Lonely boy who changed his life

For a long time since his film debut in 1998, Chen Kun was known as just a beautiful face. The image was all too convenient: the man with the melancholy eyes, a product of his turbulent childhood.

It is testament to his proficiency that today, the talk is more about his diverse roles: an intellectual in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a psychopath in The Door and a romantic general in Painted Skin. His versatility speaks volumes.

Three more films await Chen in the coming months. He has just been picked for the lead male role in a biopic of Mulan, the Chinese heroine popularized in the West by Disney's animated film; Hong Kong director Peter Chan has also recruited him in Dark October, (see below); while in Founding a Country (see right) he plays the young Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek.