She crossed Jackie Chan and vexed Peter Chan: how Anita Yuen, the Audrey Hepburn of Hong Kong cinema, made her mark playing forthright women
- Anita Yuen’s breakout role came playing a cancer patient in C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri. She was a natural quite unlike other Hong Kong actresses, one critic said
- She also had a reputation for being difficult to work with and sparked a 22-year feud with Jackie Chan, but for director Peter Chan her acting overrode all that
Viewed today, Hong Kong actress Anita Yuen Wing-yee’s portrayals of independent, forthright women in early 1990s films like He’s a Woman, She’s a Man and C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri do not seem that unusual.
But at the time, the way her characters spoke their minds and fearlessly tried to achieve what they wanted in life – and in love – struck a chord with young female viewers constrained by more conservative times.
“She tells the truth, and she also tells the guy, ‘I love you’. This is very different for a Chinese girl – that generation are still very old-fashioned. To say ‘I love you’ is not that difficult, but for Chinese girls [it is].”
Considering Yuen’s independent stance, and the tomboyish on-screen image she cultivated, it is surprising that her career started in a very conventional way – she was crowned Miss Hong Kong in 1990, at the age of 18.
This led to a contract with dominant terrestrial broadcaster TVB in the Hong Kong fashion, although Yuen took control of her career early on, and managed to whittle it down to two years instead of the customary five.