Chinese Cinemogul Yen is not given to Hollywood hyperbole like "sensational" and "terrific." When he first signed the slinky, unknown actress Li Lihua, he told his friends simply: "I am setting out a beautiful tree that money drops from." He was right. Li's first movie packed them in. Last week her latest, The Barber Takes a Wife (TIME, Aug. 4), was breaking all Shanghai box-office records, giving every promise of being the biggest cinematic smash China had ever seen.
Li, who is known to her fans as Little Meow, spends five hours a...