Ziyi Zhang: watch out, superman. Run for cover, spider-man. Don't think about it, batman. Here comes the competition

Interview, Dec, 2004 by Graham Fuller

Ziyi Zhang gives the most iconic performance of her short, illustrious career in director Zhang Yimou's latest film, House of Flying Daggers. She plays Mei, a blind brothel dancer who turns out to be a fighter for an underground rebel cadre that's attempting to bring down the corrupt government during the turbulent decline of the Tang dynasty in the ninth century. Mei's plight is to become torn between two deputies: the dashing Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), with whom she falls in love, and the dour Leo (Andy Lau), her old lover.

As this tortuous love triangle is played out in gravity-defying duels and skirmishes that will thrill audiences of two previous Ziyi Zhang films (Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000; and Zhang Yimou's summer hit, Hero), the 25-year-old actress again demonstrates her breathtaking agility. But as Mei is transformed from a coldly contemptuous courtesan to an outlaw rapturously in love, Ziyi also reveals her impressive emotional range. Yimou piles on phallic imagery--arrows from Jin's bow thud simultaneously into enemies--and the seasons change as he and Leo engage, but the camera always comes back to Ziyi's face, both haunted and haunting.

The Beijing-born daughter of an economist and a retired kindergarten teacher, Ziyi was discovered by Yimou when she was auditioning for a shampoo commercial. In his mildly anti-Maoist 1950s drama The Road Home (1999), she made a magnificent debut as the sweet but steely village girl in north China whose love for an imported schoolteacher endures his enforced absences at the insistence of the state. Crouching Tiger made her an international star, then she dipped a toe in Hollywood in Rush Hour 2 (2001), starred in Musa the Warrior (2001) and Purple Butterfly (2002), and is modernized--and fetishized--as a dance-hall girl in Wong Kar Wai's upcoming 2046. Next year she will be seen alongside Gong Li (Yimou's previous muse) and Michelle Yeoh in Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha, currently shooting in Los Angeles. We caught up with the giggly rookie English speaker--and her translator--on the phone one recent Sunday night.

GRAHAM FULLER: Were you moved by the tragic romantic relationships in House of Flying Daggers?

ZIYI ZHANG: Yeah. I really hoped one day to play a tragedy and some kind of deep, complicated, emotional character. So when I got this script, I felt so excited because when I read it, it made me feel very sad.

GF: Tell me about the incredible echo-dance sequence where you lash out at the drums with your sleeves.

ZZ: [laughs] For that scene, you know, in the movie we only showed two minutes--maybe not even. But we rehearsed it every day, almost for two months, because I didn't know how to dance with three-meter-long sleeves. So the professor came and teach me how to use the sleeves. It's hard because it's a kind of traditional Chinese dance, which I never learned.

GF: You studied dance when you were a teenager, though, didn't you?

ZZ: Yeah, but in China there're so many different kinds of dance. I learned Chinese folk dance, which is so different.

GF: You did all the martial-arts scenes yourself.

ZZ: Yes, I think I have the ability, so I told the director, "Just let me do it." Because I know the audience will appreciate it if they see it's you on the screen, performing to please them.

GF: Is Zhang Yimou a very demanding director?

ZZ: Yeah, he is.

GF: Are there days when he's too tough on you?

ZZ: I think, no, because I'm actually a very work-hard person.

TRANSLATOR: Hard-working.

ZZ: [laughs] I think the most pressure is coming from yourself. When you start work, you know, you want to be the best.

GF: Is Yimou's approach to directing very different from Ang Lee's?

ZZ: Yes. He has a totally different personality. Ang Lee is very strong, too, but more quiet and gentle. He helped me a lot, so he has a very special place in my life.

GF: What do you think House of Flying Daggers says about Chinese history?

ZZ: I don't think this movie wants to talk about China's history. I think it concentrates on human relationships. I think this story could be set in the future or in the West.

GF: What about Hero?

ZZ: Hero, for me, is more about being loyal to a country and to the roads you pave between the master and the servant. If you compare a country and its people, the people are like pawns on a chessboard.

GF: Did the Chinese government approve of these films?

ZZ: They are very entertaining, so no problem.

GF: I heard that you accidentally cut Maggie Cheung's hand in Hero. Were you upset?

ZZ: Yes. Because she's my idol. And I had an experience in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon where I got hurt by somebody else, so I know how painful it is. So when I shot the fight scene I was really careful because I didn't want to hurt Maggie. But it happened. I feel so sad, I don't know what I can do. She's very nice. She told me, "Don't worry." But I still feel sad.

GF: Which actresses from Hong Kong and China do you most admire?

ZZ: Gong Li is the best. Now we're working together on the new movie [Memoirs of a Geisha].