Chien-Lien Wu

Wu Chien-Lien was born on July 3, 1968 in Taipei. Inspired by Fame (USA 1980) she entered the Taipei National University of Art after finishing high school she earned tuition money during the summer by singing commercial jingles and back-up vocals. Famous actress Sylvia Chang happened to come across a striking photograph of her at the record company where Wu worked and sent it along to Johnnie To, who was casting for a new movie. That movie was, the now classic A Moment of Romance (1990), which launched Wu into stardom across Asia. Over the next few years Wu continued with her studies while appearing in few films here and there. In 1994, she was nominated for a HKFA Best Actress Award for her performance in the UFO horror film The Returning, appeared in Ang Lee's acclaimed Eat Drink Man Woman (TAIWAN 1994), and also made her debut as a singer. Though blessed with a serene face and slender frame she has effectively been cast against type as cold-blooded killers in the Milkyway films Beyond Hypothermia (1996) and Intruder (1997). Her most acclaimed role to date is that of an ill-fated but determined young woman in Ann Hui's Eighteen Springs (1997), for which she garnered a HKFA Best Actress nomination and took home the Hong Kong Critics Society Best Actress Award. She most recently took on the role of tragic 30s actress Ruan Ling-Yu in a Mainland TV series. Since 1998 Wu has worked in China, Singapore, and even in Korea, where many people still remember her fondly from A Moment of Romance. In general, Wu has managed to keep a low profile and has avoided the usual celebrity relationship gossip for much of her career. Wu has reportedly insisted that she has no intentions of retiring from acting when or if she gets married.