Actress Kara Hui ‘very satisfied’ with movie career that saw her dubbed a martial arts goddess, she says, and opens up about her challenging role in new period drama series Marvelous Women

Hui was a teenage nightclub dancer who became a martial arts film star in 1970s Hong Kong. She attributes her longevity to grit and keeping abreast of the times

In the hit period drama series Marvelous Women, now streaming, she plays an illiterate concubine raising a wayward son in a family of silk tapestry merchants

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Hong Kong actress Kara Hui plays an indulgent mother with a rebellious son in Marvelous Women, her latest role in an acting career that began in the 1970s.

Elaine Yau

Published: 7:15am, 20 Nov 2021Updated: 1:43pm, 20 Nov 2021

Recalling her long cinematic career, Hong Kong actress Kara Hui says she is proud of what she has achieved.

Dubbed the martial arts goddess of Hong Kong’s Shaw Studios in the 1980s, she was talent-spotted at the age of 15 while working as a dancer in a nightclub.

A disciple of renowned Hong Kong action choreographer Lau Kar-leung, Hui (also known as Wai Ying-hung and Kara Wai) won the best actress award in the first Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982 for her action-filled performance in My Young Auntie.

The veteran actress – currently starring in Chinese streaming series Marvelous Women – would go on to win many more awards, including the best actress prizes in the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards, for playing a dementia patient in Happiness, and in Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards the same year, for her performance as a cunning antique dealer in The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful.

Kara Wai as a dementia patient in Happiness, for which she won the best actress prize at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

“I am very satisfied with my body of work. I am happy that many people recognise my performances. I admire my grit and constant urge to keep abreast of the times,” she says.