Fan Bingbing

Trained as an actress, not a martial artist

Fan Bingbing entered the Shanghai Xie Jin-Hengtong School of Arts, linked to Shanghai Normal University, at 15. No source credits her with martial arts training: in action films her fights are set by each production's choreographers. She debuted in 1997 and broke through in 1998-1999 with the TV series My Fair Princess, written by Chiung Yao. On film, Feng Xiaogang's box-office hit Cell Phone (2003) won her the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress.

Hong Kong and Chinese action cinema

Her filmography often crosses Chinese fight cinema. In Jacob Cheung's A Battle of Wits (2006), adapted from Hideki Mori's manga, she plays Yiyue, a cavalry commander opposite Andy Lau's strategist. In Wilson Yip's Flash Point (2007) she is Judy, girlfriend of Louis Koo's undercover cop; Donnie Yen choreographed the fights, mixing MMA, wushu and taekwondo, and won Best Action Choreography at both the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards. She also appears in the Peter Chan-produced period actioner Bodyguards and Assassins (2009).

In Benny Chan's Shaolin (2011) she plays Yan Xi, wife of warlord Hou Jie (Andy Lau), alongside Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse; Corey Yuen, Yuen Tak and Nicky Li were nominated in Hong Kong for the action. In 2014 Jacob Cheung cast her as Lian Nichang in The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom, a wuxia based on Liang Yusheng's novel, opposite Huang Xiaoming. She is Daji in League of Gods (2016).

Hollywood and international action

In 2013 she shot extra scenes for the China-only cut of Iron Man 3. A year later Bryan Singer cast her as Blink, the portal-opening mutant of X-Men: Days of Future Past. In 2016 she shared the bill with Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville in Renny Harlin's action comedy Skiptrace, then played Chinese agent Lin Mi Sheng in Simon Kinberg's The 355 (2022). Her exclusion in China after the 2018 tax case delayed or cut several films: The Bombing was pulled from Chinese cinemas, and her scenes in The 355 were partly completed with a body double. In 2025 she plays a Sherpa opposite Liam Neeson in Ice Road: Vengeance.

An award-winning dramatic actress

Her awards come mostly from drama: a Golden Horse for Best Supporting Actress for The Matrimony (2007), Best Actress at the Tokyo festival for Buddha Mountain (2010), the Silver Shell for Best Actress at San Sebastián for I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016), and the Golden Horse for Best Leading Actress in November 2025 for Mother Bhumi, a Malaysian film by Chong Keat Aun. For fight-film fans, three titles stand out: Flash Point for Donnie Yen's choreography, Shaolin for its cast and The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom for the wuxia.