Category: The Grandmaster

FIRST Youth Film Festival

As you may already know, Ziyi was the Jury president of the 16th FIRST Youth Film Festival in Xining this year. She attended a few events, including a screening of The Grandmaster, a press conference of the jury and of course the closing ceremony. There, she announced the best film’s winner: One and Four, directed by Jigme Trinley.

4:06 min   |   1079 views

20 Years Career Retrospective

A retrospective of Ziyi’s career was organized in a theater in Beijing to mark her 20 years long career. She showed up and sat with Hou Yong and others to talk about her work and movies such as Crouching Tiger, 2046, The Grandmaster, and more.

Rendez-vous with Zhang Ziyi

The special event at the Cannes Film Festival Rendez-vous with Zhang Ziyi was just uploaded on the official website of the festival. You can watch the original version here and the version with English dubbing here. Some gorgeous pictures were added to the gallery.

Ziyi shared a lot yesterday during this masterclass, about her career and herself. She mainly talked about working of films like 2046, The Grandmaster, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but a few others too. Some highlights of the interview were transcribed on the official website of the Cannes Festival.

About her fighting spirit:
I was born into a very traditional family. My mother worked in a maternity hospital and my father was an economist for the government. I didn’t grow up in luxury. My parents worked hard to bring us up and we did not have many activities. I don’t remember my parents encouraging me a lot or saying “I love you.” They have always been demanding with me even though I have won many awards in my career. This has taught me to be demanding of myself. Most of the roles I have interpreted have this perseverence as a a common theme.

On the filming of Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster):
This film shoot was the most demanding of my whole career up until now. I was in a very anxious and melancholy period of my life. I remember asking for a day off in the middle of the filming, which was complicated because it would cost a lot of money. But Wong Kar-wai agreed. He knew that I was not feeling well and he showed himself to be very understanding. Today he is a very close friend. I could play any role for him.

First Promo Clip for ‘I Am An Actor’

Beautiful TV spots were released in China to promote I Am An Actor featuring the 3 judges taking part in their own previous work. The one with Ziyi is really amazing and include scenes from The Road Home, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2046, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Grandmaster and The Wasted Times.

The Grandmaster 3D Premiere

The new 3D cut of “The Grandmaster” was released on Monday 5th january and the cast of the film attended various promotional events in Beijing. Wong Kar-wai, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Chang Chen, Zhang Jin and Wang Qingxiang were all there to promote the film. During a press conference, “the director and cast members were asked to express the unique flavour of each other” and Wong Kar-wai compared Ziyi to an onion:

As to his leading lady Zhang Ziyi, Wong said, “She is like an onion. She is spicy and crunchy, a northern specialty. The flavour is sweeter when it’s more mature.”

Source: Yahoo Singapore



Yesterday the cast attended a press conference with martial artists.


The Grandmaster 3D update

Wong Kar Wai is currently promoting “The Grandmaster 3D” and we know more about this new version…

the 3D edit was put together with shorter U.S. cut as a loose guide, however, previously unseen material was also incorporated. The final result? A movie that now runs 111-minutes-long (versus 122 in the original international cut) and apparently has a new structure and more streamlined storytelling.

[…]

The most mysterious martial art style of Zhang Ziyi’s character Gong Er, the “64 palms” might possibly show its true face again. In The Grandmaster, Ip Man and Gong Er only had two duels but was so deeply impressed by the “64 palms” that he found it hard to forget. He only wanted to see such great kung fu again, unfortunately due to various reasons Gong Er’s special abilities finally vanished from the world, without any “echo”. Yet in the end of The Grandmaster 3D‘s trailer, Gong Er’s line “If you want to see the 64 palms, you only have the time it takes to open a fan” was added. Seemingly there was room for something more.

Source: wongkarwai.net

The Grandmaster 3D Trailer

Enjoy this new and very exciting trailer with a new fight between Ziyi and Tony Leung…

45th International Film Festival of India

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.

Source.