TAIPEI • Actress Shu Qi maintained her secrecy about her sudden marriage to film-maker Stephen Fung, revealing only that fewer than 20 people attended the wedding.
She spoke to Apple Daily Taiwan following the couple's announcement last Saturday that they had married. They released photos of their bridal shoot in Prague in the Czech Republic.
The Taiwanese star would not name the guests or reveal the wedding date, but Apple said her mother flew to the Czech Republic and cried at the ceremony.
The pair had been in the European country where he is directing her in The Adventurers, a treasure hunt movie also starring Jean Reno and Andy Lau, when they issued a statement saying they had married after being friends for 20 years and dating for four.
The statement, which said, "Um, yes, our marriage is this simple. Our bridal attire this casual. Our decision (to marry) this sudden... We won't have any banquet nor party... I married her unreservedly."
"P.S. We are not at the moment pregnant," they added.
The Adventurers' producer Terence Chang told Apple the couple took a day's leave last Friday, which could have been the wedding date.
"They were very mysterious. They were at work daily and still managed to get married," he said.
Photographer Joshua Lin was also summoned to Prague just a week beforehand for the bridal shoot. He said the pair went about it casually, shooting as they walked and stopping at simple houses to pose.
When informed about the marriage, co-star Lau said: "It was so secretive. I was there, but didn't know about it."
It was a simple do with little in terms of wedding decor, Apple said. Shu Qi's wedding gown was reportedly a gift from H&M two years ago and her veil was picked from a wedding shop. Another dress and clothes worn by Fung, 42, were picked two days before the bridal shoot from a roadside outlet.
The only expensive item on display must have been Fung's gift to her of a three-carat platinum diamond ring, worth NT$10 million (S$430,000), from Bulgari, said Apple.
The design was inspired by the world's first-ever diamond wedding ring given, as documented, by a bridegroom at a 16th-century wedding in Venice.
Shu Qi, 40, would not confirm if it was a three-carat ring, saying: "What is important is the meaning of the ring. It was the world's first."
She denied a report that said they married at a castle, reportedly the Bouzov Castle in the Czech Republic, a favourite spot for wedding couples.
She and Fung were first linked when they worked on the 1997 film, Bishonen. She went on to have a seven-year romance with her City Of Glass (1998) co-star Leon Lai.
They broke up in 2004 amid fans' disapproval of her because she was once a soft-porn actress and Lai never admitted to their relationship.
Fung dated singer Karen Mok for nine years before she announced their split in 2007. Mok married in 2011.
Shu Qi hinted at a reunion with Fung in June when she posted a wefie with him on social media.
