Shu Qi Turns Down Zhang Ziyi

In my opinion, Chinese actress Shu Qi (aka Hsu Chi, Shu Kei, Li Hui Lin, best known to Western audiences for her role in the film The Transporter, is one the most beautiful women in the world. Shu Qi got her start doing nude modeling, then progressed into acting in more mainstream Chinese films and has become one of Asia's top stars.

Despite her apparent comfort with nudity in her early career (see photos below), Shu Qi (舒淇)  recently turned down an offer offer to star in a movie production of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (雪花与秘扇), based on a novel by Chinese-American author Lisa See. 

The film is to be produced by a group including Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡 ), the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the wife of MGM's chairman and will be directed by Chinese-American Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club). Shooting is to begin in early 2010 in China.

Somewhat surprisingly, Shu Qi's reported reason for turning down the role was that it includes a nude scene. Shu Qi was to play the character of Snow Flower who forms a lifelong friendship Zhang Ziyi's character, Lily, and the story contains a scene showing both characters nude, writing on each other's chests in a secret script (Nu Shu) developed by a group of Chinese women.

Here's a couple views of Shu Qi when she was less reluctant to show off her very lovely body.

While its certainly commendable that Shu Qi has gone from nude modeling to eak out a living in her late teens to becoming a talented and popular actress, its a shame that Shu turned down what could have been a great role in what will be a very well-produced and heavily promoted international film. Her decision may also have to do with the facxt that she doesn't speak English very well which might have been difficult since the role may require considerable dialog.

Ironically, Shu Qi's and Zhang Ziyi's careers have crossed paths before when Shu Qi (or her manager) turned down a role in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon so she could film a commercial in Japan. Meanwhile, the critically acclaimed and commercial successful Crouching Tiger made Zhang an international star.

Zhang is reportedly disappointed with Shu Qi's decision and is looking for someone else to play her co-nude role. Internet speculation has suggested replacements including other Chinese superstar actreeses Fan Bingbing (范冰冰), Zhou Xun (周迅), Gong Li (巩俐), Maggie Cheung(张曼玉) and Li Bingbing (李冰冰) as well as lesser knowns Ruby Lin (林心如) and Tang Wei湯唯), famous for her nude scenes in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution). Any one of these beautiful ladies certainly wouldn't be bad, but its hard to match the sexual appeal of a Zhang Ziyi/Shu Qi dynamic bare-chested calligraphy duo.

What Could Have Been

Miss Asia - China 2009

The lovely Xu Ying (许莹) was the recent winner of the 2009 Miss Asia China beauty pageant, held in Dongguan, China.

Xu Ying is 21 year old and a dance instructor from Anhui, China. As the winner, she receives prizes worth over HK$2 million (RM889,300) and a contract with Asia Television Limited (ATV), the pageant's sponsor.

1st and 2nd runners up,Wang Zifei (王紫菲- #3) and Wang Jinjin (王津津 - #4) are pictured above with Xu Ying.

The competition, televised in Hong Kong, got a bit of criticism for "promoting flesh" to boost its ratings.The show's organizers apparently had the 12 finalists wear "see-through angel costumes" to help draw its TV audience which was said to be over 850,000 viewers (can't blame them - I'd like to watch pretty Chinese "see-through angels too!).

The pageant is sponsored by Asia Television Limited and has been held annually since 1985. Until 2004, it was an exclusively Hong Kong event, but has since opened to contestants from all parts of Asia. There is no age limit for contestants and in 1995, the winner was 48 year old Gong Xuehua. Chinese women can certainly look younger than their age.

Cristine Reyes: Beautiful Typhoon Victim

Cristine Reyes (Ara Cristine Pascual Reyes) is a Filipina actress born in 1989. Cristine was a contestants on a reality talent show called StarStruck. Although she was eliminated from the show fairly early, her appearance sparked enough interest that she began getting some offers from film and TV producers.

Cristine was one of many people in the Philippines that suffered from recent typhoons. She was reportedly trapped on the roofof her home during tropical storm “Ondoy” which wreaked havoc in the Metro Manila area. In a phone interview with ABS-CBN News, Cristine tearfully appealed for rescue teams to send help and said that the flood had reached the second floor of her family's house, forcing them to the roof. Fortunately, Cristine was later rescued by Richard Gutierrez, a Filipino-American actor co-stars with her in a movie called Patient X. I'm just a bit jealous that I wasn't there to be the rescuing hero.

Here's a new clip about Cristine's rescue

Thankfully, Cristine was rescued and will likely be ok. However many Filipinos are not anywhere near as fortunate since a very large percentage are very poor and have no insurance. If you'd like to help some of the less fortunate victims of the recent typhoons in the Philippines, here are some charity organizations that accept contributions by credit card and Paypal:

• Philippine National Red Cross
• Unicef

Cristine has appeared in quite a few Filipino films and TV shows, including Beautiful Life, Pa-Siyam, Mourning Girls, and Barang. 

Cristine is the younger sister of Ara Mina, another popular actress (as well as a singer and model) in the Philippines. Cristine has reportedly asked her big sis for advice on filming sexy love scenes. I hope Ara told Cristine to give it her all and go for as much realism as possible.

Here's a video clip showing Cristine in some sexy film scenes

Cristine is apparently not surprisingly quite popular among the Filipino celebrity dating circles, having been linked to Mark Herras, Anton dela Paz, Mark Lapid, Joross Gamboa, Jake Cuenca, Dennis Trillo and others.I don't know who any of these guys are, but if the rumors are true, young Cristine has quite an active social life.

Among her many modeling jobs, Cristine has been featured twice in FHM Philippines, and is on the cover of the September 2009 edition.

Here's a short video clip from Cristine's FHM photo shoot