Actress Gong Li graces the October 2009 cover of Chinese Elle magazine.

The movie "Shanghai", her second collaboration with actor Chow Yun-fat after 2006's "Curse of the Golden Flower", is expected to be released in 2010.

In the story set in legendary 1940s Shanghai, Gong Li plays a socialite and an underground revolutionary, and Chow is again her husband.

"He is a Shanghai tycoon. We are a couple who conceals many secrets from each other, and both of us know that," Gong Li said during the interview.

"I fell in love with this woman called Anna as soon as I saw her," she said, talking about her role. "She's strong. She's gentle. She's smart and intellectual. She's like a mystery, making people wonder what kind of person she is. I admire this kind of woman."

Gong Li also told Elle she enjoyed the days she spent filming "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Sometimes, a crowd of women (actresses) gathered and jabbered away. That was fun," she said.