Taipei: Award-winning Hong Kong actor Tony Leung joined Hungarian film director Ildik³ Enyedi at SPOT-Taipei to promote their new German philosophical drama, "Stille Freundin" (Silent Friend).

According to Focus Taiwan, the film, written and directed by Ildik³ Enyedi, stars Leung alongside a cast including L©a Seydoux, Martin Wuttke, Sylvester Groth, and Luna Wedler. It examines the connection between humans and nature through three narratives set in 1908, 1972, and 2020. The stories are interlinked by a ginkgo tree located in a botanical garden in the old German university town of Marburg.

Leung portrays Tony Wong, a neuroscientist from Hong Kong working as a professor in the town, who employs advanced neurological technology to read the emotions of the ancient ginkgo tree during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Leung returned to Taiwan for the first time in three years with his actress wife Carina Lau to promote the film, which will be officially released on the island on Friday. The actor, recognized with multiple best actor accolades, discussed his preparation process with the press in Taipei, stating he took six months to prepare for his character, savoring the process like a meal to be enjoyed slowly.

Both Ildik³ Enyedi and Leung are known for their introverted natures. Enyedi remarked that the small crew fostered camaraderie, turning the project group into a family.

On Monday, Leung was the keynote speaker at a Golden Horse Master Class during the Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival. He shared his experiences working with renowned Asian directors and how working with Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien on the 1989 film "A City of Sadness" influenced his acting and reading habits. For his role in "Silent Friend," Leung read books on neural science, botany, and philosophy provided by Enyedi.

At 63, Leung mentioned he is in the twilight of his career, which pushes him to explore new ventures with unfamiliar crews, as exemplified by "Silent Friend" and his role in the 2021 Marvel film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." Leung expressed a desire to try new things in this final phase of his performing life.