Bai Ling has the gravity for substantial dramatic roles, though genre films have often settled for making her look mysterious. We rate her more highly than the thin characters she is frequently asked to play.
Fi1m perspective
Bai Ling’s Myca looks at home in the gothic setting Alex Proyas gives The Crow (1994), an early example of how readily she fits into a fantastical film. We recommend it, though David J. Schow and John Shirley’s screenplay leaves little room for the characters to become complicated. We were moved by Brandon Lee’s warmth amid the violence, because he keeps the hurt visible beneath the avenger. Bai brings the physical commitment these films require, but has much less character to work with. That limits how much this Hollywood debut can tell us about her.
The Shining Arc (1989) had already brought her notice in Chinese cinema. The more revealing early American part is Shen Yuelin, the defence lawyer opposite Richard Gere in Red Corner (1997). She brings gravity to a film whose contrivances can make that quality especially welcome. Her early American roles often required little English dialogue; it was easy for the films to rely on her appearance. It is worth remembering this straightforward dramatic ability when the genre parts threaten to become the whole account of her acting.
Wild Wild West (1999) offers less encouragement: Miss Mae Lee East is another of the underwritten, exotic figures she was too often asked to play. Barry Sonnenfeld’s film is poor, with wearying smut and jokes that struggle to arrive. The problem reaches beyond her part: Will Smith and Kevin Kline are also left without enough good lines, so we cannot reasonably treat this as a fair test of what she can do. Jim Miller’s editing cannot supply the comic rhythm the material lacks, though Bo Welch’s inventive production design gives us something to admire. There is little reason to seek this one out for her.
Her return to Chinese-language cinema in Fruit Chan’s Dumplings, a segment of Three... Extremes (2004), gives us a better place to look. As the amoral chef Aunt Mei, she has a character whose strangeness involves what she does, rather than simply how she appears. This is a role that needs her to be chilling, and she obliges. For a second look after The Crow, start there.
Biography
Bai Ling is a Chinese-American actress. Born in Chengdu, China, she began her career in Chinese film and theatre before moving to the United States in 1991.
She appeared in American films including The Crow (1994), Red Corner (1997), Wild Wild West (1999) as Miss Mae Lee East, Anna and the King (1999) and Crank: High Voltage (2009). On television she has played roles in Lost (2004) and Entourage (2004).
For her performance in Dumplings (2004), she won the Best Supporting Actress award at both the 2004 Hong Kong Film Awards and the 2004 Golden Horse Awards.
