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Shu Qi (born April 16, 1976) is the stage name of a Taiwanese actress born Lin Li-Hui. Her stage name is occasionally romanized as Hsu Chi or Shu Kei (Cantonese). Her name is sometimes seen in the Western order as Qi Shu. Born to a financially challenged family in Sindian City, Taipei County, the young Shu Qi moved to Hong Kong at the age of 17 where she became a model for nude girls magazines and softcore movie shorts, but she never worked for porn entertainment. She eventually came under the management of Hong Kong producer Manfred Wong, who signed her on to several softcore Hong Kong films such as Sex & Zen II. After establishing herself as a model and soft porn actress, Shu Qi branched out into mainstream film. She is known for starring in Gorgeous with Jackie Chan and the international hit, So Close. Shu Qi is by and large an actress in Chinese films, but she impressed American audiences in her first and only English film, 2002's The Transporter. At 16 years old, she left home and stayed away for six months, living with friends and taking on odd jobs to earn money. However, these jobs did not offer a significant salary, and so, when Shu Qi was approached by a modeling agency, she jumped at the opportunity. With a great figure and exotic face, she started modeling at 17 and did some very naughty photo shoots for magazines in the three years that followed. In 1996, Shu Qi translated her still work to film, moving to the soft porn industry. Films like Sex & Zen II (Yu po tuan er zhi yu nu xia jing) and Viva Erotica (Se qing nan nu) represented her contribution to the genre and won her praise as a sexy, poised "actress." Her manager/agent Manfred Wong, who had initially noticed her on a magazine cover, sung her praises for Viva Erotica and spread the word about this budding actress. She starred in Derek Yee's 1996 film, Viva Erotica, which was about the erotic film industry in Hong Kong, opposite the late Leslie Cheung and Karen Morris. At the Hong Kong Film Awards, she received the Best Supporting Actress award for the film. Since then, she has appeared in mainstream Hong Kong films such as Gorgeous (1998) opposite Jackie Chan, Stanley Kwan's The Island Tales (1999) and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's critically acclaimed Millennium Mambo (2000). In 1999, Ang Lee approached Shu for the role of Jen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Six weeks into filming, her manager, Manfred Wong, not foreseeing the film's massive international success, pulled her out to do a soft drink commercial in Japan, and the part went instead to Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. Though the transition from adult to mainstream film is not easy to make, Shu Qi performed the feat with ease. At first, she was cast in typically subordinate female roles that are commonplace in Hong Kong cinema; see her in Growing Up, Queer Story and Till Death Do Us Laugh. Despite the redundant roles, Shu Qi became a workaholic, starring in five movies in 1997. Impressively, Shu Qi doubled her output in 1998. With films like 1998's Portland Street Blues and City of Glass, Shu Qi was recognized as a versatile actress who could dominate the silver screen. Shu Qi emerged as China's favorite leading lady in 1999 when she appeared opposite Jackie Chan in Gorgeous (Bor lei jun). Though she turned down the role ultimately filled by Zhang Ziyi in 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Shu Qi maintained her celebrity in the new millennium. In 2002, Shu Qi showed off her ability to satisfy an international audience in the successful The Transporter, her only appearance in an English film. That same year, Shun Qi was the feature star in So Close (Chik yeung tin sai), an extremely entertaining action hit that gained acclaim from critics around the world. In 2002, she appeared in the Hollywood film The Transporter and the Asian action film So Close. In 2004, she played the main role in the Hong Kong horror film The Eye 2. In 2005 she won the Best Actress Award at the 2005 Golden Horse Awards for her three roles in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Three Times. In 2008 she was member of the jury of the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival. |
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