It is a common complaint in the entertainment industry that the brighter a celebrity's star shines, the more difficult it is to gauge who is a true friend and who is simply basking in the borrowed glow of another's stardom. Leslie Cheung was very lucky that he had many true friends during his life, and among his closest friends was fellow Cantopop idol and film star, Anita Mui. Anita was just as big a breakout star as Leslie, redefining Cantopop music and bringing a very different character to film roles than her peers. She was subject to many of the same demands and pressures as Leslie, and both shared many similar triumphs in the entertainment business. For Anita, Leslie was always her trusted "big brother," a confident who cared for her and enjoyed her company throughout his life. They had a great stage chemistry and performed a number of memorable duets on stage together over the years. 

If a recurring song ran through their Cantopop appearances, however, it was their duet of the song "Fate"  (Yuen Fan). They performed it on many occasions from the mid-1980s until 2002. Like a pair of bookends, this soulful duet bracketed their professional collaboration, and those performances stand as some of the most memorable duets in Cantopop history. 

Without any possibility of seeing you again

Not even half whispers of complaint

There are too many moments of silence

The past is finally the past

Leaving everything from that time gone by

Only to reminisce

Anita:

Each piece of perfect snippets

The sea of my brain will not let go of the ideal

Is it not true that we can prove he and I once had the same fate?

 

Leslie:

Within this suffering, we turned over each choice

Unfortunately, the outcome is in front of our eyes

The truth is, our fates do not intersect

I no longer have any idea of what to do

In the future how will we meet?

 

Anita:

You and I are separated by quite a distance

How can we alter heaven (fate) so we can see each other again?

What can possibly change this situation?

 

Anita:

You and I are separated by quite a distance

Leslie:

You and I are separated by quite a distance

 

Anita:

How can we alter heaven (fate) so we can see each other again?

Leslie:

How can we alter heaven (fate) so we can see each other again?

 

Anita:

How can we make a change in this situation?

 

Leslie:

You and I are separated by quite a distance

Anita:

You and I are separated by quite a distance

 

Leslie:

How can we alter heaven (fate) so we can see each other again?

Anita:

How can we alter heaven (fate) so we can see each other again?

Both:

How can we change fate?

Video:

Leslie Cheung and and Anita Mui were both signed to Capital Records in the early 1980s. As label-mates, they were often paired in tours across Southeast Asia, and so they came to know one another very well. Both soon had break-out records and became bestselling artists on their way to becoming Cantopop superstars. But no matter how brightly their stars shone, their deep and abiding friendship endured until the end.

In 1984 Leslie and Anita both starred in the movie, Behind The Yellow Line. It was Anita's first film role and she went on to win the award for Best Newcomer at that year's Hong Kong Film Awards. She sang the song "Yuen Fan" or "Fate." Here is a trailer for the film, which focuses, however, more on Leslie and Maggie Cheung than on Anita.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZqvLHNfw-Q

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxBi1EgTvyY

Leslie and Anita always looked like they were having so much fun when they performed together. The next video is taken from Leslie's 1985 Hong Kong Coliseum show. He begins singing Anita's big hit, "Love is Over," and then Anita takes the stage and sings the rest of the song. Shortly afterwards. Leslie returns to the stage and joins Anita for a rendition of "Dance Again" and, after some affectionate repartee, they sing their signature duet, "Fate."

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DUs2pv2pXc

Even singing a Chinese New Year's song on television, they look like they are having great fun together.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIiKt-3ElbE

More fun performing one of Anita's up-tempo hits.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IhrM3PC41o

The affection and playfulness that characterized their relationship is fully visible in their teasing exchange on stage at Leslie's 1986 Hong Kong Coliseum show.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9HtX7Rfges

Both Leslie and Anita starred in many Hong Kong movies over the years but, surprisingly, they shared the screen only a few times. The first time was in Behind the Yellow Line. The next time was in the 1986 television movie, Last Song in Paris. In Stanley Kwan's 1988 award-winning film, Rouge, Anita played a high-class prostitute and Leslie the son of a wealthy merchant family in 1930s Hong Kong. Master Twelve met and fell in love with Fleur but, when they approached his family for permission to marry, it was denied. As a result, Fleur convinced Master Twelve to commit suicide with her, reasoning if they could not be together in life, at least they could be together in death.  After fifty years of fruitless searching for Master Twelve in hell, Fleur leaves the realm of the dead and returns to a very changed Hong Kong in search of her lover. The movie was very well-received, and today it is considered one of the best films produced in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Anita won a best actress award for her role in this film.

Here is a fan video that surveys the tragic romance of Fleur and Master Twelve set to  "Life Flowing Like Water":  first with Anita's version, and then with Leslie's cover of the song from his Salute album.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paSBl3uI4g0

Their first meeting takes place while Fleur is singing a Cantonese opera number.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0yqOBh-h0c

The bittersweet theme song from Rouge became one of Anita's signature songs.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZ6QYNO4rk

Although Leslie never recorded this theme song for an album, he did perform it live at his 1988 Hong Kong Coliseum show.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_yGHrzi54

First it was Leslie who stepped away from the competitive and high pressure world of Cantopop music and then, a few years later, Anita followed suit. Consequently in the early and mid-1990s they no longer appeared together on stage. They did, however, co-star in Who's the Woman, Who's the Man, the sequel to the hugely popular He's a Woman, She's a Man. In this film, Anita plays an elusive, retired music idol who gets involved in the lives of Sam Koo and his protogee, Wing (a young woman impersonating a male Cantopop singer). In the scene below (beginning at 2:40), Wing  and Fan-Fan (Anita's character) are starring in a film that looks like a pastiche of Gone With the Wind and they are supposed to have a big, romantic kissing scene. The two women are nervous and Sam looks on, pleased, when the potentially romantic lip-lock is sabotaged by a bout of nerves on the part of Wing and Fan Fan, or is it?

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th8nsRTWePI

Although they performed less often together in the 1990s and 2000s, Leslie and Anita continued to be great friends off stage, often attending the same public and private events.

Leslie also produced a hit for Anita, "Fong Wah" in 2001, and directed the music video.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Q-05uCXYY

Leslie's final live appearance came at Anita's Fantasy Gig 2002 in Hong Kong. They sang "Fong Wah" and then "Yuen Fan" together one last time. The love and tenderness that characterized this amazing professional and personal relationship is visible in the wordless exchanges between Leslie and Anita, played out totally unselfconsciously before the packed Hong Kong Coliseum crowd. Although this was Anita's show, she generously let Leslie take over her fans as his own for the duration of their duet. It was becoming known in the entertainment circle that Leslie was having health issues and he was already suffering from the depression that would take his life in only a few more months. Anita, herself, would not survive many months after Leslie's demise, a victim of cancer. 2003 closed with the loss of two of Hong Kong's greatest performers, who also happened to be the greatest of friends. Their last duet together is a summation and fitting tribute to two of the brightest stars of the Hong Kong entertainment world. It was indeed fate that brought tthem together, and a cruel fate that took them from us within months of one another.  

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsiJ5VGAFZ0&feature=youtu.be

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98VM1bN5L5k&feature=related