Happy Birthday, Zhang Ziyi

As Gong Er in Wong Kar Wai's The Grandmaster (2013)

Today marks the 36rd birthday of Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. Born in Beijing in 1979, she began studying dance when she was eight years old. In 1996, when she was seventeen, she began studying at the prestigious Central Drama College in Beijing. Her first noteworthy role was as Zhao Di, the young woman who's determined to marry the new teacher who comes to her village in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999).

Her career skyrocketed with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the following year. Her dance training served her well in that film's many martial arts sequences, and she at least held her own opposite veteran costars Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh.

As Empress Wan in Legend of the Black Scorpion

She's also worked with director Tsui Hark in The Legend of Zu (2001), his unfortunately inferior remake of his own Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain; Wong Kar-wei in 2046 and The Grandmaster (2013); Seijin Suzuki in his Princess Racoon (2005), and Robert Marshall in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also re-teamed with Zhang Yimou for Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

As Bai Ling in 2046

Multi-talented and beautiful, her career to date has been phenomenal. Recently, she showed her comedic chops in director Eva Jin's delightful Sophie's Revenge (2009). For my review of the film, which screened at the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival, click here.

As Xiao Mei in House of Flying Daggers

So, heartfelt "Happy Birthday" wishes to you, Ziyi Zhang. Your fans in the U.S. surely wish you health, happiness, a continued, long and lustrous career, and to see you again soon doing what you do so well - lighting up our theaters, our widescreeen TVs, and our hearts.

A Brief Post-Script About Names:

Early in her career, her name appeared in English as Zhang Ziyi, using the traditional Chinese order of family name first, personal name last. This was how she was billed through House of Flying Daggers (2004).  Subsequently she's been billed as Ziyi Zhang in English. My guess is that she got fed up with being mistakenly addressed or referred to as "Ms. Ziyi" and that's why her name started appearing in credits in Western order. She'll probably always be "Zhang Ziyi" to me,

ACF 2032: MY LUCKY STAR opens tomorrow in select cities

China Lion Film Distribution

Presents

My Lucky Star

Directed by Dennie Gordon

Starring ZHANG Ziyi, Leehom WANG, and Terri KWAN

China, 2013, 114 minutes

My Lucky Star is a most charming and delightful romantic comedy. It opens tomorrow, Friday, September 20th, 2013, at select theaters throughout North America and Hawaii. Release locations, subject to change, are Boston, Chicago, the Dallas/Plano Area, Honolulu, Houston, the Los Angeles Metro Area/Orange County, the New York Metro Area, the San Francisco/Bay Area, Seattle, the Washington, D.C. Metro Area, the Toronto Metro Area, and the Vancouver Metro Area. Check local listings for theaters and showtimes.

Sophie at her job at a travel agency

Zhang Ziyi stars as Sophie, a talented, aspiring cartoonist. Although skilled at drawing her romantic stories, she hasn't yet become successful enough to earn a living at it and has a day job at the Beijing Feng Guang Travel Agency. She's the company's worse customer service phone reps because she daydreams and doesn't pay attention to what the customers are saying. Her personal life is not anything to rave about either. She lives in an apartment off an alley, has no taste when it comes to clothing, and is pretty clumsy. Her love life is non-existent.

Sophie's taste in couture lacks refinement

Things change when she wins a sweepstake for a 5 day trip to Singapore. There she runs into David Yan (Leehom Wang), a secret agent. His current assignment is to recovery the Lucky Star Diamond, which has been stolen from an exhibition in London and is a crystal oscillator for a high-energy laser. In other words, it has the potential to be a most devastating weapon.

The hero in Sophie's comic looks like real life secret agent David Yan

David also happens to look exacttly like the hero in Sophie's comics. Naturally she's attracted to him, which results in her getting involved in the operation. The infamous Mr. Gao (Jack Koo), a ruthless killer, is to retrieve the diamond from Li wan and bring it to Charlize Won (Terri Kwan), a.k.a. the "Black Widow," who marries rich men and kills them for the inheritance. But Sophie gets in the middle of the transaction and inadvertently becomes the key to making the Lucky Star accessible. Hilarious hijinks ensue.

Sophie acts to seduce Li Wan, seller of the Lucky Star Diamond

My Lucky Star, it should be mentioned, has absolutely nothing to do with My Lucky Stars, the 1985 Hong Kong action comedy that starred Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung, who also directed. Rather it marks the return of  Ms. Zhang to a role she first played in Sophie's Revenge, the 2009 comedy that became the highest grossing romantic comedy hit in the history of Chinese cinema. In that first film, Sophie's fiance´ calls off their wedding because he's fallen for a gorgeous actress, and Sophie tries to win him back. It played at the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival, and my review of it can be found here. (Sophie's Revenge is available on Netflix streaming and as a Region I DVD from Amazon and Best Buy.)

David and Sophie

My Lucky Star, however, is not really a sequel; it's simply the second film in what hopefully will be a continuing series; it completely stands on it own. While I urge you to see Sophie's Revenge, you don't need to be familiar with it at all to understand and appreciate My Lucky Star.

My Lucky Star succeeds largely because of Zhang Ziyi. (I'm using the Chinese arrangement of family name first, personal name second, as that is how it appears in the film's credits. She is usually credited as Ziyi Zhang in Western releases.) She is a most talented actress, beyond her physical looks and abilities. She has a real feel for comedy and is capable of remarkable expressiveness. Watch her face early in My Lucky Star when her hero frees her ankles fro restraints. There are some slight gestures that she makes that go way beyond what's called for to express sensual delight.

Sophie in disguise as a gondolier in Macau

As a child, Zhang studied dance. This background stood her in good stead for her martial arts roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Wong Kar Wai's recently-release The Grandmaster, the films for which she probably is most widely known in the Western world. I wonder of that training was also useful to her in portraying the physically awkward -- read klutz -- that is Sophie. In any case she is both convincingly and comically uncoordinated when that's called for.

I must also give credit to director Dennie Gordon. A graduate of Yale's School of Drama, she has directed over 100 hour of network television, the teen cult hit Joe Dirt (2001), the romantic comedy What a Girl Wants (2003), and the Warner Bros. comedy New York Minute (2004). Her work caught the attention of Song Ge, General Manager at Wanda Media, who had produced Sophie's Revenge and wanted to work with Ziyi again. One of the challenges Ms. Gordon obviously had to deal with concerned language, namely the fact that the production was conducted in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. She's reportedly the first American woman to have handled this type of situation and she's done a fantastic job.

Sophie to the rescue! (?)

So if you're in the mood for a wonderful rom-com and can make it to one of the screening sites, do so without hesitation. If you don't live in or near one of these cities, hope for a Region 1 DVD release, which I consider likely.

ACF rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended.

ACF 2009: MY LUCKY STAR set for September 20th release

China Lion has acquired and will release the film My Lucky Star on September 20th in North America, day-and-date with Mainland China. The film stars Ziyi Zhang and Wang Leehom and follows the continuing comedic adventures of Sophie (Zhang) as she finds herself caught up in an international diamond heist that draws her towards a sexy spy (Wang) trying to save the world. The film serves as a standalone production with a contained storyline rather than a sequel to the film Sophie’s Revenge, the hilarious 2009 comedy that was shown at the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival. (My review of Sophie's Revenge can be found here.)

Directed by American helmer Dennie Gordon and produced by Ming Beaver Kwei, Second Chan, William Cheng, Ling Lucas and Zhang, the film is set for a limited release across the U.S. and Canada in major metro areas, including Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and the Washington, D.C., area, with specific locations to be announced.

Ziyi Zhang is the star of the Wong Kar Wai’s action, drama The Grandmaster and known for her performance in the Academy Award winning films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Wang Leehom, who starred in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, is currently filming Michael Mann’s untitled cyberthriller with Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis. Leehom has also signed to play the title role in Magic Storm Entertainment’s The Annihilator, based on the Stan-Lee created character.

ACF 1343: Happy 33rd Birthday Wishes to Ziyi Zhang!

As Empress Wan in Legend of the Black Scorpion

Today marks the 33rd birthday of Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang. Born in Beijing in 1979, she began studying dance when she was eight years old. In 1996, when she was seventeen, she began studying at the prestigious Central Drama College in Beijing. Her first noteworthy role was as Zhao Di, the young woman who's determined to marry the new teacher who comes to her village in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999).

Her career skyrocketed with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the following year. Her dance training served her well in that film's many martial arts sequences, and she at least held her own opposite veteran costars Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh.

As Bai Ling in 2046

She's also worked with director Tsui Hark in The Legend of Zu (2001), his unfortunately inferior remake of his own Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain; Wong Kar-wei in 2046; Seijin Suzuki in his Princess Racoon (2005), and Robert Marshall in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also re-teamed with Zhang Yimou for Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

As Xiao Mei in House of Flying Daggers

Multi-talented and beautiful, her career to date has been phenomenal. Recently, she showed her comedic chops in director Eva Jin's delightful Sophie's Revenge (2009). For my review of the film, which screened at the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival, click here.

So, heartfelt "Happy Birthday" wishes to you, Ziyi Zhang. Your fans in the U.S. surely wish you health, happiness, a continued, long and lustrous career, and to see you again soon doing what you do so well - lighting up our theaters, our widescreeen TVs, and our hearts.

A Brief Post-Script About Names:

Early in her career, her name appeared in English as Zhang Ziyi, using the traditional Chinese order of family name first, personal name last. This was how she was billed through House of Flying Daggers (2004). My guess is that she got fed up with being mistakenly addressed or referred to as "Ms. Ziyi" and that's why her name started appearing in credits in Western order. She'll probably always be "Zhang Ziyi" to me, but here I use "Ziyi Zhang" in difference to her apparent preference and to avoid further confusion. On the other hand, I use Zhang Yimou - the noted director and Ziyi's one-time mentor - because that's how his name typically appears in English.

ACF 470: Happy Birthday, Ziyi Zhang!

Ziyi Zhang as The Empress Wan in
Legend of the Black Scorpion

Today marks the 31st birthday of Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang. Born in Beijing in 1979, she trained as a dancer, but gave it up and later studied at the China Central Drama College in Beijing, her birthplace. Her first noteworthy role was as Zhao Di, the young woman who's determined to marry the new teacher who comes to her village in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999).

Her career skyrocketed with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the following year. Her dance training served her well in that film's many martial arts sequences, and she at least held her own opposite veteran costars Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh.

In 2046

She's also worked with director Tsui Hark in The Legend of Zu (2001), his unfortunately inferior remake of his own Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain; Wong Kar-wei in 2046; Seijin Suzuki in his Princess Racoon (2005), and Robert Marshall in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also re-teamed with Zhang Yimou for Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

In House of Flying Daggers

Multi-talented and beautiful, her career to date has been phenomenal. Unfortunately, she hasn't been a presence on movie screens in America for awhile.

So, heartfelt "Happy Birthday" wishes to you, Ziyi Zhang. Your fans in the U.S. surely wish you health, happiness, a continued, long and lustrous career, and to see you again soon doing what you do so well - lighting up our theaters, our widescreeen TVs, and our hearts.

ACF 093: Who Killed Empress Wan in "Legend of the Black Scorpion"?

SPOILER ALERT !!!
This article reveals some plot points in the film
Legend of the Black Scorpion.

Several people have been referred to my review in ACF 079 when they ran searches that asked, in essence, "Who killed Empress Wan in Legend of the Black Scorpion?" I didn't discuss the matter in my review, but since there seems to be at least a fair amount of interest in the question, here goes.

The short, and correct, answer is that the film does not reveal who kills Empress Wan (Zhang Ziyi) at the end of the film. Neither Feng Xiaogang, the director, nor the cast have said. In his interview on Disc 2 of the Dragon Dynasty DVD release, actor Daniel Wu (Prince Wu Luan) teasingly says that he knows but won't tell.

My thought, when I first saw the film at the 2007 New York Asian Film Festival, was that it was the ghost of the dead Emperor, Prince Wu's father, who killed her. I mean, if his armor can bleed, why couldn't he strike her down after all the misfortune that she'd caused, even if she didn't do it deliberately?

One of the members of Subway Cinema, the organization that sponsored the festival, told me that he thought it was Minister Yin, who had been sent into exile by the Empress. The logic here was that he was the only significant character that was still alive. Turns out this was close to the mark.

Bey Logan, in his terrific commentary accompanying the movie on Disc 1, discusses what he knows, and sheds considerable light on the vexing question. According to him, the script originally called for the one maid who is seen in several shots throughout the film (she's in the background in the screen shot above) to kill the Empress. Furthermore the murder was done at the bidding of Minister Yin, who certainly had motives.

I believe Logan also said that scenes that would have given the maid greater presence, and perhaps some that actually showed the order being given and the deed being done, either were not shot or were deleted when the director decided to make the ending ambiguous.

So there's the best answer available that I know of. As Logan delightfully puts it: "It was the maid what done it."

ACF 079: "Legend of the Black Scorpion" Streets Tomorrow

Legend of the Black Scorpion will be available on DVD from Dragon Dynasty tomorrow, Tuesday, February 26, 2008. The film is director Feng Xiaogang's retelling and retooling of Shakespeare's Hamlet. This adaptation is set in 907 A.D. during a turbulent time in the Tang Dynasty. The Emperor has been killed by his brother, who becomes Emperor Li. This role is played by You Ge, best known for his comic roles, but here showing he's more than up to the task of taking on a very serious dramatic role.

Emperor Li caresses the neck of Empress Wan

Li is motivated at least as much by lust for the Emperor's young wife as by a desire for power. Empress Wan is played by Zhang Ziyi. To accommodate her age, the scenario was rewritten so that she and Prince Wu Luan (Daniel Wu, as the Hamlet figure) had planned to be married. The widowed, and now-dead, Emperor instead had taken her for his own wife, thereby making her the Prince's step-mother.

The film begins at a remote open outdoor theater (shot in the same bamboo forest as the one in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), where Prince Wu Luan has been immersed in music, theater and dance as a way of fleeing the court after his father married his beloved. Masked performers, seemingly out of a Greek tragedy or a Japanese Noh play, are cut down one by one by masked assassins sent by the new Emperor to kill the Prince. He manages to escape just when we think he's been done in.

The Empress and Prince Luan

The film then shifts largely to the palace, to which Luan returns. Here he deals with the conflict between his distaste for court intrigue and his obligation to avenge his murdered father. But this is not your standard Hamlet, and if anything the film is more about Empress Wan than it is the prince. She desires to rule the kingdom alongside Luan, but must craftily deal with the new emperor's fixation on her.

Empress Wan in the main hall, one of the film's many incredible sets

Feng wanted the film to have the feel of an opera, and the vast and opulent interiors of the palace certainly give it an operatic grandeur. So too do the costumes and the overall attention to detail, which is remarkable.

Legend of the Black Scorpion is a dark and bloody drama, while at the same time being a lush and scrumptious feast for the eyes. And the action sequences, which are interspersed throughout the narrative, are of the incredibly high caliber we've come to expect from Yuen Woo-ping. The man has an incredible imagination and command of what moves and wire work are just right for every situation

The film is getting the Two-Disc Ultimate Edition treatment from the Dragon Dynasty label. The first disc offers both the original Mandarin and an English-dubbed soundtrack. Another audio option is a feature length commentary by Bey Logan, an authority on Hong Kong cinema who has worked in the industry there.

Having seen the film at its New York premiere at the 2007 New York Asian Film Festival last summer, I chose to watch the DVD release with Logan's commentary. He's done a number of them for other Dragon Dynasty releases, but this was the first opportunity I've had to listen to a complete one, and it was terrific. The tone is conversational, not academic, and the man is incredibly knowledgeable. It's a perfect example of what a commentary should be and has made me eager to listen to his offerings on other Dragon Dynasty DVDs in my collection.

Disc Two has an interview with director Feng (in Mandarin with English subtitles) and another one with male lead Daniel Wu (in English). There are also two featurettes that include interviews with most of the principles and some behind the scenes, making-of footage. One thing that I was most impressed with was how genuine Ziyi Zhang comes across. She's so animated, spontaneous, and physically expressive. In these extras, you'll notice that the film is usually referred to as The Banquet, its original international English title.

Legend of the Black Scorpion gets an ACF rating of 3.5 out of 4 stars, highly recommended. I feel I should mention that when I first saw the film I though it was good and probably would have given it 3 stars. But on second viewing, I've been more impressed and hence the additional 1/2 star.

As for the DVD extras, they get a 4 star rating - outstanding. Dragon Dynasty has again put out a great package.

Links (all imdb):

Legend of the Black Scorpion (a.k.a. The Banquet)

Feng Xiaogang, director

Zhangi Ziyi, actress (Empress Wan)
Daniel Wu, actor (Prince Wu Luan, the Hamlet figure)

You Ge, actor (Emperor Li)
Xun Zhou, actress (Qing Nu, the Ophelia figure)

Li Zhang, cinematographer
Yuen Woo-ping, action choreographer
Tim Yip, art direction (he won the 2000 Oscar for Best Art-Direction-Set Decoration for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Tan Dun, composer

ACF 068: Happy Birthday Ziyi Zhang!

Ziyi Zhang as The Empress Wan
in

Legend of the Black Scorpion

Today marks the 29th birthday of Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang. She trained as a dancer, but gave it up and later studied at the China Central Drama College in Beijing, her birthplace. Her first noteworthy role was as Zhao Di, the young woman who's determined to marry the new teacher who comes to her village in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999). Her career skyrocketed with Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the following year. Her dance training served her well in that film's many martial arts sequences, and she at least held her own opposite costars Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh.

She's also worked with director Tsui Hark in The Legend of Zu (2001), his unfortunately inferior remake of his own Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain; Wong Kar-wei in 2046; Seijin Suzuki in his Princess Racoon (2005), and Robert Marshall in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also re-teamed with Zhang Yimou for Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

Impressive barely begins to describe her career to date.

Incidentally, Legend of the Black Scorpion, from which the picture above comes, will be coming out on a two-disc Ultimate Edition DVD set from Dragon Dynasty on February 26th, 2008. The film is a variation on Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in China circa 907 AD. Ziyi Zhang (billed as Zhang Ziyi, as her name is said in Chinese order)plays the step-mother of Crown Prince Wu Luan, the Hamlet figure.

I saw it at its New York premiere at the the Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival last summer. At that time it was known by its international English title The Banquet. I'm hoping to get a screener of the upcoming DVD release, but if not I'll at least put a review of the film prior to the DVD's street date.

So, once again, "Happy Birthday Ziyi Zhang!" Best wishes for health, happiness, and a long career at least as lustrous as it's been so far.