From romantic comedies to tragic dramas, this Hong Kong superstar’s filmography, cut short as it was, is full of timeless roles and unforgettable performances
In Hong Kong, there may be no other actress or songstress whose talent, stardom or cultural impact touches what Anita Mui managed to achieve in her career, which burnt so brightly and, sadly, all too brief.
October 10 marked the legendary entertainer’s would-have-been 59th birthday. We take a moment to celebrate Anita Mui, who was not only a captivating performer, but a cultural icon who redefined an age with her unique take on style, beauty and life.
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‘Rouge’ (1987)
This Stanley Kwan film stars Mui and Leslie Cheung, with whom she shared a similar rise to fame and an unbreakable friendship, as lovers in the 1930s. Mui plays Fleur, a courtesan, who falls for Cheung’s Chan Chen-pang, the son of a wealthy family who would never have accepted his romance with a lady of the evening. Fleur and Chen-pang make a pact to die by suicide and be together in death.
Fast forward to 1987, the ghost of Fleur appears to newspaperman Yuen, played by Alex Man, wanting to place an ad for her lover who she fears had been lost and who she’d been looking for in the afterlife for more than 50 years. Drawn by her beauty and the tragedy of her story, Yuen and his girlfriend Chor, played by Emily Chu, digs more into her romance with Chen-pang only to find more heartbreak.
For her work on Rouge, Mui won four best actress awards, including at the 1988 Golden Horse Film Festival and the 1989 Hong Kong Film Awards.