FASHIONISTA Kelly Chen sashays into the room, looking tall and beautiful in a ruffled purple dress from French designer Lanvin's new summer collection.

You can see why Hong Kong netizens voted her the Goddess Of Legs in a poll last year.

Her right forearm, however, tells a different story.

It bears a 15cm-long faded scar, a souvenir from falling off a horse in her new film, the battle flick An Empress And The Warriors.

For the first time in her 13 years in showbiz, the willowy actress-singer took on the period genre and underwent three months of intensive training in martial arts, horseback riding, archery and wrestling to prepare for her role.

Kelly, 35, plays a princess living in the kingdom of Yan during China's Warring States era. She is forced to train as a warrior and lead her men to battle when her father gets killed.

Donnie Yen co-stars as her right-hand man while Leon Lai plays a retired swordsman whom she falls in love with.

The film opens here next Thursday, but there are sneak previews this weekend.

Looking at the stylishly waifish Kelly, it is hard to imagine her doing an epic, let alone play a warrior.

She is more famous for her contemporary romantic films, like Lavender with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Calmi Cuori Appassionati with Yutaka Takenouchi.

But Kelly, who was in town on Thursday to promote the film, said she took on the challenge because she felt it would be her biggest breakthrough yet on the silver screen.

'I saw the script and I knew it would be tough. But everything in it is stuff that I've never tried before, so I knew it would be a breakthrough for me if I can do it all.'

She's HK Goddess of Legs

Also, she added that such female-centric scripts are hard to come by, and she wanted to work with director Tony Ching Siu-Tung.

It has been three years since her last movie, the action flick Breaking News.

Still, Kelly was quick to point out that she was nowhere as brave as her princess role in real life.

'The princess takes her destiny into her own hands, and she's so brave and strong,' she told The New Paper in Mandarin during an interview at Hotel Intercontinental.

'But I'm more passive, I prefer to have my life mapped out for me so I just follow the road ahead.'

So, is she more of a xiao nu ren (little woman) than a da nu ren (literally big woman, or a feminist)?

With a laugh, Kelly said she is an independent woman, but she also loves to 'rely on my guy'.

'At work, I'm all independent. But when I get home, I become a little woman.'

That's the real Kelly for you.

She may look like she has just walked off a fashion runway, but beneath all that glamour, she is still very much a girl-next-door at heart.

She speaks animatedly, as if she treats you like a friend, and displays a zany candour that is instantly endearing.

Her eyes lit up when two boxes of pandan cake were brought into the room, and she confessed her other favourite Singapore dish is chwee kueh - although she had difficulty pronouncing it initially.

At one point, she even flexed both her arms eagerly to show off her two 'xiao lao shu' (literally little mouse, or biceps).

The New Paper had complimented her fine archery skills in the movie and called her a 'female Legolas' - after the marksman elf in The Lord Of The Rings who never misses his target.

To which she gleefully replied: 'That's wonderful! Did you notice that I can shoot arrows with my left hand too?'

It turned out that director Tony once asked Kelly to take aim with her left hand so that he could shoot from her left side.

'I was like, 'Impossible!', but the director kept egging me to try, saying it'd be dark soon so he had no time to lose. So I tried, and yes, I could do it!'

To our surprise, she then flexed the biceps that she developed through her archery training.

They were initially bigger and 'as hard as this table top', she joked, tapping the coffee table between us.

Another memorable scene has her sparring with Donnie while trying to balance herself on a wooden log floating on a river.

'It was like what they do in the circus... I was so scared of falling off,' she exclaimed.

LEON SCARED, KELLY EXCITED

What's more enjoyable for Kelly was riding in a hot-air balloon created by Leon's character, in a scene that was filmed above a forest near Beijing.

'Leon was a little scared because he thought it was dangerous. I felt very excited because I'd never done something like that.

'The wind was blowing and the forest was beautiful, it was a wonderful feeling.'

As for her toughest scene, Kelly recalled how she had to dive into a river to escape a group of assassins.

She said she went underwater too fast and felt breathless.

Because her armour was so heavy, she had no strength left and sank after the director shouted 'Cut!', and the crew pulled her up.

But, she felt proud that she managed to overcome her initial fear of falling off horses - she fell by accident five or six times during training and faked it for the script three times.

'I refused to give up and mounted the horse at the exact spot where I fell, so as to overcome my fear.'

Never mind that one such tumble caused her to scrape her right forearm and left the scar.

Kelly said she had no regrets.

With a laugh, she demonstrated how she can easily hide the scar - for instance by covering it up with a big bangle.

'This is my Jiang Shan Mei Ren tattoo, it's the most trendy thing now,' she joked, referring to the Chinese title of her new film. It translates, literally, as empire and beauty.

But when it came to the topic of love, Kelly had nothing to hide.

She has been dating a non-celebrity for several years now, and she said they have an 'ideal romance'.

'It's not easy to find a guy who loves you for so many years and is so dedicated and supportive of you.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Mar 22, 2008.