THAT silky voice may be the same one that made him the King of Canto-pop, but former pin-up Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing is singing a radically different tune today.

Gone are the flamboyant stage costumes and attendant hordes of the late 1980s, and in their place are a quiet lifestyle allied to a new-found movie career, which Cheung loves with a passion.

"This is the real me," insisted the boyish-looking thirty something (he sure isn't telling) in a rare interview since his abrupt departure from the pop scene, and Hong Kong, three years ago.

"I am more relaxed. I don't really want the pop idol image - I've done it before. You have to let go. I want to keep a low profile," he said, adding: "I am very much a serious actor."

If there were any doubts about that before, this week confirms it. His most recent film, Farewell to My Concubine, is in competition at the Cannes International Film Festival this week. The Chen Kaige epic that spans 70 years stands a good chance of laying claim to one of the top prizes, if not the Grand Prize, the Palrne D'Or, itself.

With so much attention focused on Farewell, and Chinese cinema in general (a record three Chinese films are in circulation at Cannes this year ), Cheung's name is bound to be bandied about in international film circles.

But put this to Cheung and he will tell you that fate is simply taking its course. It was fate three years ago that took Cheung from a marathon farewell concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum to Canada and convinced him that he should settle in Vancouver. And having made the surprising move, he thought it was for good. 

 "While I was travelling around in Canada, I never thought I would come back to Hong Kong," he said. "I had been touring and I felt it was the right place to stay. Vancouver is pretty and quiet and it is easy to make friends. It is much more 'hang-loose' than Hong Kong."

But Cheung likes to tell the story of how he woke up one morning and could not take lifestyle anymore. The man who usually chooses his words so carefully, casually adds a four letter expletive to emphasize just how boring his life was.

Help came in the form of a friend and colleague, Hollywood hot-property John Woo, who did his best to persuade Cheung to return to Hong Kong. But despite the deadening effects of the Canadian work environment and dissatisfaction with his own choice, Cheung was reluctant to return to Hong Kong. It took several insistent phone calls from Woo, and a Hong Kong Film Award for one of his rare pre-Canada performances ~ in director Stanley Kwan's Rouge - before he could be lured back.

"I believe in fate - it seems like some kind of strange power tried to grab me back," he said. "Two years ago, John called me and asked me why didn't I make a comeback. I thought it would be hard, as I was not sure what the response would be.

"Then I got the Best Actor award, and I wasn't even there (to pick up his award). John called again and said that he, Wong Kar-wai and other top directors wanted me to come back and be in the movies." It was an offer he couldn't refuse. Once more Cheung packed his bags and faced a dramatic change of lifestyle. But change is something Cheung seems to attract.

He sheds personae the way a snake sheds skins. In fact, the ability to take on new roles is exactly what keeps him coming back for more where acting is concerned. He happily turned his back on his singing for a chance on the silver screen.

"It [acting] is fascinating," he said, his voice changing, an almost childlike awe creeping in. ' "Every time you do a film it is like you live another life." The fact that he has found his true metier, though, does not mean he only accepts every offer that comes his way. Fussy as a feline, Cheung picks and chooses his way through scripts, looking for just the right product.

He considers himself a serious artist and wants to be seen as such. "My acting career is a bonus because I was planning to retire," he said. "But now, I don't think I'm going to retire. I will just a hang out and do whatever, I like. Pick the right scripts.

"Maybe I will do three movies consecutively or travel around and then do one movie in a year. It doesn't really matter that much to me materially."

Expressing a surprising and impassioned contempt for the Hong Kong film industry, which he considers too formulaic and commercial, Cheung is careful to select the right directors with whom to work. He is currently shooting a film with director Wong Kar-wai, and his respect is obvious.

Having made his post-Canada comeback in Wong's The Days of Being Wild, Cheung already has an established rapport with the director and is happy to work with him again. "Wong is an excellent director, the best in Hong Kong, and very uncommercial," he said.

With a sly smile and a catch in his voice, he described his role in the new film, tentatively titled East vs. West. "I play a very ..." he paused for dramatic effect, "wicked person." 

That part, playing the agent for a contract killer in the kung fu costume drama, represents a radical departure for Cheung from his last on-screen persona: that of Cheng Deiyi, the effeminate Peking opera singer in love with his stage partner in Farewell to My Concubine.

It is a measure of Cheung's new-found status that he has been given lead billing in the Wong film ahead of co-stars like Tony Leung Chiu-wai, current Canto-pop idol Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau and Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia.

Cheung insists he doesn't care what role he is offered as long as the script is good. It was that which attracted him to the Concubine project; and the chance to work with one of China's leading directors and cinematographers was too good to pass up.

"It was a very rare opportunity for a Hong Kong person to work with the top guys in China," he said. "Hopefully, this will be more the case. I think Hong Kong movies are going down the tubes. They are too commercial. I hate them. But this script was excellent and I thought it would be a good idea to work with them. After all, '97 is drawing near," he said.

While his days of being wild appear to have been exchanged for more serious times, Cheung has no qualms about the way he wants his life, and career, to go.

"I think I can do movies more successfully than singing. I think I can do a lot better in movies," he said. And the scary thing is that he didn't do badly at music at all.