Category: The Road Home

Tokyo Film Festival – Jury Press Conference

Ziyi and the jury attended the Tokyo International Film Festival Jury Press Conference. Click here to watch this interesting conference. Ziyi talks about the memories she has of the festival, the diversity of the films in competition and more…

Later the same day, Ziyi attended the special screening of “The Road Home“. The actress shared her memories ‘I didn’t really know what I was doing in the movie and what kind of art it was. At that time, of course, there was no acting technique and I just lived as a girl.
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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.

Cannes Film Festival – Day 3

The third day of Ziyi at Cannes this year started with an amazing news. She attended a short press conference to announce her participation at the 3nd Tokyo Film Festival, starting on October 28 and closing on November 5. She will serve as the chairman of the jury of this prestigious film festival. Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Gong Li were also chairmen in the past, making Ziyi the fourth Chinese to occupy this high position.

Hollywood Reporter reported the news and included some worth mentioning details from the press conference.

TIFF director Takeo Hisamatsu called Ziyi “one of the leading actresses in the world” and said her performance in legendary Japanese director Seijun Suzuki’s final film Princess Raccoon (2005) had “earned her many Japanese fans.”

Zhang recalled her first trip to Tokyo with her first feature, Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home (1999), which went on to win a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. “I was immensely touched by the warmth of the reception and witnessed first-hand the love and passion that Japan has for the art of moviemaking,” she said.

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 Birth of an Actor: Episode 3

Here’s the 3rd episode of The Birth of an Actor, Take a look!

2000 Public Appearances Update

A pretty huge update for today.
I’ve updated the gallery with a lot of old pictures from the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon era. I’ve added pictures from Berlin Film Festival when The Road Home was in official Competition, premieres of Crouching Tiger at Cannes, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, etc… We also have some pictures of Ziyi winning her first major actress award at Hundred Flowers Awards. Stay tuned for gallery updates in the next weeks!