It has been quite some time since I walked out of a movie theater still immersed in my thoughts. That movie is Hero.

The story is essentially Chinese. The dramatics is essentially Yimou. The cast is essentially Hong Kong and China’s elites.

Jet Li. Zhang Ziyi. Maggie Cheung. And of course, Tony Leung. Can’t get any better internationally known stars than that.

I left the theater pondering the movie. More so, I was revisiting my past infatuation with Tony Leung.

I had the biggest crush on Tony some time around 4th or 5th grade. He was starring in one of the Hong Kong martial arts television series. (I think it’s this one on IMDB: “The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre“.) Tony was flying across my television screen, brandishing his enemy with the mighty sword. What expressive eyes! And that boy-next-door smile! Being the hero of the series also helped. After that, I think there were other modern Hong Kong soaps that I followed religiously.

Let’s put it this way. I was so nuts about him that there has been only one set of puzzles I’ve ever completed in my life: a 500-piece set of a picture of Tony Leung.

Then I dumped Tony for Joey McEntyre around 6th grade.

Anyway. It’s like my revisiting Tom Cruise. Suddenly the people that I once idolized are showing up in my life, and I’m swooning over them all over again.

Why is that? I’m blaming it on the hormones. I’m approaching 30. Biological clock has got to have something to do with it.