Hu Li

"We could've been a good couple. We could have had something special, but you're one crazy-ass bitch!"

- Detective James Carter to Hu Li "(smiles and take off her sunglasses) The great Chief Inspector Lee, I'll be remembered for getting rid of you."

- Hu Li to Lee when the Triads arm their weapons to both Lee and Carter.

Hu Li was the secondary antagonist of the 2001 action/comedy film Rush Hour 2. She is presented as James Carter's main rival in the film.

She was portrayed by Zhang Ziyi who also portrayed Jen Yu in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sayuri in Memoirs of A Geisha.

Hong Kong
Hu Li was the personal henchwoman of Ricky Tan, and she first appeared at the beginning of the film disguised in a blond wig and holding a package while walking into an office building at the American Embassy. Shortly after delivering the package, she walked out into the street near a cook and the building exploded. She stopped by the cook and said in Mandarin, "Somebody better call the police".

Later at the gangster bar where Carter and Lee were looking for Ricky Tan, Lee spotted Hu Li as soon as she went through the curtains. He gave chase to her and the Triads and Carter follows which lead all the way to a bamboo building in the marketplace of Hong Kong. Once Lee reached the top, she knocked him off the building with a large bamboo stick which left him hanging from the bent bamboo.

As Hu Li prepared to finish him off, she heard noises coming from the doors and fled as soon as Carter arrived. Carter attempted to rescue Lee, but Hu Li sneaked up behind him, and as Lee tried to warn him about her being behind him, she knocked him off the building as well with the bamboo stick, and left the two cops hanging from the building while she fled again.

Later, along with some Triad members, she dumped Lee and Carter off on the freeway after capturing them from the massage parlor and stripped them of their clothes.

She later went into the Yau Ma Tei Police Station disguised as a delivery woman again and walked toward Lee's Office. Carter came out and filrted with Hu Li and did not know that she was the same woman who knocked him off the bamboo building the night before. When Carter blew a kiss to her, Hu Li shut the door, and left him dumbfounded. After Carter left the police station, Lee returned to his office after he spoke with Sterling and his boss, Captain Chin. Soon after, Lee's Office exploded and frightened all of the police officers present.

Hu Li appeared again while on her boss Ricky Tan's Yacht in the middle of Hong Kong Harbor, and Carter spotted her as she went down to the main deck to meet with her boss after talking with Steven Reign. Tan reprimanded Hu Li for disappointing him, asked if she had forgotten where she was from, and then told her not to forget who she worked for. Tan dismissed her when Lee and Carter arrived to confront him. Tan told Lee that he'd give him all the information that he needed, but he had to get him out of Hong Kong right away.

Hu Li appeared again with some henchmen and interrupted Lee and Tan. When Tan prepared to reprimand her again, she responded by shooting him and he fell off his yacht. Hu Li attempted to escape after she left her henchmen to deal with Lee when she called over a boat. Carter appeared, confronted Hu Li, and she did a back roundhouse kick to his face. When Carter challenged her, she kicked him in the chin again, which caused him to fall to the floor knocked out. Lee went to find Hu Li, but she managed to escape on the boat with help from her henchmen.

Los Angeles
Hu Li appeared again, that time in Los Angeles, where, once again, she disguised herself as a delivery woman and delivered a package to Isabella Molina at her hotel room at Reign Towers, (Isabella was later revealed to be working undercover as a U.S. Customs Agent). Lee and Carter, who were spying on Isabella from the left side of Reign Towers, believed that the delivery woman was Hu Li. Thinking the package was a bomb, Carter and Lee ran across to the right side of Reign Towers, reached the hotel room where they stole the package from Isabella, and ran up the staircase to the rooftop where they tried to get rid of the "bomb". They threw the package down and ducked for cover, but Isabella appeared and revealed that the package was not a bomb, but a stack of money bills.

Hu Li appeared again at the Reign Plaza Bank with some henchman and Isabella. As Lee and Carter gave chase to a worker named Zing, it was revealed that the Triads were waiting for them the whole time. While the cops were held at gunpoint by the henchmen, Hu Li told Lee that she'd be remembered for getting rid of him. When Carter attempted to lie, Hu Li saw through it, pulled a gun on him, and forced him to apologize. She prepared to kill them both, but Isabella stepped in and said: "I think there is someone who would like to talk to them first".

Hu Li lowered her gun as Isabella sneaked up behind Lee and knocked him unconscious with her gun. Carter confronted her as Isabella aimed her gun at him, but Hu Li kicked him in the chin, which knocked out his filling. When Carter told Hu Li that it's gonna cost her, she slapped his face, and he retaliated by saying that he never hit a woman in his life, but that she was pushing it. Angered, Hu Li ordered her henchmen to take the unconscious Lee to the truck and hold Carter. As Carter was held at gunpoint and being forced to go to the truck, he stopped by and told her: "You better watch your back". Angered, Hu Li knocked Carter unconscious again and ordered her henchmen to carry him to the truck as well.

As they departed for Las Vegas, Hu Li was shown riding in a limousine with her bodyguard and Isabella. While she carved an apple, Hu Li was upset, claimed that she didn't trust Isabella, and that it was a mistake to have her there. Hu Li's bodyguard told her that their orders were to leave her alone. Isabella looked up at Hu Li and smiled. Hu Li smiled back and told her bodyguard in Mandarin: "I want to slice those pretty lips right off her face and bury her in the desert with those two cops." She gave the apple to Isabella and asked, "Some apple?" (They are the only words she says in English in the entire film.) Isabella took it and said: "I'd put the knife away, bitch, before you have an accident." In retaliation, Hu Li threw the knife and it struck the apple just before Isabella was about to eat it.

Las Vegas
At the Red Dragon Casino, Lee, at Isabella's request, went to infiltrate the back area to find the engraving plates which were used to make the counterfeit money scam. Lee was spotted by the guards through the security cameras, and, after he fought them, he attempted to escape, but was captured by Hu Li and another of Ricky Tan's Henchmen. While the guards were holding Lee down, Hu Li stuck a Ying-Tao Grenade and put it in Lee's mouth.

Hu Li's Henchmen gag and tape Lee's mouth and hands as she told him to follow her or she'd push the detonator and blow 32 teeth into his brain. Hu Li took Lee up to the top floor of the casino where Isabella (still undercover), was waiting along with a still alive Ricky Tan, who revealed that he had faked his death, and, as Lee suspected, was in charge of the operation. Hu Li pointed out to her boss that Steven Reign was headed for the penthouse to get the plates. Tan then told Lee that he was planning to get rid of Carter and that the trouble with partners was they died, "as will he". Before he left, Tan told Hu Li to "have fun."

Hu Li approached Lee and told him that after she's through with him, he'd be begging her to push the button on the detonator. Isabella then took out a gun from under the table, revealed herself as a U.S. Secret Service Agent, and attempted to arrest Hu Li. Before Hu Li could press the detonator, Lee kicked it out of her hand and a fight ensued. After she subdued Isabella by knocking her out with a kick, Hu Li saw Lee subdue the henchmen and attempted to kill him by going for the detonator, but Lee stopped her by holding her close to his gagged mouth, and intended to kill them both. Hu Li kicked Lee in the groin and he stopped her by holding her until she broke free and kicked him out of a window, where he fell out on to the casino floor, still gagged and taped. Isabella regained consciousness and swept Hu Li's detonator out onto the casino floor, where Lee spotted it and chased after it to prevent his own death.

Isabella regained her gun, but Hu Li attempted to steal it from her. While they were both fighting over it, the gun went off, and fired shots all over the office, which caused everyone in the casino to run. Isabella and Hu Li kept fighting over the gun until Hu Li pushed Isabella off and shot her in the arm. Hu Li attempted to shoot her again, but the gun was out of bullets, so she escaped by jumping out onto the casino floor. Hu Li attempted to find her detonator and she soon saw it swept out from under her while the people were panicking and running from the casino. She saw Lee and Carter together as Carter started to pull the tape off of Lee's mouth. With a sly smile, Hu Li found her detonator, pushed the button of detonator, and tried to kill them both, but Lee managed to spit the grenade out and it landed on a Roulette Table. The table exploded, and forced Lee and Carter to duck for cover.

After Lee freed himself, he told Carter that Tan was alive. They attempted to head to the penthouse, but a furious Hu Li threw a harpoon at them. Lee attempted to stop Hu Li, but Carter told him to go after Tan while he dealt with her. Carter taunted Hu Li by challenging her and said that he's going to pretend that she's a man. Hu Li took a sword from a statue and attacked Carter. While they fought, Carter grabbed Hu Li and sniffed her while he said: "Mmm, you smell good." Hu Li did a high kick to Carter's face and chased after him with the sword.

Carter used a roller from the casino table to block Hu Li's attacks and even used a chair. Carter grabbed Hu Li's sword, but she grabbed another one off of another statue and nearly stabbed him in the chest with it. She thrusted in the blade, but it seemed to not be working. So Hu Li kicked Carter and he fell back into a statue, which caused a spear to fling up, seemingly impale her in the chest, knock her unconscious, and make her appear dead. It was revealed that Hu Li was only thrusting a stack of money into the left pocket of Carter's Suit, which made him feel relieved and joyful. Carter then looked down on the unconscious Hu Li, and told her that they could've been a good couple, but that she was one "crazy-ass bitch."

After Ricky Tan fell to his death, a seriously injured Hu Li limped into the room, holding a time bomb in a final attempt to kill both Lee and Carter. Carter demanded that she disarm the bomb, but Hu Li refused as she threatened them in Mandarin. Lee realized that the only way to survive was to jump out the window. Together, Lee and Carter escaped from Hu Li by sliding down the decoration wires with their jackets, just as the bomb exploded and killed her.