Fan Bingbing, an actress who hasn’t been seen much outside of China since a tax dispute threatened to ruin her career, continued her recent rise to fame at this month’s Cannes Film Festival with a slew of high-profile performances.
The “X-Men” actor was seen at a number of red-carpet occasions and galas held in conjunction with the 12-day festival, which ends on Saturday. And although Fan has long served as a spokesperson for well-known Western companies like Louis Vuitton, she utilized the opportunity to highlight lesser-known — and often Asian — designers by donning clothing from South Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese labels, among others.
Fan attended the premiere of Johnny Depp’s new movie “Jeanne du Barry” on Tuesday, her first appearance at Cannes since 2018. She wore a Christopher Bu design. The exquisite sleeveless ballgown (seen in the top image) included tigers and a bamboo forest painted on it in a manner resembling old Chinese paintings.
She accentuated the outfit with an elaborate updo that may have belonged in a Chinese historical play as she walked down the red carpet of the Palais des Festivals with a large train trailing behind her.
The actor displayed two additional costumes from Asian designers on Thursday. She showed up at the Women’s Stories Gala with a provocative floral top by Miss Sohee, a rising couture brand created by South Korean designer Sohee Park, along with a matching silver headpiece and a long, flowing cloak.
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A golden butterfly-inspired dress by Vietnamese designer Chung Thanh Phong was later seen on her at another red carpet event.
She turned to Rin once more on Friday night when she attended an A-list dinner in a sculptural ensemble from the line’s most recent collection and carried a Jimmy Choo purse. On the same evening, she was also seen wearing a white floor-length gown by Filipino designer Harvey Cenit.
On Chinese social media, Fan’s Cannes ensembles seem to have gotten positive feedback. On the Twitter-like site Weibo, where the hashtag #FanBingbingCannes has been watched more than 6 million times since last Tuesday, her presence on the festival’s opening night temporarily trended.
Not just Asian designers have created her designs for Cannes. She donned a figure-hugging dress last week by Mikael D, the brand created by Canadian-Lebanese designer Mikael Derderian, and a strapless black dress by Russian brand Yanina Couture with huge yellow flowers. Then, on Tuesday, she showed up at the “Asteroid City” premiere dressed in a feathery creation by Tamara Ralph, a co-founder of the fashion house Ralph & Russo.
Since her breakout film “Cell Phone” became one of the most earning films in China in 2003, Fan has become a style and beauty icon there. She later made appearances in both Asian and Western films, most notably “X-Men: Days of Future Past” from 2014.
At the height of her box office success in 2015, Forbes ranked Fan as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world (and the highest-paid actor in China in each edition of the publication’s China Celebrity 100 list issued from 2013 to 2017). She was also included in Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world six years ago.
But in June 2018, the performer abruptly disappeared from the public eye when allegedly leaked papers of a film contract she had allegedly signed were posted on Chinese social media. She had two contracts, one for tax reasons stating she was paid 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) and another, private contract for 50 million yuan ($7.5 million), according to Chinese newspaper Global Times. Later, it was revealed by Chinese official media that Fan had been penalised about $130 million for tax fraud after lying about how much money she had made from a number of film productions.
Even though the celebrity was photographed by paparazzi in October of that year, it would be over a year before she made another red carpet appearance. Fan’s involvement in a number of TV and film projects seemed to be suspended or prevented from being released in China, however she has subsequently started acting again.
She made a comeback to the big screen in 2022 with “The King’s Daughter” and “The 355,” the latter of which she starred in opposite Penélope Cruz and Jessica Chastain. However, she did not resume international red carpet responsibilities until last February, when she visited the Berlin International Film Festival to promote her most recent film, the South Korean production “Green Night.” last was because China had implemented tight travel restrictions because to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Since then, she has been at the Paris Fashion Week and the 2023 Academy Awards, when she emulated classic Hollywood glitz in a Tony Ward Couture Charleston dress.
Mengchen Zhang from CNN contributed to this story.
