Word: actresses
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...ditzy spray-on sex doll her earlier films tended to serve up. It's a psychological drama that charts the wrenching of her separate attraction for two very different men, and she gets to cry rather than squeal. "This is the best work I have ever done," allows the actress, sipping a glass of red wine, her favored quaff, in a trendy Hong Kong bar. "I'm seeing a different self in the film. It's so real, so much more genuine...
...both of their sakes, she stripped. In Sex and Zen II she played an evil spirit who sucks the energy from her victims. In one notable scene she makes lesbian-then-macho love (with a strap-on appendage) to heroine Loletta Lee, a 29-year-old actress who had sexed her way through much of the same fare. She was instantly noticed: half demonic, half nymph-gazing-through-the-eyes-of-the-worldly-whore. Wong Jing, at that time Hong Kong's most successful filmmaker, proclaimed that Shu Qi would one day be famous...
...missing out on some big roles. Taiwan director Sylvia Chang chose then Hong Kong It-Girl Gigi Leung over Shu Qi for Tempting Heart in 1999, fearing the growth of the character from teenage girl to mature woman would be too much of a stretch for Shu Qi. The actress, Chang feared, couldn't successfully communicate innocent. For good reason. "At 13, I'd done what most people do by the time they're 16," says Shu Qi, "at 20, what most do by the time they're 25." And thanks to manager Wong, she kept doing it and doing...
...womanwithal in the clever porn-parody Viva Erotica, her sixth Hong Kong film. Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas Tse says she "intimidated" him in Young and Dangerous: The Prequel, even though she came with none of what he calls "that big star shit." He concludes: "She's the only actress I'd pay money to go and watch in Hong Kong." Mainland Chinese actor Geng Le, who worked with her in Beijing Rocks, calls her "effortless," which he clearly means as a compliment. Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung bursts with praise. "She told me she wants to give up acting," Cheung...
...about giving up the part? "These things are all about timing," she snaps. "For God's sake, don't give me a hard time. It's not like I haven't been trying." She has a point. Directors routinely talk of Shu Qi's soul as an actress?and how little of that essence makes it to the big screen. And that pinpoints one of the biggest problems with Hong Kong's cinema industry, now so celebrated in Hollywood. Drama isn't deemed commercially viable enough. The only genre now being made is action-latte. If Shu Qi is half...