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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
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.
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
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:49:59 PM)
All the people you mentioned are quite accomplished. My beef is with YOU in your failure to acknowledge Ziyi as EQUALLY accomplished. You insist on ridiculing her, demeaning her, minimizing HER successes. In the process, you show yourself to be an obstinate bigot with little regard for how it really is.
You mention Chow Yun Fat as having a postage stamp also. That's great. He deserves it because he is a truly international star. Guess what, the Chinese government has made that SAME assessment by giving Ziyi an equal honor. But in your disparaging little head, you see a need to denigrate that as worthless.
Your previous comments indicate you are convinced she will simply fade away. 23 year old stars that rake in 400 million dollars in international box office don't just fade away, my friend.
I have come to the determination that there is no way for me to convince you of the fact that Ziyi deserves what she's gotten in life. She certainly does not need your approval or my support to continue in her present track of international stardom. The Ziyi Express will go on, and I hope it runs right over you with every new honor, role, award and achievement.
You have a good life there, IMO, in your little bitter hole of abject prejudice and contemptible derision.
Virgule
Friday, February 15, 2002 at 05:40:21 (PST)
I think ZZ is kinda ugly/not cute. Check out any archive of her. There's something really unattractive about her face. I don't know whether it's cause she's totally flatfaced with a big unrefined nose, or what, but all I know is that my friends and I and some asians I see on the street of NYC are much cuter than she is... She exudes this cold, bitchy vibe that reads something like: "I'll stomp you if you cross me, I'll purr like a kitten if you like me." But that's only my opinion. I hate it when AF play the sex-kitten who knows how to dominate role. How cliched.
ZZ epitomizes "uncute AF"
Thursday, February 14, 2002 at 23:08:51 (PST)
Sorry but I don't consider having one face on a postage stamp as being of much significance. I mean, come on, they even put monkeys on stamps which put Zhang on kinda same level of cute and kitsch.
Besides Chow Yun Fat has his face on a stamp too but then he is also the Hong Kong stamp ambassador/spokeman or something like that. He does it free as he is well known for his philanthropy. Now having a CYC stamp would be so cool.
I don't know much about the China Film Board but the phrase "immense political clout" does strike me with cynicism as I don't think art and politics should mix. In which case I am glad both Gong Li and Vicki Zhao are not on the membership.
Although Gong Li was invited to be a judge in Cannes which is always a great honour. I am not a Gong Li fan but I sure she has a long list of achievements, honours and awards for she is truly a gem of an actor.
Let see, so far in your defence of Zhang you have managed to insult Gong Li, Vicki Zhao, Hsu Chi, Maggie Cheung, Cheng Pei Pei, Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li by your assertion that Zhang is streets ahead of them. And your only evidence of that is that she has her face on a postage stamp.
IMO
Wednesday, February 13, 2002 at 20:27:05 (PST)
Oh, so I guess membership on the China Film Board is automatic. Let's see, Gong Li is not on it. Maggie Cheung is not on it. Zhao Who most certainly is not on it and never will be. Jet Li is not on it. Jackie Chan is not on it. Just some insignificant actress by the name of Zhang Ziyi, via pure luck of course, was elected to that body, which incidentally, wields immense political clout in the Chinese film industry. But of course, she is a nobody, who by the way, also has her own postage stamp too, but of course, any nobody gets their own postage stamp in China. IMO, you insist on minimizing her accomplishments as if she is inconsequential, but Ziyi just keeps getting the honors, the roles, the recognition, the film awards, the memberships and the box office - all because she is just so, so lucky, of course. I don't know what your criteria for fame is, but I am sure that if Ziyi ever wins an Oscar, that still wouldn't be good enough for you. You're just so intellectually objective in your assessment of true celebrity, aren't you IMO.
Virgule
Tuesday, February 12, 2002 at 16:14:48 (PST)
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