'Everything's fine now,' Fan Bingbing says as she returns to the spotlight in Berlin
Fan Bingbing, one of China's biggest film stars, strode onto the Berlinale red carpet on Thursday, marking her return to cinema following a five-year pause.
Her reappearance also spotlighted the return of Chinese-language film to the international stage, as mainland China and Hong Kong have eased zero-Covid policies, allowing for international travel.
Fan disappeared from public view in 2018, prompting international speculation about her whereabouts, before Chinese authorities handed her an 883 million yuan ($129 million) fine for tax evasion months later.
Her role in "Green Night" - a racy thriller by Chinese director Han Shuai set in the crime-infested underworld of Seoul, South Korea - brings that chapter to a close.
"Yes, so, of course, I'm really happy a lot of fans come here and saw this movie, yeah. But today it's raining here, so maybe it's very lucky for me," Fan told Reuters on the red carpet.
"I was at home. I'd really like to thank my friends around the world for the concern they've shown. I was well and at home, dealing with some things. Everyone's life has highs and lows and when you reach a low, you gradually and steadily start to climb back up again," Fan said.
"It's a very tough process, but at the same time, you learn a lot of new things and also learn to see things and people in a new way. I think, in retrospect, it was a very good experience for me. So, thank you very much for asking the question and everything is fine with me now," she said, adding it had been difficult to restart her career after the lengthy break.
In "Green Night", which features both Mandarin and Korean dialogue, Fan plays the role of Jin Xia, a Chinese immigrant working as a security guard at Seoul airport.
There, she encounters the Green-Haired Woman, a mysterious and rebellious drug trafficker played by Korean actress Lee Joo-young, who leads her on a journey through Seoul's gritty underworld.
The duo pursue one another through neon-lit backstreets, glow-in-the-dark bowling alleys and grubby eateries, evading dangerous drug barons and murdering Xia's abusive husband, before embarking on a passionate lesbian affair that ends in heartbreak.
"All of it was difficult for me, yes because of the language, about Korean, about the pandemic when we shoot, that time the pandemic is very heavy in Korea, so all of it is really difficult for us," Fan said of the process of making the movie, which was shot last year.
"Actually the language barrier, the language barrier is not a big problem in our project," said Lee of the experience. "Even though we are from different cultures and speak different languages, we share the same heart," she added.
Fan told Reuters she was already preparing for a new film project.
"I'm just reading a new screenplay. Yes, maybe we can create another different role, yeah, next time," she said.
Reuters
