Chicago:Tribute to Gay Actor at Siskel's
15th Annual Hong Kong Film Festival
CHICAGO, IL - When gay Hong Kong pop star and actor Leslie Chung took his own life this past April 1, hundreds of fans turned out for the funeral, while more laid flowers and wreaths at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Hotel, site of his death, and his home in Kowloon. Chicago fans of Cheung and his films will have a unique opportunity to pay tribute to the late star, as three of his most famous films will be screened as part of the 15th Annual Hong Kong Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center starting May 2 and running throughout May.
Writes the Barbara Scharres of the Siskel Film Center "John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW (1986) wasn't Leslie Cheung's first film, but it was the first one that mattered." In A BETTER TOMORROW, Cheung plays a rookie cop rising through the ranks of the police force despite the taint on the family name from his gangster brother and his brother's partner, played by Chow Yun Fat
Cheung was the star of dozens of films, but first came to widespread fame in the west as the Peking opera star trapped in a tortured lifelong relationship with his same-sex stage partner in Chen Kaige's FAREWELL, MY CONCUBINE. The film was the winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993 and the 1994 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and may have helped set the stage for Cheung's "coming out" in 1997.
None suspected that the 2002 film INNER SENSES would be Leslie Cheung's last, despite his lasting depression. Eerily, at least one scene in INNER SENSES has Cheung's character poised on the brink of suicide. In the film, Cheung plays a psychiatrist treating a young woman with a long history of instability. Just as he succeeds in convincing her that the ghosts she sees are in his head, he is visited by the apparition of a women from his own past.
As part of the Siskel Film Center's 15th annual Hong Kong Film Festival, each of these famous Leslie Cheung films will be screened twice in part as a tribute to him.
" A BETTER TOMORROW (95 min, Cantonese with English subtitles) will screen on Thursday, May 22 at 6:00 pm and Sunday, May 25 at 5:00 pm.
" FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (155 min, Mandarin with English subtitles) will show on Saturday, May 24 at 2:15 pm, and Tuesday, May 27 at 6:30 pm.
" INNER SENSES (100 min, Cantonese with English subtitles) will screen on Friday, May 23 at 6:00 pm and Saturday, May 24 at 5:15 pm.
Tickets to each show are $8 ($4 for Siskel Film Center members) and can be purchased at the Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street, Chicago, or at TicketMaster.com. One pair of tickets to each screening will be given away in a drawing from April 30 to May 7 at ThirdCoastMarketing.com/ freestuff.html. For more information about the Siskel Film Center, visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org, or call (312) 846-2600. |
