Hong Kong - Actress Gong Li has admitted that she is in a relationship and that marriage is on the cards.

In an interview with Sing Tao Daily which was published today (12jun), she said she had been seeing someone, who is not in show business, for some time.

Asked if he was her Mr Right, she answered sweetly: "I don't know yet," said the report. Asked if she would marry, she said yes but added that she had not set a time for it yet.

The 48-year-old was in Hong Kong for her new film, Coming Home. She plays an amnesiac who has been waiting to be reunited with her husband (played by Chen Daoming) but does not recognise him when he returns.

Gong, who has one failed marriage with businessman Ooi Hoe Seong behind her, said: "After finishing this movie, I've had more confidence in love. If it doesn't succeed, forget it, it's okay."

"Everyone needs emotion in their heart to live meaningfully - especially girls," she added. "No woman will want to have regrets in this life."

The film reunited her with director Zhang Yimou, her former love, and she said they were the most compatible team.

"Good directors won't tell you how to act. Good actors don't need directors to say too much. I think I'm the most in tune with him."

But Zhang did tell her he hoped she would not play her role too tragically, and she said she came to the same conclusion after she went to a nursing home in Beijing for research. The old people she saw were not miserable but their families were in pain, she explained.

So, during filming, she was so in character, she was cold to visiting friends.

"Good friends came to visit the set, but I didn't dare talk to them. Later they understood I wasn't in a state to communicate too much because I had to focus on that feeling and rhythm. I couldn't change the rhythm."