Meaningful Encounters

From playing Meng Kerou in blue gate crossing when she was only 19, to portraying Lin Yishan in women in taipei now when she is 39, Wei Lun-Mei has always demonstrated a natural talent for inhabiting diverse characters. Whether she’s acting or simply being herself, she has always been open to the full range of experience life gives her, embracing the emotional impact each encounter leaves on her soul

- ALICE LIN

A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER

The story goes back to 20 years ago, when Gwei (or Xiao Mei as she is affectionately known) was just an ordinary high school student, and the crew of Blue Gate Crossing discovered her at Ximending in Taipei. The film's Assistant Director Yang Ya-che, who had been tasked to scout for their female lead, approached her and Xiao Mei did as he asked, forcing an awkward but polite smile at the DV camera he pointed at her, before leaving after giving her mobile number. Little did the 17-year-old know, this would be the start of her lifelong career.

She later received a call to audition for Director Yee Chih-yen, and she dragged her older brother along with her. She didn't really understand what acting was about then, but something within her was excited and wanted to give it a try. She succeeded, so well that Director Yee expended a lot of effort to convince her conservative parents to let her join the cast. They finally agreed and in that moment, when the door of her usually strict household cracked open just a little, the faint glimpse of light it let in was just enough to infuse her with energy so that she took a deep breath and marched forward into the silver screen.

PUSHING OPEN THE DOOR INTO THE MOVIES

Twenty years later, when this Golden Horse Best Actress reunited with Golden Horse Best Director Yang Ya-zhe at the Golden Harvest Awards, he teased her by saying, "Highschooler Xiao Mei is a bit of a girl delinquent - she belongs to the school's dance club, wears a pair of yellow tinted lens glasses sloppily, and dons a super oversized T-shirt, just like a boy." Indeed, that would have been an accurate description of what the young Xiao Mei looked like, when she and nine other equally green new actors gathered at Director Yee's studio, ready to perform in their very first movie.