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January/February 2005 Archives
Oscar Night gallery
Ziyi was so lovely on Oscar night, so it's a great thing that Moses sent in a whole bunch of excellent high quality picures. I made a seperate gallery for them, Ziyi on Oscar Night. Below are a few samples:
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So go check out Ziyi's Oscar night gallery. Moses also sent in some stunning House of Flying Daggers pictures which I will get around to posting on the front page, but for now you can see them in this forum thread.
Zhang Ziyi at the Oscars
Shadow made this video of Ziyi presenting the Oscar for Best Visual Effects with Jake Gyllenhaal: Oscar presentation - 10 MB avi
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And here are pictures of Ziyi arriving on the red carpet earlier in the night. For more pictures, see this forum thread, and also this high quality gallery.
Presenter Ziyi Zhang, whose film House of Flying Daggers is nominated for Best Cinematography, makes her second Academy Awards appearance wearing a black Chantilly lace gown with hand-tufted lace and tulle skirt by Monique Lhuillier, accented with a necklace by Bulgari.
02/27/05
Zhang Ziyi News 02/27
As a reminder, Ziyi will be a presenter at tonight's Oscars awards. It been reported that Ziyi and Jake Gyllenhall will be presenting the award for Best Visual Effects. Here are some backstage photos from their rehearsals.
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Claudia sent in a short interview that Ziyi gave while in Hong Kong. It is in Chinese, of course, but she is especially adorable in it and that makes it worth the download: Ziyi's Hong Kong Interview - 5 MB asf
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Fiziyi found some new photos from Jasmine Women, which will open in China in May. Ziyi has to spend some time in the recording studio to finish her voice work for Memoirs of a Geisha, but after that she should be heading back to China to promote Jasmine Women.
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The UK's House of Flying Daggers DVD will be released on May 2, you can see a picture of the box here.
02/27/05
Ziyi's amazing Instyle magazine photos
Ziyi has a photospread in the March 2005 issue of Instyle magazine, and it's one of her best ever. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Thanks to Lesley for telling me about the magazine. The scans below were made by myself, click the thumbnails to enlarge.
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02/24/05
Ziyi attends HK Film Critics Society Awards ceremony
Ziyi Zhang was in Hong Kong yesterday to attend the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards ceremony. The winners had already been announced back in January, and Z had been named Best Actresss for her role in 2046. Here's a short video of the award presentation and her press conference afterwards: Ziyi at the HKFCS awards - 8 MB wmv
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In the first picture below, she is with 2046 co-star Tony Leung, who won the Best Actor award. There are more pictures in this forum thread.
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NYT Style Magazine scans
I made some high-resolution scans from the New York Times Style Magazine. These are much better than the pictures posted earlier. Click to enlarge.
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02/21/05
Ziyi Zhang in the New York Times
Ziyi Zhang is on the cover of the New York Times Sunday magazine for their special "Style" issue. Inside is an article about her titled "A Star rises in the East" and several full-pages photos (see above.)
An excerpt from the article:
Director Rob Marshall conducted his own global search for the lead [of Memoirs of a Geisha], eventually choosing Ziyi Zhang. ''...Ziyi has that unusual combination of strength and grace. She has a great spirit, but outwardly she can seem fragile. And,'' Marshall said, laughing, ''her English had improved.''...
Zhang said: ''On a typical day, we shoot from 9 to 6 and then have training for everything we need to do in the movie. I usually start at 6 a.m. and, with all the classes, work to midnight. The language scenes are the hardest for me. You can practice the rest.'' ... "I think I now understand America. Hopefully, they will understand me.''...more
This is the second time Ziyi has been in the New York Times. There was a full-page picture of her in the Sunday magazine back in November. Thanks to Golden Swallow.
02/19/05
Purple Butterfly DVD Review
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The long awaited US release of Purple Butterfly on DVD has finally arrived. Purple Butterfly was first shown at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and was released in China a few months later. Poor box office results in China doomed the film to obscurity. For a while it looked as if there would never be an American release, but the success of Hero and the hype behind House of Flying Daggers gave distributor Palm Pictures the opportunity to capitalize on Ziyi Zhang's growing fame here in the US. A handful of screenings in major American cities produced some favorable reviews, and now Palm has finally released the film on DVD for everyone to enjoy. There are a couple of contests going where you can win a free Purple Butterfly DVD, one from Palm and another at the NixFlix forums. You can also buy it at Amazon.
Due to it's length, I've put the review on a seperate page. Click here for the full review
02/18/05
Ziyi Zhang in Operetta Tanuki Goten
Some new pictures from Operetta Tanuki Goten ("Princess Raccoon"), the Japanese musical starring Ziyi that's set for release in May. If you aren't familiar with the project there's a trailer, an article, and more pictures and on the Tanuki Goten page. Thanks to Hiro for the middle picture.
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And some smaller pictures:
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02/15/05
High Resolution BAFTA pictures
High resolution pictures from Ziyi Zhang's appearance at the British Academy Film Awards on Saturday. Thanks to Moses for these. Click to enlarge.
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02/13/05
Bafta Awards, 2046 Release, and more
Ziyi attended the BAFTA awards held in London today. Unfortunately, House of Flying Daggers was shut out despite it's nine nominations, including Ziyi Zhang for Best Actress. Here are pictures from the red carpet, for more see this forum thread
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Ziyi was interviewed briefly on E! Entertainment Channel during their coverage of the awards, if anyone managed to record it please send it in: hzadmin@helloziyi.us
Sony has acquired the US distribution rights for 2046. Tony Leung recently said in an interview that he will be in the US to promote the film during May or June, so that is likely when it will be released.
A new scan from Dscans
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I think many of you will enjoy this. Caitlin Dechelle is a 14 year-old martial arts champion and Ziyi fan who wants to make movies some day. I hope she does, for as you will see she is amazingly talented and exciting to watch. Download this right now, a video of Caitlin's phenomenal katana routine: Caitlin-video2.wmv - 2MB. There are more on the videos page of her website. Hope to see you on the bigscreen someday Caitlin!
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02/12/05
Ziyi Zhang wins Saturn Award Nomination
According to Monkeypeaches, Ziyi has received a Best Actress nomination from the Saturn Awards for her performance in House of Flying Daggers. They also nominated HoFD in three other categories: Best Director, Best Fantasy Film, and Best Costumes. The Saturn Awards are presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films. This is Ziyi's second Saturn Award nomination; in 2001, she had been nominated Best Supporting Actress for her role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Congratulations Z!
House of Flying Daggers DVDs
It's a good time to be collecting Ziyi Zhang DVD's as excellent new editions of House of Flying Daggers, 2046, and Purple Butterfly have all become available. I'll cover each of them, but today I'll start with Edko's two-disc Special Edition of House of Flying Daggers, and also talk about the coming US release.
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There is a thorough comparison of the image quality of Edko's new set versus the earlier edition at Asian DVD Time, and it wins by a mile. (More comparisons are at DVD Debate and DVD Beaver) The main extra feature is a 45 minute "Making of" video. This is not subtitled, though 10 minutes of it are available with subtitles at Mymovies.net. Here are two video clips of material not available at Mymovies. I like these scenes because we get to see Ziyi's athleticism in a natural setting. Click the pictures or the links to download.
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Making the Echo Dance - she practices some of the more difficult dance moves, including one where she twirls the long sleeves that wasn't shown in the movie. |
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Rehearsing the Bamboo forest fight |
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The feature that I enjoyed the most were the image galleries, especially this one of the Peony Pavilion. In the movie I thought the Peony Pavilion was a bit sterile and lifeless as a setting, but these pictures let us see more of what the artists imagined. I wish the movie had scenes like these in it, it would have given the film more atmosphere. There are several other picture galleries on the DVD that are also well done.
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The Edko two-disc set can be bought at Sensasian, just remember it is coded Region 3. As for the US release, IGN has the details, the most interesting of which is an audio commentary by Ziyi Zhang along with director Zhang Yimou. They also have a picture of the cover art. The DVD will be available April 19.
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2/10/05
Ziyi Zhang's MTV Asia Aid appearence
Thanks to Claudia from Portugal for sending in a video of Ziyi Zhang's appearance on MTV's Asia Aid program. It's ten seconds long, and she speaks in English: Ziyi on MTV - 3 MB avi
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2/09/05
Happy Birthday Ziyi!
It is Zhang Ziyi's 26th birthday today, February 9th, 2005
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How can one just remain mute Those lips that curve as Cupid's bow, Then Her smile loads the fateful dart And as walls crumble under heat (by Castleguard) |
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A big "Happy Birthday" to Z from the Zfilms community and HelloZiyi.us!
02/09/05
Entertainment Weekly scans
These are from the Dec. 31st issue Entertainment Weekly, where she was named one of 12 Entertainers of the Year. As always, she looks wonderful in Black and White. Also, scroll down the page for six more new scans in case you missed them.
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Thanks to Mariana who scanned these, with some touch-ups by myself.
02/06/05
[update: In the post about Memoirs of a Geisha below, I mentioned that Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre had an interesting interview with a journalist who had spent time on the set, but I linked to the wrong site. You can find the interview here, dated 02/03.]
Memoirs of a Geisha News
Some Memoirs of a Geisha news. The Sunday edition of the New York Times has an article about the film titled "Memoirs of a Chinese-American Geisha"
If the coming story in film is globalization, "Memoirs of a Geisha," set for a Christmas release by Sony Pictures, may one day be seen as a movie at the tipping point. Based on an American novel about a hidden aspect of Japanese life, it relies heavily on three stars of Chinese cinema and has no white stars. The San Francisco Bay doubled for the Sea of Japan, while Ventura in Southern California housed an entire Japanese town for the shoot last fall, and the Yamashiro Restaurant in Hollywood served as a Kyoto teahouse.
Jane of Michelle Yeoh Web Theater interviewed a journalist who visited the set of Memoirs, she has interesting comments on language issues and the authenticity of the hairstyles and make-up. You really should read the whole thing. Some excerpts
Language issue: in order to generalize all actors' accents, the film uses so-called "British English with a Japanese accent." Michelle Yeoh already speaks British English so she had to work on some Japanese accent. Youki Kudoh (who plays Pumpkin), who lives in U.S. and speaks both Japanese and English, said for all these years she had been trying to adopt an American accent in her English, but for the film she had to try to get rid of the American accent and add a British accent instead....
Authenticity - hair style: The reason they didn't use the real geisha hair style, I think, is because it would be extremely complicated and difficult....As for why they didn't use wigs, Akiko told me the wigs of geisha are terribly heavy and it would take a long time to get used to wearing them. Even if an actress manages to bear that thing on the top of her head, she probably wouldn't be able to act or do anything else.
About the language, from what I have been told the filmmakers don't want the language to be described as "British English", as if they were trying to achieve authentic British accents. Ziyi made a comment to that effect in Entertainment Weekly, but she wasn't supposed to have put it that way. What they want to achieve is an "upper-class twang", an aristocratic feel to match the aristocratic characters. The "British English" is only intended to be a means to that effect. Likewise, the "lower class" figures have an accent to distinguish them as well, and in a way an American audience will find believable (I was told hints of Irish or Cockney.)
As for the issue of "authenticity", we again find the movie described as a fantasy; "It's a fantasy, as filmmakers claimed." This is similiar to what the Ken Watanabe said in the Japan Today article, "Since it is a fantasy world, the details were not as important as they would have been in something like 'The Last Samurai.'"
A recent article from Mianichi Daily News raises several other points about the historical accuracy of the film based on the few minutes of footage journalists were allowed to see at the recent press conference.
As far as I could tell from what I saw of the movie, the director seems to be aiming at expressing his version of 'Oriental exoticism.'"
Authenticity doesn't seem to have played a prime concern in filmmakers' eyes, with the actresses playing geiko decked out in long-sleeved furisode, a type of kimono worn exclusively by young women and never by one who has reached adulthood.
That the film is not accurate in its historical details doesn't mean that it can't still be a great film, of course. I think what upsets so many people is the belief that the film could have been both historically accurate and a great success. And that may have been true, but it doesn't look like we will ever get to find out.
02/06/05
Six New Scans
New high-res scans of classic Ziyi images. These were made by myself, except for the last which is Mariana's. Click to enlarge
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02/04/05
Tsunami Relief Concert and the Oscars
As a reminder, MTV's tsunami relief concert in Bangkok will air in the US tomorrow on MTV2 starting at either 9-10 AM EST (note that it is AM, not PM.) That is 2-3 PM GMT for international readers. You will be able to view a live webcast of the event at MTV's website. Ziyi will be making a prerecorded statement of support on behalf on the event.
Sina is reporting that Ziyi intends to be an Oscar presenter. The Oscar's official website says nothing about this as of yet, but hopefully it will turn out better than the Golden Globes, where she was invited to be a presenter but was unable to attend.
Update 02/03 : An official press release now confirms that Ziyi will be a presenter at the Oscars.
02/02/05
Ziyi Zhang News 02/02
Memoirs of A Geisha has officially finished filming, as was announced at a press conference in Tokyo. Ziyi Zhang was not able to attend because, according to China Daily, she is filming a commercial in Romania. The Japan Times has a good article on the press conference with some interesting tidbits. A couple of pictures are below, for more see MYWT:
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Ziyi will be on the cover of next month's Vanity Fair magazine along with 9 the most popular young actresses in Hollywood. The Independent has an article about the cover which begins thus
So this is what the Ladies Cloakroom on Mount Olympus looks like. Draped across some nondescript furniture on a run-down stage set in Culver City, California, these 10 actresses represent the dazzling epitome of modern female beauty. They were chosen to adorn the cover of Vanity Fair - by some way the world's top celebrity magazine - for its 11th "Hollywood Issue"...Only Ziyi Zhang seems perfectly at ease in this artificial convergence of the world's top screen beauties, as she sits, cool, clever and appraising, in the centre of the action.
Thanks to Grover, Brainchild, Castleguard, and Bangkok Bobby.
02/02/05
Ziyi Zhang and 2046 win nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards
Ziyi Zhang has again been nominated for Best Actress for her role in 2046, this time at the Hong Kong Film Awards (different from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards.) 2046 received nominations in every major category, for a total of 11:
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Art Direction , Best Costume and Make-Up Design , Best Original Score (Music), Best Sound Design, Best Visual Effects
HoFD was also nominated for Best Asian Film outside Hong Kong. As always, Monkeypeaches has the complete list.
This is the third time Ziyi has been honored for her performance in 2046, having won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society awards, and receiving a nomination for Best Actress at Taiwan's Golden Horse awards.
02/01/05
New Picture Gallery: Favorites 4
There's a new picture gallery, Favorites 4. It's a diverse set of Z pics: fashion scans, candids, some old, some new, but all beautiful. A few samples
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01/30/05
Ziyi Zhang News bites
The San Francisco Gate has an article about the filming of Memoirs of a Geisha. Asiance magazine has an interview with Ziyi Zhang. [Update: Asiance has since given credit to those who contributed to the article. Asiance says the similiarities to the Boston Herald interview by Stephen Schaefer occured with his consent.]
01/29/05
Ziyi Zhang News 01/28
The Winnipeg Sun has an new article about Ziyi. It seems to be based on an interview given a few months ago. One correction needs to be made, the writer incorrectly states that "she has also taken the lead role in Good Cook, Likes Music", when in fact she is still only in talks over that role, and nothing is final yet. Here is more of the article
"I am very eager to try many different roles," Zhang said. "As an actor, I am still relatively inexperienced but, as long as my body allows it and I have the capability of doing it, I will continue to do martial arts films. But my personal favourite is actually tragedy."
Roger Ebert's "Answerman" column has a reader question about Ziyi, asking why she was chosen to play a Japanese role in Memoirs of a Geisha. Ebert responds
Ziyi Zhang at 26 has become an important international star, after such films as "House of Flying Daggers," "Rush Hour 2," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hero" and "2046." No other Asian actress currently has the same international fame, and star power is crucial in a project where the title character is central to every scene.
Another question he answers concerns the treatment of horses during a fight scene in House of Flying Daggers, where it appears they were tripped and possibly injured. Ebert says the horses were not hurt, but I know those scenes were removed anyways from the British release due to laws prohibiting cruelty to animals. Thanks to Bangkok Bobby for the link.
April made this lovely drawing of Ziyi, and Mariana of Ode to Azia sent in a scan of Z at the HoFD Los Angeles premiere.
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Finally, Jane of Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre found a Japanese article about Suzuka Ohgo, the actress who will be playing Ziyi's character, Chiyo, as a young girl in Memoirs. According to Jane's summary "Ken Watanabe wrote a recommendation for Suzuka when she was auditioning for the role last July. He also helped her with her English and showed up many times at the shooting set to support her." A different article includes a picture of Suzuka
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01/28/05
Ziyi Zhang appearing for MTV's tsunami relief concert
According to this news article, Ziyi Zhang will be contributing a prerecorded performance to a tsunami relief concert sposered by MTV. It will be held in Bagkok on February 3rd.
Pop stars from around the world will appear live or contribute taped performances to a concert next month sponsored by MTV to support tsunami relief work. The event, to be held in Bangkok on Feb. 3, will include live performances from at least 11 artists including India's Asha Bhosle, Good Charlotte from the United States, Taiwan's Jay Chou, Thailand's Tata Young, and Simple Plan from Canada, said a news release from MTV. Alicia Keys is also scheduled to attend the event.
Jennifer Lopez, Moby, 50 Cent, Nelly, Ronan Keating, Ricky Martin, Sting and Zhang Ziyi will contribute prerecorded performances.
Another report says she will be sending a "statement of support", so it may not be a singing performance, but we can hope. There are a couple of clips of Ziyi singing on the videos page, and another on the Flying Daggers page.
01/23/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/21
House of Flying Daggers expands to over a thousand theaters this week. If it hadn't been playing at a theater near you, now is your best chance to see it. Check your local showtimes.
Purple Butterfly opens today in Cambridge, MA at the Brattle Theatre. The Boston Phoenix has a positive review.
Several English language articles are now available about the HK Film Critics awards, including this one which says "Zhang Ziyi was praised by the critics for her "expressive" body language that was combined with her "reserved and complex emotions." "
Your daily dose of the cuteone:
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01/21/05
New Memoirs of a Geisha photo and article
From Entertainment Weekly comes a stunning new production photo of Ziyi Zhang in Memoirs of a Geisha. There is also a brief article, it's all part of their "Forecast 2005: Must See Entertainment" issue. Last month, EW had named Ziyi Zhang one of the "Entertainers of the Year" for 2004. The new picture below depicts Sayuri performing in a festival dance.
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Thanks to Eric for the heads up on this.
Ziyi Zhang named Best Actress by HK Film Critics, and nominated for Best Actress by BAFTA
Two new awards today for Z. The Hong Kong Film Critics Society has honored her as Best Actress for her role in 2046. The news reports are still Chinese only, such as this one from the Oriental Daily. Her co-star Tony Leung also won Best Actor.
The nominations for the British Academy Film Awards have been announced, and House of Flying Daggers received nine, including a Best Actress in a Leading role nomination for Ziyi Zhang. Only The Aviator, Finding Neverland, and Vera Drake pulled in more nominations than Flying Daggers. From the press release:
House of Flying Daggers (Shi Mian Mai Fu) has been nominated in the categories Actress in a Leading Role for Ziyi Zhang, Make-Up & Hair, Special Visual Effects, Sound, Editing, Costume Design, Production Design, Cinematography and Film Not in the English Language.
Congrats to Z and the whole team behind Flying Daggers! The winners will be announced on Saturday, February 12th.
01/17/05
House of Flying Daggers Feature
From Mymovies.net is a 10 minute behind-the-scenes feature on the making of House of Flying Daggers. It is in three parts and listed on the left hand side of the page. Thankfully, it has english subtitles. I've made a short clip where Ziyi talks about her dance background, and we see her practicing with the long sleeves. It's a nice clip and she looks great.
Dance feature - A behind the scenes clip where Ziyi talks about her dance background and we also see her training with the long sleeves. Subtitled in english. |
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01/16/05
Purple Butterfly Reviews
With Purple Butterfly showing this week in Los Angeles, a couple of new reviews have come out. The Los Angeles Time's is very postive, their reviewer is the latest to fall for Ziyi Zhang. You can read the whole review here.
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As atmospheric and moody as a film noir, the stylish, sometimes perplexing "Purple Butterfly" is a remarkable period piece, evoking the bustling, dense and increasingly dangerous Shanghai of the '30s.
"Purple Butterfly" affords a terrific role for Ziyi Zhang, who literally catapulted to international fame with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,"... She is a genuine star, a compellingly exquisite beauty with formidable resources as an actress, which Lou Ye taps extensively. Her Cynthia is an innately strong, intelligent woman whose courage and emotions are constantly put to extreme tests. Zhang has that crucial gift of holding herself in check at just the right moments for maximum dramatic impact and psychological complexity.
There is also a brief review in LA Weekly magazine, I think this quote concisely captures the reason why the movie tells its story the way it does:
Like life, Purple Butterfly is willfully opaque, yet in its chaotic eternal motion we find a bold refutation of the idea that only we live in confusing times...
01/16/05
Ziyi Zhang reported to be a Presenter at the Golden Globes?
According to this news article Ziyi Zhang will be a presenter at the Golden Globes award show to be held this Sunday. It will be broadcast on NBC from 8-11 PM EST. She will attend if it does not disrupt the shooting schedule for Memoirs of a Geisha.
[Update: It seems she was not able to make it to the show.]
01/15/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/13
I've updated the 2046 page with all the high-resolution promotional photos, as well as selections from the award-winning soundtrack. Here's a couple of the beautiful photos, with thanks to Moses.
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Premeire Magazine has a short note on Memoirs of a Geisha, along with a brief interview with Ziyi Zhang. I scanned the picture below, it is of much higher qualty than the one from Oriental Daily.
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"I feel like I'm making movies in the '30s and '40s," director Rob Marshall says, "when they threw tons of money at these big epics." The epic in question, Marshall's follow up to the Oscar wining Chicago, is his adaptation of the 1997 best-seller about a peasent girl who becomes one of the most celebrated courtesans in pre-WWII Japan. "It's a strange experience to learn how to be a geisha," says Ziyi Zhang. "Teachers come to show us how to walk, how to put on a kimono."
House of Flying Daggers will be released on Friday in about 300 more theaters nationwide. You can check local showtimes at Yahoo. It's been reported that the US DVD will be released on May 15th.
As a reminder, Purple Butterfly opens tomorrow in Los Angeles at the Fairfax 3 theater on 7907 Beverly Blvd. And nearby in Santa Monica, The Road Home will be playing over the weekend at the Monica 4-Plex.
01/13/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/11
I've finished updating the Hero page, so it's pretty nice now. I've already posted the Hero videos I made (below) but now I'd like to single out the excellent high-quality pictures Moses sent me
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Another Memoirs of a Geisha picture of Ziyi Zhang with Ken Watanabe, from the Oriental Daily newspaper [updated to the higher quality Premiere scan.] As you can see, she is wearing very little white makeup, and looks more like a regular woman in a kimono than a geisha / maiko. She will only be wearing the full white makeup for a few "ceremonial" scenes.
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01/11/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/08
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The Road Home, Ziyi Zhang's first and loveliest film, will be playing near Los Angeles this weekend and next. Only one screening at 11: AM each day - Sunday 1/9, Saturday 1/15, and Sunday 1/16 - at this theater:
Monica 4-Plex
1332 2nd Street
Santa Monica, 90401
310-394-9741
Purple Butterfly will also begin its Los Angeles run next week starting on the 14th, it will be playing at the Fairfax 3 theater on 7907 Beverly Blvd. Thanks to Richard for the news.
01/08/05
Awards for House of Flying Daggers and Hero
The accolades continue to pour in, as House of Flying Daggers recieved two awards from the National Society of Film Critics, winning Best Director and Best Cinematography.
And both Flying Daggers and Hero earned several nominations from the Online Film Critics Society:
Best Director
Zhang Yimou, HeroBest Cinematography
Hero, Christopher Doyle
House of Flying Daggers, Xiaoding ZhaoBest Editing
House of Flying Daggers, Long ChengBest Original Score
Hero, Tan DunBest Foreign Language Film
Hero, China
House of Flying Daggers, China
01/08/05
Memoirs of a Geisha News - Updated!
The first "behind the scenes" picture of Ziyi Zhang on the set of Memoirs of a Geisha, thanks to Anonymous and Bootleg Ziyi. The other pictures are of the extras.
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The first teaser poster for Memoirs of a Geisha has been released. Michelle Yeoh Web Theatre has pictures from the set at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, and some other news related to the filming.
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And here, an extra from the set of Memoirs of a Geisha describes his experience:
I saw Ziyi Zhang numerous times up close, on the set, and she was really fun. She is a great serious actress, but she also loves fooling around the set with Michelle Yeoh and other set assistants. She's even more beautiful in person. There were 500 extras and a lot of them who I talked to, mentioned how pretty she was, guys and girls. I was pretty star struck since I watch a lot of Hong Kong movies, being in the same room with Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li was really a memorable experience. The costumes were amazing, the set was incredible. This film for sure is going to be a visual masterpiece. The only thing I found funny is that some of the lead actors speak Japanese, while Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh speak English.
01/08/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/05
Here are some new video clips from the director's cut of Hero and Musa. For screen caps see this forum thread. The clip from Musa is especially poingant, be sure to get it if you haven't seen the movie.
| Hero From the Director's cut, a scene most of you haven't seen before. Moon (Ziyi Zhang) asks Nameless to heed Broken Sword's advice, and she tries to kill herself to prove her devotion to her master's teachings. Moon's scene from the Director's Cut - 17 MB avi |
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| The fight between Moon and Nameless. I think the beauty of this fight was underappreciated. It has some gorgeous shots, such as the overhead view of their somersaults. Moon vs Nameless - 17 MB avi |
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| Musa Princess Buyong (Ziyi Zhang) holds a newborn child, and then decides to leave the fortress and give herself to the Mongols in order to save her people. Princess Buyong leaves the fortress - 34 MB avi |
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Purple Butterfly will be playing in Seattle starting on Friday at the Grand Illusion Cinema.
A few more lovely wallpapers from Wangerlai, and a wonderful huge candid photo.
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01/05/05
Ziyi Zhang News 1/01
Happy New Years!
The Chicago Tribune has an article titled "15 Things to Know About Zhang Ziyi." The interview was done during the Toronto Film Festival. Zhang Yimou was with her and some of the questions were directed towards him:
What's Zhang Ziyi got that almost no other actress has: "It's a rare combination of being sweet, slight and ferocious," Yimou said. "And she's also very explosive. She could be very quick and expressive with her feelings, especially her eyes. She has those eyes that always have something to say."
These pictures are from the August issue of Vogue (Hong Kong)
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01/01/05