Film grants belated recognition to first Chinese Bond girl

Embrace a new spring in her career

In 1998, the 62-year-old Tsai moved to Hollywood where her acting career gained new momentum, ushering in the "third spring of my acting career", as described by the actress herself.

A good sword always remains sharp, and Tsai's acting skills only seem to get sharper with age. She kept radiating her glamour through a number of roles, such as the unwavering Auntie Lindo in the big hit, The Joy Luck Club (1993), Auntie in the epic drama, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), the hardheaded Madame Wu in Casino Royale (2006), and Jay Chow's grandmother in Now You See Me 2 (2016).

Leading roles for women of a certain age are thin on the ground, but Tsai, hale and hearty in her eighties, offers an exception to this rule. The recently released Lucky Grandma, a crime caper, cast the veteran actress as the protagonist, an ornery and chain-smoking grandmother in New York's Chinatown.

"I heard about Tsai Chin a long time ago and Daughter of Shanghai gave me a deeper understanding of this legendary woman. Chen did a great job in presenting her warts and all and we can have a complete picture of her life. I hope more people can be as moved as I am by the film and Tsai's life stories," said Gu Changwei, a prominent Chinese director during an interview.

"Tsai is so posh with her European manners. People with a passion for art and creation never get old. I find her eyes still brimming with radiating vigor. Having navigated all the ups and downs in life, she is such an embodiment of power and courage," a viewer commented on Douban, China's most popular film reviewing site.

Yang Xiaoyu contributed to this story.