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Zhang Ziyi (February 9, 1979 in Beijing) is one of the best-known Chinese film actresses working today, with a string of Chinese and international hits to her name. She has worked with renowned directors such as Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Seijun Suzuki and Rob Marshall. Born in Beijing, China, Zhang Ziyi joined the Beijing Dance Academy at the age of 11, and at 15 she entered China's prestigious Central Academy of Drama (regarded as the top acting college in China). When her parents suggested she go to the dance academy, she was skeptical. While at the boarding school, she noticed how catty the other girls were while competing for status amongst the teachers. She would cry each night and morning, and on one occasion ran away from the school. A delicately beautiful Chinese actress, Ziyi Zhang first caught the attention of filmgoers at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival with her debut performance as a young girl who falls in love with a schoolteacher in "The Road Home", director Zhang Yimou's acclaimed drama. Her strong performance (and the rumors of a romance with the director) led many Asian journalists to dub the newcomer "little Gong Li,” after the director's former leading lady. Within three months, she enjoyed a further career boost when the martial arts romance "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" premiered at Cannes. Her performance as the headstrong Jen Wu, a sheltered aristocrat with a taste for adventure, anchored the movie and demonstrated her astonishing range. Whether executing the daring almost balletic martial arts fight sequences or engaging in a spirited battle of wills with the bandit who has kidnapped her (seen in a lengthy flashback), Ziyi Zhang proved irresistible. The daughter of an economist and a teacher, Ziyi Zhang was enrolled in dance school in her native Beijing at a young age. After winning an award at a national competition at age 15, she began appearing in Hong Kong television commercials. Spotted by Zhang Yimou, the young actress was offered the leading role in "The Road Home" (1999), a beautiful romance about a young woman’s undying love in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. She added to her rising star status with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), then had a co-starring role in Tsui Hark's sequel "Zu, Warriors from the Magic Mountain 2" (2001). The actress made her American debut co-starring with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in the successful, but contrived sequel, "Rush Hour 2" (2001), playing a dangerous femme fatale, a role in which she struggled with uneven English. Ziyi Zhang then segued into a towering cinematic and commercial triumph, "Ying xiong" (2002), which was released in the United States in 2004 under the title "Hero." Ziyi Zhang reunited with Zhang Yimou to star alongside Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Daoming Chen and Donnie Yen for the big-budget tale set at the violent dawn of the Qin dynasty (circa 220 B.C.) where the soon-to-be first Emperor is on the brink of conquering the war-torn land. The emperor, however, is threatened with assassination and hides himself in the Forbidden City where a lowly policeman (Jet Li) hears his story about the country’s three most feared assassins—Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky. The film become a phenomenal hit in Asia and Europe, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 in the foreign language category before its North American release in 2004. At the age of 19, she was offered her first role in world renowned director Zhang Yimou's The Road Home, which won the Silver Bear award in the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. Zhang further rose to fame due to her role as the headstrong Jen in the phenomenally successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she won the Independent Spirit's Best Supporting Actress Award and the Toronto Film Critics' Best Supporting Actress Award. Her first appearance in an American movie was in Rush Hour 2, but because she didn't speak English at the time, Jackie Chan had to translate everything the director said to her. In the movie, her character's name, "Hu Li," is translated from Mandarin Chinese to "Fox". After this she went on to make Hero with her early mentor Zhang Yimou, which was a huge success in the English-speaking world and an Oscar and a Golden Globe contender. Her next film was the avant-garde drama Purple Butterfly by Lou Ye which competed at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. She went back to the martial arts genre with House of Flying Daggers, which earned her a Best Actress nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. For her next drama 2046, directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring many of the best-known Chinese actresses (from mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), Zhang was the female lead and won the Hong Kong Film Critics' Best Actress Award and the Hong Kong Film Academy's Best Actress Award. Showing her whimsical musical tap-dancing side, Zhang starred in Princess Raccoon directed by 82-year-old Japanese legend Seijun Suzuki who was honored at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, she landed the lead role of Sayuri in the film adaptation of the international bestseller Memoirs of a Geisha. For the film, she reunited with her 2046 co-star Gong Li and with her Crouching Tiger co-star Michelle Yeoh. For the role, she received a 2006 Golden Globe Award nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination. Zhang has also been known to sing, and was featured on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem Jia Rén Qu (佳人曲, The Beauty Song). The song was also featured in two scenes in the film. In “Purple Butterfly” (2004), a historical romance about the innocence of new love torn asunder by the Sino-Japanese War, Ziyi Zhang played Ding Hui, a beautiful Chinese girl in love with a Japanese man (Toru Nakamura) whose brief love affair ends when he’s shipped off to join the military. After Japan’s occupation of Shanghai, Ding Hui joins a resistance movement that plans to assassinate the head of the Japanese secret service and boss of her old flame. Just weeks after the release of “Purple Butterfly” in the America, Ziyi Zhang was seen again in another high profile film from Zhang Yimou, “House of Flying Daggers” (2004), a stunningly visual martial arts romance set in 9th century China during the decline of the once-flourishing Tang Dynasty. As Mei, a blind dancer who leads a policeman (Andy Lau) to the secret lair of a group of wanted assassins, The Flying Daggers, the actress gave a nuanced performance that juggled a superficial innocence with darker ulterior motives and a descent into love despite nefarious intentions. Widespread critical praise and box office success helped elevate Ziyi Zhang into a rare high profile Chinese actress in the United States. On June 27, 2005, it was announced that Zhang had accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), placing her among the ranks of those able to vote on the Academy Awards. In May 2006, Zhang became the youngest member to sit on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival A delicately beautiful Chinese actress, Ziyi Zhang first caught the attention of filmgoers at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival with her debut performance as a young girl who falls in love with a schoolteacher in "The Road Home", director Zhang Yimou's acclaimed drama. Her strong performance (and the rumors of a romance with the director) led many Asian journalists to dub the newcomer "little Gong Li,” after the director's former leading lady. Within three months, she enjoyed a further career boost when the martial arts romance "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" premiered at Cannes. Her performance as the headstrong Jen Wu, a sheltered aristocrat with a taste for adventure, anchored the movie and demonstrated her astonishing range. Whether executing the daring almost balletic martial arts fight sequences or engaging in a spirited battle of wills with the bandit who has kidnapped her (seen in a lengthy flashback), Ziyi Zhang proved irresistible. The daughter of an economist and a teacher, Ziyi Zhang was enrolled in dance school in her native Beijing at a young age. After winning an award at a national competition at age 15, she began appearing in Hong Kong television commercials. Spotted by Zhang Yimou, the young actress was offered the leading role in "The Road Home" (1999), a beautiful romance about a young woman’s undying love in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. She added to her rising star status with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), then had a co-starring role in Tsui Hark's sequel "Zu, Warriors from the Magic Mountain 2" (2001). The actress made her American debut co-starring with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in the successful, but contrived sequel, "Rush Hour 2" (2001), playing a dangerous femme fatale, a role in which she struggled with uneven English. Ziyi Zhang then segued into a towering cinematic and commercial triumph, "Ying xiong" (2002), which was released in the United States in 2004 under the title "Hero." Ziyi Zhang reunited with Zhang Yimou to star alongside Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Daoming Chen and Donnie Yen for the big-budget tale set at the violent dawn of the Qin dynasty (circa 220 B.C.) where the soon-to-be first Emperor is on the brink of conquering the war-torn land. The emperor, however, is threatened with assassination and hides himself in the Forbidden City where a lowly policeman (Jet Li) hears his story about the country’s three most feared assassins—Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky. The film become a phenomenal hit in Asia and Europe, and was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 in the foreign language category before its North American release in 2004. In “Purple Butterfly” (2004), a historical romance about the innocence of new love torn asunder by the Sino-Japanese War, Ziyi Zhang played Ding Hui, a beautiful Chinese girl in love with a Japanese man (Toru Nakamura) whose brief love affair ends when he’s shipped off to join the military. After Japan’s occupation of Shanghai, Ding Hui joins a resistance movement that plans to assassinate the head of the Japanese secret service and boss of her old flame. Just weeks after the release of “Purple Butterfly” in the America, Ziyi Zhang was seen again in another high profile film from Zhang Yimou, “House of Flying Daggers” (2004), a stunningly visual martial arts romance set in 9th century China during the decline of the once-flourishing Tang Dynasty. As Mei, a blind dancer who leads a policeman (Andy Lau) to the secret lair of a group of wanted assassins, The Flying Daggers, the actress gave a nuanced performance that juggled a superficial innocence with darker ulterior motives and a descent into love despite nefarious intentions. Widespread critical praise and box office success helped elevate Ziyi Zhang into a rare high profile Chinese actress in the United States. For her next film, Wong Kar Wai’s hypnotic “2046” (2005), Ziyi Zhang displayed a simmering intensity in her performance as a high class prostitute residing next to a struggling author of erotic fiction (Tony Leung) in a rundown hotel with whom she engages in a love affair doomed to end in bitterness and tears. She next starred in “Operetta Tanuki Goten” (2005), a strange fairy tale about weird raccoon-like creatures living atop a mountain ruled by a vengeful princess (Ziyi Zhang). “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2005), Rob Marshall’s long-awaited adaptation of Arthur Golden’s best-selling novel about a poor Japanese girl torn from her home and raised in a geisha house, poised Ziyi Zhang to become a household name in the states. Under the tutelage of the famed Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), the girl develops into Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang), a beautiful and accomplished geisha who captivates some of the most powerful men in the world, but is haunted by a secret love for the one man beyond her reach (Ken Watanabe). Meanwhile, she filmed “Ye Yan” (lensed in 2005) in Hong Kong, a drama set in ancient China about the mysterious death of the emperor and the ensuing battle for his throne. In the fall of 2006, Zhang's most recent film was released, a new drama set in the Tang Dynasty of China called The Banquet (Yè Yàn 夜宴). Most recently she provided the voice of Karai in the TMNT movie that was released on March 23, 2007. She has recently finished filming a movie called Horsemen with Dennis Quaid. Zhang is now working on a new movie called Mei Lanfang. Zhang Ziyi is the face of Maybelline, Garnier and Shangri-la Hotel and Resort Group. She is also a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics and a spokesperson for Care for Children, a foster-home program in China. Soon after her debut in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home, rumours arose regarding a possible affair between the actress and the older director. Zhang Yimou was previously involved in an extramarital affair with actress Gong Li, whom he similarly debuted and with whom Zhang Ziyi was quickly compared. However, a relationship between the two remains unconfirmed. Hong Kong and Taiwanese media have often pushed at ties between Zhang Ziyi and co-star Jackie Chan. This was fuelled in part by photos that emerged of the pair during celebrations of Chan's birthday on the set of Rush Hour 2. Zhang Ziyi for a while was publicly linked with Fok Kai-shan, grandson of Hong Kong business tycoon Henry Fok. Although Zhang Ziyi does not like to talk in public about her private life, in 2006 she stated in an interview that she had found love but did not offer a name. When quizzed by Phoenix TV in early 2007 if she was happy, she stated in the interview: "Yes, very much so ... I'm doing the things I enjoy." In January 2007, Zhang Ziyi was spotted holding hands and kissing with her new partner at a New York basketball game. The man was identified as 41-year-old, Israeli multi-millionaire, venture capitalist Vivi Nevo. The two were again seen together at an Oscar party in Los Angeles. Nevo, who has previously been tied to model Kate Moss, is a major shareholder in Time Warner and an early backer of The Weinstein Company with whom Zhang Ziyi is purported to have a multi-film deal. |
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