Zhang Ziyi

[Ian_Lee]

Does any poster notice that Zhang Ziyi has recently changed her name to Ziyi Zhang to suit western audience?

This 25-year old Beijing girl has achieved what most Chinese actress could dream of in their whole life. She has worked with numerous famous directors/actors from China/HK/Taiwan in her brief 6-year career. Let's count:

Director:

Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Tsui Hark, Wong Kar Wai

Actors:

Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Chow Yun Fat, Takeshi Kaneshiro

Moreover, Zhang has participated in international production like South Korea's "Warrior" and currently Steven Spielberg's "Memoirs of a Geisha".

What Zhang only lacks is a Best Actress award from a renowned International Film Festival (Zhang lost to Maggie Chang in Cannes Film Festival last year).

But it seems the days won't be too far away for Zhang to get such award.

Currently Zhang is secretly dating the grandson of a HK tycoon, Mr. Fok. HK paparazzi has heard her call young Fok "Baby" in a HK hotel coffee shop.

Though you may be seduced by how Zhang flirted in "2046", this 25-year old Beijing girl is actually living with her parents in their Beijing home.

[woodcutter]

Do you mean that girls who live with their parents never flirt?

[Gary Soup]

Does any poster notice that Zhang Ziyi has recently changed her name to Ziyi Zhang to suit western audience?

I wouldn't call that a change. IMDB reverses the order of surname-given name to given name-surname all the time, as they did with that famous actress "Li Gong". I think it's to suit database indexing, not western movie viewers.

[Mandariniac]

Dear All,

I feel so sad that Zhang Ziyi didn't get an Oscar nomiation...I think she gave such a superb performance in Memoir of a Geisha and....she was just snubbed......

Is it because of those controversies like portraying chinese in janpanese characters?

Whatever it is....she really derserves an oscar nod .... to present the chinese people !!!

[binbin]

I'm not surprised at all. I think she's a mediocre actress at best, and her performance in Geisha was nowhere near Oscar worthy.

Plus, I think her costars (Gong Li and Ken Watanabe) gave much better performances. Wheres the nomination for them?

Rest assured it has nothing to do with her playing a Japanese character. Most people in America (and especially members of the academy) don't really care about that.

[mikelove]

Well plenty of mediocre actresses have won Oscars (Gwyneth Paltrow). But if they were going to nominate Zhang for anything it should have been 2046 - certainly the best performance of hers I've seen so far.

As far as internationally-known Chinese actresses who deserve to win Oscars, though, the best living candidate by a sizable margin is Maggie Cheung. (Gong Li's talents nonwithstanding, nothing she's done in the last decade is up to the level of her earlier work)

[roddy]

I think she's good, but Oscar-good? Not convinced. She's better than Gwyneth though . . .

[gigabyte001]

She's not good enough, yet.

and the movie she casted seemed sensitive, hence disputed.

[deezy]

I'd like to see her step out of her stock roles as the "tragic lotus flower" and show some range.

Then again, most Oscar winners win their Oscars by playing themselves in the "perfectly-fit role."

[lady_dilandau]

I didn't think she was fantastic in the film.

Her co-stars Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh and Ken Watanabe outshined her by far.

[marc cuneo]

Trying to determine rhyme or reason to the Academy's choices for "best anything" is as worthwile as the individual opinions some need to broadcast so fervently in this forum. The facts remain that a young ballet student was brought in to act the part of a simple chinese peasant girl. From there her acting career has been whipped into an international sensation.

The question is not, "how good of an actress Miss zhang may or may not be"..... the question is ... would she ever stop acting now that she has been "snubbed" or, is her interest in this career path going to lead her to more demanding roles where one day she may make as an equal, her developing talent with, alongside her undeniable raw beauty?

[Ian_Lee]

Rumor is out that all three actors -- Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau -- prefer not to have Zhang Ziyi as the actress in their new movie. Is Ziyi really that bitchy?

[laolee]

More likely, they were afraid that she would steal all the limelight/press. And she probably would.

As for the name order, I think she did try officially changing the order but it didn't seem to stick, thank goodness. Plus, her name recognition factor is so high, it wasn't really necessary to westernize her name.

Time magazine, 2005:

Zhang quickly learned English, came West and, after four years of international renown, flipped her name from Zhang Ziyi to Ziyi Zhang.

[babygodzilla]

that just sounds odd... she shoulda stick to the chinese convention, or adopt a Western name like everyone else.

Maggie Zhang?

Jane Zhang?

Jeanie Zhang?

Alison Zhang?

Zoe Zhang (Zoe kinda sounds like Ziyi doesnt it? )

[atitarev]

Give her a break, guys and let her decide. I think she changed or rather media has changed the order for those who still don't know what comes - first name or last name in Chinese, at least it tells everyone what her first and last name is, otherwise - it sounds like sort of unbreakable name "Zhang-Zi-Yi" (I hope you know what I mean), now people can call her Miss Zhang, just Ziyi, etc.

It's inconsistency of media on both sides and the difference in culture. Chinese politicians are presented as last name - first name: Mao Zedong, Hu Jintao but Taiwanese can be in any order.

[roddy]

Merged our two Z Z topics, but got the dates mixed up and it now reads a little confusingly. Hope you all cope

Actually she should just change her name to ZZ. Solve a lot of problems.

[trevelyan]

But if they were going to nominate Zhang for anything it should have been 2046 - certainly the best performance of hers I've seen so far.

Amen, Mike. Zhang Ziyi was the best actor/actress in the film. Stunning the way she managed to communicate intense disappointment just by turning her face slightly.

This actually might be a bit off topic, but I just recently wrote a review of 2046 after not finding any others online that tried to make sense of the prominent symbolism and imagery. If anyone familiar with the film is interested in taking a look, I'd be interested to get feedback or comments. Hard to pick up on everything that is happening -- some of the thoughts on language come from Mark at www.toshuo.com for instance.

[Ian_Lee]

Trevelyn:

I read your comment on the movie 2046. Wang Kar-Wai should be Wong Kar-Wai. Regarding the different languages spoken in the movie, the most lengthy and significant part is the dialog between Tony Leung (who spoke Cantonese) and Zhang Ziyi (who spoke Mandarin).

And somehow I think many critics have left out the part-time job of Chow (Tony Leung) as a Kung Fu novel writer who had to submit 500-character article everyday to the newspaper editor.

In '60s Hong Kong there were a lot of different kinds of novels published in the newspapers to attract readers. Usually it was a long novel that lasted for months. But everyday the writer had to write about 500-1,000 characters long article with climax and suspense at the end so that the readers would continue buying the newspaper tomorrow to know how the story evolved.

(Ironically it is very common that a lot of these Kung Fu novels were written by those who don't know Kung Fu at all like Chow.) Because of that demanding job (and the imagination required), Chow had to seek the assistance of the daughter (Faye Wang) of the Inn's boss.

And I guess why Chow would have such fantasy of the future (space odyssey) is also related to his part-time job -- imagination.

[trevelyan]

thanks ian -- will make the fixes (can I make that joke about getting the wrong Wong, or is it still tasteless?). I was actually watching the film in its mainland mandarin dub, so missed that bit between Tong Leung and Zhang Ziyi btw. Cool.

Was the stuff Leung was writing for the newspapers supposed to be related to Kung Fu? I was under the impression he'd started writing pornography, and was actually wondering if we were getting some sort of dichotomy between "ideal love" (his past and literature) and "real love" (his present and journalism), and if the contrast was supposed to highlight his emotional hardening.

[bhchao]

Rumor is out that all three actors -- Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau -- prefer not to have Zhang Ziyi as the actress in their new movie. Is Ziyi really that bitchy?

HK media is very ruthless towards Zhang Ziyi, at least I heard. She once replied that this brutal treatment of her in the HK media has to do with historic discrimination.

But you don't hear the HK media criticizing Gong Li or other Mainland stars. Just her. Maybe it's because many people's perceptions of her is what you described. Not sure how truthful those perceptions are.

IMHO she is overexposed. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but her roles seem to be monotonous. She is either playing a chick with a bad attitude throwing a temper tantrum (like in CTHD, Hero, Rush Hour 2, or even in 2046 where she slaps Tony Leung across the face) or an expressionless, noninspiring role like in House of Flying Daggers. The times when she is inspiring is when she plays the "berserk" roles.