Acting
Jun 1, 1944
Changsha, Hunan, China
Gua Ah-leh
Acting
Biography
Grace Gua Ah-leh (traditional Chinese: 歸亞蕾; simplified Chinese: 归亚蕾) is a Taiwanese actress and singer born in China on June 2, 1944. She studied acting at the National Taiwan University of Arts. In 1965, she made her professional film debut in The Rain of Sorrow (煙雨濛濛), and received a Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress. She was the youngest Leading Actress winner in the Golden Horse history. The next year, she won another Best Leading Actress Golden Horse award for the movie Home, Sweet Home (家在台北). In 1978, she won the Best Supporting Actress Golden Horse award for her role in The Diary of Didi (蒂蒂日記). She has portrayed over 200 roles in film and television since her debut 1965.
Feature Films (78)
Hsiao-Peng, an unmarried mother is sent to a maternity home for young single mothers. During her time in the maternity home, she slowly overcomes the depressive thoughts and builds strong bonds with Wen-Yueh, Ko-Hsin, and Madam Pai. After moving out the maternity home, Hsiao-Peng lives with Wen-Yueh and Ko-Hsin in an apartment where they continue to be each other’s support. The two main settings of the film, the maternity home and the apartment, build an atypical family model. It is a tender coming-of-age tale where women are empowered with the right to think for themselves.
Unmarried Mothers
A country boy becomes the head of a gang through the purchase of some lucky roses from an old lady. He and a singer at the gang's nightclub try to do a good deed for the old lady when her daughter comes to visit.
Miracles: The Canton Godfather
Shih-Yen is upset about Ko-Ching prioritizing her career over their marriage and even getting an abortion without his knowledge. To express discontent, Shih-Yen moves in with his mistress. Despite feeling overwhelmed by her messy personal life, Ko-Ching manages to lead her company and delivers a successful fashion show. The film reflects on career women’s struggles between family and work, it also describes the gender role stereotypes in a marriage. Although the film demonstrates clearly women’s difficult role in society, it still chooses to show the possibility of women being independent, capable and charming to refute the status quo of patriarchy.
Evening News
A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.
The Wedding Banquet
After her son is jailed, a Chinese mother with high expectations struggles to protect her family's remaining reputation by parenting her independent daughter, whom she must seek shelter from in the U.S. with her son's two unmanageable adolescents.
Beneath the Banyan Tree
A marriage between nobles in Ancient China sets the stage for murder, monsters, and mutilation as the invited guests search for a secret hidden treasure. A search that leads them through dark evil forests, opulent palaces, and each other! When two sick and twisted killers enter the fray it is up to our hat wearing hero to straighten things out and put the warlords, henchmen, and evil ninja six feet under! But is he working for the law, or himself?
The Jade Badger
Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, the present day. Master chef Tang Shizhe (Kenneth Tsang) tells his two daughters, the careerist Wa'er (Huo Siyan) and teenage Xiaolan (Jiang Mengjie), that he has decided to sell his upscale vegetarian restaurant, the centre of his life for 30 years.
Joyful Reunion
A young girl, her life in despair, finds confidence in life again through the encouragement of her lover and relatives.
The Diary of Di-Di
Yin Xia Mo is torn between her rich boyfriend, Ou Chen, and the charismatic orphan Luo Xi, who would do anything to win her heart.
Summer's Desire
The Chen family contagiousness extends to taking on an extra-marital affair. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely. Lang Hisung plays old dentist for broad comedy he is sixty years old.
Tonight Nobody Goes Home
Television & Series (30)
Liu E, an orphaned girl, becomes the Empress of the Northern Song dynasty and a regent for the next Emperor.
Palace of Devotion
Palace of Desire, also known as Da Ming Gong Ci, is a Chinese television series based on the life story of Princess Taiping, a daughter of China's only female emperor Wu Zetian. Directed by Li Shaohong and Zeng Nianping, the series starred Chen Hong, Zhou Xun, Gui Yalei and Winston Chao in the leading roles. It was first broadcast on CCTV-8 in mainland China on March 30, 2000.
