Performance Zhang Ziyi (1 Viewer)

[Drew_B]

Any fans of Zhang Ziyi on kpopsource?

Shes been in a lot of great movies across different genres but in the West shes most famous for appearing in Martial Arts films.

Which role of hers is your favorite?

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

Hero (2002)

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

The Grandmaster (2013)

 

[Drew_B]

@emanresu

If you're not a fan of her I will be shocked.

 

[Suzy]

Her name and face are very familiar to me but I just cannot remember what I saw her in. Has she only been acting in international films or has she been in any Chinese shows/movies recently?

 

[Ashla_K]

I'll probably get some heat for this one but I just adored her in Memoirs of a Geisha.


The house of flying daggers comes in close second, she doesn't have a bad movie on her resume.

Her name and face are very familiar to me but I just cannot remember what I saw her in. Has she only been acting in international films or has she been in any Chinese shows/movies recently?

I'm not sure but I think The Grandmaster is her latest movie, an alternate version of IP man. She is famous in the US for her roles in big chinese productions like Crushing Tiger Hiden Dragon which won an Oscar as best foreign film in 2001.
Edit: Godzilla 2 is her latest movie, I didn't realize how old The grandmaster is...

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

Her name and face are very familiar to me but I just cannot remember what I saw her in. Has she only been acting in international films or has she been in any Chinese shows/movies recently?

She was a antagonist in a Rush Hour movie with Jackie Chan n Chris Tucker as i remember. Shes now Ziyi Zhang by preference last i time i noticed her.


https://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/road_home.htm
I think her movie/role/performance thats my favorite is her earliest i that i watched, The Road Home.

Also directed by Zhang Yimou, who directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; from which Zhang gained international superstardom. All her later stuff after CTHD i dont find her as compelling for some reason. She got cast in Rush Hour 2 soon after based on her success in CTHD tho she didnt speak English
(AFAICR) then n i suspect now either. Havent kept up with her doings since probably her last Wuxia flick either Hero(2002) or House of Flying Daggers(2004). Or Memoirs of a Geisha(2005) which i never watched-an English language movie which i suspect she may have memorised phonetically from all accounts of her English proficiency then, which may be same for her co-star Gong Li.

@emanresu She was also in 2046 directed by Wong Kar Wai, which iv also never watched.

Chlorine might have seen/noticed her in her last 15 years of jobs in various China productions, none of which i knew about before now.

I kinda prefer Shu Qi to Zhang, both by roles/movies/performances of each n by their temperaments/public personas.

 

[Drew_B]

She was a antagonist in a Rush Hour movie with Jackie Chan n Chris Tucker as i remember. Shes now Ziyi Zhang by preference last i time i noticed her.


https://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/road_home.htm
I think her movie/role/performance thats my favorite is her earliest i that i watched, The Road Home.

Also directed by Zhang Yimou, who directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; from which Zhang gained international superstardom. All her later stuff after CTHD i dont find her as compelling for some reason. She got cast in Rush Hour 2 soon after based on her success in CTHD tho she didnt speak English
(AFAICR) then n i suspect now either. Havent kept up with her doings since probably her last Wuxia flick either Hero(2002) or House of Flying Daggers(2004). Or Memoirs of a Geisha(2005) which i never watched-an English language movie which i suspect she may have memorised phonetically from all accounts of her English proficiency then, which may be same for her co-star Gong Li.

@emanresu She was also in 2046 directed by Wong Kar Wai, which iv also never watched.

Chlorine might have seen/noticed her in her last 15 years of jobs in various China productions, none of which i knew about before now.

I kinda prefer Shu Qi to Zhang, both by roles/movies/performances of each n by their temperaments/public personas.

Actually it was Ang Lee who directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But Zhang Yimou directed her in Hero.

Good post. I was just about to mention her being in Rush Hour 2.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

Actually it was Ang Lee who directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. But Zhang Yimou directed her in Hero.

Good post. I was just about to mention her being in Rush Hour 2.

Oops, i was gonna mention a Zhang Yimou trilogy of Wuxia flicks with Zhang Ziyi but i dodged a mistake there. Ziyi appeared in 4 wuxia flicks in a short timevdirected by big name directors then. Just a brain fart n old age catching me up ig tat i mistook the director who gave Ziyi her big break n she gained her international superstardom from; should hv double checked n realised if i thought abt it further tat Zhang the director wouldnt hv made a internationally hit commercial movie then- all his previous movies were arthouse n critical hits. Which i watched them/some? in the 90s, so not a knock.

 

[Drew_B]

I'll probably get some heat for this one but I just adored her in Memoirs of a Geisha.


The house of flying daggers comes in close second, she doesn't have a bad movie on her resume.

I'm not sure but I think The Grandmaster is her latest movie, an alternate version of IP man. She is famous in the US for her roles in big chinese productions like Crushing Tiguer Hiden Dragon which won an Oscar as best foreign film in 2001.
Edit: Godzilla 2 is her latest movie, I didn't realize how old The grandmaster is...

What's wrong with Memoirs of a Geisha? That was a good movie.

 

[Drew_B]

Oops, i was gonna mention a Zhang Yimou trilogy of Wuxia flicks with Zhang Ziyi but i dodged a mistake there. Ziyi appeared in 4 wuxia flicks in a short timevdirected by big name directors then. Just a brain fart n old age catching me up ig tat i mistook the director who gave Ziyi her big break n she gained her international superstardom from; should hv double checked n realised if i thought abt it further tat Zhang the director wouldnt hv made a internationally hit commercial movie then- all his previous movies were arthouse n critical hits. Which i watched them/some? in the 90s, so not a knock.

I love "The Road Home". It almost seems like Zhang Yimou got jealous after she blew up in CTHD and wanted to remind everyone he discovered her first so he cast her in his very own first martial arts movie "Hero".

 

[Ashla_K]

What's wrong with Memoirs of a Geisha? That was a good movie.

Well there's some controversy around the movie. First because Ziyi was casted as the main protagonist despite being Chinese and that allegedly, the author of the book and the geisha who inspired the story weren't in good terms. Basically, she said he changed the story to the point of being unrecognizable. Anyways, I totally agree with you, the movie is beautiful and all the actors were great as well, regardless of nationality.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

Well there's some controversy around the movie. First because Ziyi was casted as the main protagonist despite being Chinese and that allegedly, the author of the book and the geisha who inspired the story weren't in good terms. Basically, she said he changed the story to the point of being unrecognizable. Anyways, I totally agree with you, the movie is beautiful and all the actors were great as well, regardless of nationality.

But all three of the main cast are non-japanese performing as japanese right? My countrywoman, Michelle Yeoh n the two zhang yimou associated China actresses, Gong Li n Zhang Ziyi(i believe they were all cast cos they were famous/hit commercial name actresses), for me the story n the theme are more turnoffs than the casting(remaking/recasting with Chiaki Kuroyama or Rila Fukushima or Tao Okamoto, all great Japanese actresses who have also acted in English/western movies/shows wouldnt change tat tho i might watch it) tho i know nothing about it other than its about a geisha's story, since i hvnt watched/. If it was by a japanese writer or geisha who actually wrote it n wasnt too sensationalised (imo) i might be more interested; i like kore eda hirokazu (shoplifters) movies n more naturalistic themes in my japanese movies like the departure; tho i belatedly think now memoirs isnt a japanese movie; my bad. The only japanese based western produced/directed movie im thinking of that wasnt one-sided n was positive/(relatively non-sensationalised) of japan/japanese in its way was Black Rain directed by Ridley Scott n starring Michael Douglas, (i had to look this up-i watched the movie when it was newly out n was awed by this actor then) costar Ken Takakura, a great Japanese actor with many great roles(but i wish they were all available on dvd with English subtitles). He was even in another English/western/hollywood movie set/shot in japan with Tom Selleck Mr Baseball, which i dontvremember knowing/watching it.

I love "The Road Home". It almost seems like Zhang Yimou got jealous after she blew up in CTHD and wanted to remind everyone he discovered her first so he cast her in his very own first martial arts movie "Hero".

But she wasnt even the star of the movie(CTHD) or recipientvof most of its accolades(AFAICR), my purely speculative reasoning is not jealosy of Ang or CTHD but just opportunism/capitalising on his discovery/director-actor relationship with Ziyi to try n make money/his name n image with a hit international commercial movie but showcasing his own sensibilities, if anything his jealousy might be more toward John Woo, who was more contemporaneous with him n got more opportunities in Hong Kong n later in Hollywood (n hadnt then yet flamed out/wore out his welcome there).
Im guessing but i think he saw a chance to expand himself by making Hero then House of Flying Daggers, even later Great Wall but watching them, i think his sensibilities/predilections werent a match for hit international commercial success,as opposed to arthouse/critical hits. He should hv been making strides towards wuxia flicks in its heyday 80s/90s if he understood the genre instead of belatedly catching a n the age of jet planes-CTHD was a one-off like Unforgiven or Dances with Wolves, u really need someone who understands both the genre n the times ur making an update/reimagining/ode or paean to a lost time(tats if CTHD was tat), looking back it seems more like a fluke now. It was a like catching lightning in a bottle serendipitiously with Ang Lee n Chow Yun Fatt n Michelle Yeoh known to the western public from their English language (uhhh) hits? like the Corruptor or replacement killers or Tomorrow never dies or ice storm or sense or sensibility or ill stop here. Whereas Hero had Jet Li n Tony Leung Chiuwai n Maggie Cheung who are great actors but not leading stars or as known as CTHD's stars outside Asia at the time smh.
House of Flying Daggers was a great stylistic triumph when i watched it umpteen years ago but cant remember anything about it now, the stars were even more unknown outside Asia, takeshiro kaneshiro n Andy Lau. In both these movies ziyi was no longer ingenue n unknown so watever she had in CTHD wasnt recaught here. A great misstep (imo) by director Zhang but honorable costly attempt. So misguided but understandable. Too bad. A bad case of jumping on the bandwagon when the train already left the station, to mix my english idioms/metaphors.

Btw, drew can u remember/tell me how/when you first saw/heard of "the road home"? I dont remember now but think i probably got a library dvd a few years (2004/2005?) later. Curious cos its a bit obscure n also dint know/realise how few of ziyi movies/roles iv seen out of her total(not really a big fan of her other than her debut/wuxia flicks).

 

[Drew_B]

But all three of the main cast are non-japanese performing as japanese right? My countrywoman, Michelle Yeoh n the two zhang yimou associated China actresses, Gong Li n Zhang Ziyi(i believe they were all cast cos they were famous/hit commercial name actresses), for me the story n the theme are more turnoffs than the casting(remaking/recasting with Chiaki Kuroyama or Rila Fukushima or Tao Okamoto, all great Japanese actresses who have also acted in English/western movies/shows wouldnt change tat tho i might watch it) tho i know nothing about it other than its about a geisha's story, since i hvnt watched/. If it was by a japanese writer or geisha who actually wrote it n wasnt too sensationalised (imo) i might be more interested; i like kore eda hirokazu (shoplifters) movies n more naturalistic themes in my japanese movies like the departure; tho i belatedly think now memoirs isnt a japanese movie; my bad. The only japanese based western produced/directed movie im thinking of that wasnt one-sided n was positive/(relatively non-sensationalised) of japan/japanese in its way was Black Rain directed by Ridley Scott n starring Michael Douglas, (i had to look this up-i watched the movie when it was newly out n was awed by this actor then) costar Ken Takakura, a great Japanese actor with many great roles(but i wish they were all available on dvd with English subtitles). He was even in another English/western/hollywood movie set/shot in japan with Tom Selleck Mr Baseball, which i dontvremember knowing/watching it.


But she wasnt even the star of the movie(CTHD) or recipientvof most of its accolades(AFAICR), my purely speculative reasoning is not jealosy of Ang or CTHD but just opportunism/capitalising on his discovery/director-actor relationship with Ziyi to try n make money/his name n image with a hit international commercial movie but showcasing his own sensibilities, if anything his jealousy might be more toward John Woo, who was more contemporaneous with him n got more opportunities in Hong Kong n later in Hollywood (n hadnt then yet flamed out/wore out his welcome there).
Im guessing but i think he saw a chance to expand himself by making Hero then House of Flying Daggers, even later Great Wall but watching them, i think his sensibilities/predilections werent a match for hit international commercial success,as opposed to arthouse/critical hits. He should hv been making strides towards wuxia flicks in its heyday 80s/90s if he understood the genre instead of belatedly catching a n the age of jet planes-CTHD was a one-off like Unforgiven or Dances with Wolves, u really need someone who understands both the genre n the times ur making an update/reimagining/ode or paean to a lost time(tats if CTHD was tat), looking back it seems more like a fluke now. It was a like catching lightning in a bottle serendipitiously with Ang Lee n Chow Yun Fatt n Michelle Yeoh known to the western public from their English language (uhhh) hits? like the Corruptor or replacement killers or Tomorrow never dies or ice storm or sense or sensibility or ill stop here. Whereas Hero had Jet Li n Tony Leung Chiuwai n Maggie Cheung who are great actors but not leading stars or as known as CTHD's stars outside Asia at the time smh.
House of Flying Daggers was a great stylistic triumph when i watched it umpteen years ago but cant remember anything about it now, the stars were even more unknown outside Asia, takeshiro kaneshiro n Andy Lau. In both these movies ziyi was no longer ingenue n unknown so watever she had in CTHD wasnt recaught here. A great misstep (imo) by director Zhang but honorable costly attempt. So misguided but understandable. Too bad. A bad case of jumping on the bandwagon when the train already left the station, to mix my english idioms/metaphors.

Btw, drew can u remember/tell me how/when you first saw/heard of "the road home"? I dont remember now but think i probably got a library dvd a few years (2004/2005?) later. Curious cos its a bit obscure n also dint know/realise how few of ziyi movies/roles iv seen out of her total(not really a big fan of her other than her debut/wuxia flicks).

A Michael Douglas in Black Rain mention on kpopsource??? Never thought I'd see that in a million years lol.

Another great post. You sound like you really are a fan of Asian Cinema. And I cant believe I never thought about it until now but yes Ziyi, Michelle, and Gong all playing Japanese roles is a bit much. I'm not familiar at all with Japanese cinema but theres got to be some big names that could have been in that movie. You mentioned quite a few.

Seems like I caught The Road Home on Netflix about six years ago. I'd heard about this movie but never had anyway to watch it so when I saw it on netflix I watched it immediately. It definitely lived up to the hype. I was completely absorbed into this movie.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

A Michael Douglas in Black Rain mention on kpopsource??? Never thought I'd see that in a million years lol.

Another great post. You sound like you really are a fan of Asian Cinema. And I cant believe I never thought about it until now but yes Ziyi, Michelle, and Gong all playing Japanese roles is a bit much. I'm not familiar at all with Japanese cinema but theres got to be some big names that could have been in that movie. You mentioned quite a few.

Seems like I caught The Road Home on Netflix about six years ago. I'd heard about this movie but never had anyway to watch it so when I saw it on netflix I watched it immediately. It definitely lived up to the hype. I was completely absorbed into this movie.

Im more of a westernised Asian guy who likes western US/UK tv, movies, comics n books. But you(i) cant help absorbing some Asian culture where i grew up n lived almost all of my life(even not understanding the [my own ethnic] language for almost half my life. I had to slowly , painstakingly learn, understand n start to speak Chinese(outside-china mandarin which i consider a bit different especially in my country umpty years ago when i had to speak/listen to it even until now), cantonese n my own dialect, hokkien(luckily least needed as its hardest, maybe cos of least practise/repetition/evolution of modern meanings/idioms). I seem good at mimicry if repeated/listen carefully intently. But most ofvthe then popular asian culture bored me stiff when i was most interested in western cartoons/comics/movies/tv but not really video games, then or now.

Spoiler: long post, sorry

Stuff i absorbed got thru osmosis without attention/interest were hong kong movies n some tv shows/dramas, only after years of disinterest/inattention i started liking/watching hong kong/SEA tv/movies a little more intermittently or smatteringly here n there with no rhyme reason or consistency that i can recall unless its my favorite actress/star then Maggie Cheung. Even then it was slapdash mostly hodge podge wat i ssaw then as budget n distribution allowed since no internet n my main interest was always comics n books, then western movies n tv. But i started watching a few foreign language movies in cinemas like a few japanese movies tampopo n french movies like cyrano n camille then.
But the greatest volume started after the 2000s dvds were aplenty n i watched japanese movies n european movies in great number, hong kong/asian cinema still numbered the least maybe nil from 2000-up but im not a grear Asian movie /cine fan as much as emanresu, just growing up/living here its osmosised in n by percentage n choice/will/conscipus action im considered little but maybe by volume/quantity, it might seem a lot compared to non-asians as i also remember titles, actors n incidental details without remembering the plots or stories of wat iv watched/seen/read abt.

Id much prefer growing up in the us/uk osmosising us/uk stuff, do u remember/know a ridley scott movie "body of lies"? Theres a scene where i think russell crowe is somewhere in the gulf with a local kid cant be more than ten or so, n the context of the scene is this kid wants to be american with mcdonalds n everything (s'wat i remembervfrom it anyhows), tats always stuck wit me ever since i watched tat scene , i was like tat kid n always will be in a way tho i was tat kid before americanised culture really took root in the rest of the world in a big way n a reversal seems to be happening now.

So im not a big Asian movie fan but its just incidental. I prefer US/UK/Western with interspersed japanesed/sk/SEA cinema im interested in but not all, just a highly eclectic taste, i believe. Also opportunity, availabilty prevails. If i dint hv opportunity or availabilty then no matter how much interest i had, i dint see it-also corollary publicity, if i dint know abt it, or found out abt it i also dint see it/try it. Interestingly, i dont hv netflix or similar so i dont see a lot. Its overloaded but i dont really miss it.(i hv watched/seen mandalorian/watchmen-2019 n enjoyed/liked em). Sorry brain overfull, words/post overflowed cos no outlet for over a mth.

 

[Drew_B]

Im more of a westernised Asian guy who likes western US/UK tv, movies, comics n books. But you(i) cant help absorbing some Asian culture where i grew up n lived almost all of my life(even not understanding the [my own ethnic] language for almost half my life. I had to slowly , painstakingly learn, understand n start to speak Chinese(outside-china mandarin which i consider a bit different especially in my country umpty years ago when i had to speak/listen to it even until now), cantonese n my own dialect, hokkien(luckily least needed as its hardest, maybe cos of least practise/repetition/evolution of modern meanings/idioms). I seem good at mimicry if repeated/listen carefully intently. But most ofvthe then popular asian culture bored me stiff when i was most interested in western cartoons/comics/movies/tv but not really video games, then or now.

Spoiler: long post, sorry

Stuff i absorbed got thru osmosis without attention/interest were hong kong movies n some tv shows/dramas, only after years of disinterest/inattention i started liking/watching hong kong/SEA tv/movies a little more intermittently or smatteringly here n there with no rhyme reason or consistency that i can recall unless its my favorite actress/star then Maggie Cheung. Even then it was slapdash mostly hodge podge wat i ssaw then as budget n distribution allowed since no internet n my main interest was always comics n books, then western movies n tv. But i started watching a few foreign language movies in cinemas like a few japanese movies tampopo n french movies like cyrano n camille then.
But the greatest volume started after the 2000s dvds were aplenty n i watched japanese movies n european movies in great number, hong kong/asian cinema still numbered the least maybe nil from 2000-up but im not a grear Asian movie /cine fan as much as emanresu, just growing up/living here its osmosised in n by percentage n choice/will/conscipus action im considered little but maybe by volume/quantity, it might seem a lot compared to non-asians as i also remember titles, actors n incidental details without remembering the plots or stories of wat iv watched/seen/read abt.

Id much prefer growing up in the us/uk osmosising us/uk stuff, do u remember/know a ridley scott movie "body of lies"? Theres a scene where i think russell crowe is somewhere in the gulf with a local kid cant be more than ten or so, n the context of the scene is this kid wants to be american with mcdonalds n everything (s'wat i remembervfrom it anyhows), tats always stuck wit me ever since i watched tat scene , i was like tat kid n always will be in a way tho i was tat kid before americanised culture really took root in the rest of the world in a big way n a reversal seems to be happening now.

So im not a big Asian movie fan but its just incidental. I prefer US/UK/Western with interspersed japanesed/sk/SEA cinema im interested in but not all, just a highly eclectic taste, i believe. Also opportunity, availabilty prevails. If i dint hv opportunity or availabilty then no matter how much interest i had, i dint see it-also corollary publicity, if i dint know abt it, or found out abt it i also dint see it/try it. Interestingly, i dont hv netflix or similar so i dont see a lot. Its overloaded but i dont really miss it.(i hv watched/seen mandalorian/watchmen-2019 n enjoyed/liked em). Sorry brain overfull, words/post overflowed cos no outlet for over a mth.

Out of that whole post the thing I learned most about you is you are Asian lol.

You told me how old you are but I didn't know you were Asian. That's awesome.

 

[LoveYooShaSha]

Out of that whole post the thing I learned most about you is you are Asian lol.

You told me how old you are but I didn't know you were Asian. That's awesome.

Im ethnic chinese dude, we're called(or call ourselves, im confused cos growing up i never thought abt it) overseas chinese.

(Wats awesome abt being asian during a racist pandemic?) I dont mean youLeaving this here but dont really need an answer, pls dont quote this in case i wanna edit/delete it part later(hvnt personally come across it but reading abt it is bad enuf).

 

[Drew_B]

@SteviSone

Oh yeah that part about being asian is definitely not cool.

But we really got off topic lol.

I wish @emanresu was here right now so he can join in the discussion about Zhang Ziyi. Like you mentioned I'm sure hes seen 2046 cause Wong Kai Wai s his favorite Director.

 

[Drew_B]

The way @emanresu ignored this whole thread.

 

[Emanresu]

The way @emanresu ignored this whole thread.

This must have been during one of my hiatuses.

I swear I don't remember this thread!


And holy shit yes I'm a big fan of her.

House Of Flying Daggers, CTHD, 2046, The Road Home.

She is mesmerizing.

I had a big crush on her a long time ago.