slept well the previous night. He seemed a bit under the weather and moody. I was worried that he would not be able to sign 1000 autographs in his condition. However en route to the event hall, Leslie’s spirits gradually lifted and by the time he entered the anteroom, he was in lighter mood. It seemed as soon as his condition got better, Leslie began to feel hungry for he suddenly wanted to eat “Makunouchi Bento”(a traditional Japanese style box lunch) so I asked for the help of one of the staff at the hall who went out of her way to buy it at the department store.

Unlike the previous event, this time we had distributed the admission cards a week in advance of the event so there was not much confusion on the actual day of the autograph session although there had been a bit of chaos on the day when the admission cards were issued. Moreover thanks to the excellent security services, the event went very smoothly. Leslie was cheerful at first but due to lack of sleep and tiredness, he gradually became quiet; even during his break in the anteroom he remained quiet. Though he had been a good boy, Leslie still did some mischievous things to stir me up. One of them was the incident with the cigarette. The anteroom we prepared was on the opposite side of the hall separated by a passage. Before the first session of the autograph signing, the room had quite a few visitors, such as the manager and staff of the bookstore who came to greet us. There was an unceasing flow of traffic with the comings and goings of the security guards or our staff. At times Leslie was sitting on the sofa reading fan letters and at times he was doing some light stretches. All this time Leslie was smoking continuously. I, who had quitted smoking, was looking at him with fuming eyes. While Leslie was smoking and I was talking to him, we heard someone knocking on the door. With lightning speed Leslie was forced to thrust his half smoked cigarette between my fingers. Then he lounged against the sofa with both hands free as if nothing had happened. While one of the staff was opening the door and talking to the person, I glared at Leslie angrily with the cigarette between my fingers. However Leslie was looking somewhere else as if he had nothing to do with the cigarette but his eyes were smiling; he seemed as if he was about to burst into laughter. “How could you do that?” I said to him angrily after the guest had gone. “Well, I had no other choice, because it is a secret!” Leslie coquettishly teased me pouting his lips and making a sulky face.
Leslie would sometimes behave in this enticing manner when he hoped to be excused for his whims. I wonder if he did this only to the elder ladies for ordinarily this is not what a man in his forties would do. Nonetheless I still could not help spoiling him once I looked into his limpid eyes just like a young boy with his adorable manners. Indeed with his experience over the years as a pop idol Leslie knew exactly what his charm was and I used to wonder for how long he would be able to maintain his lovable sweetness. Much to my sorrow I have already got the answer to this question...

A very touching rendition of ‘A Man of Intention’ and ‘Getting Warm’

After the autograph event, we got on to a small bus that had been prepared earlier in the basement parking lot and took off to Osaka station. We moved swiftly like the wind and with the windows of the car covered with curtains few fans would have noticed our departure.

That was the first time that I rode in a car with its windows shaded. As soon as I got into the car, I regretted it, as I am slightly claustrophobic. I feel suffocated whenever I am in a small place without any windows but this was not the time to worry about myself. I keep telling myself this as I looked at Leslie. He was totally engrossed in his conversation with Mr. Tong. The confined space did not seem to have any claustrophobic effect on him. After a few minutes, the curtains were drawn apart and we could see outside.

It was not so far from Nanba to Sin Osaka station, so after about 20 minutes, the curtains were closed again as the station got closer. Once again it became dark inside the car but not long after the car came to a halt. We had to wait inside the car while Mr. K went to make some arrangements at the station. Some fans began to notice that Leslie was in the car; suddenly the car was surrounded by many women and the number of fans was gradually increasing. The sound of women yelling and the voice of the guards who were trying to get rid of them could be heard. It was getting very noisy around our car. I began to wonder how we would be getting out of the car. I took a look at Leslie. He had his eyes closed and was muttering to himself. At first I thought he was reciting some kind of charm, but then I found he was only humming his song, ‘Getting Warm’.

I have a special recollection of this song. When we went to Discovery Bay to have an interview for the book, “All about Leslie”, Leslie was humming some western song in the empty ship cabin at night. I wanted to hear him sing his own song, so I asked him to sing a song which I had seen on a music video clip. I could not remember the name of the song, so I just said, “The song you were singing in the hot spring.” Leslie thought about this for a few seconds and said “O.K!” He then started to sing the song, ‘Getting Warm’. He sang it with a low voice. The original song is a sad and quiet song; his rendition that night had the same atmosphere as the music video clip. He gently closed his eyes, raised his chin up a little bit, and sang the song with a small but clear voice. I was mesmerized by his song.

I would sometimes hear him humming songs. Sometimes the songs he hummed were his own songs and sometimes not. If I asked him to sing a song while he was humming, he would usually entertain my request with pleasure. Frankly speaking although I love his songs, but I only knew the names to a few of these songs, so I could only request him to sing these few songs. My favorite songs include the theme song of ‘The Days of Being Wild’, ‘Farewell my Concubine’, ‘A man of Intention’, ‘In My Lifetime’, and ‘Getting Warm’. Oh, I must not forget to mention ‘Chase’.

I personally love quiet and sorrowful songs especially when Leslie sang them with so much soul that even if he was drunk or in good humor, as soon as he began to sing those sad songs, he looked so attractive and sexy. I cannot remember when and where it was that I once told him I love the song ‘Man of Intention’ very much. Leslie looked at me in surprise; he said that he also loved this song very much, he sang it to me right there and then. Compared to the movie or the CD version, this song, ‘Man of Intention’ sung to me by Leslie was much better. The high notes of the song especially moved me to tears. From that moment on, ‘Man of Intention’ has become my all time favorite. Even now whenever I listen to this song, his sad voice at that time and his short lifespan comes to my mind like a revolving lantern and my heart is overwhelmed with emotion.

Well let’s get back to our original topic. The song he was singing in the car was ‘Getting Warm’. This is such a sorrowful song that it felt like he was weeping as he was singing it. With his eyes closed Leslie was singing the song in a quiet almost imperceptible whisper. I looked at him but could not guess what was on his mind. Though he had just finished an autograph event for 1000 fans and was lacking sleep, he did not appear to be very tired at that time. Perhaps he felt it was a pain to be cooped up in a car and was just trying to bear it or maybe he was thinking of something else while singing…

I also tried to focus on something else but to no avail because of the suffocating feelings of claustrophobia. Though I knew that it was my good fortune to be able to hear Leslie’s own singing sitting beside him, I just wished I could get out of the car as soon as possible!
After about 10 minutes, Mr. K seemed to be back. I heard the door opened followed by the sound of shrill voices calling Leslie before the door banged shut again. Then Mr. K drew apart the curtain between the driver seat and our seat to inform us that we would be going into the underground parking lot of the station where we would get on a freight elevator that would take us directly up to the Shinkansen platform. That enabled us to get on the Shinkansen without being seen by anyone. I was impressed by the plan but at the same I also felt a bit sorry for the fans that had been waiting there for a long time just to catch a glimpse of Leslie. Leslie made a face when he heard that but said nothing. Leslie seemed very tired already and a few body guards could not have protected him nor taken us to the platform if we had got out of the car in front of the station. Though I wished I could have let the fans see Leslie, I gave up the idea because I was afraid of the resulting uproar and confusion.

Our car drove away from the station slowly leaving behind the fans’ voices of reproach and disappointment. After making a few rounds in the pretence that we went away somewhere, the car returned to the station again to enter into the underground parking lot without being seen. It was a perfect feint but the real problem was how to take Leslie on to the Shinkansen super express. When we got off the car, we found we were in a dark room like an underground boiler room. To tell you the truth I was desperately conscious of stooping to make my way through the dark narrow passage with a low ceiling like a maze that I hardly remember what the place looked like. Leslie was walking in front of me. He walked fast with such agility for he seemed to be used to walking through these kinds of passages. Come to think of it, I thought this passage was a bit similar to the passage behind a concert hall.

It felt like I had walked for a long time, but actually it might not have been such a long walk. When we reached an elevator, Mr. K asked us to wait there for a while. He seemed to be synchronizing time so that he could get us on the Shinkansen just before the departure. As soon as Mr. K got a message on his transceiver, all of us got into the cargo elevator. After the elevator went up several floors, the door opened and we found ourselves on the platform. I have been to the Osaka station many times but I never noticed that there was such an elevator. I really would love to be adventurous to explore my new findings but of course under those circumstances it was impossible to do so. As soon as Leslie got off the elevator with some body guards, there was a loud exclamation and resounding cheers from the women loitering on the platform; they began to run towards us. The staff and I were just stunned at the sight of them but the body-guards took prompt action. They quickly ran cross the platform to surround Leslie and got him on the train in a flash. We also ran fast and hastily got on the train while the departure bell was ringing. Mr. K was so careful and sharp that he did not miss that several fans had followed us on the train.

2000 Late Spring

The Photo Book With His Passion for China

A year and a half passed and there had been no progress made with regards to Leslie’s project of directing his movie. Consequently the plan for his movie-making book made no headway either. Unexpectedly in the fall of 2000, I received a phone call from Leslie.

In the year 2000 Leslie was touring nonstop around the world performing his Passion Tour concerts. I sometimes saw images of him performing wearing a skirt with his streaming hair extensions flying about and half-grown beard in the newspapers or magazines. Honestly speaking I felt that it was a provocative performance. Maybe I don’t have a good sense for such a performance. As an objective onlooker, I thought he would look a lot better without his beard. Then I received his unexpected call. He said he would be coming to Tokyo to attend the Tokyo International Movie Festival as a guest. He asked me if I had time to meet him.

I visited him in his hotel room at the Park Hyatt. The door was ajar but I could not find anyone inside so I remained standing there and wondering; then all of a sudden Leslie jumped out from behind the door yelling, “Whoa!!” I shouted, “Oh my god!” and Leslie began laughing his head off at me. With his hair clipped short, he was like a young boy laughing so innocently. I could not believe this was the same man who wore a skirt in the Passion Tour concert. Above all, I was worried about him because he was much thinner and slighter than the last time we met. So I said “You’ve lost too much weight, haven’t you?” Leslie answered “Whenever I have the concert tour, I try to lose weight like this. Don’t worry! I will be what I was after the tour is finished.”
The reason he invited me was the planning of the second photo book. As we discussed before, this would be an intermediate level book. At that time Leslie said it would be a book with a theme such as a trip, hobby or something like that but the plan had not taken shape since then. As for me, I had expected his movie-making book would come first; however we would have to put this plan on ice for a while as Leslie’s movie project had not been decided yet. In the meantime Leslie’s Passion Tour held in Mainland China gave him the inspiration for his second photo book. He entrusted his friend, Wing Shya, who was working as a photographer for the concert shots, to take photos of him both at work and in private time while he was in China.

Leslie showed me some of the photos that had been blown up into big sizes saying “They are like these, what do you think?” The setting and scene had a very Chinese atmosphere. They were very beautiful pictures with delicate colors and sophisticated light and shade effect. So I answered, “They are very beautiful pictures.” I believed this photo book would be a very nice one. Leslie said, “I would like to give the title for the book.” The word represented his deep affection and hope for China. At first I thought perhaps the Japanese may not understand his intention from the title. Then on second thought I agreed it would be nice to make a book that has totally Chinese sentiments because the theme of the book was on China and Leslie had placed his passion for China in this book.

There were still a lot of things we had to talk about, but Leslie was very busy because he was the midst of his world concert tour so he had to rush back to Hong Kong on that night. We decided we would keep in contact by e-mail regarding the schedule of the book.

In the days that followed, the Passion Tour was performed all over the world. Every time when Leslie returned to Hong Kong after the concert, he would send mail to me. Every mail from Leslie would start with a report of his concert. It went like this, “I just came back from China. I was very satisfied with the concert last night. The audience was very enthusiastic. It was so exciting! The atmosphere was a bit different from that of Hong Kong. It is hard to explain, so I really want you to come and see the excitement!” His mail was so honest and frank, like a student’s description of his impression, that I could not help smiling while reading it. Leslie would always start his mail with the words, ‘Dear Mis.Shima’; he wrote in a colloquial style so to speak. His mail was very friendly and easy to read. If the saying, ‘Style is the man’, is correct, there is no doubt then that Leslie was an honest and sincere person.

Leslie held his concerts in Japan from the end of November to the early December. I went to the Tokyo International Forum to see his performance. It was my first time attending his concert. I don’t like loud noises so I seldom go to see a live concert. I was asked by Leslie before “Did you see my concert three years ago?” and I answered, “I am sorry, I did not but I saw it on video tape later.” Then he knitted his brows, pouted his lips and said, “Oh video? No, no! You should have seen the live concert. Seeing the live concert was much more brilliant than watching it on video!” So I promised him that I would see his concert next time. Before I went to the concert, I was a bit wary and hesitant to see Leslie with long hair, a beard and wearing a skirt, but as it turned out I did not feel out of place at his concert. Only the powerful amplified music at the concert was too loud for me.

After the concert I wondered if I should go to his dressing room, but I thought that he must be too busy answering media interviews and entertaining his many visitors backstage to have time to talk to me. So I went home without seeing him. A few days later, after he went back to Hong Kong, Leslie sent me a mail in which he complained about me, “Did you come and see my concert? If so, why didn’t you visit me? I made phone calls twice while I was staying in Tokyo, but there was no answer!” I promptly wrote back and apologized to him, I informed him that I had seen his concert and it was quite a nice one.

After that we constantly exchanged mail regarding the book . With this book, Leslie was very particular about the binding and design. He often asked me or made suggestions regarding the size and the shape of the book or the material of the book cover. At first he wanted to make it a bigger size book, such as B4 size, but later he said it should be a little smaller and square shape. Perhaps he had seen many different photo books during his concert tour for he seemed to be wondering which format would be the best for his book. As for the material for the book cover, he wanted it to be made of thick velvet. When I said we could not print the title on it, he changed it into some other material that the title could be printed on. Then he suggested that the book should not be packaged ordinarily but to place the book into a bag so that people could not see the contents inside. We had no time to see each other so we relied on exchanging mail to keep in touch but all this while we never discussed about the details of the book. A year after, in the middle of January, at the start of the new year we finally began to talk about the contents of the book such as which pictures or what kind of design that we should use. Leslie and I wanted the book to have a Chinese theme, so we thought it would be fitting that the designer of this book should be from Hong Kong; Leslie suggested some names of companies and finally we decided on a design company named Shya La La workshop run by Wing Shya. We thought there would be a feeling of uniformity if we let the photographer to be involved in the design of the book. Later I discovered that between the three of us, Shya La La comprising a team of artists with distinct individualities, Leslie, a shining star pursuing artistic excellence in his performances and I, from the point of view of a publisher, there existed a vast difference in our way of thinking.

Looking for artistic value or the effect of a star in the book?

At the end of February, I received mail saying that the rough lay-out had arrived so I flew to Hong Kong to have a meeting with Leslie. As for my memories of the meeting, the place I met Leslie was one of the meeting rooms on the top floor of Island Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong Island, but I cannot remember much of the details. I was expected to see Mr. Wing Shya but he could not come because of his urgent work abroad. So Leslie and I discussed about the book while looking through the rough draft. It was also the first time for Leslie to see the rough draft, as he had only received it on that day. Honestly speaking I could not help feeling puzzled while I was looking through those pages. The book included the photos Leslie had showed me before, but all the other pictures were not portraits but only candid documentary pictures.

We could guess the person was Leslie but his face could not be seen because the photos were taken from behind or against the light. These photos were interesting as art pictures but I wondered what his fans’ reaction would be to these pictures. Above all my concern for the book was the fact that “Leslie seldom appears in the book.” Leslie’s pictures formed only about 30 % of all the pictures in the book. I felt that the book was in some way not a true reflection of a Leslie Cheung’s photo book, but I have to admit Wing Shya’s photographic skills were truly very good and his photos were extremely artistic. Leslie looked at these drafts silently. I did not know what he was thinking, as there was no expression on his face nor did he say anything. I guessed that he must be having some conflicting thoughts in his mind and wondering what to say.

Actually in our exchange of mail, he had said, “I don’t want to commercialize the book by filling all pages of the book with my portraits only. I want it to be more artistic and sophisticated!” I totally agreed with him on this. Of course it is not wrong to be artistic. Well, I feel to be a fan of Leslie Cheung, is in itself a crazy pursuit of the arts. So I thought it would be nice to make the second book with a rather advent-garde feeling. Perhaps Wing Shya tried to make a very high standard art photo book taking into account Leslie’s idea but though I understood their concept, I felt the book would be completely different from the photo book of a star if we were to produce the book according to these rough drafts. I wondered what to say for a while, and I decided that it would be better to comment candidly than to beat around the bush. So I said, “I do admit these photos are wonderful, but… this book will be purchased by your fans and I think other people will probably not buy it. Almost all your fans want to see the book with your pictures in it and not to have a book on Wing Shya’s photography. So I think this book cannot sell a lot if your pictures appear so sparingly in this book.” I was afraid my opinion tended towards commercialism which would directly contradict Leslie and Wing Shya’s idea of ‘an artistic work’. However from the standpoint of the readers and taking into consideration the feeling of the fans, I believed I had to be the one who had to say this. Leslie did not say anything nor show any reaction at all to my comments at that time. He was only nodding his head while listening to me. I wonder if he was hurt because I had put a damper on the book that he liked or perhaps deep down he too shared the same feeling in spite of not saying a word. He was rather reticent and immediately changed the subject so I could not perceive what he was really thinking. I wonder why he did not express his opinion at that time yet he had been so particular about the binding of the book in his mail.

Anyway my visit to Hong Kong was in a hurried manner that I did not have enough time to discuss with Leslie as I had to fly back to Japan promptly. I could not understand Leslie’s non-committal approach. I was greatly concerned with a heavy feeling in my chest since I came back to Japan. Then about a week later I received mail from Leslie. He wrote, “Dear Mis.Shima, I feel very sorry that I did not have enough time to discuss the book with you after you came all the way to Hong Kong. I was afraid that you were disappointed or hurt.” After reading these few sentences, I was taken aback, since Leslie had never begun his mail in such a formal style nor has he ever made such an honest apology before.

I was worried about him and thought, “What’s up? Could there be something wrong with his health?” But luckily the sentences that followed were in his usual style as before; the content of the mail was positive and enjoyable.

He said he already had a meeting with Wing Shya, who had returned to Hong Kong, and a designer. He informed them of my candid opinion about the rough draft and carefully advised them to make the appropriate amendments. He said, “What you said was very candid and accurate. Honestly speaking, I also did wonder myself. ‘I cannot be satisfied with this! He had taken so many pictures of me; don’t tell me he is only going to use so few of them?’ But on second thought I felt I had to be responsible for what he did. I should have discussed with him properly instead of just complaining about their job. I should have shown the draft to you after such a discussion. I am very sorry. I had all the photos taken by Wing Shya shown to me and I have chosen more pictures by myself. I looked handsome in those pictures and I think you will like them! Now more than half of the book’s pages have my photos.” I was a bit disappointed and thought … well, there are still the remaining pages of the other half of the book.

Anyway it was true that we had made some progress and above all I felt happy finally knowing what he was thinking when he was looking over the rough draft silently. It also made me happy that Leslie understood what I said and tried to make a compromise with me. Towards the end of his mail, he said “They will remake the rough draft and it will be finished early April. On April 16th, my final concert will be held at the Coliseum. I would like to invite you to the concert. Will you be able to come to Hong Kong before April 15th if possible? I will introduce you to the designers. Perhaps you could contact them directly after that? I am looking forward to your reply.”

For a while the plans of the book seemed to have gone onto the paths of a maze but I was relieved to know that now a bright future lay ahead for the book titled ‘’(Qing) ( we pronounce Kei in Japanese which means ‘felicity’).

The Passion Tour final concert and Leslie with a dumpling hairstyle

A month and a half after our last meeting, I visited Hong Kong again with my staff. The final concert of Passion Tour was going to be held the next day, so Leslie appeared very busy. The next day we arrived at Hung Hom Stadium (Hong Kong Coliseum) 1 hour before the concert opening. Mr. Tong gave us the tickets in the dressing room. He was easy-going as usual which helped to soften the hurry-scurry and tensed atmosphere in the dressing room with the final concert near at hand. The stage in Hung Hom Stadium is huge and three-dimensional, so the effect of the concert was totally different from the one I saw at the Tokyo Forum. Leslie was in his element when striding freely on the big stage. I should say Leslie looked the best on the stage of Hung Hom. My comment might be presumptuous as I seldom attend live concerts like this. At the Tokyo Forum, almost everyone in the audience was Leslie’s fan and they enjoyed the concert with Leslie at his best. But as for me, the heat and excitement of ecstatic love from the fans in the hall was a bit stifling. On the other hand, in Hung Hom stadium, his concert was regarded as a holiday event or something similar. The elderly, the young, his fans, also non-fans, anybody and everybody came here to enjoy the concert with their families. I was very impressed by the fact that Leslie was able to fill the hall with 40,000 to 50,000 full seats every night though the population of Hong Kong was only 6 million.

The next day of the concert, I went to see Leslie. He was still wearing his hair extension. He bound and rolled up the hair into the shape of a dumpling, then pinned it up to the back of his head. When I saw the same hairstyle on stage, I did not feel it was out of place, but I felt the hairstyle was a bit mismatched on him in ordinary clothes. I took a close look at the hair extension for the first time and I was very surprised at the faultless perfection, as I could not tell the extension hair from his natural hair. I was also surprised to hear that he even washed his hair, extension and all. The beard he wore on his face when he was on stage the previous day had disappeared. He was slim and slender like a young boy when I met him in February, but this time he looked brawny and bigger; perhaps he had gained weight or he had developed his muscles by doing a lot of exercises. He looked different in physique and I should say that every time I met him the impression he gave me was never the same.

On that day Leslie introduced me to Mr. Wing Shya and 2 designers from Shya la la workshop. Mr. Wing was much more gentle and friendly than I had expected. The rough draft of the book ‘’ was yet to be completed but the whole framework had been finalized. They had added more pictures of Leslie to it which made the book more acceptable for me as a publisher. Leslie chose the pictures for the front page and the pictures for advertisements on the spot while Shya La La and I were supposed to do the rest of the work together. We decided that we would meet together at Shya La La’s office the next day. Then Mr. Wing and his staff took their leave. Meanwhile Leslie and I still had a lot to discuss concerning the work that still had to be done following the completion of the book.

To tell the truth, my staff and I did not want to have another book signing event of Leslie any more as we had a very tough experience physically and mentally at the first autograph event. The movie ‘Moonlight Express’ had been released at that time and the frenzy of his fans in Japan would be much more intense than before. The last time we did it, we had not known anything about the difficulties, but this time, it was completely different. Now that we knew how difficult it could be, we were reluctant to hold the event. We were afraid of what could happen but Leslie had a totally different idea.

In fact, ‘’ (Qing) was the book in which Leslie expressed his delight that he was able to hold the concert in Mainland China for the first time. The snapshots in the book revealed a very happy and relaxed Leslie as if the boundless acceptance of Mainland China has given him the ultimate and tolerant power. I guess he might be anxious about publishing this book in Japan that was full of his yearning for China. He was worried of being questioned with “Why do you publish a book with your love for China in Japan? Why not a love for Japan?” by Japanese fans. (To tell you the truth, many readers did send us this kind of questions on the card afterwards. Many of them commented, “We would like to have a book with love for Japan if Leslie publishes a book in Japan. Please take photos in Japan for the next book!!”)

Moreover, this book seemed to have its own individuality and would be different from the previous book, so perhaps he did not have the confidence that many fans would understand his intention and he wondered how many of them would purchase the book. Therefore Leslie presumed there would be a book signing as a promotional event and started to talk about his plan. Leslie with the dumpling hairstyle gave the sweetest smile of an idol. He said, “But no more book signing in Hong Kong. Instead I will go to Osaka as well as Tokyo. And well, maybe other places too!” I told him that many fans from all over Japan came to Tokyo to see him on the previous events, so he kindly said “I will go to other districts if needed. We could hold smaller events in many parts of Japan!” I said, “It would be impossible as even the event in Tokyo fills me with apprehension. I should say it would be possible only in Tokyo and Osaka at the most”. We discussed about the event for a while and finally it was settled that we would hold the event in Tokyo and Osaka but the book signing would be limited to only 1000 signatures in each city.
For Leslie, the previous experience of being totally worn out after signing 1000 signatures was not a good lesson but he took it in his stride as a hardship that he had overcome and he wanted to move ahead.

On the other hand there were still many worrying concerns for me such as what kind of photo book it would turn out be and will the fans like it enough to want to buy the book? Where should we have the book signing events in Tokyo and Osaka? How would I cope with handling all of these difficulties? Then on second thoughts, and only this fact comforted me at that time: it was the knowledge that the fans of Leslie would surely be very happy to see him again.

Leslie said that he had a flat face and the game of Dance Dance Revolution

Leslie said that he had a flat face and the game of Dance Dance Revolution

When we stepped inside the tempura restaurant, we were led to a private room which was a traditional Japanese style tatami room. As we were looking at the menu book and trying to decide what to order, Leslie said, “Let’s order a variety of dishes and share them around so that we can taste many different kinds of foods!” Whenever Leslie ordered dishes, he would say “Let’s share!” Maybe it is concept peculiar to the Chinese when ordering food at restaurants. If the dish he was having is tasty, he would always share it with others. He would say, “This is tasty! Why don’t you try?” And he would ask others, “Can I have that?” and grab a bite of it to eat. The most popular dish for us on that day was a fresh shrimp tempura Leslie had ordered. We ate it seasoned with natural salt as soon as they were fried and served. It was so tasty on the first bite that Leslie was amazed showing extreme bliss on his face and exclaimed, “Wow, absolutely scrumptious!!” Leslie then served it to us saying “This is the best!”

At first we chatted cheerfully while dining on tempura and drinking sake, Japanese rice wine, but gradually Leslie began to spit his anger and grudge against the Hong Kong media that had built up inside him in the course of time. When he talked about the article, “Kiss on the street in Ginza”, he seemed to be very angry and fed up from the bottom of his heart. He said, “As a matter of fact, why should I come all the way to Japan to kiss a man who was a stranger to me? They said there was a witness! What? Where on earth did such a story come from? Then they asked me with a grin if it was true? How could anyone think it’s true? It is totally absurd!” Leslie was grieving as he said, “I don’t understand why HK media tries to hurt me so much. Did I ever do anything bad to them?” He then continued, “If Hong Kong is trying to defile me, I would rather get out of Hong Kong. Yes, I no longer feel any sense of attachment to Hong Kong. I am fed up with all of these things. There is nothing good for me!” He kept on complaining for a long time. Then Mr. Tong, who was listening to Leslie silently beside him, yawned heavily and leaned down suddenly on his back. Leslie looked at him and said angrily, “Why are you doing such a thing? I am speaking in earnest” Mr. Tong said boringly, “Well you always kept saying the same things. I am sick of hearing them!” At this we could not help bursting into laughter. Anyway Leslie seemed to think it was enough said on the subject and changed his topic of the conversation.

I could understand Mr.Tong’s feeling because those who listened to Leslie’s talk would be different people every time but he as Leslie’s constant companion was the only one who was always there listening to the same story and this was why he was sick and tired of hearing it. Thinking about Mr.Tong’s situation, I felt rather amused in spite of my sympathy for Leslie.

When we were paying our bill at the restaurant, a lady who appeared to be the shop proprietress, came to us and said, “That person is Mr. Leslie Cheung, isn’t he? It is such a surprise!” I thought it was natural for her to be surprised. If I were in her place, I also would be very surprised just like her. After leaving the restaurant, we strolled along aimlessly around the night time Ginza and ended up at Hibiya. There we went into a coffee shop in the Imperial Hotel to have a cup of tea before going back to the hotel. While he was browsing through a magazine there, Leslie talked about how hard it was to become popular on Japanese TV. When he came to Japan to promote the movie, “Moonlight Express”, he was offered to give a great number of interviews but he managed to reduce the number by half saying he would die if he had accepted all of them. He said, “If you want to be famous in Japan, you’ve got to have a lot of exposures by attending countless interviews and appearing on every kind of media. I don’t have such a desire or the physical strength anymore. It is simply not possible! As for Takeshi Kaneshiro, he is trying hard here in Japan. I am also very curious as to the efforts that Kelly Chen or Faye Wong will have to make in Japan in the future.”

Leslie knew a lot about Japanese entertainers. His everlasting stars in old days were Ken Takakura and Sayuri Yoshinaga. It was well known that he was a fan of Momoe Yamaguti. Momoe seemed to be still an idol for him even after her marriage. He said jokingly, “Do you know where her house is? If I visit her, do you think she would give me her autograph?” He smiled and also said, “SMAP is very popular in Hong Kong. What makes them great is that the group comprised of members such as Takuya Kimura, Masahiro Nakai, each of whom is a top star by himself. It is impossible for such stars to be in the same group, as there would be nobody left if such top stars become members of the same group in Hong Kong!” When I found a picture of Yutaka Takenouti by chance in the magazine, I said to Leslie, “He looks a bit like you, doesn’t he?” Then Leslie said, “Ummm, he is handsome. Thank you for your compliment, but I am not as young as he is and I am not as handsome as he either.” Many people might associate Leslie with aestheticism and narcissism, but to my surprise, he did not seem to regard himself as handsome. On the contrary he made some statements about himself which made me wonder if he had some kind of inferior complex about his features.

According to Leslie, Mr. Tong is a handsome man with a shapely nose, but as for himself, Leslie said, “My face is rather flat without any strikingly sharp features! Many people suggested that I should go to Hollywood but I am rather petite in stature. Besides I have a typical Asian face with no rugged features so there will not be any role for me in Hollywood except that of a Chinese mafia or gangster. Chow Yuen Fatt and Jackie Chan are exceptions. Hollywood is too much for me, don't you think so?” Of course I did not answer in the positive but anyway I did not want Leslie to go to Hollywood. For me Leslie is nothing less than a true Hong Kong movie icon. I could not imagine the Hong Kong movie world without Leslie nor Leslie starring in a Hollywood movie. Concerning Chow Yuen Fatt, I remembered one thing. That night nobody recognized Leslie; neither in Ginza nor at the Imperial Hotel with the exception of only one person who had some reaction. When we were crossing at the intersection in Ginza, two persons who appeared to be white collar workers were coming from the other side. One of them looked at us and said, “Hey, did you see him? That was Chow Yuen Fatt!” When I told Leslie about this, he let out a suppressed laugh and said, “I have sometimes been mistaken for someone else when I visited Japan. I must have a very common face here but this is the first time that I have been mistaken for Chow Yuen Fatt!”

The day after the autograph event, Leslie enjoyed shopping at a department store in Nihonbashi. He said he had been looking forward to shopping around for tableware in Japan. He seemed to have found some favorites and bought a set of 6 colored big plates, medium plates, small plates, soup bowls and little bowls. The colors were very special such as bright blue, silver gray and so on. Leslie said these colors were exclusive to Japan and could not be found anywhere else. I was ashamed of my ignorance regarding this as a Japanese, but I really did not know those colors were to be found only in Japan.

When we went back to the hotel in the evening, I handed in some postcards that had been enclosed in letters collected from his fans during the autograph event. I asked him to sign them. I felt sorry for him because he was very tired after the 1000 signatures but he cheerfully agreed. There were some letters with this request for Leslie, “Please sign this picture and send it back to me!” but there were no postcards or pictures enclosed in the envelopes. With these requests Leslie signed his autograph on the hotel memo pad. He said, “Please send this to her!” When I complained that they would find out the hotel he was staying in spite of our strenuous effort in shaking off the chasing car, Leslie said “It will be all right as I won’t be here TOMORROW!!” and he smiled.

Let’s change the subject. After the tracking report in Hong Kong, there existed a kind of unwritten agreement between Leslie and I with regards to paying for our meals. We would take turns to foot the bill. In the beginning it was “You paid for me before, so this is my turn!” but then gradually before we knew it, taking turns to pay became a kind of understanding between us so on this day when dinner time came, Leslie said, “You are my guest tonight! I know a nice place!” He said he liked one Japanese restaurant where he was taken to on his previous visit to Japan but when I rang to make a reservation, it turned out that the restaurant was closed on that day. While we were discussing among ourselves, saying, “Well, where should we go?” I happened to remember the fact that there was no club tempura, which was Mr. Tong’s favorite, at the tempura shop we went the day before. So I suggested, “How about Club dishes? They will have club tempura also!” Then Leslie said, “Oh, that’s a good idea! I love club tempura too!” So we headed to a famous club restaurant in Roppongi. As soon as we went into the restaurant, the clerks seemed to recognize him as Leslie. After leading us to one of the private rooms, a middle aged female clerk appeared and handed me 2 square pieces of thick and nice paper asking for his autograph; one for the shop, the other for her. Leslie accepted to sign it with pleasure.

While dining on club dishes and drinking wine, Leslie told me about the memories of Mr. Tong and his childhood. He said they had been friends from the time they were mischievous little boys. They would often quarrel or fight with one another. Leslie said, “In our childhood, I would win whenever we fought, as I was bigger and stronger. Of course we don’t fight anymore now!” So I asked, “If you were to fight now, which of you would be stronger?” Mr. Tong quietly said in a small voice, “If it’s a quarrel, Leslie would be stronger, but in a real fight, I would win…” On hearing this, Leslie immediately shouted, “No way! I would win both!!” Then Mr. Tong grumbled about Leslie’s remark in a low small voice. Hearing this exchange of words between them, I could not help laughing. They were like real brothers.

When we left the shop, Leslie said he would like to go for a stroll for a while as it has been a long time since he last visited Roppongi. As he walked along, he pointed at one of the restaurants and said, “Oh, I have been to this shop!” Passing by a florist, he remarked, “Oh, I know this florist has a lot of beautiful orchids”. He was really delighted with his window-shopping.

On our way, we went into a games center. After looking around the shop, Leslie started to play one of the games, which was a simulated game of shooting down fighter aircrafts. He tried hard to shoot down the planes with his own accompanying sound effects, “Boom, bang bang!!”
However most of his shots missed the enemy airplanes resulting in a very low score. He soon lost interest in this game and moved on to the next game which was the game named ‘Dance Dance Revolution’, where they stepped on the sensor mat and danced according to the music. Leslie and Mr. Tong liked the game very much. They both tried extremely hard to score high points again and again. Mr. Tong was in the lead in this game getting much higher scores than Leslie. Perhaps Leslie was feeling a bit tipsy for his dance movements were completely out of sync with the music. He hardly scored any points. In fact his score was almost zero! Leslie performed so poorly at the game that it made me wondered if this person was indeed a real musician but of course he was because his dance was ever so graceful and cool!

The following afternoon, Leslie left for Hakone with Mr. Tong by a special train for tourists called ‘Odoriko go’. As they were about to depart on their trip, Leslie was very enthusiastic and chirpy. He said happily that they would be going up the mountain by cable car to a hot spring where they would indulge in an open air bath. He also said one of his dreams was to watch a sunrise on the horizon while soaking in a hot spring. Regrettably his dream did not materialize this time, but he told me about this trip in great detail later. They went to Gora by cable car, to Lake Asino by ropeway, took a ride on the pirate ship; they ate grilled cuttlefish and soft cream at a small stall, and so on. Their trip to Hakone was favored with fine weather. Both of them seemed to have enjoyed the trip very much.

The autograph event in Hong Kong revealed Leslie’s good organizational skills

The autograph event for 300 fans in Hong Kong was held at Page One, a book store specializing in foreign literature and art books. It commenced at 1:00 p.m. on 24th of April. On the very same day, at a CD shop in the same building, the new composition of Andy Lau was supposed to be selling for only HK$1. Thus the building outside was overcrowded with a lot of young people. This also provided a good source of news material that exactly suited the taste of the newspapers. They wrote, “Andy VS Leslie, HK$1 VS HK$400!!” I did not know the actual content of the article, but judging from the headline, I could see it was an article that would not be a pleasant one for Leslie. The building opened for business at 10:00 a.m. but very early many people had been lining up in front of the store. The number of people had reached 300 before 11:00 a.m. by which time all the books were sold out.

I arrived in Hong Kong a day before the event and on that morning I visited Leslie’s house for a while. Leslie met me with puffy eyes and I guessed he had got out of bed just before my arrival. He greeted me in feigned seriousness, “Oh, long time no see!” even though we only just said good bye in Tokyo two days ago, so I irresistibly burst out laughing.

Leslie was wearing a loose-fitting white T shirt and gray track pants. He was walking around barefoot without slippers. He said he was just having breakfast. While talking to me he brought his breakfast on a tray into the living room. On the tray there were 3 dishes and a glass of juice, which I could not make out what it was. One of dishes was grape fruit with something, the other was lingzhi mushroom (ganodema lucidum) and wood ear fungus (auriculuria auricula) soup and the last dish, I could not remember at all. Anyway all of them seemed to be healthy Chinese herbal dishes and I was impressed to know that he was taking care of his health very much. In his usual habit, Leslie asked me “Which hotel are you staying at this time?” When I answered with, “The Sheraton” he laughed and said “Every time you choose a different hotel!! You are completely different from me!” At that moment we heard a loud deafening noise from the garden so I looked in the direction from which the noise came. Leslie with knitted eyebrows complained, “Sorry, it is noisy, isn’t it? The neighbor’s house is being renovated. It started early this morning, so I could not sleep in.” I was rather amused that we were having such an ordinary conversation. Then I found the photo book lying on the table. Regarding the photo book I realized that I had not asked his assessment of it. When I first showed him the book in Tokyo, he had voiced his opinions on the effects of the finished print. He pointed out that on the whole the tone of the book was a bit too reddish and there was a small amount of chromatic aberration on some facing pages. However he had not made any comment on the contents whatsoever so I asked him for an appraisal of the book.

“You have arranged this book for Japanese fans…” With this as a preliminary statement, Leslie then continued, “On that point of view, this is a very nice and perfect book. I like it.” I continue to ask him, “And besides this point of view?” Leslie answered, “Well my point is, I like this book as it is, but it is rather an all round book because of the intention of this project. I mean this book is a kind of an introduction or a beginner’s book. So I would like to follow this up with an intermediate and an advanced level book. For example, for the intermediate book the theme could be based on travels or hobbies. As for the advanced level, all the photos would be taken inside the studio with unconventional shots for that ‘avant-garde’ feel. How about it? What do you think of such kinds of photo book?”

Honestly speaking, a photo book of Leslie on the theme of travels or hobbies did not interest me very much but I was attracted to the idea of an avant-garde photo book of Leslie. Leslie would be an ideal camera subject for such a book. I said, “I like the one with the avant-garde concept. I want to make the book with monochrome photography.” Leslie’s eyes grew radiant and he said, “Black and white photography, it sounds nice. Comes with a little bit of firm feeling would be nice!” Thereupon we started to discuss about this dream book of the future for a while.

The intermediate book that Leslie had mentioned in our discussions materialized two and half years later with the publication of the photo book, “Leslie In China”. However the advanced book of which we were most excited about would never materialize forever. I still sometimes indulge in fantasies of monochromic pictures of an uninhibited Leslie with his soft body brimming with eternal youthfulness appearing in front of the camera without any hesitation. With his shining eyes he teases me with flirtatious glances; then he would say, “Hey, how would you like me to pose for you? How do you like these poses?”

The autograph event at the Page One was a very casual one. Above all Leslie did not seem tense or anxious at all. Looking at Leslie I thought it was interesting to observe how he was able to relax completely on home ground. The long queue of people lining along the corridor and up the stairs were kept in an orderly manner by the building security guards.

Inside the shop, the shop owner, clerks of Page One and our staff took charge. However it could be said that Leslie was in fact taking care of all the reception arrangement for the event himself. After signing his autograph, he shook hands with his fans; occasionally he chatted briefly with them and even let them take pictures with him if he was asked. Then when he finished with one person, then he moved onto the next person in line by calling out “Ok, next!” If the person did not come quickly, he beckoned her saying, “Hurry up, hurry up!” Leslie used to say that he preferred project planning or organizing events to being a leading actor or a guest. He said, “Actually I am very good at this!”

Watching Leslie on that night, I could understand what he meant but honestly speaking, I wanted him to behave like a real star for the fans that had been waiting for him for hours, since I think the aura would inevitably get weaker when a star takes on the role of an organizer or a staff. As I mentioned before, this event specifically excluded the news media which meant the reporters were barred from the hall; however because the shop was glassed-in on all sides, they surrounded the shop on the outside to take pictures. At times the bright flashing light from cameras triggered a big ‘bang’ outside and at such time Leslie glared at them sharply. The next day every newspaper had the pictures of Leslie in the glassed-in hall with sensational headings such as “Leslie rejects all interviews!” “Leslie maintains his silence for fear of being asked about the ‘kissing’ incident on the streets of Ginza!” If Leslie had spoken to them, his words would have been reported with exaggeration yet when he refused to speak to them, they condemned him for refusing interviews. In any case I felt that it must be very hard for him. On the other hand, I was also very impressed with his toughness that had sustained his coexistence with such kind of media for more than 20 years.

The Unfinished Movie and the Illusionary Movie-Making Book

On our last day in Hong Kong, following the completion of the autograph event and the post function activities conducted between the shop, Page One and the Japanese agency, Leslie invited us to dinner at a restaurant named Fook Lam Moon. Leslie would like to conclude the wrap-up book launch of ‘All about Leslie’, started last fall, with a celebratory party. Fook Lam Moon was one of Leslie’s favorite restaurants so naturally he knew all the staff in the shop. There appeared to be many acquaintances of Leslie dining at different tables here and there at the restaurant so it took him quite a while to greet all of them, all of which proved very interesting to me. One of the groups in particular, seated at the third table from ours, seemed to be his relatives and the small boys that were of kindergarten age, I guessed, came to our table. They were all over Leslie, hugging and hanging on his arms. Leslie seemed to cherish them very much and he was stroking their heads and smiling while being fawned upon by them.

When the kids went back to their table, we were finally able to propose a toast. We toasted many times saying “Here’s to our book!” “Here’s to the autograph event!” and so on. I knew Leslie and I had to say good bye very soon. Also I did not know when, where and what kind of situation we would meet again next time so therefore I had a lot of things to talk about with Leslie. I was sure that Leslie shared the same feeling as well for he also had a lot to say. For this reason we were deeply engrossed in our conversation without noticing the passing of time. To tell you the truth, most of what we had talked about at that time had already started to fade from my memory, but I will try my best to recollect all that Leslie was thinking and planning to do at that time.

In the evening of the autograph event, Leslie was one of the presenters at the Hong Kong Film Awards Presentation ceremony. I was watching him on TV in my hotel room. Leslie dressed in a white suit appeared on stage with Faye Wong to present an award. After saying a few words, he turned around doing a full circle murmuring something. I had no idea as to what he was saying because I could not understand a word. I thought he was enjoying whatever he was doing. I was also impressed by Maggie Cheung for she had become refined and beautiful so I told Leslie about my impression of the presentation ceremony. Then as usual Leslie began to pour out a torrent of words like the firing of a machine-gun. Firstly, he told me what the Hong Kong Film Awards was, why he was there, what he had said to Faye Wong, why he turned around, who won the awards and his opinions about them. He disclosed all these things in one breath; then he suddenly lowered his voice and said, “Actually there was a risky moment there!” Leslie said he almost bumped into Mr. Wong Kar Wai. Backstage when Leslie was walking back to the waiting room, Wong Kar Wai had just come out of the room. They would have crossed paths but Leslie spotted him first and he hid himself behind the curtains. Leslie gesticulated excitedly as he related the incident as if he were telling an adventure story. I asked him, “Don’t you want to see him?” He answered smiling awkwardly, “No, not for the time being. I would be uncomfortable if I meet him now.” It was an undeniable fact that Leslie valued Wong Kar Wai as a director and respected him, but it was also true that a major rift had developed between them over the schedule of their movie, “Happy Together” with both of them still harbouring a little ill-feeling towards each other. However I could sense Leslie’s love for the director in his conversations here and there, so I thought it was just like a quarrel between two brothers that are on very good terms.

As soon as I mentioned my impression of about Maggie Cheung being beautiful, Leslie agreed with a big nod and said, “I was also taken by surprise when I met her in the hall. Not only has she become very beautiful but her acting has improved a lot since she went to France. She used to be a kind of unpolished gemstone but now has become a precious jewel. I think this is not only because she went to France but also because she has been freed from the chains and shackles of a narrow-minded Hong Kong and now she is able to do as she pleases. She also has a very good relationship with her boy friend. She has made a really good decision!”

Leslie looked envious while he was talking about Maggie. Suddenly one scene from the movie, “The Days of Being Wild” came to my mind and it was the scene of Yuddy dying on the train. Maggie could fly freely in the sky and has found a perfect place to land; on the other hand Leslie, the bird with no legs, could not find his perfect landing place. At that time I wished he could fly freely and find a peaceful place to land someday.

If my memory is correct, the main topic between us was the movie which was supposed to be directed by Leslie. To be more precise, it was a photo book on the making of Leslie’s movie. Leslie became very serious and said to me, “Are you sure you are able to make enough profit from this book, ‘All about Leslie’?” “Certainly I am!!” I answered promptly and added half jokingly, “I am not exactly sure right now, but I am sure I will. At least I can make enough money to afford to invite you to a trip to a hot spring!” Then Leslie came to nearer to me and said with his voice lowered, “I am touched by your kindness, but don’t waste money like that! If you invite me to a trip, you will make no profit as a business, right? Instead will you consider investing the money on my next book that I am thinking about now?” “What do you mean by investment?” I could not understand what he meant, so I did not know how to react. Then he began to explain his plan. According to his explanation, he is going to direct his first movie soon and the movie will be a love story. The scene of the movie will be set in Hong Kong and Taiwan. He wanted to be in charge of every detail of the movie himself according to his intention from beginning to end. One of his ideas was a photo book on the making of the movie. He had already planned out the plot and had the visual images about the book in his head. He said, “So if possible I would like to have you beside me to record the report on the shooting of the film. The film shooting in Taiwan will take 2 or 3 weeks and I want you to be there with me, too. As for taking photos, I can ask a cameraman in Hong Kong if it is difficult for you to arrange schedules. What I meant by the word, investment, is I cannot guarantee the degree of profitability that you will get from this book, as this book won’t be a Leslie Cheung photo book. I won’t be acting in this movie but only directing it. However I am confident in making a good film and I want to make a book about it which will attract the people who are not my fans. What do you think about it? Can you help me?” Of course I could not give him a prompt answer, but I could feel his passion for this project so I thought I would like to help him as much as possible. Actually I had no idea of the marketability of these books without Leslie’s pictures in them, but I wanted to invest in him as a director. Leslie said he had almost finished writing the screenplay and was looking for companies that would be interested to invest in his movie. These prospective investors were mostly Hong Kong, Japanese and Korean companies. However each company somewhat stipulated its own conditions, so it would be difficult to fulfill all of them. There were no investors who would part with their money without any conditions attached. Leslie talked about the content of the film with great enthusiasm. He said he wanted to start filming immediately if possible but after carefully considering the situation, I foresee there could be a lot of hurdles to overcome on his way to his own movie. I said to Leslie, “Please contact me as soon as the commencement date for shooting is fixed. I will do my best. We will discuss the details further when the time comes!” On hearing this, Leslie answered with his eyes shining like e a mischievous kid, “OK! I will definitely be in touch with you when the time comes. Don’t you run away and you’d better ‘psyche yourself up’ for me by then!” I have no idea what took place in the following days but since then, this project that was to be Leslie’s directorial debut had surfaced and vanished, rose and submerged several times. In the end, Leslie’s movie that he had been so eager to make will never materialize forever. The movie photo book ended up only as an illusion of our conversation.

Now that Leslie is gone, I wonder where would be the best place to bury his passionate and unfinished dream for his movie and the movie script that he that he had rewritten tens of times to polish it. When I think of all his wishes and aspirations he had left behind, one by one turning into unfulfilled dreams tinged with regret I cannot suppress the feeling of deep pain and sorrow in my heart as well as feeling pity for him.

1999 Beautiful Spring

The Unforgettable Shameless Act of “The Sun”

In April just after we have finished printing the photo book and were ready to hold the autograph events in Tokyo and Hong Kong, we were confronted with an unexpected and absurd incident. The book “All about Leslie” was supposed to be released on April 15th, so the books were delivered to the sales distributor agencies on April 12th. However 5 or 6 days prior to this date, the printing company had directly delivered 300 books to a bookstore in Hong Kong called “Page One” through the agent which is in charge of the delivery to foreign countries. The autograph event in Hong Kong would be held in this shop. At the same time several books were delivered to the book stores in Japanese department stores in Hong Kong, from which we had got the pre-order. We decided on this schedule because there were only 2 shipping services a week from Japan to Hong Kong which would take 10 days. We also took into consideration that it would require a longer time for the cargo of books to go through import declarations and custom clearances which are part of the procedures of book sale in a foreign country. Therefore we delivered the books to Hong Kong several days earlier than in Japan. It was decided that the date of the release of the book in Hong Kong was to be on April 23. According to our schedule, we would be able to clear customs in Hong Kong on the 21st with the books arriving in the book stores in Hong Kong in the afternoon of the 21st but to our big surprise, somehow one bookstore in Hong Kong started selling the book on April 8th.

Later according to our investigations we discovered that this bookstore was one of the Japanese bookstores in Hong Kong. They had got the books through the legal channel but the shop master really wanted to sell the book earlier than anywhere else, so they decided to get the books by air freight at their own expense. It was unimaginable to import the books by air freight and release them earlier than the scheduled date. Then an even more inconceivable incident happened. “The Sun”, a new newspaper group in Hong Kong , got hold of one book sold 2 weeks earlier than the actual release date. On the next day April 9th without prior permission they published the contents of the book with big colored pictures. They used more than 10 pictures and these were very new pictures taken from the book such as Leslie in bed, pictures of his childhood and so on. Furthermore they also reprinted excerpts from the article on my interview but when I read it carefully, I realized that although the context was similar but in truth it was a specious report focusing only on the part of Mr. Tong and changing the context.

For example, they wrote that Leslie said, “He is a lifelong lover” instead of my original text of “A lifelong friend”. The fact that they only highlighted the article about Mr. Tong from such a long context indicated clearly the ethics of this newspaper group. They ostensibly copied the article but in reality they had distorted the content. They had obtained the book before the official release date and published the pictures and article without prior consent from Leslie or our company. These actions were blatant violation of professional journalism and media ethics. I was more shocked than angry by the unbelievably shameful behaviour of this newspaper publication in Hong Kong in breaching their code of conduct without the slightest hesitation.

I received this news from Y, my friend in Hong Kong who worked for us as a contact with Leslie. She found the newspaper at the street vender’s stall on the morning of 9th. She was very surprised to see the strikingly colourful pictures of which she had been familiar with. She called me at once and sent a copy of the newspaper by facsimile. Thereupon I asked her to go to The Sun’s office immediately to demand an official apology. We didn’t have much expectations and the response we got was just as we had expected. They said, “What’s wrong with us? The mass media works on a ‘first come first served basis’!” The person who wrote the article was a young female reporter who didn’t even understand that it was an illegal deed. Y also accused her of distorting the original article to which she replied without any hesitation, “Well, the original article was not interesting enough. Newspapers with gossips from the entertainment world must be interesting in order to achieve good sales.” Y tried to negotiate with her boss but her efforts were only in vain.

Well, if they had thought it would be wrong, they would not have copied the book in the first place. So I realized that our expectation of their common sense was a fruitless effort. Anyway I was dumbfounded when I heard what they had said. There is a saying “There is honour even among thieves” but I don’t think they have any principles at all! Far from that it was just a terrible violation disguised as mass- media, which did nothing but caused grievous hurt to the persons concerned. Leslie had said to me before, “You don’t know anything about Hong Kong.
Japanese common sense doesn’t work here!!” I felt I had learned my lesson well. Undoubtedly in this incident Leslie himself was the main victim. I was extremely worried about him so I requested Y to go and see Leslie and comfort him as soon as possible. As I had expected because of this incident Leslie was shocked and very depressed. He said, “I won’t accept any Hong Kong media interviews from now on! I won’t do anything for them! I don’t want to do the autograph event in Hong Kong as they will make bad stories about it. I am going to cancel the events. I won’t do any events in Hong Kong any more. I hate this! I’ve had enough of this! I am fed up with them!” Then he repeated the words, “I am fed up with this”, and demanded to cancel the autograph events in Hong Kong although Y had tried to persuade him to have second thoughts with all her efforts.

Afterwards, when Leslie had calmed down a bit, we told him that this event was not for the media but for his fans in Hong Kong. He realized that it would be very disappointing for his innocent fans that had been looking forward to the event if he canceled it because of his anger against “The Sun”. He finally agreed to do the event as scheduled but Leslie insisted that the media should be not allowed into the event hall nor would he be giving any interviews at all. This also affected the autograph event in Tokyo. We had already given the permission to the TV stations, newspapers and magazine companies in Japan to have interviews. We could not renege on our promise so we decided on a compromise with a change in the schedule in which only 10 minutes of photo taking at the event hall would be permitted. Leslie would not be giving any interviews or press conferences.

Actually there was another reason why Leslie would not accept interviews or press conferences. Earlier when Leslie was in Japan several months for the promotion of the movie, “Moonlight Express” there had been a lot of gossips articles about his activities after work in the Hong Kong newspapers. One article reported that Leslie had tempted a casual passer-by and was kissing the young man somewhere on the street in Ginza. Before the incident of “The Sun”, Leslie had been harassed by reporters over this article. The more Leslie denied this, the more the media fabricated stories and then this article of “The Sun” followed. I could really understand his feelings and his desire not to respond to the media or provide any news items to them any more.
For 20 years Leslie must have provided innumerable news to the Hong Kong media. In terms of media contribution, it can be said that he ranked the best among all the stars. The relationship between the mass media and the entertainers is usually interdependent in order for both parties to reap mutual benefits in a coexistence and co-prosperity environment. However I have observed in this respect, Leslie and the media relations have completely lost this balance. In comparison to other Hong Kong stars that are sometimes praised yet slandered at other times, Leslie seemed to be on the receiving end for such slanders continuously. As a bystander I felt their gossips were filled with malicious intentions and no one else could have felt the bitterness more deeply than Leslie himself.

We managed to complete the autograph event smoothly, but the incident of “The Sun” was not only very unfair for Leslie but it also left us with the feeling of chagrin and anger. If this was the unethical attitude of the Hong Kong mass media and Japanese common sense did not apply there as they said, I would like to take the opportunity to expose this fact here in my book so as to let the readers of this book know of the events that took place. In spite of our request for an official apology, we have never received a reply or any form of apology from “The Sun”.
Furthermore, they shamelessly insisted that they should have the freedom of speech!!

The eve of the autograph event - The car chase from Narita Airport

On February 16th, the eve of the autograph event, Leslie flew into Narita Airport on a JAL flight which landed in the evening.

In hindsight I realized my misjudgment of the situation and with hardly any sense of apprehension I had underestimated the unexpected event that would happen at Narita. We had anticipated that there would be a little confusion upon Leslie’s arrival, but as it was only a short distance from the exit to the parking area, so we assumed it would be alright if we escorted Leslie quickly to the pick-up wagon.

I arrived at the airport one hour before his arrival. When I looked around the arrival hall, I discovered that there did not seem to be a big gathering of fans yet but for security reasons I made one of the staff go to the security section to arrange for some guards to be stationed at the exit just in case. However they said, “By the look of things around the lobby, the crowd is just the same as usual and it is unlikely that the numbers would increase a lot within an hour so it will not be necessary to station the guards.” Indeed at the time there were not as many people just like they had said but one thing made me rather uneasy and this was the sight of many women in the lobby area who were making phone calls to their friends on their hand-phones. Thirty minutes prior to Leslie’s arrival, we made sure that the pick-up wagon had already arrived at the parking area. Then we went back to the arrival hall but to our great surprise, a lot of people were jostling in the lobby though there were not so many people there one hour before. Almost all of them were females. There was a woman in front of us who were speaking loudly over her hand-phone. “Yes, that is right! Someone said that she got the information from a fan in Hong Kong that Leslie had definitely left Hong Kong by JAL at….He is about to arrive at Narita! Hurry up, hurry up!!” As the arrival of the plane approached, the crowd of women gathered in the arrival hall increased in numbers. Though the hall was packed, the people however were lining up in an orderly manner along the barricade of the exit passage so I thought we could still make our way to the car with the protection from the barricade.

As soon as Leslie appeared at the end of the arrival gate, the crowds let off a loud cheer. Leslie had his hair cut shorter compared to last February when we met him which made him looked much younger. He responded to the applause of his fans with his charming smile. As always standing in front of his fans, Leslie emanated a sparkling aura. Perhaps it was the consciousness that he was being watched and loved by a lot of people which made him so brilliantly attractive. I was waiting for him at the end of the barricade. Leslie said,” How are you?” and we shook hands. When we started walking, the situation changed dramatically. The fans who were standing along the barricade suddenly rushed towards us. We were being held up surrounded by a lot of people. Some fans rushed towards us to give presents to Leslie and some of them went as far as to touch Leslie’s body. Then the security guards who were standing at a distance watching us hurried over to help us pushed our way through the crowd to ensure our passage through.

We walk with hurried steps through the aisle whisking away the stretched out hands off and blinking our eyes at the camera flashes in front of us. We felt as if the way to the parking lot was like an endless journey. When we finally got into the car, Leslie drew a deep sigh of relief and took his seat but we could not start our car yet, as Mr. Tong, who came out a bit later than Leslie, still had not come to the car. Leslie looked out of the window anxiously asking,” Is he all right?” Just then we heard voices outside saying “Oh, he is Mr. Tong, isn’t he?” “Yes!! Mr. Tong!!” “Oh, really?” Under the covetous stares of the fans, Mr. Tong was slowly putting the baggage into the trunk of the car. Leslie yelled out from the car, “Hurry up!! Get in the car!” but Mr. Tong was doing his job at his own leisurely pace as usual. The fans seemed to be a bit hesitant to crowd around him for they were watching him from a distance. When Mr. Tong finally got in the car, Leslie heaved a sigh to relief and said, “OK, let’s go!”

In the car we were chattering amiably for a while but we felt something was wrong when we got off the superhighway to enter Tokyo. Two cars were following us all the way from Narita. The two cars were airport taxies and the passengers were all women. We went into a narrow alley and stopped the car so that we could see whether they were really following us. Then the two taxies stopped just behind our car. Their intention was so obvious that our driver murmured, “I cannot believe they used such a shallow trick to pursue us!” I asked him, “Can you shake them off?” he answered he would try his best. He then stepped on the accelerator and began to drive the car in a zigzag manner on the narrow street. At this point Leslie gradually became displeased and spoke less and less. Often Leslie’s good humour would quickly turned sour putting him in a bad mood whenever his cheerful and pleasant feelings were spoiled or interrupted unreasonably but I have never seen him in such a great fit of anger like this before. He was enraged at the cars pursuing us persistently. He also lost his temper at the driver who could not shake off the cars. Leslie in the rear seat was irritated and complained angrily, “What a pest they are!” “You have to do something about them, driver!!” Then I heard Mr. Tong trying to pacify Leslie saying, “Well, it cannot be helped. Don’t be so irritated!” The driver tried to do his best but there were 2 cars following us and when he made a dodge for one car, the other car was still tailgating us persistently. We were afraid that they might follow us to the hotel.

Finally we made a plan with the driver. He intentionally went into a narrow one-way street where only one car could go through. The two cars followed us one by one. Then our driver suddenly stopped the car and one of our staff got off. She blocked the other car’s way by standing in the middle of the street. She then shouted at the taxi driver and the female passengers inside the taxi. “Stop following us! It troubles us very much. If you don’t stop doing this, we will call the police!” All the women in the car lowered their faces and only the driver was smiling awkwardly in embarrassment. We saw our chance and immediately took advantage of this time to speed off in our car while our staff remained standing there for a while to prevent them from following us. Five minutes later she finally let them go but by then our car had disappeared from their sight completely.

We shook off the two taxies in this way and went back to our original route. When he knew there was no car chasing us, Leslie became cheerful again. His mood changed dramatically and he said with a gentle voice, “I feel sorry for her getting off the car in such a place! I wonder if she could come back easily…” Then he said innocently, “I feel hungry after getting mad! Let’s eat something!”

When I asked them what they wanted to eat, Mr. Tong answered, “Crab Tempura! (Deep-fried crabs)” It was already after 10 o’clock at night. One of the staff called some tempura restaurants on her hand phone but almost all the restaurants were about to close. I told Leslie there would be no tempura restaurant open. Then Leslie said, “Well then, let’s go to Izakaya! (Japanese pub)” I am not familiar with the high-class restaurants, but I do know a lot of Izakaya instead. Considering that it was difficult to find parking space and that they might notice Leslie if we went to the busy quarters, I chose a shop near my office where I patronized often. The clerks and the guests at the shop did not recognize Leslie. Nobody even noticed that he was from Hong Kong. Leslie seemed to be fond of this small Izakaya very much. He said many times, “This is a very nice shop! I like a shop like this!” He drank sake (Japanese rice wine) out of a masu (a square wooden box) very well and ate Yakitori (Japanese style grilled chicken) and so on. Leslie was completely relaxed.

Leslie had a tendency to lose his temper easily but snapping out of a bad mood quickly was also his biggest strong point for he soon become cheerful again. He knew himself very well so whenever he was confronted with something unpleasant he would reflect on his favorite things for a change in an effort to calm down his own emotions but sometimes I could see he tried too hard to make himself merry yet his efforts seemed only in vain. On these occasions it was sometimes too painful for me to see such a Leslie.

Leslie was exhausted after signing 1000 autographs

While we were trying to shake off the 2 pursuing cars, there was another battle raging between fans and the guards as well as the clerks of the book store in the Tokyo International Forum, where the autograph event was to be held. Some fans had been trying to form queues in a haphazard manner in front of the book store named Yaesu Book Centre in Tokyo Forum for a few days. Each time they attempted to queue up, the authorities dispersed them by saying “Please line up at 5 o’clock in the morning of the event day! It is not allowed to queue up here until then.” However we could not stop them anymore on the day prior to the event. We didn’t let them know where to line up so some fans began to form lines all over the place again. Some groups even tried to merge several queues into one. On the other hand the guards in Tokyo forum warned and prevented them from lining up. Our staff and the book shop clerks were also persuading them to disperse the queues. This resulted in several frictions here and there for a long time.

Being an official facility, the security is very tight at the Tokyo International Forum. It is closed to the public at night time so the people who had been queuing there were told to leave the premises at night but nobody wanted to go home. Instead they just moved out of the site and stood on the street. The guards and our staff could not force them to go away. To avoid shouldering the consequences should there be any trouble during the night, we asked the Tokyo Forum authorities for the use of their restrooms only. We promised that our staff would organize the people to queue there safely for the whole night. During the night, the queue kept getting longer.

The ringing of my hand phone woke me up at 6 o’clock the next morning. It was a call from one of our staff in Tokyo Forum. He said, “The number of people has reached 1000 and the Forum has just opened now, so we are going to lead them to the venue.” When I imagined the exciting scene of one thousand fans who had gathered from all over Japan filling up the courtyard of The Tokyo Forum just wanting to see Leslie I said to myself, “It will be a tough day today!!”

At 10 am on April 17th I had breakfast with Leslie at the Four Seasons Hotel coffee shop on the first floor. Leslie said that he would like to be seated at the terrace facing the garden and he began to take photos of the garden, terrace and the coffee shop with his camera. He asked me, “How is Tokyo Forum?” and I answered “I heard the number of people has already reached 1000 at 6 o’clock this morning.” Then he murmured, “Oh, is that so…” and he wrote his signature in the air as if confirming once more what he was going to do. Watching his movement, I wonder if he was having doubts about his own stamina so I asked him, “Is it really all right with you to pen 1000 signatures?” He said, “I woke up early this morning and had a good workout at the gym so my condition is perfect. Don’t worry!”

“By the way…” I asked him another question which had been on my mind since the previous night. “How do you like this hotel?” Then he whispered in my ear, “Well, the room in this hotel is too luxurious for me. I am a bit overwhelmed but…” He pondered for a while and began to spill forth a continuous flow of words saying, “The amenities are excellent. The bathroom is very good and the shower head is working well. The tap (faucet) is well positioned. If there is any shortcoming that can be said about this hotel, it would be the towels. I would like the towels to be a bit softer and smoother…” I was absolutely amazed as I gazed at the quick movements of his lips as he uttered these words!

The autograph event was held in the Glass Hall of The Tokyo Forum. We divided the crowd of 1000 people into 3 groups; each group numbering about 330 people. The event was held in 3 sessions with a break in between each session. When we arrived at The Forum, I asked Leslie if he would like to see the event hall beforehand. He replied, “No, I won’t.” The reason was because he also wanted to feel the excitement together with his fans.

I still sometimes remember the special atmosphere of that moment when Leslie showed up in front of the 350 fans that were waiting for him in breathless anticipation. This scene was beyond description. The atmosphere was not the same as when he appeared on the stage at his concerts. The room was filled with an indescribable mood and sound. The sound was likened to that of a hundred people letting out a sigh together after holding their breath for a long time. It was like a balloon filled with the joy and anticipation from each one of them who was about to meet Leslie in person soon!

Leslie looked tense for a second; maybe because he felt the extraordinary atmosphere in the room. I felt he was a bit nervous. He was supposed to make a speech in front of the fans before the event. He had decided to do it in Japanese and had learned the Japanese words beforehand but he ended up making only a short greeting in the room. I am not sure whether it was because he was too nervous or he had just changed his mind. Anyway I was peeping at him from behind the screen and I could sense his tenseness clearly. It also made me jittery and my body was quivering from nervousness.

There is a conference room under the Glass Hall and we had hired the room as a waiting room. During the interval (it was also the time for the changeover of the next group of people in the room), Leslie came back to the room via the rear stairs. During the first interval, Leslie was very cheerful. He was eating snacks and fruits on the table, drinking coffee, chatting and laughing a lot. He then sat on the floor and began to do many kinds of stretching exercises such as bending forward with his legs apart, stretching his body with his hands held up high to his head, or turning his neck. He was also reading fan letters written in English or Cantonese. When the signal for the start of the second session came from the event hall, he stood up saying “OK!!” and ran upstairs with dancing steps.

At the second break, he looked a bit tired. He seldom spoke and ate nothing. He said that he was afraid he might become sleepy if he had a full stomach but he was still reading fan mail. Beside Leslie, the staff was picking out the photos and postcards that had been put into the envelopes by fans who wanted Leslie to autograph them later. While reading the letters, Leslie sometimes asked me some questions such as “What kind of person is the actress named xxx?” “In this letter, she wanted me to play the role of Hikaru Genji, and what kind of role is it?” “What kind of magazine is xxx?” and so on. To my surprise, Leslie would read fan letters very carefully and always tried to find out what his fans were asking of him. I liked his attitude very much and watched him with admiration. I wondered whether the fans knew that Leslie read their letters very carefully and thought they would be very happy if they knew about this fact.

In our schedule, Leslie was supposed to attend a photo exhibition after the autograph event. If Leslie had showed up unexpectedly, it would be a great surprise for the fans there. We didn’t announce it beforehand as we wanted it to be a happy surprise and also we were afraid of the confusion it would cause. Later, our decision turned out to be right anyway. Leslie kept signing his autograph with a smile till the end of the event. He then left the hall waving his hand to the applause of all of the fans but as soon as he came into the waiting room, Leslie collapsed onto a chair. He didn’t move but wearily he leaned on the back of the chair for a while. When the staff thanked him for his strenuous effort, he responded with a tired blink of his eyes. He looked totally exhausted. I thought it would be difficult for him to attend the photo exhibition, but anyway I asked him, “Leslie, how about the photo exhibition? Will you go?” His reply was in the negative as I had expected. He said, “I want to go back to the hotel, right now!” Though I would like to accompany him back to the hotel by the pick up wagon, but I still had a lot of things to do at the venue so I told Leslie that I would come later and saw him off.

Two hours later I rushed to his hotel but he was not in his room. I was worried that he might be feeling sick from overworked, but it seemed he had gone to the gym. Within ten minutes Leslie and Mr. Tong came back from the gym to his room. Perhaps he had a good exercise and got a massage as well for his condition had recovered and he had regained his cheerfulness. He looked totally different from two hours before. I felt relieved and said, “You are hungry, aren’t you? Let’s have a bite to eat! ” Mr. Tong immediately said, “Well then, crab tempura!!” Usually Mr. Tong is a health-conscious person and he seldom drank alcohol, but somehow he really loved tempura. Whenever Mr. Tong mentioned ‘tempura’, Leslie would smile and say teasingly, “You are really crazy about tempura!” I made a reservation at one of the oldest tempura restaurant in Ginza and we went there by taxi. Mr. Tong said he thought he had been to this restaurant before. As for Leslie, it was his first time at the restaurant. Mr. Tong knew a lot about Japan since he had visited Tokyo many times with his family or friends. He was much more familiar with Tokyo than Leslie.