SHU Qi, the love interest in the Hollywood thriller “The Transporter,” may be new to U.S. audiences.

In Asia, however, she’s a major star.

The 27-year-old, Taiwanese actress has been in more than 40 films.

Some of her earlier roles were of the soft-porn variety, but as her popularity grew she took on more serious parts, winning a supporting-actress prize in the Taiwanese version of the Oscars.

The high point of her career so far is “Millennium Mambo,” a 2001 drama by Hou Hsiao-hsien, who is considered a god by film lovers.