Movies

Jasmine Women (Mo Li Hua Kai) - 2004

Released in China April 2006

A story of love and loss over three generations of life in a single family in Shanghai. Jasmine Women tells of the family's struggle to overcome its tragic history, as each daughter repeats the mistakes of her mother. Zhang Ziyi plays mother, daughter, and granddaughter as the film moves from the 1930's to the 1950's to the 1970's. Jasmine Women was filmed in 2003 and first shown at the Shanghai Film Fesival in 2004 where it won the Jury Prix Prize.  Despite being shown to acclaim at numerous film festivals around the world, its release in China was delayed for two years until April 2006. Ziyi won Best Actress at the prestigious Golden Rooster awards for her performance.


Plot Summary

Mo's Story (1930's)
The young and beautiful Mo (Zhang Ziyi) gets a chance to realize her dream of being a film actress, but soon becomes the mistress of Boss Meng (Jiang Wen), an influential film investor. For a brief time, all is well, but soon Mo's dream of movie stardom is destroyed by Japan's invasion of China. Boss Meng abandons her to flee to Hong Kong, and Mo, pregnant and alone, has no choice but to return home to her mother (Joan Chen), where she gives birth to her daughter Li. But she blamed Li for everything she had lost…

Li's Story (1950's)
Against her mother's wishes, Li (Zhang Ziyi) marries working class Zou Jie (Lu Yi). But, unable to get along with Zou Jie's family, Li feels wronged, and decides to return home to live with her mother. Zou Jie, deeply in love with Li, moves in with them as well. But soon her mother's attentions to the gentlemanly Zou Jie inspire Li's jealousy. Feeling unsafe, Zou Jie believes that a child is the only way to ensure his family's stability. Zou Jie therefore adopts an orphan child for the infertile Li, a young girl name Hua. But as Hua grows up, her mother begins to experience hallucinations, and suspects that her husband is having an affair with their adopted daughter. In order to prove his innocence, Zou Jie commits suicide. Because of this, Li goes insane and runs away from home.

Hua’s Story (1980’s)
Li disappeared when Hua (Zhang Ziyi) was still very young and she grown up with her grandmother Mo (Joan Chen). Mo treated her own daughter very badly but found comfort on taking care of her granddaughter. Mo encourages Hua to get married to her boyfriend Xiao Du (Liu Ye), but Hua insists on waiting until he graduates from university. Unfortunately, by the time Xiao Du graduates, he has fallen in love with another women. He marries Hua but carries on an affair with someone else. Hua decided to end the marriage even though she had already carried Du’s child. Mo encourages her to abort the baby but Hua decides against it just like her grandmother. However before she can get home, her grandmother has died. Years later, Du has come back to Hua but she has moved on with her life. She moves into a new home with resolve to change her family's destiny and raise her daughter.

(Plot summary from the Shanghai Film Festival and MonkeyPeaches.)



Articles

Zhang Ziyi wins Best Actress at Golden Rooster Awards for her role in Jasmine Women - "I feel grateful that China's movie industry has shown signs of recognizing young professionals," Zhang said.

Jasmine Women Review - Variety: A multi-generational tearjerker of the first order, Jasmine Women is an impressive showcase for Mainland-born actresses Zhang Ziyi and Joan Chen, in multiple roles as daughters and mothers across three generations... As the three rebellious daughters, Zhang Ziyi has the showier roles and more than proves (especially after "2046" and "House of Flying Daggers") that she's a young actress of considerable range who's only just beginning to hit her stride.

Director Hou Yong Takes About Jasmine Women - "Why let Zhang Ziyi playing three characters?" Hou Yong: "To save money. This is equal to her playing three movies for me. (Laugh) Actually, I insisted on letting one actress play the three characters since the beginning. I just want the audience, from an expression in her eyes or a smile, to find in that something from her mother and let them think more."

On the set of Mo Li Hua Kai (Jasmine Women) - "Tell me something about the cast. How did you recruit Zhang Ziyi to play Mo, Li and Hua?" Hou Yong: "I want the best actors in my film, of cause, and Zhang Ziyi is one of the best Chinese actresses of our times. I once wanted to cast Gong Li and at that time, Zhang Ziyi was still too young to handle three roles in one film. I have already had very serious conversations with Zhang Ziyi and I have written down my thoughts of the roles, including many ideas. I believe Zhang Ziyi will handle it very well."



Links

MonkeyPeaches - Production news and more.
Asian Film Connections - Plot summary, cast, and screenings.
A Film in Bloom - An article with some comments from the director.
Arclight Films - International distributor

Videos

The Japanese trailer 7 MB Quicktime
A preview reel made in 2003 while the film was still in production. 3 MB rm

Pictures

See the ZiyiFilms.com ZIMS archive for more Jasmine Women pictures. Below is a selection of the best.

Promotional Pictures

Official Posters

Other Photos

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