Zhang Ziyi Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Opening in 800 theaters on Friday, Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo promises to be another enchanting experience. The English-language version features a voice cast that appears to have been chosen from a name recognition menu (one Cyrus girl, one Jonas boy, etc.) but John Lasseter has been as faithful as possible to the original-language versions in the past, and if this is the price to pay to see Miyazaki on the big screen, so be it.

Out on DVD tomorrow, Seijun Suzuki's A Tale of Sorrow (Hishu monogatari), his only film from the 70s, is "a sexy psycho-drama," says Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye, "based around the popularity of that most bourgeois of sports, golf! ... This long-overlooked work simply cries out for revival." The Samurai I Loved (Semishigure), based on a novel by Shuhei Fujisawa and directed by Mitsuo Kurotsuchi, features "scenes that are absolutely heart-wrenching," Zack Davisson writes at his Japan Review Blog. "What works far outweighs what doesn't." King Eagle (1971), directed by Chang Cheh and starring Ti Lung, is the latest Shaw Brothers release from Image Entertainment. Revenge, swordplay, Chang Cheh: is there anything else we need to know?

Zhang Ziyi stars in the romantic comedy Sophie's Revenge, which opens in China and Hong Kong on Friday. She plays "a comic book artist who plots to get her fiance back after losing him to an actress," according to an Associated Press story. Sophie's Revenge also marks the actress' debut as a producer: writer / director Eva Jin "approached her with her script and she secured funding for the project." Check out the Chinese-language official site; the trailer looks like a fun romp. No word on US distribution yet.

Watch the Sophie's Revenge teaser trailer after the jump!

Ah, the perils of going topless.

When last we checked in with Zhang Ziyi, her latest film, Chen Kaige's Forever Enthralled, in which she stars as a Peking Opera singer, had just opened. The film did just fine at the Mainland Chinese box office, but wasn't able to duplicate its success in Hong Kong and may be a "tough sell outside of Asia" because of its unfamiliar subject matter and lack of "dramatic development," according to Variety. The film will be playing in competition at the Berlin Film Festival next month.

That might be that for Ms. Zhang at the moment, were it not for the recent publication of revealing photographs of her on a beach ... in and out of a bikini ... with her billionaire Israeli fiance being extremely playful. Reportedly, Ms. Zhang is "enraged" about the photos. More importantly, as Grady Hendrix commented at Kaiju Shakedown, "One wonders if these photos might earn her the same fate as Edison [Chen] (exiled) and Tang Wei [Lust, Caution] (blacklisted) for being sexy in public."

Despite various rumors, Ms. Zhang has not nabbed any Hollywood roles since Memoirs of a Geisha, so if Asian producers get antsy about casting her because of the controversy -- she's never been wildly popuar in China to begin with -- she may be kaput. That conceivably could have happened after she's married -- it still seems a common thing for Asian actresses to retire from the entertainment industry after they marry so as to concentrate on marriage and family -- but it would be a great shame it that happened too soon to the talented Ms. Zhang, especially when all the photos show are two people, who are actually engaged to marry, enjoying one another's company.

Eight years ago, Zhang Ziyi soared into public consciousness as the tempestuous heroine in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She's continued to score in sumptuous epics like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Banquet, as well as off-beat pleasures such as Seijun Suzuki's Princess Raccoon. (Let's all try to forget Memoirs of a Geisha, shall we?) In her latest film, which opened in China last week, she plays a Peking Opera singer.

Forever Enthralled is the English title of Mei Lanfang; the name of a real-life, internationally-recognized opera star well-known for playing female roles over the course of a career that lasted more than 50 years. Leon Lai, a veteran Hong Kong actor and pop singer, takes on the challenging assignment to play the legendary character, while Zhang plays fellow performer Meng Xiaodong, who was known for playing bearded men (?!). The two singers met, married, became parents, and divorced, all between 1925 and 1931.

At a press conference (pictured above, thanks to Ziyifilms), Zhang said: "The hardest thing is walking, wearing these really tall boots ... I practiced that for a very long time." All that practice paid off. Variety Asia Online reports that the film is "on course to quality for a hit," though it probably won't break any records.

Chen Kaige directed; years ago he made Farewell My Concubine, * also set in the opera world. More recently he ventured into epic action territory with the spectacular misfire The Promise. My friend Todd Brown at Twitch posted the Forever Enthralled trailer, which looks like a great match of stars, director, and material. IMDb lists Miramax as having US theatrical rights, though it's not listed on their site. I hope we get to see this one without having to wait forever.

* UPDATE: Title corrected. Thanks to Larry for pointing out my mistake.

Her first Hollywood production (Things We Lost in the Fire) didn't pan out so good, but perhaps Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier will do better with romantic comedy than with serious drama. She's set to direct Lost for Words, a Universal Pictures release that may star the bumbling Brit Hugh Grant and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. With such diverse international talent , it's easy to imagine that the movie's title will also be a good description of the set between takes.

The plot of Lost for Words actually has to do with film set communications. Grant is in negotiations to play a movie star appearing in a film directed by a Chinese woman (Zhang). He develops feelings for her, but unfortunately he initially becomes involved with her flirtatious translator. So, if he's to confess his love for the non-English-speaking filmmaker, he must do so through this other woman, whose heart he must first break. I guess he isn't aware that love is a universal language and he could simply just point to his heart and then to her and then they can have a perfect, wordless affair.

Lost for Words was scripted by Jamie Curtis (Spice World) and Oscar nominee Dan Mazer (Borat). Bier is also kind of an Oscar nominee; her last Scandinavian production, After the Wedding, was up for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awards.

Under it's original English-language title, The Banquet, Feng Xiaogang's loose, Chinese-language adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet played various film festivals (Venice, Toronto, AFI Fest, Palm Springs, Portland, Seattle, New York Asian) and garnered a fair amount of praise. Featuring many stately speeches, beautiful costumes, and stars Ziyi Zhang and Daniel Wu, The Banquet struck me as too inert for its own good, but I respected what the filmmakers accomplished.

The Banquet is a classy and distinguished moniker, somewhat anonymous, but reflective of the affairs of state depicted therein. The film's home video rights were finally sold to DVD distributor Dragon Dynasty. In their infinite wisdom, they decided to rename it as -- drum roll, please -- The Legend of the Black Scorpion. In the words of more than one message board commenter across the globe: "What the f***?"

This title is just as anonymous as the original but bespeaks a poverty of imagination, as though every Asian movie set in the past needs to be prefixed with "Legend." Dragon Dynasty's parent, The Weinstein Co., has done this for years, in fact, starting off by changing Drunken Master II (starring Jackie Chan) to The Legend of Drunken Master, and then retitling Fong Sai Yuk and Fong Sai Yuk 2 (both starring Jet Li) to the more English-friendly The Legend and The Legend 2, and changing Swordsman II (also with Jet Li) to The Legend of the Swordsman.

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has done a lot since she broke onto the North American scene in Rush Hour 2 -- a role that required Jackie Chan act as a translator for director Brett Ratner. She had a starring role in Jet Li's Hero, time in Wong Kar Wai's world of 2046, turned Japanese for Memoirs of a Geisha and is actually one of the voices in the geek fest, TMNT. Some of those stints are definitely better than the others, but you can't knock her for stretching out and getting some range. Now she's in talks to co-star with Leon Lai in Mei Lan-fang, a biopic about the famous Peking opera singer.

The film is part of an attempt by China Magnetics Corp. Company to revive the local movie industry, and its definitely a good place to start -- notable cinema names mixed with some Chinese history and music. With a budget of $15 million, Chen Kaige will write and direct the film -- he's the man behind Farewell my Concubine, which tied with The Piano for the Cannes Golden Palm in 1993. Lai will star as Lan-fang, but there is no word who Ziyi will play, should the talks go through, of course. The biopic will follow the male singer's history of portraying famous female characters, his role in making Peking opera popular to Japanese and American audiences and the political environment of the time -- including his refusal to perform while Japan occupied China. According to earlier reports, the film was going to shoot this month, although I imagine that the date has been pushed to some time in the future.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to muster much interest in the big gossip items of the week. I was hoping that after posting about Suri Cruise's bronzed poop last week, I wouldn't have to hear any Cruise Family Gossip for awhile. But no, Tom had to apologize to Brooke Shields for his insensitive remarks about her postpartum depression, and then the Vanity Fair photos of the whole family went public. I've seen more photos of that baby this week than I have of my nieces and nephew, who are honestly much cuter.

There's also the difficulty of determining which celebrity news stories are most appropriate for a website devoted to film news. After all, it's not TVmatical or Musicmatical, so I shouldn't include gossip from celebrities in those arenas. But then there's a lot of overlap, like Juliette Lewis recording with Dave Grohl. And where in the world (and why) does Paris Hilton fit in? Sure, she's been in a few movies, but does that mean I ought to mention her DWI arrest this week? Let's see if I can find anything more interesting and actually related to movies in some way ...

Man, all this stuff about more Mulan movies is confusing the hell out of me. It seems pretty solid that the Weinsteins are at least considering making a live-action film (listed in the IMDbPro as a 2008 release) about the Chinese folk hero (already brought to screen by Disney, albeit in animated form), and there's been talk that they've got Zhang Ziyi in mind to play the title role. In addition, though, there's also a China-based production in the works, that one under the direction of Stanley Tong. Where it all gets a bit muddled is in the reports about Zhang being asked to star in Tong's version, as well. So, is this a case of Tong trying to steal some Weinstein thunder, or of people in the media getting confused and assuming the films are one and the same? Your guess is as good as mine on that one.

That said, however, it now sounds as if the whole thing might be moot, because there are now other names in the mix for the starring role in the Tong film. Get this: First, it was reported that Li Yuchun, the wildly popular winner of a recent, girls-only American Idol-type show in China, would play Mulan. But now the speculation about Li has fallen quiet, and her name has been replaced by that of ... Katie Leung. That's right, the girl of Harry Potter's dreams -- the Scottish one -- is going to play Mulan. According to the Chinese press, anyway.

Don't like the news? Not to worry -- at this rate a new name will be connected to the part by Monday.

[via Twitch]

We reported last week on the big, three-picture deal that The Weinstein Company was working on with Zhang Ziyi and, though the story was initially debunked, its subsequent appearance in all the trades seems to confirm that there is indeed something in works. Though all of the TWC-Zhang collaborations are yet to be revealed, one, as we've discussed with much dismay, is a remake of Seven Samurai, and the other is reportedly a live-action film about Mulan, the Chinese folk hero brought to the screen in animated form by Disney in 1998.

According to Screen Daily, though, TWC is not alone with Mulan -- Stanley Tong (Mmm ... Rumble in the Bronx) is reportedly working on a movie of his own, entitled The Legend of Mulan, which he plans to start shooting with Chinese backing this fall. Though it's unlikely it would ever get a proper release over here, Tong's film, which will shoot in both China and Canada, is expected to wrap by February of 2007, which will probably have it in theaters well before TWC's version.

According to Zhang Ziyi, she's signed an old-school-style studio deal with The Weinstein Company to star in three films that they'll produce. In addition the rather horrifying-sounding remake of Seven Samurai (And people, The brilliance of The Magnificent Seven is in now way a vote in favor of this new remake -- if anything, it's another reason not to do it. I mean, that lightning is just NOT going to strike twice.) in which she's allegedly slated to share the screen with Donnie Yen and George Clooney, Zhang is also penciled-in to star in a period drama about Chinese folk heroine Mulan (yes, you've heard of her).

The subject of the third film has not yet been revealed, but I'm still completely confused by this whole deal. Do contracts like this actually exist anymore, or is Zhang just lumping three different deals into a single conversation for some reason?