In Remembrance: Anita Mui

     Anita Mui, the Hong Kong pop singer turned actress and five time Hong Kong Film Award winner, has passed away on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 in Hong Kong. She was 40.

     Born October 10, 1963, Mui got her first big break in 1982 after winning a talent competition. Her first pop hit was 1984’s “Homecoming.” Her outrageous stage costumes and performances earned her the nickname “The Madonna of Asia”.

     Mui started her film career at roughly the same time as her music career began to take off. He first role was in the 1983 film Pi Li Qing (Dancing Warrior). In 1985 she won a Best Supporting Actor Hong Kong Film Award for Yuen Fan (Behind The Yellow Line). In 1989 she won a second Hong Kong Film Award, this time for best actress for her role of a tormented ghost in Yin Ji Kau (Rouge). She would also win two more Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Original Film Song for Shuang Cho (Twin Bracelets, 1992) and Duang Fong Saam Hap (The Heroic Trio, 1994). She won her final Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actress in Boon Sang Yuen (Eighteen Springs, 1997). She also received an additional Film Award six nominations for both acting and singing.

     Mui first paired with Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan in 1989’s Qiji (Miracle), Chan’s remake of the Frank Capra classic Pocketful Of Miracles. She would go on to star with Chan in 1994’s Jui Kuen II (Drunken Master II) and 1996’s Hong Faan Gui (Rumble In The Bronx).

     Mui teamed with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung in 1993 for the action fantasy picture Dung Fong Saam Hap (The Heroic Trio) and its sequel Xian Dai Hao Xia Zhuan (The Executioners). Other notable films she appeared in include Yinghung Bunsik III (A Better Tomorrow III, 1989), Zhan Shen Chuan Shuo (Moon Warriors, 1993), and Gei Ba Ba De Xin (My Father Is A Hero, 1995). Her last film was 2002’s Laam Yan Sei Sap (July Rhapsody, 2002).

     Recently, she declined a role in Zhang Yimou’s upcoming film House of Flying Daggers.

     Her last hours were spent surrounded by family and several of her friends from the Hong Kong entertainment community including singer Alan Tam and actors Eric Tsang, Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan. “She passed away peacefully and beautifully,” Chan stated. “She hoped everyone will let her go peacefully and not cry.”