The 45th International Film Festival of India, opened in Goa on Thursday. Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung attended the opening ceremony. Wong Kar-wai’s ‘The Grandmaster’ will close the festival. The Hong Kong-based director will also receive the lifetime achievement award on the last day of the extravaganza. Source.
Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, who has worked with celebrated Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai in ‘The Grandmaster’, says he has a unique style of working.
Ziyi, 35, said that the star-cast shot the film, which is also the closing movie of the ongoing International Film Festival of India, without any script.
“Wong Kar Wai is my master. He gave me the opportunity to star in his last project ‘The Grandmaster’. He has a unique style of filmmaking.
“He shoots his films without scripts and we shot ‘The Grandmaster’ also in that way. We didn’t know the whole story in the beginning but we started understanding it gradually with each day on the set,” Ziyi told PTI.
Wong Kar Wai will receive the lifetime achievement award at IFFI.
The ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ actress has been part of both Chinese and American films. Ziyi also expressed her desire to star in an Indian film especially for its enchanting music.
“I have watched many Indian films since my childhood. I really like the beautiful music of Indian films and I hope that we soon will try to incorporate such quality in our films. Indian love stories really touch me,” said the actress who is representing China, which is the focus country of the festival.
During her maiden visit to India, she met actor Anupam Kher and is impressed with his filmography.
“Anupam Kher has done 418 films and now I have started worshipping him. He said he loved my latest work ‘The Grandmaster’,” she said.
Ziyi feels that more Indian films should be sent to China in order to increase knowledge about each other’s cinema.
“In the last 20 years very less Indian films have been sent to China and that’s why this festival is very important to me as I will get to watch Indian films here,” she said.
The ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ actress said the Chinese film industry is in its growing phase.
“Chinese film is growing very fast. People love to go to cinema now. Our box-office scores very quick,” she said.