Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi is trying her hand at romantic comedy after a series of dramas.
In Sophie s Revenge, the 30-year-old actress will play a comic book artist who plots to get her fiance back after losing him to an actress. Written and directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Eva Jin, the 50 million Chinese yuan ($7.3 million) Chinese-language film also stars Chinese actress Fan Bingbing as Sophie s rival Joanna and South Korean actor So Ji-sub as Sophie s fiance Jeff.
In response to written questions from The Associated Press, Zhang described Sophie s Revenge as a fun-loving movie.
We will follow Sophie s journey in the movie, crying with her and laughing with her. I hope a story like this will resonate with everyone, Zhang said.
Sophie s Revenge, which will be released in China on Aug. 14 and in South Korea on Aug. 20, marks a change of pace for Zhang after four dramas. She played a Japanese escort in the 2005 Hollywood film Memoirs of a Geisha, then an empress in The Banquet, Chinese director Feng Xiaogang s 2006 adaptation of Hamlet. Zhang next portrayed a friend of late Peking Opera star Mei Lanfang in Chen Kaige s 2008 biopic Forever Enthralled. She also played a villain alongside Dennis Quaid in the 2009 American-Canadian crime thriller Horsemen.
Zhang s new film, a South Korean-Chinese co-production, is also her debut as a producer. She told the AP that director Jin approached her with her script and she secured funding for the project.
I really learned many more things serving as the producer. I now have a better understanding of the work flow of a movie, she said.
Zhang made her film debut in famed Zhang Yimou s heartwarming 1999 love story The Road Home, but her career took off when Oscar-winning director Ang Lee cast her in his 2000 kung fu hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
With 10 years of acting and a producer credit to her name, will directing be next?
It s so tough! You can only become a director when you re physically and mentally ready. Managing the situation on the set down to the smallest detail is really quite something, Zhang said. -AP
