The appearance of three new restorations of films starring Leslie Cheung provides a welcome premise to look back at the outsized accomplishments of the pop star and actor’s tragically brief life. Born in 1956 in Hong Kong, the city where he would take his own life in 2003, Cheung was both idolized and ridiculed for his androgynous persona and ambiguous sexual orientation, but this didn’t keep him from becoming one of the top stars in a still deeply homophobic industry, booking sold-out arena tours and giving career-highlight performances in films by Wong Kar-wai, Stanley Kwan, and John Woo. More than 20 years gone now, the “King of Cantopop” will never be dethroned.