| Subject: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS -TRIBLE ACT BY LUISA LIM(etc Magazine) |
Author:
С¾ý
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 22:24:24 09/09/02 Mon
 
Three of Chinese cinema¡¯s hottest actresses in one action movie? We can hear box office kerching` already¡
Say what you will about the hongkong movie scene, that it's mostly watchable fluff, but the industry is kung-fu leaps ahead of Hollywood where roles for women are concerned, In LalaLand, the few superstars who occupy that higest of stratosoheres as 'openers'-thesps who're able to guarantee bums on seats on the sheer power of their name alone-are mostly, let's face it, men. You have your Toms (as in Hanks and Cruise),Mel(as in Gibson), Brad(d-uh)but women ?
There's Julia... and erm, J.Lo?
Women incantowood fare much better than their Westerm movie sisters.Hong Kong regularlychurns out movies that feature their top actress prominently in the storylines, or else, it's an ensemble cast.Rarely do you get the same effect of ONE male megastar carrying an entire movie `a la Tom and Minority Report/Mission Impossible. The Hong Kong movie scene has given us such great leading ladies as Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Carina Lau and Joey Wong-women who headline and carry their movies to box-office and critical success.IN the new breed 0f beautiful and bankable lady theaps, we have head-turners like Sammi Cheng, Kelly Chen and of course, our three gorgeous cover girl, the lovely Zhao Wei, spunky Karen Mok and the mesmerising Shu Qi. IN the Canto casting coup of thr year for thr movie So Close, the three hot ladies represent three of the largest Chinese-speaking nations in the world; Karen is Miss Hong Kong, Zhao Wei represents the motherland and Shu Qi is a Taiwanese supernova.Perhaps it is all a happy coincidence but hey, we¡¯re not knocking marketing and casting savvy when it looks as stunning as this. The plot concerns two sisters who were propelled to kill for a living after witnessing their parents murder when they were just wee ones.Their dad created a high tech surveillance system called World Panorama and was killed by crims who wanted to get their paws on it. Years on, the little girls have grown up, and Lynn(Shu Qi) and Sue(Zhao Wei)have become killers for hire, bumping off criminals for other criminals.After a hit on a wealthy Shanghai computer magnate, a brilliant young detective Hong(Mok) is put on their trail and immediately senses that she¡¯s dealing with a different breed of killer.Directed by legendary martial arts auteur, Cory Yuen, So Close looks set to set box-offices alight the world over.
 
Zhao Wei star ¨Cnext- door
ORIGINS-She was plucked from obscuruty from bejing¡¯s film Academy at age 21 where past students included Zhang Ziyi, and soared to stardom in the successful Taiwanese TV series, Princess Pearl.
ROLE-She plays sue, little sis to Shu QI¡¯s character, Lynn. Both are assassins who are as cyber-savvy as they are with life-snuffing weaponry.
NEED TO KNOW During the heady rise in her days as THE up-and-corner to watch out for, Zhao Wei become the focus of one of those headline-blaring ¡®shock¡± She made a sartorial mistake that unfortunately, didn¡¯t draw titters, rather it drew full-blown outrage from her homeland.The sweet, unassuming girl from mainland China wore a dress emblazoned with the strained historical relationship between China and the sushi-eaters.With humblegrace, she addressed the world and her homeland and made a public apology. ¡°My generation doesn¡¯t know much about the war.This serves as a lesson,¡± she said. ¡° Let¡¯s bury the hatchet and let bygones be bygones.¡±
Testament to her celestial appeal, a little scandal hasn¡¯t hurt the star ascension of Vicki Zhao Wei. Other than acting in one of the highest grossing Hong Kong movies of all time(Shaolin Soccer),scoring lucrative endorsement deals with weight-loss centres
and basically charming the pants off the entire world, she¡¯s one of the most eagerly-anticipated Hong Kong movies of the year ¡°She¡¯s just like a boy,¡±explains acclaimed auteur Wong Kar Wai about Zhao Wei¡¯s unthreatening, wholesome appeal.¡±She tell you everything directly, she talks from the heart.Very few people are born to be an actress, but she¡¯s one of them.¡±
GROSS!There¡¯s a lesbian liplock between Zhao Wei and Karen Mok! Intriguingly, Zhao Wei considers the saliva exchange one of her favourite scenes. ¡°it wasn¡¯t in the original script. Karen and I came up with it and asked Cory about it. We told him, during the fighting, we had a feeling of admiration for each other. We thought there should be a moment where we expressed that feeling more directly, even though my feelings for her are different from her feeling for me¡I was really satisfied with that.¡±
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 