WHO: The new Chuck Norris, only with ballet skills and prettier and able to kick Chuck’s creaky old ass.
WHAT: The film adaptation of a novel set in ancient China called Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by The Ice Storm director Ang Lee.
MORE WHAT: The film is a nearly inexplicable but impossibly beautiful martial-arts fable that combines the storytelling of Kurosawa with the action effects of The Matrix.
ZHANG’S CHARACTER: Jen, the renegade daughter of Governor Yu and a sort of Asian Luke Skywalker who is constantly tempted by the dark side. Plus she’s a flying murderess. (We told you the picture was nearly inexplicable.)
OTHER: Zhang, a former folk dancer from Beijing, had to learn several ancient skills, including martial arts, something called “disposition,” and calligraphy, before shooting began in China. This caused the twenty-one-year-old no little amount of dissonance: “I’m really modern,” she told us. “I like to go bowling. I like roller coast ers. I like my Game Boy.”