Taiwanese-born actress Kelly Lin Hsi-lei knew little about acting when she made her big screen debut in Wong Jing's gambling movie The Tricky Master 10 years ago, but found herself working alongside industry veterans such as Stephen Chow Sing-chi, Sandra Ng Kwan-yue and Nick Cheung Ka-fai.
Since then, Lin has starred in several of Wong's films, mostly typecast as the beautiful woman who steals the heart of the male lead, but the actress wants more than that. At 33, Lin is determined to prove that she can play deeper characters and in recent years she has been taking on more character-based roles in films such as Patrick Tam Ka-ming's After This, Our Exile (2006), Olivier Assayas' Boarding Gate (2007) and Johnnie To Kei-fung's Sparrow, released last year. She also signed with Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng's talent management company Stellar Entertainment last year in the hopes of furthering her career.
This week, Lin's latest film, Written By, directed by Wai Ka-fai, opened locally. Instead of her usual seductive character, Lin plays a devastated mother of two who loses her husband Tony (Sean Lau Ching-wan) in a car accident.
You worked with Wai Ka-fai and Sean Lau Ching-wan in Mad Detective in 2007. What was it like making another film with them?
Both Sean and Wai Ka-fai are very talented. I think the word crazy would better describe Wai; only God knows what he is thinking. Making Written By was like making a Johnnie To Kei-fung film: we didn't have a script. But as soon as Wai told me the story, I was intrigued. It was such a brilliant story and I knew immediately that I wanted to be in it.
What did making this film teach you?
It helped me understand more about life and death. We will all die some day, but this story taught me that it's important to treasure the time we have and the people who are in our lives now. So when their time comes or when ours does, we can accept it. I remember when a close uncle of mine died a few years ago, I was very upset, but I knew that he would have wanted me to move on and have a happy life. That is easy to say but when someone you love so much dies, it's hard to accept.