He really got drunk when he played a part of a drunkard!

He really got drunk when he played a part of a drunkard!

The film shooting after Leslie had shaved his beard commenced at the Discovery Bay. Though we had a bitter experience at the MacDonald’s restaurant, we also had a lot of heart-warming episodes during the tracking report and all of them were so endearing and amusing that I still cannot help smiling when I remember them.

We enjoyed the picnic mood on board the ferry, but on arriving at the Bay, we shivered from the cold. After having a bite to eat at the MacDonald’s, we headed to the yacht marina where the movie was supposed to be filmed. It was getting darker and colder on the road along the sea.
When we went into the lobby of the marina, Leslie came close to me and whispered into my ear, “You had better go to the washroom. It is cold here and there will be no toilet from here.”

I think I should especially mention such kind of caring and tender consideration of Leslie. I used to smoke in those days. Leslie said that it was 3 years since he had given up smoking though he used to be a heavy smoker. When he saw me puffing away, he would say, “You had better give up smoking. If you quit smoking, you will be healthier and your skin will be smoother. My health condition has been very well since I stopped smoking!” On the other hand, whenever I was looking around restlessly with nothing to do, he would bring an ashtray from somewhere, put it in front of me and say, “How about a smoke?” I got the same words from him at the lobby of the marina. Returning from the washroom, I was shivering because of the coldness when Leslie brought an ashtray from the reception desk and put it in front of me saying, “Here you are!” I said, “Oh, thank you, but no thanks right now.” Then Leslie advised me “You had better smoke. Though I recommend you to stop smoking but having a cigarette will make you feel relax when your body is stiff because of the coldness and tension.” Following the advice of the ex-heavy smoker, I had a smoke. Leslie was looking at me a bit enviously while I was smoking.

As for the cigarette, there was a dramatic episode afterward, but it came after three years from this tracking report.

The film shooting at the yacht marina was held in a deluxe yacht borrowed from a rich English man. It was the scene in which the hero, who was an elite stock dealer, had lost all his money because of a plunge in the stock market and out of desperation he took to the bottle in his yacht. To my surprise, Leslie acted his role by gulping down real wine and whisky. He had to act out this scene several times until the director said OK, and each time he drank every drop up. I could see he was totally drunk in the later part of the scene. Though he had bloodshot eyes and he seemed too drunk to speak his lines clearly, he still acted his part perfectly. When the director finally said OK, a loud round of applause arose from all the crew. I was amazed and said to myself, “I thought he was totally drunk, but it was just his acting! How wonderful!” Then Leslie suddenly came close to me with his arms outstretched and his face with an awful look was just in front of my face! I was too surprised to cry and just ran away. Leslie started laughing loudly. He then took off his shirt while drinking wine directly from the bottle and began to dance. He was half-naked and singing “Ta la la…..” He was really tipsy just as I had thought!

After the shooting, Leslie and I walked slowly to the ferry port for about 20 minutes so that Leslie could sober up. While walking, Leslie still intoxicated from the wine, was chatting on with a lisp on a variety of things such as the down jacket that he bought and how he found his pair of very comfortable sneakers. The sneakers were a new design by New Balance and I was delighted to response that I had also bought the same type of sneakers. He also talked about an episode that happened while shooting the soccer scene in the movie, “Viva Erotica” (though I remembered we were talking about it, I regrettably forgot the content), and also about liquor, cooking, and so on. If I remember correctly, we also talked about Japanese actresses. I have forgotten what had led us onto the topic, but we were discussing something about the movie, “Moonlight Express”, in which he collaborated with Japanese actress, Takako Tokiwa. Our conversation then progressed to the topic of who would be a good actress if he were to team up with a Japanese actress the next time. He asked me, “Are there any actresses you would recommend me to team up with?” So I recalled the faces of the actresses who were playing in the movies or TV dramas in Japan at that time. Then I pointed out some of them who I thought were compatible with Leslie. Leslie knew about half of them. He said, “Oh, she was playing in that drama.” “Yes, I know her face. She is pretty.” The rest of them whom he didn’t know, he asked me curiously, “Oh, I didn’t know her. What kind of a person is she? Will you send me her pictures next time?”

Among the Hong Kong actresses, Leslie’s most favorite actress in those days was Karen Mok. From his words, Karen is extremely intelligent and she has a charming character. Later on with Leslie’s firsthand recommendation I had interviewed her for a chapter of the book, “Talking about true Leslie”. She was indeed a very gentle and honest girl and so I became her fan after I finished the interview.

There was another episode about Karen. In a press interview, Leslie was asked, “Who do you have in mind as the leading lady in your movie?”, and Leslie answered “Karen!” Then the reporter said, “She is not a beautiful girl, perhaps she is not suitable to be the heroin of a love story, is she?” Leslie replied, “Facial features are not so important. I can make her beautiful!”
Then the Hong Kong media reported what he said in a teasing way but I really understood what he really wanted to say. When I interviewed her, she didn’t wear any make-up. She might not be the typical beauty that Hong Kong media would praised, but her face is very radiant and I believed she would be very attractive with make up. With her slender style as well as her charming character, I thought she was very attractive.

As I mentioned before, Karen’s apartment was near Leslie’s house. The next day of the interview with Karen, I went to Leslie’s house. When I arrived at his house, Leslie came out of the front door asking, “Did you see Karen over there?” When I answered no, he said, “She had been to my house and went back home just now. She brought over a homemade cake. She said it was also for you!” He pointed at the big cake box on the table. It was a green tea cake, which was rare in Hong Kong. As is often the case with homemade cakes, it looked very plain and simple but it was very tasty. I asked Leslie, “Did she really make this cake by herself?” Leslie answered, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe her mother helped her.” I think the cake was a token of her gratitude to Leslie because he recommended her to me for the interview.

I thought it was very nice of her to bring a homemade cake instead of buying something expensive.

The movie in which Leslie was supposed to be a director and Karen as a heroin did not materialize forever. To tell you the truth, half a year after this interview, Leslie asked my advice on the movie. I am going to write about it in a later chapter.

I was in a cold sweat from the shortening of the length of his pants and the mystery about cognac.

The last photo shoot of this book was held in the lounge of the China Club. We had reserved the whole club for half a day. It is a members' club for the upper class in Hong Kong, and was used in a scene in the movie, “He's A Woman, She's A Man”. You might think it must be expensive to reserve it, but to tell you the truth, they offered it for nothing because Leslie was a member.

Many funny things happened in this club. I can say it was funny now, but at that time those events upset me very much.

The clothes Leslie wore on that day were by Hermes and Jil Sander. Leslie himself went to the shops and chose them a few days before.

We had already negotiated with the shop. We didn’t know exactly when Leslie would come, so I asked him to go to the shop and choose the clothes when he had some free time. According to the clerk in the shop (to the best of my memory, it was a Jil Sander shop), Leslie showed up unexpectedly. As soon as he entered the shop, he looked over all the clothes and pointed randomly at some of them, saying, “I am not sure I will wear it or not, but this one, that one, and, well, this one, too…” Then he left the shop quickly, saying, “Well, I will leave them to you!” It took only a few minutes for Leslie to do that. One of the clerks said, “We were looking forward to getting his autograph and had prepared a special card for it but he came to and left the shop like a wind. So I had no chance to ask him for his signature!” So we were handed a piece of paper and asked to get his autograph when we brought back the clothes.

The way Leslie had chosen his clothing, it ended up that the suits were not quite fitting for his size. One of them was the gray suit which was Leslie’s favorite. He insisted on wearing it although the jacket was too long and the pants were too big. We managed to fix the jacket by using clips which we tried to hide from the camera but it was very difficult to fix the length of the pants. Though we tried to take good pictures, it was obvious that the pants were too big. So the pictures which had his lower half of the body were not accepted after all.

Even though those pictures could not be used, we were making a strenuous effort during the photo shoot. In those days, the boutiques in Hong Kong weren’t used to lending their goods for photo shoots. The agent in Hong Kong tried hard to persuade them. Finally they reluctantly accepted the proposal on the condition that we would return all the clothes and shoes as good as new, and if there were to be any stains or damages, we would have to buy them at no discount.
We didn’t tell Leslie anything about the contract at first, so Leslie chose the clothes without considering the price. Each piece cost more than several thousand US dollars. The suit was so expensive that we wondered if the digits on the price tag were wrong!

This meant that we were not able to cut or sew up the hem of the pants. We managed to find a way to use paper adhesive tape to hem up the pants, but the tape didn’t stick, maybe because the material of the pants was too good. Though we were afraid that we might damage the texture, we had no choice except to use cloth adhesive tape. We used a small piece of the tape on a small section of the pants. We had already told Leslie about the contract and the price of the clothes, and asked him to treat them as carefully as possible. So a solemn Leslie took the pants with the cloth adhesive tape to the fitting room. He changed into the clothes and came out with exaggerated care. When we had taken all the photos, Leslie went slowly back to the fitting room. All of us heaved a sigh of relief when the photo shoot finished without a hitch. Then suddenly we heard a cry from the fitting room. “Come and help me!!” I sprang up from my seat. Leslie with a wretched expression on his face was unable to move and he was standing there still with those pants on. I looked at his feet and noticed that the bottom of the pants was strangely rolled up. When I touched the bottom of the pants, Leslie’s face twisted with pain and he cried, “Ouch!!” The adhesive tape had stuck to the hairs on his leg. On seeing that, I could not help letting out a suppressed laughter. Leslie glared at me but once I started laughing, it was difficult for me to stop. I still kept laughing while telling him, “Oh, it seems painful. Is it painful? It must hurt! How pitiful!!” Upon seeing my reaction, Leslie despite evidently in pain also started to laugh.
Both of them, Leslie and the pants, sticking and being stuck, were very expensive, so we had to be very careful when we tore off the tape. We finally managed it but the experience was upsetting.

During the photo shoot, there was a small conflict between Leslie and me. It was not a serious one, but somehow the episode was stuck in my mind and I cannot forget it. Though the photos were not in the book in the end, we had a plan to take some photos of Leslie drinking alcohol. I asked Leslie, who was making himself up in the waiting room, what kind of liquor he would like. Leslie thought for a while and said, “I’d like cognac!” He said it clearly. So I went to the restaurant in the club and came back with cognac. When I showed it to him, he gave me a bewildered look and asked, “What is it?” I answered, “Cognac!” I thought he was feigning ignorance. Then Leslie replied again with a wondering look, “Why?” “Because, you said, 'cognac'!” I was a bit offended by his words.

Leslie: “Me? Did I say such a thing?”

I: “Yes, you surely said so!”

Leslie: “I don’t think so.”

I: “Yes, you did!”

Leslie: “Well, you know, I don’t like cognac!”

I: “I don’t know whether you like cognac or not, but you certainly said cognac!”

Leslie: “But cognac is for old men. Don’t you know that?”

I: “……………”

He was impudent. Watching his face, I began to feel stupid about arguing. So I asked him, “Well, if you don’t like cognac, what would you like then?” Then Leslie replied with an innocent smile, as if there had been no conflict, “Well, let me see… maybe wine… Yes, I would like some wine!”
While writing this episode, I wonder why he said cognac once and then denied it firmly afterwards. I wonder if he insisted that he had never said such thing because he wanted to fool me, or maybe because he didn’t remember at all what he had said. If he really didn’t say it, I must have been daydreaming then. I don’t know which is true at all. It remains a mystery in my mind.

The Hopeless Hong Kong Movie World and the Ideal Country - Japan

On the last day of the three week tracking report, we celebrated it with a small party at the coffee shop in Peninsula Hotel. By that time, Leslie and I had become quite close friends. He was in a very happy mood because he was liberated from the hard schedule of the film shoot and interviews so we enjoyed our pleasant chatter till the midnight. As far as I can remember, at that time we made the plan that we would hold an autograph event when the book was published. Leslie was worried about the cost of the event that we would have to pay and he suggested that we wouldn’t have to pay his fee but just the expenses. I told Leslie that I wouldn’t trouble him coming all the way to Japan just for the few hours autograph event with no fee. But Leslie said to me, “Don’t worry. I am thinking about a trip to Japan, since spring is the best season to visit there. I will attend the event while I am touring Japan!”

The business talks with Leslie were always in such a way. I always discussed directly with Leslie about money, schedule and so on. In spite of his long career as a top star, he had a very good concept of economics. He had a strong principle that he was willing to spend money if necessary, but he would not waste money at all. Moreover this principle was applied to not only himself but also to the business counterparts. According to his principal, he would get the sales royalty from the books, as that was a business stipulation but as for the autograph event, it was not a business but a result of the discussion between friends. Leslie did not want us to incur unnecessary expense so we could save as much money as possible to make us breakeven.

Such kind consideration was one of his splendid characteristics. He tried to lighten the partner’s burden as much as possible depending on the partner’s situation. His decision was supported by his ability of quick calculation and his very good economic concept. However, seen from a different point of view, it might be said that his policy was “Get money from those who have a lot!” Actually I have heard some “not so good reputations” about the money sense of Leslie from the big companies’agents who had worked on business with Leslie. But I think Leslie knew it full well. Leslie seemed to think it was a very proper and reasonable maxim; “I won’t always say NO to doing what I don’t like to do, but I would want to be paid more if they insist that I do what I don’t want to do.” “I won’t demand too much from those who don’t have much money, but if they have a lot, I want to be well paid!”

I feel it is the typical maxim of Hong Kong people.

Friends and money are most important to them. Lacking either one, people would not be able to survive in Hong Kong. There is no correlation between the value of friendship and the quest for financial gains from the affluent.

Well get the story back to the main stream.

At first Leslie was supposed to sign 300 autographs. We thought the number was very appropriate. Leslie said he would sign his signature on the book while shaking hands and having a few words with the fans. (It is the typical autograph event in the book store when a new book is published) It would take 20~30 seconds per person. If he would work without any break, 300 people would be the maximum number to be able to deal within 2 hours. We took it for granted that we would be holding the event at the corner of a book store. Little did Leslie and I dream that this event would be such a big scale event which was later called “The unprecedented autograph event for the newly published book”.

We talked about a lot of things during this night, but I hardly remember them now. The only one I remembered clearly was his aspirations for the future.

When I asked him, “Is it your dream in the future to become a director?” Leslie replied like this:
Leslie: “I would like to direct some movies. When I consulted with some directors who were my friends, they all said, “You had better be an actor as long as possible!” But I am not so interested in acting any more. Those who make the movies are not actors but the directors! After all, an actor is only one of the chessmen on the board.

I: “I hope you will be a great director who will shoulder the future of Hong Kong’s movie world!”

Then he said to me with a slight gloomy face,

Leslie: “As for the Hong Kong movie world, the movie industry is in its twilight years. I don’t think it will recover its past glory. Even though we are making movies, the pirated edition would come out very quickly. The police are reluctant to control them for fear of confrontation with the Mafia. Though the quality of the sound and pictures are very poor, people in Hong Kong are contented with these pirated versions and wouldn’t come to the movie theatres any more. They don’t care much about the movies. That is why the situation of the cinema world in Hong Kong is deteriorating and we cannot make good movies. It is a vicious circle. They don’t notice they are standing in the way of their own promotion. Even if some of them realize it, they won’t do anything. I think the movie world in Hong Kong is going downhill gradually. So I don’t have much hope in Hong Kong.”

Then he continued,

Leslie: “I am thinking about moving abroad in about 5 years. Hong Kong is not the place to enjoy the rest of my life. I have failed when I had immigrated to Canada, so maybe England. I think I am not the type to live in the countryside.

So I asked him, “Why don’t you come to Japan?”, then Leslie said with the best smile I had ever seen, “Japan! Oh, I’d love to! My most favorite country in the world! Japan is my ideal country. I am sure I will get along well with Japanese!”

But after saying that, his face was clouded and continued, “But there is a big problem. The language barrier! I love Japan, but Japan is not easy for the Asian who cannot speak Japanese to live in. If I were a little bit younger, I would study Japanese hard, but it is too late for me now. If I could make myself understand in English in Japan, I would immigrate to Japan without any hesitation.”

I remembered that he had said that Japan was his ideal country several times. It was not just his vague image.

He had a reasonable ground for such thoughts. Firstly Japan is the safest country in the world and secondly it is the international big city where he can get anything he wants from all over the world. Thirdly there are many beautiful sceneries and nature is not so far from the city.
The final and the most important point was Leslie was not as famous in Japan as in Hong Kong but at the same time he was not so much an unknown that nobody knew about him. It meant that he could go anywhere freely without any fuss or being stared at, because most Japanese didn’t know him but yet he was popular enough to draw a full audience if he wanted to do something in Japan. It would be also possible for him to attend some cultural events as a guest in Japan.

I thought what he had said was quite reasonable. Japan might be an ideal country for him. Japan was able to fulfill his requirements in every respect except the language barrier and this was the ultimate drawback for him…

On our parting, Leslie held out his arms and embraced me tight with all his strength. Seen from the distance, he looked rather small and slender but when I was embraced by him with his whole body, I could feel his robust and muscular body. “Take care, and see you soon!!” Those were his words of farewell then.