/ Women in Taipei star Gwei Lun-mei on her 20-year career: the award-winning Taiwanese actress debuted in youth romance Blue Gate Crossing and currently stars in Disney+’s hit streaming series

Dec 19 , 2022

Gwei Lun-mei, Taiwanese actress. Photo: Handout

XXIV 2022

After debuting in the film Blue Gate Crossing in 2002, Gwei has played a host of roles from a femme fatale in The Wild Goose Lake, to a student activist in Girlfriend, Boyfriend

She swears by her Chanel Premiére Edition Originale and enjoys Pilates, raising plants, reading and going out to dinner … when she isn’t busy prepping scripts

Gwei Lun-mei can truly appreciate how time can change and shape a character. Over the course of a 20-year career that has turned her into one of the most recognisable faces in Asia, Gwei has embodied all kinds of characters, including a time traveller in Secret, a cafe owner in Taipei Exchanges, a femme fatale in The Wild Goose Lake and a student activist in the award-winning Girlfriend, Boyfriend.

In her new hit streaming series, Women in Taipei, she plays out the 20-year evolution of a woman who goes from an ambitious go-getter from the southern city of Tainan, to an elegant cosmopolitan career woman climbing the social ladder in the glistening metropolis that is Taipei.

Rhydian Vaughan and Kwai Lun-mei in Women in Taipei. Photo: Disney+

Playing a character that spans such a long period requires a maturity and wisdom that can only come from the passage of time.

“Time pushes the start of a story, or it can even prolong the aftertaste that comes after a story ends,” Gwei says. “Time allows emotions to change. Time allows an actor to accumulate insights and experiences in life and human nature.”

Despite all the characters she has played and film sets she has worked on, her most memorable time as an actress remains the experience on her first film, 2002 youth romance Blue Gate Crossing.

“I will always remember that first character I played in the beginning of my acting career and the final shot of production on that first film,” she recounts. “We were sitting by the sea, and I bawled as I deeply felt the pain of separation for the first time. I thought that I would never again meet this group of friends that came together for this film, after we had become as close as family.”

Taiwan actress Gwei Lun-mei and Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-wan display trophies after winning the best leading actress and the best leading actor during the 49th Golden Horse Film Awards in Ilan, in November 2012. Photo: AFP Photo

Now that her career has gone through its own two-decade evolution, Gwei has come to realise that time has also brought inevitable changes to her career as she has grown older: “In the face of ageing, time is fair and equal to all. Because of this, an actress must learn to adjust her mentality as she faces her gradually ageing skin.”

After such time in the business, Gwei has reached a point where she can honestly reflect on her experiences. Yet at only 38 years old, she also has the luxury of looking forward at the long, long road still ahead.