The Thinking Machine 37

A special alchemy between a director and an actor happens when the bodily form and manner of the performer also gives rise to a uniquely cinematic form. Such is the case with Wong Kar-wai and Leslie Cheung (1956-2003), as this new video-essay by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin shows.

The alchemy between Wong and Cheung was there right from the beginning in their first, immortal collaboration, Days of Being Wild (1990). Observe the choreography of Leslie and Maggie Cheung in space, the frame-play of entries and exits, the light, the sounds, the glances… Leslie Cheung was a phantom of film, completely physical and yet disincarnated, disembodied.