Chinese actress Yan Yinan poses for a photo with Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai on Feb 12. Photo: Yan Yinan/Xiaohongshu
One would not begrudge Chinese actress Yan Yinan for waxing lyrical after meeting Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai.
Yan, 23, met Leung, 62, at a group dinner in Japan during Yuanxiao Festival. The annual Chinese lantern festival marking the 15th day of Chinese New Year fell on Feb 12 in 2025.
She posted on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu a short video of the occasion, titled “0.5m away from a movie star during Yuanxiao Festival”.
“I declare that I am the happiest girl today,” Yan wrote in Chinese on Feb 13. “I was lucky to have the opportunity to have dinner with Mr Tony Leung at a friend’s house.”
In the 15-second video, mandarin oranges and glasses of red wine were seen on the table, with Yan posing for a photo with Leung at the end of the clip.
“The moment he passed me the fish, I suddenly understood the tenderness in Wong Kar Wai’s lens,” she wrote, referring to the Hong Kong director who had cast Leung in films such as In The Mood For Love (2000) and 2046 (2004).
“It is said that his eyes can hold the entire galaxy, but only when I sit next to him do I understand that for some people, even silence is the whispering of the stars.
“At a moment when the city is full of bright lanterns, I suddenly discovered that the most dazzling starlight could quietly fall on the dining table of ordinary people.”
Yan then asked her 353,000 fans what their opening line would be if they met their male idols, without disclosing what she said to Leung.
Leung, who won Best Actor for a record sixth time at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April 2024 for crime drama The Goldfinger, has lived in Japan for more than 20 years.
The actor had said in past media interviews that he would travel to the country when he was not filming. He said he would sometimes go to Japan with his wife, Hong Kong actress Carina Lau, or alone if she was not free.
Lau, 59, is starring in The Truth About Lying, a play that will run at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts till Feb 23.
Yan appeared in Chinese acting reality show Ace Actress in 2021 and played a mermaid princess in the Chinese fantasy romance drama My Dear Mermaid (2022). – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
