Gong Li

Gong Li -- also credited as Li Gong -- was still in acting school when she got the lead role in the 1988 film Red Sorghum. She was an international hit and starred in many Chinese films throughout the 1990s, including The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Farewell My Concubine (1993). She made several films with director Yimou Zhang, with whom she had a personal relationship until 1995. She has also appeared in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005, starring Michelle Yeoh) and Miami Vice (2006, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx).