Gong Li
$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://pdngallery.com/legends/legends6/images/large/gong_li.jpg')
Long the muse of leading Chinese "Fifth Generation" filmmaker Zhang Yimou, Gong Li began her film career when she met the director while in drama school. She and Zhang received considerable international acclaim with their debut, "Red Sorghum" (1987), in which Gong played a meek bride who becomes a powerful woman when she takes over her husband's winery after his death.
One of China's leading young stars of the 1980s and 90s, Gong has appeared in films by other directors ("The Empress Dowager" 1988, directed by Li Hanxiang; "The Terra Cotta Warrior", in which she acted opposite Zhang) but it is in Zhang's films that she is best known internationally. Slender and demure-looking but possessing a naturalistic verve and strength onscreen, Gong Li embodies a new generation of Chinese women, brought up amid ancient tradition but reaching toward feminist values. In the title role of "Ju Dou" (1990), she played a married woman whose torrid affair with her husband's nephew brings about tragic consequences, while in "Raise the Red Lantern" (1991) her character also causes trouble as the newest addition to a man's bevy of wives. Gong ventured into comedy with another eponymous heroine in "The Story of Qiu Ju" (1992) as a woman farmer determined to avenge an injustice done to her husband. In 1993, Gong Li starred in a film by another Fifth Generation stalwart, Chen Kaige, "Farewell to My Concubine" which shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes for best picture.
Zhang once again directed Gong Li in the well-received historical epic "To Live" (1994), which followed a married couple over 30 years of modern Chinese history. Uncharacteristically, Gong Li's role as a devoted wife and mother was overshadowed by that of a strong male lead, actor Ge You, who played her husband. The pair's next collaboration "Shanghai Triad" (1995) offered Gong Li a tour-de-force role as a nightclub chanteuse and gangster's moll. She reteamed with Chen Kaige for "Temptress Moon" (1996), in which she essays the role of an isolated, spoiled heiress. Two years later, Gong made her English-language debut in Wayne Wang's "Chinese Box", staring opposite Jeremy Irons.
* Born:
on 12/31/65 in Shenyang, China
* Job Titles:
Actor, Teacher
Family
* Parents:
* Siblings: youngest of several children
* Step-daughter: born c. 1978
Significant Others
* Husband: Ooi Hoe Seong. married on February 15, 1996 in Singapore; born c. 1950; executive with British American Tobacco in Hong Kong; first met in 1993 at a car race
* Companion: Zhang Yimou. together for eight years; born in 1950; married; separated from Gong Li in 1995
Education
* Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, China, 1989
Milestones
* 1985 Entered the Central Academy of Drama against the wishes of her parents
* 1987 Film debut, "Red Sorghum"
* 1990 Played opposite director Zhang Yimou in the adventure comedy, "The Terra Cotta Warrior"
* 1990 Starred in Zhang Yimou's "Ju Dou"
* 1991 Reunited with Zhang Yimou to star in "Raise the Red Lantern"
* 1992 Had title role in "The Story of Qiu Ju", directed by Zhang Yimou
* 1993 Initial collaboration with Chen Kaige, "Farewell My Concubine"
* 1994 Reunited with Zhang Yimou for "To Live"
* 1995 Had co-starring role in "Shanghai Triad"; last film collaboration with Zhang Yimou
* 1996 Second film with Chen Kaige "Temptress Moon"
* 1998 Appeared in first English-language role in "Chinese Box", opposite Jeremy Irons
* 1999 Reunited with Chen Kaige to star in "The Emperor and the Assassin"
* 2000 Headlined "Breaking the Silence", directed by Sun Zhou
* Stayed on at the Central Academy of Drama as an instructor
* Was the subject of the popular Hong Kong documentary, "The Rising Star: Gong Li", directed by Kam Kwok-leung
credit to http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contri...1800020352/bio
Gong Li
Birth Date: 12/31/1965
Height: 168cm
Weight: 56kg
Hobbies: Travel, Cooking
Gong Li
Filmography (Selected)
Actor-----
Memoirs of a Geisha (2004)
Eros (2004)
2046 (2004)
Zhou Yu's Train (2002)
Breaking the Silence (1999)
Assassin, The (1999)
Chinese Box (1997)
Temptress Moon (1996)
Shanghai Triad (1995)
King of Western Chu (1994)
Lifetime (1994)
Flirting Scholar, The (1993)
Farewell, My Concubine (1993)
Story of Qiu Ju, The (1992)
Mary From Beijing (1992)
Back to Shanghai (1991)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Banquet, The (1991)
Ju Dou (1990)
Terracotta Warrior, a (1989)
Empress Dowager, The (1989)
Mr. Sunshine (1989)
Puma Action, The (1988)
Red Sorghum (1987)
credit to http://www.cinespot.com/filmpeople/ecngongli.html