Who is Tang Wei, star of Cannes festival hit Decision to Leave? Chinese actress has been in movies with Marvel’s Tony Leung and Chris Hemsworth

Tang Wei catapulted to fame in Ang Lee’s 2007 film Lust, Caution and has since acted in numerous movies – including 2015’s Blackhat with Chris Hemsworth

Her latest film, Decision to Leave, earned Park Chan-wook the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Tang has received high praise for her role in it

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Chinese actress Tang Wei attends the photo call at Cannes for the cast of Decision to Leave, the South Korean noir romance which won its director, Park Chan-wook, the best director prize at the international film festival. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:15pm, 31 May 2022

After years out of the international spotlight, Chinese actress Tang Wei has made her return in South Korean noir romance Decision to Leave, which was in competition for the Palme d’Or, the top prize, at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by Park Chan-wook, who won the best director prize at Cannes, Decision to Leave stars Tang as a widow and the prime suspect in a murder investigation and Korean actor Park Hae-il as a police detective who begins to fall for her.

The film – for which Tang has received high praise for her mesmerising performance – will be released in cinemas in late June.

Born in Hangzhou, eastern China, to a former stage actress and painter, Tang originally wanted to become a lawyer or an archaeologist but, following in her mother’s footsteps, she fell into acting after a few modelling jobs and a small role in television series Chinese Female Football.

Tang Wei (right) and Park Hae-il in a still from Decision to Leave.

The actress, who graduated from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, shot to fame after starring in Lust, Caution (2007), an erotic period film also starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and based on Eileen Chang Ai-ling’s book of the same name.