Advertisement
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film
LifestyleEntertainment

Anita Mui’s 10 best films ranked: from Rouge to July Rhapsody, Hong Kong actress’ greatest performances

  • In a 15-year film career Mui played some memorable roles, including a mafia boss in A Better Tomorrow III and a martial arts maestro in Justice, My Foot!
  • The co-stars she appeared with include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Stephen Chow, Maggie Cheung, Tong Leung Ka-fai and Chow Yun-fat

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Anita Mui in a scene from her debut film Rouge (1987), for which she won best actress awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Taipei’s Golden Horse Awards, and Asia Pacific Film Festival. It was one of the highlights of the late singer’s 15-year film career. Photo: Golden Harvest
Elaine Yau

Canto-pop singer Anita Mui Yim-fong had record-breaking album sales, but her cinematic career deserves equal praise, if not more.

Advertisement

From portraying a plaintive prostitute who commits suicide after her lover’s family object to their relationship in Rouge (1987) to playing a mafia boss in A Better Tomorrow III (1989) to a martial arts maestro who saves her husband from trouble in Justice, My Foot! (1992), she mastered both comedic and tragic roles with aplomb.

Ahead of the cinema release of Anita, the first major film biopic of Mui, in Hong Kong in November, we rank her 10 best movies, from good to great.

10. Executioners (1993)

Director: Johnnie To Kei-fung

A sequel to the 1993 hit The Heroic Trio, the sci-fi movie stars Mui as one of a trio of female protagonists who have to find a clean source of water after a nuclear explosion, with the other two played by Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng. Mui earned much applause for her role of a dogged woman determined to avenge her husband’s death.

9. Au Revoir, Mon Amour (1991)

Director: Tony Au Ting-ping

Advertisement