After Sex Scandal, Edison Chen Returns to Film with Beijing Film Academy Graduate Lou Ye

Hong Kong bad boy actor and singer Edison Chen is finally making a return to movies, ending a seven-year hiatus after a 2008 sex photo scandal that shocked China.

According to local reports, the Hong Kong-Canadian star will feature in 《地狱恋人》(which roughly translates as Hell Lover) , a gangster film directed by Beijing Film Academy graduate Lou Ye.

Thirty-five-year-old Chen fell off the filmmaking scene radar in 2008 after hundreds of nude photos of himself and his past girlfriends in compromising positions were published online.

His apparent return to film follows his first concert in eight years which was held in Beijing on April 2. The “mini-concert” was streamed live online attracting over half a million viewers.

Chen seems to be in Beijing quite a lot. Just last week he posted this photo of himself at what seems to have been a party at the Loewe store in Season’s Place.

A documentary made by Vice featuring the Hong Kong-Canadian star was released in November last year showing Chen going about his daily life in Beijing, Tianjin, LA, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

Since his forced exile from making films, Chen has kept himself busy running his fashion brand, CLOT. Juice Beijing, the Sanlitun-based clothing store is part of that growing fashion empire.

He’s also kept up the singing. In 2010, Chen released the Mandarin-language studio album Confusion and followed it up with two more albums the following year.

Sina Entertainment reported in 2014 that Chen is an investor in 5f, a club which used to be on the fifth floor of The Place, but apparently closed January last year.

Additional reporting by Congzhe Zhang, Zoe Law

Photos: Edison Chen (Instagram), Jonathan Anderson (Instagram)