Tokyo: Tony Leung Hits the Cinema “Four to Five Times a Week” But Says Serving on Fest Jury Makes Him Nervous

Hong Kong movie icon Tony Leung, now in the fourth decade of his celebrated career, still hasn’t lost the habit of getting out to the movie theater. 

“Even to this day, I go and watch movies at the cinema four or five times a week,” the actor said Tuesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he is serving as the president of the event’s competition jury. “I’ve been doing this since I was small.”

But the actor — beloved by cineastes for his work in Won Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution, and Zhang Yimou’s Hero, among so many others — said judging movies during a film festival makes for a “totally different” viewing experience and that tends to leave him anxious. 

Leung is joined on the Tokyo jury this year by fellow Hong Kong film titan Johnnie To, Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi, Japanese actress Ai Hashimoto, and French actress Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of European film legends Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. 

“Watching movies while serving as the jury president and working alongside these wonderful jury panel members, I often feel that maybe I’m not educated enough — or maybe I’m not smart enough,” Leung said, laughing.

To, who directed Leung in the 1998 Hong Kong crime thriller The Longest Nite, was more sanguine about his role at the festival. The filmmaker — a noted gourmand and wine connoisseur, not to mention the creator of about a dozen Hong Kong classics, including Mad Detective, Election and Breaking News — said he visits Tokyo several times each year to enjoy Japan’s “wonderful cuisine.” He added that he and Leung had been sharing tips on their favorite restaurants in the Japanese capital, arguably the world’s greatest food city. But the director said he was also in Tokyo with “work to do” this week and would bring an open mind to the festival’s diverse film selection. 

“In the past, I had anticipation or expectations before watching a film. In most cases, I was disappointed,” To said. “So now, I try not to have any filters or assumptions before seeing a movie. It should be more intuitive,” he explained. “I just want to immerse myself in movies.” 

Mastroianni, whose latest feature, Marcello Mio, is set as the 2024 Tokyo fest’s closing feature, noted that Leung’s frequent moviegoing is far from the norm nowadays.

“Unfortunately, around the world now, the habit of going to the cinema is something very precious and very rare, because people have taken new habits — because of platforms, COVID and many other reasons,” she said. “I very much admire people who still fight to defend the film festivals, because I think it’s not only the occasion to discover wonderful filmmakers, but it’s also an opportunity to rediscover what it’s like watching a movie in a theater with people surrounding you — people you don’t know, but whom you’re going to share this wonderful experience with.”