Profile | Actress Shu Qi went from soft-porn to mainstream cinema star. Now she is a filmmaker too
‘A hard-working actress’ who ‘can do anything she wants to do’, a director once said of Shu Qi – a remark borne out by her subsequent career
Shu Qi is the rarest of all exceptions in a conservative Chinese society: she was a soft-porn model who switched to film and established herself as a bona fide superstar in world cinema.
After a body-baring start to her career, which saw her become a sex symbol in her native Taiwan and her adoptive home, Hong Kong, Shu has become one of the highest-paid and most critically acclaimed actresses in Chinese-language cinema.
The screen goddess has recently ventured into filmmaking and her directorial debut, Girl, is set for release in 2025.
In June 2024, Shu was invited to be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which hands out the annual Academy Awards also known as Oscars in Hollywood.
