In 2008 Li Bingbing co-starred in the Jackie Chan / Jett Li film, The Forbidden Kingdom. Miss Li played the role of the white haired witch. She did a fantastic job speaking in phonetically learned English and if you did not know that English was NOT one of her main languages you probably won’t have thought twice about her performance. But she did do a fantastic job.

The movie did only moderate business before retiring from the movie theaters. And life went on.

And Miss Li ended up returning to her homeland of China where she continued to rise as one of the most beautiful, respectible and talented actresses in Asia.

For those in Asia her face is well known. But in the U.S. and the rest of the Western world, her name is only beginning to gain the kind of recognition it deserves. With this new movie, Resident Evil: Retribution,  Li Bingbing returns to the U.S. to play the role of video game character, Ada Wong. Let’s all wish Miss Li a great deal of success with this new movie.

Another picture of Li Bingbing playing the role of Ada Wong in the upcoming movie, Resident Evil: Retribution, which will be released in September. Interestingly enough seeing Li Bingbing in so many asian films it is easy to feel a little culture shock seeing her with non-asian actors. The picture is from a Yahoo! article announcing the news. Here’s an excerpt:

16 Oct – As production for the fifth “Resident Evil” film begins, actors have been cast to take on the three new anticipated characters that will be introduced in the latest zombie apocalypse film; Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Barry Burton. Now, lead actress Mila Jovovich confirms via Twitter that Chinese actress Li Bingbing would take on the role of secret agent Ada Wong, according to a report by ComingSoon.net website.

Jovovich who will resume her role as Alice in the upcoming “Resident Evil: Retribution” tweeted, “G’mornin every1! Well, I have some news that a lot of u will be interested in! We have finally cast our Ada Wong! Drum roll please! So, Ada Wong in RE5 is being played by Chinese actress Li Bingbing! We’re so excited!”

The rest of the article can be read here.

So apparently the peeps at Dread Central were able to land an interview with Li Bingbing on the set of Resident Evil: Retribution.  One of the more humorous questions being asked was how Li Bingbing felt about wearing the Ada Wong red dress. Since Miss Li is no stranger to the red carpet events in Asia it was an understandable response:

Q: What did it feel like putting on that red dress for the first time?

BingBing: (Laughs) You know what, the red dress looks like I should be walking on the red carpet, but the thing is that when I wear the gun holster, it looks totally different. It’s like cool and sexy and mysterious.

Q: Do you like doing action movies?

BingBing: You know what, actually for me, I really love to do action movies. In this movie we have a part when I meet Milla in a control room for the first time, and I did a flip in the air with wires. It’s fantastic. I was so excited with that. And when I shot a gun for the first time, the crew gave me gun training right before we started to shoot the movie, it was so exciting and totally different.

Q: How did you get the role? Did you audition? Can you talk about how you got the part?

BingBing: I am not really sure how I got this role, but I did audition. After a very few days, they gave me the reply and they said, ‘We loved you. We want to invite you to be Ada Wong.’ So I was surprised by how fast I got my reply. So exciting!

…

Q: When you started acting back home in China, was it always your ambition to come to America to make films?

BingBing: Sometimes we don’t have to think about what we’re going to do next. I think a lot of things are given by fate. But there’s a philosophy that I live by: If God gives you a big cake, he first has to torture you a little bit.

Q: Have you found the American fight scenes to be more difficult or easier than in China?

BingBing: Mmm…it’s different. There’s a lot of techy things that are happening here that don’t exist over there…for example, how they cut the shots. How they divide up…how the shots are taken, from what angle, etc…but in China they stress more of an ability to fight, rather than cutting and making it look like they can fight.

It is usually pretty refreshing to read Li Bingbing’s interviews. Unlike many celebrities Li Bingbing always demonstrates a real honesty and frankness. More of this interview can be read on the Dread Central site by clicking here.

Interestingly Li Bingbing demonstrates how far along she is progressing in her English skills. It was just a few years ago when Forbidden Kingdom hit the theaters. Enjoy!

This is a pretty awesome video! (Okay, we’re a little biased here, but it’s still awesome and we think Li Bingbing looks fantastic!) Miss Li speaks about her views on roles in movies, and how she keeps herself positive and fit by always working.  For people just discovering Li Bingbing she has a reputation for being one of the hardest working actresses/models/singers/goodwill ambassadors in Asia, which seems to make this video very appropriate. Enjoy!

Li Bingbing looks gorgeous as Ada Wong in the forthcoming movie, Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)! Here are some screen caps from the teaser trailer. You can find larger versions of these images in the gallery.