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Zhang Ziyi: Major Talent or Lucky Starlet?

or some she was the most memorable part of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. They were mesmerized by the dark energy she brings to her portrayal of a freespirited young adventuress. For others she was one more annoying thing about a glacial, poorly edited sword-fight flick. They were left cold by the hard, souless gleam of her obsidian eyes and her puckish face. Zhang Ziyi
     Regardless of your opinion of Zhang Ziyi, one fact is indisputable: since the release of CTHD in late 2000, the media has lionized the gamin-faced actress. Virtually every glossy and tabloid has hailed her as the hot new Asian female actor and/or great new beauty. In the heat of CTHD's surprise success Zhang was signed to several projects, including Rush Hour 2, The Legend of Zu, 2046 (a science fiction flick), Hero (a Jet Li kung-fu flick) and Musa (a Corean film set during the wars between the Yuan and Ming Dynasties).
     Luck is essential to every success, but Zhang Ziyi appears to have enjoyed more than her share during her brief acting career.
     She was born February 9, 1979 in Beijing to an economist father and a kindergarten teacher mother. At the age of 11 she enrolled in a dance school. Four years later she decided to switch to acting despite some promise as a dancer. She went for a shampoo commercial audition and was picked out by the legendary director Zhang Yimou to play a schoolgirl who falls in love with her teacher.
     When The Road Home was released in China in 1999, the young actress was promptly dubbed "Little Gong Li" on the popular suspicion that she had followed the great actress into Zhang Yimou's bed. (Zhang Yimou had discovered Gong Li in 1987 and lost her in 1994 when she left him to marry Singaporean businessman Ooi Hoe Siong.)
     The Road Home received no attention in the U.S. but won the 2000 Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It also caught the eye of Ang Lee who was casting Crouching Tiger. No one suspected that the low-budget film he was planning to shoot in China would go on to become the next year's most profitable film, ultimately grossing $150 million worldwide. It turned Zhang Ziyi into an international superstar in one fell, elaborately-wired swoop.
     Is Zhang Ziyi really a great beauty and first-rate actor? Or is she a second-rater whose fame is as un-credible as her CTHD fight sequences?

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WHAT YOU SAY

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(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:50:02 PM)

I don't care if she's lucky or talented, all I know is that she is hot. I'd love to have a billion babies by her.
aaaaaam
   Friday, January 18, 2002 at 04:52:15 (PST)
Zhang Ziyi is a real find. She had proven her prowess in both CTHD and TRH, as evidenced by endless applause at her. For some, it may be a tedious and long process to transcend the piercing eyes of Western entertainment, but Ziyi glides through it.

Please excuse me for saying this, but her CTHD fight scenes are not "un-credible". It took a lot of strength and willpower to finish a movie like CTHD. It was not easy to be both physically ready and emotionally focused to play a pivotal role in the movie. She deserves the continuous recognition she is being given. She's a very young actress and if she continues to choose the right steps to a highly-celebrated career, she'll always be a winner.
Achiever
   Friday, January 18, 2002 at 03:11:46 (PST)
Hey Virgule

Zhang seem to getting 50/50 rating here on a AA site, so making it in America is not going to be super easy like you insist. She still needs AA support to be a star. Too much competition out there with Britney, Julia, Gywneth, not to mention Lucy Liu. Winning awards doesn't automatically make somebody a star as you should know. Maybe a tasteful centrefold in Playboy could be the kickstart to her career. You could mention it to her in that shrinesite you set up.
IMO
   Friday, January 18, 2002 at 02:51:19 (PST)
nkg-47, you said that ziyi is "without talent". Now, if she is, how come directors have changed scripts just to make full use of her? It's not common for any actor/actress to have the script re-made just for him/her. And you don't call that talent?
a Z fan
   Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 21:32:57 (PST)
I think zzy is nothing more than a plain faced chinese girl who just got lucky.

there is no passion and strength to her looks or her personality, she seems meek and docile.

just from a purely aesthetic point of view, she is short on looks and far from beautiful ( on the other hand,i think gong li was a beauty and she had a certain regalness about her) which zzy lacks!!!

she needs a nose job and i don't like the gaze of her eyes; it's cold & passionless

KOREAN FEM IN DIXIE
   Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 18:02:46 (PST)
"She was picked by management"? Hey Chinese21, you have no idea WHO her management is. For your edification, it happens to be her brother, Zhang Zinan, who runs Zinan Cultural Development Company, LTD. At one time, early on in her career, it was East-Line, but big brother Zinan got his Agent License and now represents and markets her. Her US publicist is the biggest talent agency in the world, The Willian Morris Agency. She hired THEM.

I really enjoy exposing how little you know about Ziyi.
Virgule
   Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 17:04:49 (PST)
I find it perplexing that people still believe that Ziyi’s success is merely due to luck.
Such comment is a BLATANT slap to the faces of Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, Wong-kar Wai, Tsu Hark, and Brett Ratner. To condone this notion of “her Luck”, is to STATE that these GREAT DIRECTORS where merely trivial when it comes to casting for talented actress to play a role in their films. Come on guys, give these directors some credit!!!

Yes, various actress that were chosen originally for the role in CTHD turned it down for one reason or another. However, I truly believe that if ziyi was not able to produce the quality performance that she did, ang lee would have fired her on the spot; and that sentiment applies to all her previous work. (trust me, i don’t have a problem firing an actor if they can’t deliver what i want)...
Obviously, she has performed brilliantly and beyond every ones expectation for these directors to keep acknowledging her talent.

The only luck that Ziyi had was that, all the other actresses turned the job down because they could not perform the task. In regards to her current success... ladies and gentleman, that is all due to the shedding of her own blood, sweat and tears !

Further more, what I find interesting is that if a person truly knows and understand the business of acting and the film industry in general, they will NEVER equate acting with luck.... because they know that it is a contradiction in terms.
page
   Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 16:50:15 (PST)
The compliments from Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou are nice and all, but it's to their benefit to say them. What are they gonna do, complain about actors that they put their reputations on stake to promote? The movies are art AND, probably to a higher degree, a business.

I don't think anyone here is saying ZZ is horrendous. Just the usual cynicism towards a young, attractive gal who's gotten a lot of press but really hasn't done much yet. FWIW, I liked her in CTHD and want to see The Road Home.
nkg-47
   Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 11:30:04 (PST)

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