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SCMP Reporter

The first thing you notice about Shannon Lee - besides the resemblance to her famous father, Bruce Lee - is that she laughs a lot. Most of her sentences end with a burst of genuine mirth.

 'I feel very fortunate, and very happy,' she said; given the tragic, dramatic death of her father and, later, her brother Brandon, it is easy to imagine why she feels life, and happiness, are so precious.

 But she is talking about her devoted husband, law student Ian Kiesler, to whom she is 'equally devoted', and the fact that her acting career has progressed increasingly smoothly in the past two years.

 Lee was in Hong Kong to promote her first local film, directed by Corey Yuen Kwai, the martial-arts choreographer of Fong Sai Yuk and Lethal Weapon 4, and being released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of her father's death.

 Originally titled And Now You're Dead - which, given the events of the past, seemed overly morbid - the Golden Harvest production has since been changed to Enter The Eagle.

 It is, needless to say, an action film. But, unlike her father, who took on firepower with his bare fists, Lee plays a sharpshooting assassin with a few lethal kicks of her own.

 She is enlisted by professional thief Martin (Michael Wong) to join in a heist to steal The Czar's Prism, the largest diamond in the Czech Republic.

 They run into a maze of double-crosses and betrayals, and end up fighting for their lives.

 It is quite a power-packed performance from Lee who had not been a martial-arts practitioner until then.

 Unlike her brother, who died in a freak shooting accident on the set of The Crow in 1993, Lee - who has an option on a second film with Golden Harvest - had not always planned on being an actress.

 'Actually it was not natural to me at all. My brother always wanted to be an actor, from the time he was a very small boy. It was very natural for him. But I guess I didn't really even think about it too much. I dreamed about being in a movie or something but it just seemed like a dream,' she said, although she added in hindsight she had never been able to picture herself in any other career.

 'But when I finished college, I was trying to think of what I wanted to do and I really wanted to try this. It is something I have dreamed about. Even today I'm always amazed that this is really happening. I mean, I'm having an acting career now. I'm sort of surprised every day when my career continues to go along.'  Being who she is, Lee knows her career is inevitably going to include action films. So far, her Hollywood acting credits include Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Cage 2 and a recent television pilot for an action comedy, in which she plays a student who moonlights as a spy at night.

 Coming up will be a guest role in an episode of Martial Law, starring Hong Kong actor Sammo Hung, and a role in Stanley Tong's (Rumble In The Bronx) new action film.

 'People have those sorts of expectations. I'm looking forward to surprising them. Although this was my first full-fledged action film, it was a lot of fun. But I think that also because a lot of people will make a lot of comparisons, I have the desire to do other things as well. I'm hoping to,' she said.

 Director Yuen and his martial-arts choreographer, Yuen Tak, made things a little easier for Lee during the filming of Enter The Eagle by not expecting her to be an instant carbon copy of her father.

 'Corey had come down to Los Angeles to see me and do some workouts with me so he knew what my abilities were. So I think he was prepared. Yuen Tak, I met on the set and he was very kind,' she recalled.

 'Sometimes people would say to me: 'You know your father did this and that; try to capture that attitude.' But I didn't want that, I wanted to do my own thing. Yuen Tak would often take me aside and say: 'Don't worry about it. Just do what you feel comfortable doing.' '  Her mother, Linda, has been supportive of her decision to go carry on the family profession and spent a week in Prague where most of the location shooting was done.

 'We're both very grounded in the fact that what happened in my family were accidents. It's definitely something that is controllable. She knows I am very careful. I mean, accidents happen, but she was really very excited for me,' Lee added.

 The legacy of her family has been a good thing for her, she thinks. 'I guess it does open some doors in the sense that people are curious and interested to meet me. Then once they meet me, they have to decide whether I can do the job. It doesn't get me jobs . . . I still go for auditions and I still get rejected,' she said.

 'It is harder to get dramatic roles because everyone thinks: 'She's an action actor and a martial artist.' '  But 29-year-old Lee, who will be back in Hong Kong next week for the gala premiere of Enter The Eagle, might surprise her critics yet. She has plans to put her college degree - in vocal performance - to good use. She hopes to be able to perhaps work on an album or even a stage musical. 'I've always loved to sing; even as a kid, I was always making up songs. A lot of times I would drive around in my car singing at the top of my lungs. I'm sure I get a lot of strange looks from people,' she laughed.

 It was one of the reasons she enjoyed being on set for Enter The Eagle so much: 'One thing I noticed in the film was that everybody likes to sing. The Chinese crew would always be singing. It was nice.'  Despite her showbiz ambitions, Lee admitted that her family and her husband would always be her top priority. 'Right now, [Ian and I] think it is a good time for us to pursue the things we want in life because we're young and we don't have kids yet. So I'm working full-steam ahead for an acting career,' she said.

 'But the most important thing is family. If I feel that my career is starting to get in the way of that, then there are compromises that will have to be made. I'm always happiest when I'm with Ian anyway.' Enter The Eagle opens on the Panasia circuit next Thursday 



Shannon's fists of fortune