Rising star from the east

Since making her debut in 1999 in the rural love story The Road Home, she has cultivated a strong professional relationship with its director Zhang Yimou, the man responsible for making Li an international star in the early 1990s. Ziyi and Yimou have created two sensational martial arts films: Hero, which screens in Edinburgh, and House of Flying Daggers, which made its bow to much acclaim at this year’s Cannes film festival.

Of the politically charged Hero, in which she appears as Moon, the disciple to Tony Leung’s master warrior Broken Sword, she says, “I don’t think Hero will surpass the accomplishments of Crouching Tiger because that got so many awards and I don’t think this can do that.”

While her role is brief but memorable in Hero, she gets her chance to shine in the forthcoming House of Flying Daggers, in which she plays Mei, a dancer suspected of having ties to the eponymous revolutionary faction of the title.

The film depicts a love triangle, but she still gets to combine her former training as a dancer with some jaw-dropping martial arts moves.

“The best thing about Yimou is that he’s always seeking to challenge himself and push himself outside of his comfort zone,” she says. “And he’s very sensitive to the way that I’m growing as an actress.”

While her martial arts exploits have won her legions of fans, Ziyi has already set about proving there is more to her on-screen abilities than roundhouse kicks and rabbit punches.

As with House of Flying Daggers, her other film at the festival, Purple Butterfly, shows Ziyi is more than capable of playing the romantic lead. In it she plays a member of a powerful resistance group in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the 1930s.

“For western women, it’s easier to be yourself,” she explains. “If you want to do something, you just go and do it. In an Asian context, women are still much more modest and conservative. I want, through my roles, to express that part in the hearts of Chinese women that they feel unable to let out.”

2046, which is now scheduled for release in January next year, is the long-awaited follow-up of sorts to Wong Kar-Wai’s Brief Encounter-like masterpiece In the Mood for Love. In the works for five years, it sees Leung reprise his role from its predecessor, this time documenting a series of affairs he has during his time as a writer. Ziyi plays a Shanghai showgirl who falls for his character. Co-starring (though not appearing) with, of all people, Gong Li, she spent nearly a year, on and off, filming her role.

“Many times I had to go back,” she recalls. “I learnt a lot, though. He doesn’t have a script, and everyday he’d just give you two pieces of paper. For me, that’s a very new experience. You don’t have to prepare. You just feel very fresh. There’s one scene where Tony’s character tries to offer me money, and I am devastated, because my character thought we had moved beyond this in our relationship. There was nothing in the director ’s instructions about how to react to this, but I just found myself crying and crying because that is how I would react.”

Born and raised in Beijing, where she still lives, Ziyi trained in dance at China’s Central Drama College before being picked by Yimou for The Road Home.

The demand for her was almost instantaneous and she has no qualms about doing commercials. With a china-doll face, shoulder-length black hair and round, inquisitive eyes, she has already become the face for numerous products in Asia.

But she denies her beauty has curried favour with directors. “I don’t know how much it would help, because these days, people recognise a good actress by how ugly she can make herself. Looks do help but what is more important is the character and the way I perform her.” She recently saw Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning transformation in Monster, and dreams of doing the same.

“I’d love to do a movie where the director can make me different,” she sighs.

With such exposure, of course, comes the downside of fame — the Hong Kong paparazzi. “They go everywhere,” she squeals. “I hate them! They follow you and take pictures, then say things like ‘Oh, she didn’t carry her bag’. It might just be that for two seconds I just tie my shoe and my assistant holds my bag.”

Her family (she has one older brother) is also experiencing what it is like to have a star in their midst. “My father is happy when he goes to his office, because many people want my photo from him,” she giggles.

She has already been called to Hollywood in the wake of Crouching Tiger. The result was a desultory role as a princess in the comedy-thriller Rush Hour 2, opposite Jackie Chan, who kindly acted as her translator when she found her English was lacking.

“I tried it once, with Rush Hour 2, but after that they kept asking me to play the same type of characters. I don’t like it because they always give Asian girls roles such as ‘a poor girl from China who sails to America’. I can’t learn anything from that. I tried it once, so that’s enough. Maybe later, if I get a good script, I will try again.”

That said, she’s mooted to star in the Hong Kong-born Hollywood director Wayne Wang’s next film, Good Cook, Likes Music, in which she will play a mail-order bride who is also a musical prodigy.

With so much to look forward to, it is little wonder her parents call her “happy child”. Can she really be this nice? I ask if she’s ever as aggressive as she is on screen. She shakes her head.

“I like love. I’m a loving person. I don’t cheat other people. I don’t hit other people.”

Confessing to enjoying the simple life when she is not acting, she says, “What I really like to do is get a book, go down to the beach and read, and enjoy the quiet.”

While prosperity seems guaranteed for Zhang Ziyi, peace and quiet is most certainly not.

Purple Butterfly, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Aug 25 & 27; Hero, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Aug 27 & 28, and on general release from Sept 24; 2046 is now scheduled to open in January next year; House of Flying Daggers opens in November