I haven't yet included a Chinese or Asian lady amongst my 'fantasy league' of ideal women, and I am occasionally accused of perhaps having some sort of racist bias against them. Indeed not! I don't have the exaggerated weakness for Asian ladies that many Western males in the Orient manifest, but I certainly appreciate the charms of the most charming of them. And I really don't think they come any more charming than the elfin actress, Zhou Xun. Although she hasn't quite yet achieved the international profile of Gong Li or Zhang Ziyi, I think she's been in more and better films than either of them in this decade, which makes her probably the premier female Chinese film star of the moment (at least, within China). There may be prettier starlets out there, but Ms Zhou just has that indefinable something that completely wins you over - a certain perkiness, a suggestion of humour or intelligence; I'm not quite sure what it is, but WOW. I rather fear that none of the still photographs I've been able to dig up really capture this radiant vivacity of hers - but you'll just have to make do, and take my word for it (if you haven't yet seen and adored her in any of her films, that is). She's an extremely good actress too. I was first smitten with her in her two big breakthrough roles (gosh, getting on for 10 years ago now) in Suzhou Creek and Balzac and The Little Seamstress. Lately she's been on my mind because she's starring in a new wartime spy thriller called The Message, said to be rather good, and heavily advertised on the TV screens in the subway carriages over the past month or so. In this she wears a qipao. If I could find a really good picture of Zhou Xun in a qipao, I'd be in a happy daze for the rest of the week. This isn't really a very good one, but it will have to do for now.  She is tiny, though. Very nearly a full foot shorter than me. So, I fear it would never work. This is really my main problem with the ladies of the Orient, their diminutive stature. If the lovely Zhou Xun were just 4 or 5 inches taller, she'd be my perfect woman. |
9 comments:
Cannot really recommend 'The Message' in good conscience: I did the subtitles for it (though the makers then bollixed around with them and introduced serious Chinglish) and have now seen the film twice -- first in the rough cut they screened for me when I took the job (they refused to give me a DVD of the film, as is the customary practice for subtitling jobs, out of fears that I would leak the movie), then, at my girlfriend's insistence, in the theater. Fortunately I wasn't credited.
The film is diverting enough, I suppose, but the 'twist' ending is obvious about twenty minutes into the film, and one of the torture scenes towards the end -- which was not in the rough cut I saw -- is stomach-turning. But yes; Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing both wear qipao, and Li Bingbing's even gets torn.
Gong Li for me. Or Maggie Cheung.
At least you got paid for this one, I hope.
I thought it looked pretty silly in the trailers, but online reviews I've seen - from laowai - looked fairly positive.
Ah yes, Gong Li. I've been a huge fan of hers for... 20 years, I suppose. I hate to say it, but she is starting to get just a touch mumsy now. Zhou Xun is no spring chicken any more, well into her thirties.
The Maggie Cheung thing I never did get. Neither her features nor her acting do anything for me at all. And In The Mood For Love, for all the pretty photography and the nice music, bored the pants off me.
So, you can have Maggie. I might have to fight you for Gong Li....
Re: Gong Li -- Back off. They're mine.
Re: The Message -- it's a very well-made film from a technical standpoint -- high production values, attractive cinematography, nice CG, etc. -- but all in support of a story that's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. Then again, I end up hating pretty much everything I work on, so I might not be the most impartial reviewer.
Gong Li in my opinion is the perfect Chinese woman/actress.
Perfect nickname she has of "The Chinese Garbo".
Many Oscar worthy perfromances.
Cheung? Don't get it either. She's skinny, lanky and not that great looking and kind of a bore.
Ziyi Zhang? Well, no comment.
I'd never heard Gong Li called that before. And I don't really get it. A superb actress (better than Garbo) and a very beautiful woman, but... just not at all Garbo-esque. Garbo was overpoweringly sexy, and invariably cast in femme fatale roles. Gong Li's appeal is rather different. And in many of her best roles - The Story of Qiu Jiu, To Live, even Raise The Red Lantern to some extent - she's actually downplaying her sexiness, hiding her beauty.
I nearly met Gong Li once.
A friend of mine was working for a while as her private English tutor, and they became quite friendly. She got invited back to meet Gong Li's family on one occasion, and there was talk of us all getting together for dinner the next time the great actress was in Beijing. Alas, it never came to pass, and my friend left the country soon afterwards.
Early on in her stint as private tutor, she had to spend two or three weeks in tropical Hainan island while Ms Gong shot a TV commercial. If there's one thing more boring than working on a film set, it's being on a film set and not working. My friend had to hang around all day every day, just to catch the chance of a few minutes' English practice here and there - usually during wardrobe changes. She used to amuse herself during these dull days by taunting all of her friends back in Beijing with daily SMS updates describing Gong Li's choice of underwear each day. It was a cruel provocation to the imagination, I must say.
I think the denouement of the Gong Li underwear story still needs work. (And I bet you'll be getting some very curious traffic here at Froogville, coming straight to this post.)
Denouements were never my forte.
It's not so much the Gong Li Underwear Fetishists as fear, as the possible flame war from the Zhao Wei Fan Club.
Much bitchiness between these Chinese actresses!
And it's frightening how much Zhang Ziyi polarizes opinion. (Actually, I probably have a rather better chance of contriving an accidental meeting with her some time, because she lives in Beijing, and I know someone in her yoga class.)
I forgot to tell you: when I first saw this post, I thought, Aha! So THIS is the lovely young woman he found himself admiring in a film shoot a few days earlier! No such luck, eh?
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