Crystal Liu Leads Off Actress Contingent at Red Carpet at the 2017 Beijing International Film Festival

This past weekend was the kick off red carpet of the 2017 Beijing International Film Festival, only in its 7th year since starting in 2011 and with plenty of catch up needed to rival the biggest Asian film festival granddaddy the Busan International Film Festival going on strong since 1996. Aside from the whole government approval thing, there is no reason Chinese film cannot one day rival Korean movies for pushing the envelope and reaching new cinematic heights, but for now the domestic film industry isn’t trying to be too innovative other than spending more and more money to churn out big budget holiday movies. There are plenty of beautiful C-actresses like Fan Bing Bing and Jing Tian who may be poised to cross-over into Hollywood if not already into Korean cinema, among them Crystal Liu who is fluent in English. She stole the red carpet at the premiere with an exquisite mauve beaded gown and make it work even with a messy updo.


Crystal Liu Leads Off Actress Contingent at Red Carpet at the 2017 Beijing International Film Festival — 22 Comments

  1. I don’t remember Crystal Liu being fluent in English. She speaks decent English in “Forbidden Kingdom” and “Outcast” but I don’t consider her fluent like Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung. For the most part, I really do not enjoy any performance by actors of Asian origin in Hollywood. They always serve as nothing better than a sidekick and action star, always ended up demeaning their own talent. The only ones that getting serious recognition by securing meaty roles in Hollywood are Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kikuchi. I guess they better just stay within their realm and polish their real talent here.

    • Asian artists needs to start somewhere, even if they are always the stereotypical kung fu master or the dragon lady.
      You fail to mention others such as Lucy Liu who is pretty famous in Hollywood, or at least people know who she is.
      Language can be learned and polished too, especially English.
      Just because they are Asian, they should stay in China or other Asian markets??? Really? How small minded of you to even state that here on a blog that has news mainly on Chinese/Korean entertainment.

      • Lucy Liu is American born chinese. So, her fluency in English is not even surprising.
        Am I not entitled to my own opinion and need to agree with you? Where do you hailed from? North Korea?
        That was why I mentioned “I guess” because as Asian, I really do not enjoy watching great talents having to settle for such kind of roles that really not doing justice to their talents.
        Sure, I can totally accept if they took on small roles which can showcase their talent instead of being some kind of kick-ass expert all the time. Look at Lee Byung Hun. How many Hollywood roles has he taken up so far and if you compared his domestic and Hollywood works, you could definitely see how much he has been downgraded in Hollywood. The same goes with Gong Li.

      • @Emille- Lucy Liu started her career in a Hong Kong surprise when I saw her acting with Aaron Kwok in an old movie. Anyways, I am of the thought that if the stars want to go to Hollywood and there is an opportunity they should take it if they so choose too. There are many TVB artists from Canada, America that I thought could have done Hollywood movies, since they know the English Language well.
        The way you worded your first comment sounded harsh..almost as if you rather not see any asians at all in any Hollywood movies. Anyways, I hate to tell people that they should limit their chances. Instead, I would encourage them to take on the challenge of a Hollywood movie and see if it will help them grow in their career.

        Differing opinions, but it is sad to see an Asian saying they don’t like watching asians in Hollywood films. ”’My opinion of course🙄

    • Maybe you only watch mainstream stuff and know of “only” Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kiguchi as success cases? Because there is also Bae Doona and even Chin Han from Singapore, who is considered to be doing well even when getting only bit parts. And Michelle Yeoh has also branched out from being just an action star in her works in recent years.

      It’s true that A list stars from Asia are often relegated to side characters in Hollywood productions, but talent is still talent and there will still be discerning people in Hollywood who are willing to cast them in deserving roles, so why should these actors and actresses just “stay within their own realm?”

      • I can understand why the first poster feels that way. Crystal Liu has US citizenship but she doesn’t speak English fluently at all. Same for Jing Tian and Fan Bingbing. Unless they are willing to make an effort to study the language it will be hard to make a favourable impression in Western productions. Of course everyone will seize the chance to work in a big studio production, it looks good on their discog, and the experience is valuable too. But good roles for Asians are so hard to come by.

        In an ideal system, US productions should be casting more Asian Americans more as a reflection of their diversity. But the agency system is unlikely to change. They find it easier to pick some token Asian star from East Asia to try to appeal to these markets but more often than not it hardly makes a difference. I would rather the Asian film industry (not just actors but directors, scriptwriters, cinematographers and post production) step up its game than to let the most talented crop of actors be lured by bit parts in hollywood productions. Ken Watanabe/Bae Doona/Donnie Yen are the exceptions rather than the rule and even they would have trouble finding good scripts with Asian characters in main roles. Daniel Wu also worked so hard to get to where he is now (with a US TV Show) despite being totally fluent in English. All of them still do a lot of work in their native markets.

        IMO China has the most disappointing film industry due to the lack of creative control for its filmmakers. Their over reliance on online novel adaptations too. A true shame because the domestic market plus surrounding Asian markets could overtake the west if they put their hearts to it. They need a system to promote independent filmmakers and prevent the Wanda/Tencent/Alibaba blockbusters from taking up all the cinematic screens. Japan market is too insular with an emphasis on anime.. Korean films are exciting but the domestic audience is limited..

    • Agree with you. I recently watched an old interview of Takeshi Kaneshiro with CNN where he also highlighted the same issue about Asian actors being relegated to stereotypical roles in Hollywood and that is why he choose to not aspire to work in Hollywood.
      Does that make our opinion sounding so bad that we wish for our Asian actors to continue sharpening their craft here and not lowering themselves with consolation roles in Hollywood?
      Some people just not receptive with others’ opinion because they think they have more global thinking.

    • This is Hollywood’s problem. The whole industry is skewed towards white caucasians. Black people are good at fighting for their roles but hats off to them, because they have been fighting for a long time and they let their voice be heard even in the Oscars. This is what the Chinese/Japanese/Koreans/Vietnamese should be doing.

  2. A lot of the Chinese movies (esp in the late 20th cent era) already surpass Hollywood tbh. Just that Americans couldn’t appreciate Asian styles. I don’t want them to move to HW anyway, it’s not a conducive environment for Asian actors.

    Ps: Crystal Liu is a bad actress tho, I don’t see her going anywhere outside some fluff in China, much less to more serious genre. But she is very pretty. A pity, really.

    • Culturally, Hollywood is totally different to China’s equivalent. In terms of population, China wins hands down so that’s why Hollywood wants to expand eastwards for the money. China doesn’t have that urge at the moment to expand west. It’s got enough money floating around in its own entertainment industry but in terms of acting, China needs more younger actors/actresses that can act.

  3. Is CryStäl Liu really such a bad actress? I haven’t seen any of her dramas b4. However what I see from movie trailer of Once Upon a Time, she does look e part of a goddess, her character gives me e feeling of being aloof as far as I can see, can’t wait for e movie to show!

    • I wouldn’t say that she is completely bad, but again she hasn’t played any complex roles in the dramas or movies I have watched that feature her either. Her taking on less than memorable or challenging roles didn’t help give many viewers the chance to appreciate her range of acting skills, or let themselves be impressed by her.

      She looks the part of a goddess because her visual fits historical/ costume dramas like a glove. If you look up her previous series ‘The return of the condor heroes’ where she played Xiao Longnu, she also had that aloof aura in that drama. From the trailer alone I don’t see any difference between these two roles (Xiao Longnu and Bai Qian), but I’ll have to wait until the movie comes out to see how she has matured over the years.

    • She is named goddess jiejie for her look so visual wise she is a better match for BQ. Same with Yang Yang.
      But acting wise… I doubt they can live up to Yang Mi and Mark. But I’m happy to be proven wrong.

      • How can you tell YM and Mark’s acting is good when you can’t hear their own voices? It’s almost like watching a puppet show.

  4. Crystal is the most gorgeous C-actress to me but she is really uncharismatic on the screen. She suits period roles where the females’ tend to be more aloof or reserved (same case with Liu Shishi). Worst thing is she decided not to do any more dramas after 2006 so she hasn’t had any memorable roles for as long as a decade.

  5. In terms of visuals, Crystal will always lead the way. She does not even consider herself beautiful or ethereal, her fans do and that will forever be her image whether she like it or not haha

    For a decade of not doing any dramas, herself being an A-lister despite of no small screen appearance WOWS me. She still has that high starpower compared to the actresses of her generation who work in lots of stuff by being in numerous dramas & movies. For her, acting is a passion that she wanted to do so she only acts in movies.

    I’m wishing that someday, before she decides to settle down with her partner, she’ll comeback in a wuxia drama. Then she can live her own life and do movies again if she wants to.

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