Last year, the venerable Taiwan and Hong Kong actress Sylvia Chang starred in three films: the critically acclaimed "20, 30, 40," which she also wrote and directed, "Rice Rhapsody" and "American Fusion," both of which screen at the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, opening here tomorrow. She'll be at HIFF Saturday to help present "American Fusion."

For Chang, a veteran of some 100 films, the past year qualified as a breather.

"It's a different approach here," Chang said in a phone call from Hong Kong. "It's quick, quick, quick. Everything depends on how fast you can finish."

Apart from a one-year sabbatical she took when she was pregnant — "I remember the producer came to the hospital after I gave birth to ask me when I was coming back," she said — Chang, 52, has been working nonstop and quick, quick, quick for more than 30 years.

The Taiwan-born actress, best known to American audiences for her star turns in "Eat Drink Man Woman" (directed by Ang Lee, whose "Brokeback Mountain" screens at HIFF) and "The Red Violin," has been to Hawai'i several times but has never attended HIFF.

She said she's eager to share her two latest projects with local audiences. Both films were spearheaded by directors who grew up admiring Chang's work.

"I always like to work with young directors," Chang said. "Maybe I've worked too long but I always hope that by working with a young director I'll find something different."

Chang met "Rice Rhapsody" director Kenneth Bi several years ago at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"He was just starting out then and I told him if he wanted to work in Hong Kong he'd better study Chinese," she said. "He went, kept working and never gave up. When he came to me with his script, I couldn't refuse."

Chang plays a restaurant owner who worries that her youngest son might be gay like his two older brothers. Concerned that she might never have grandchildren, Chang's character brings in a French exchange student who ultimately gives the family an education they didn't expect. The cast includes high-decibel TV cook Martin Yan.

In "American Fusion," directed by Frank Lin, Chang takes on a decidedly different role as a divorced, middle-aged Chinese immigrant who falls in love with a Mexican-American dentist, played by Esai Morales. Saddled with a set of demanding siblings, a tyrannical mother who needs back surgery and all the expectations of conservative Chinese culture, Chang's Yvonne struggles hilariously to find happiness in America.

"Esai was wonderful to work with, but we also had a lot of inexperienced actors, and we had to find a way for all of us to fit in," Chang said. "We had different approaches, but it worked out well in the end."

Chang said the time and resources that are available with American productions are a nice contrast to what she's accustomed to in Hong Kong. Still, she has to laugh when she hears American actors complain about their busy schedules.

With a filmography reaching back into the early 1970s that's long enough to crash the Internet Movie Database, Chang said she isn't sure where she wants to go with her career. She's already transitioned smoothly to playing older roles, and her successes as a screenwriter and director assure other creative options. Still, the current state of cinema leaves her a bit cold.

"I'm at a funny stage now," Chang said. "Maybe I don't agree with what's happening now. I don't know what to do with it."

Chang sees a movie industry in which the drama of human relationships has been forsaken for special effects and escapist fantasy, and where creativity is regularly sacrificed for what the market deems safe and reliable.

"I think everybody who lives in a modern city is stressed and they just want to escape," she said. "They want movies that have nothing to do with them, and Chinese martial arts films are perfect. They are an escape world, and these films are easier for American audiences to adapt to."

Chang said she admires the production quality of many American films but is concerned that the Hollywood model may be driving too much of what the rest of the world produces.

"America is influential all over the world because Hollywood is very good with marketing," Chang said. "But lately there are not many good films. There is a lack of good scripts, and America is coming to the world for good scripts and good creative works.

"The influence comes from other countries seeing what works in America and trying to make films for that," she said.

If Chang ever does decide to take a step back, she has much on which to fall back. She's a committed volunteer with the World Vision charitable organization and has made trips to India, Sri Lanka and several African nations to raise awareness about world poverty. At home, she's an accomplished cook and reads philosophy and metaphysics.

Chang's also a passionate, if developing, golfer. She's brought along her clubs to Honolulu and plans on playing a few rounds with "American Fusion" cinematographer Jason Inouye.

Her handicap?

"Don't ask," Chang says. "I'm very depressed about that."

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.