The Chinese Mirror

Yu Nan in《The Expendables 2》

     Chinese entertainment news services are all reporting that my favorite actress Yu Nan 余男 (who I recently promoted from my "dream girl" to (fantasy) "future wife") has joined the cast of《The Expendables 2》and is currently on location shooting in Bulgaria.  This information was confirmed by the actress's agency CAA.  Since she will be filming in both Bulgaria and China, her role should be a substantial one.  According to CAA, she has the most scenes of any female cast member.  Although details are still being treated as confidential information, her character is a sharpshooter named Maggie, a woman of Chinese descent.  In the photo below with other cast members she is at the far left holding a submachine gun.

    This will be Yu Nan's third action role, after《Wind Blast》(2010), in which she played a hitwoman, and the just-completed《Five》(tentative international release title), in which she plays the leader of a team of female commandos.  She had a major role in an earlier action film, 2007's《Diamond Dogs》, opposite Dolph Lundgren, also in《The Expendables 2》, but except for a shootout at the end she had no action scenes.

    Chinese news sources are touting《Five》as the mainland's first "action beauty" movie.  If it proves successful, those of us who fondly remember the "Girls With Guns" subgenre of Hong Kong action films will have a lot to look forward to.   

[left, Yu Nan as a hitwoman, in one of《Wind Blast》's numerous gun battles] 

 

 

 

 

[below, in《Five》(2012),《Charlie's Angels》meets《Seven Samurai》.  From left, Wang Qiuzi, Hu Mengyuan, Yu Nan, Pan Shuangshuang, Wu Jing] 

Zhang Ziyi Interview: From Actress to Producer

[This is a translation of the cover article of the July 14, 2009 issue of the Shanghai magazine "The Bund."  It has been posted at the websites of several Chinese entertainment news services, for example, New China Net.  Throughout the translation, the international English release title "Sophie's Revenge" is used, rather than the Chinese title, "Feichang Wanmei" 非常完美.  A literal English translation of the Chinese title would be "Really Perfect," but an acceptable (and I think better) free translation could be "Absolutely Fabulous,"  although it is easy to understand why this was not used.   Comments in brackets [like this] are those of the Chinese Mirror editor, where further clarification was thought desirable.  The interview was conducted for The Bund by staff writer Liu Lifang 刘莉芳]

    In order to accelerate the completion of filming, Zhang Ziyi put in 50-plus workdays of 12-hours or more, but on the set she was always cheerful, singing happy songs like a child.  As Du Yang expressed it, "her cheerful attitude on the set kept everyone else at ease, and that was especially important."
    Du Yang (杜扬) is "Sophie's" general producer.  Before this collaboration, she thought Zhang Ziyi was too great an international megastar to get close to; but now that she knows Zhang, Du speaks of the actress's "little girl" nature, saying "she is especially straightforward, lovable, and very considerate of others."
    Zhang Ziyi is the nucleus of this film, made with an investment of more than 50 million yuan [US$7.5 million/UK£4.5 million/€5.52 million] and a cast of more than 100.  [Update:  in later interviews, Zhang has denied the budget was this high.]  Her acting role is as the main female character Sophie (苏菲) [Sufei].  Sophie is a cartoonist on a mission, namely to win back her boyfriend, a campaign which triggers a series of comical scenes.  This is the first time Zhang has done comedy, and she bears a heavy share of that comedy.   Art director Chen Siqin (陈思勤) revealed that Zhang's character assumes over 20 different images in the film.  One could say that Zhang Ziyi's success or failure in acting out these various images is a factor in the movie's success or failure.  Another aspect is that this is Zhang Ziyi's first assumption of production responsibility.
    Last year, as one of the several producers of "Sophie's Revenge," Zhang Ziyi approached the cultural communications division of Du Yang's Beijing Perfect World Company with young director Yimeng's script, to discuss the company's possible investment in it.  Du Yang needed only two days to decide to invest, saying that everyone at the company agreed she and Zhang should make this Chinese-style "Amelie of Montmarte."

[right, international English release poster for "Sophie's Revenge."  International release date unscheduled as of this posting.]