Tony Leung Chiu Wai lands first Golden Rooster Award for best actor

Tony Leung received his first Best Actor laurel at the Golden Rooster Awards for his performance in 'Hidden Blade'. Photo: Carina Lau/Instagram

Tony Leung Chiu Wai has made history as the first male actor to have completed a sweep of the top acting honours in Asia: Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards and, now, the Golden Rooster Awards.

On Saturday (Nov 4), the Hong Kong actor received his first Best Actor laurel at the Golden Rooster Awards for Hidden Blade (2023), an espionage thriller set in a turbulent Shanghai during China’s war of resistance against Japan in World War II.

Leung, who has been in the entertainment industry for more than 40 years, has won five Best Actor awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards and three Best Actor prizes at the Golden Horse Awards.

His feted roles are in films such as romance drama Happy Together (1997), crime thriller Infernal Affairs (2002) and erotic spy drama Lust, Caution (2007).

He received a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival in September.

Leung, 61, thanked Hidden Blade’s crew and dedicated his win to them during his short acceptance speech.

According to Chinese newspaper China Daily, Leung told local media after the ceremony that acting has enriched his life, as each character he portrayed has taught him new things and life lessons.

Leung’s wife Carina Lau – who was the 2007 Golden Rooster Best Actress winner for the thriller Curiosity Kills The Cat – posted photos on Instagram of Leung receiving his trophy with a simple “congratulations” caption.

Hidden Blade also received two other awards: Best Director for Chinese director Cheng Er and Best Editing.

The Best Actress award went to Chinese actress He Saifei for her performance in Off The Stage, a film that tells the story of a Shaoxing opera star and her family.

Chinese fantasy period blockbuster Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms, starring Chinese-American singer-actor Fei Xiang, took home two trophies, for Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography.

Launched in 1981, the Golden Rooster Awards is a national event headed by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Film Association. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network